Cruise execs Taking care of the environment in the places they visit makes simple economic sense for cruise ships, industry executives told a state hearing yesterday.
defend role in
protecting environment
Sierra Club members are
skeptical of claims that
problems are quickly addressedBy Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.comOfficials of the North West CruiseShip Association, a trade group, told a hearing called by the state Coastal Zone Management division that they move quickly and voluntarily to fix environmental problems and prevent them.
Environmentalists present at the meeting reacted cautiously to what ship operators had to say. "Watch out, and watch what you hear" is the message the Sierra Club sticks to, said local director Jeff Mikulina. He said there are studies that show the cruise industry is often in the wrong.
Jim Walsh, Carnival Cruise Lines vice president for environmental, health and safety, said often such reports are based on data from before the industry pulled itself together and decided that not only meeting federal and state environmental standards, but beating them, is the best policy.
In Florida, for example, where state law requires certain disclosures, the cruise lines go well beyond them, he said. If his company has an accidental discharge of even a few drops of oil, for example, it is reported to the authorities.
The industry is sometimes criticized for "old sins of the past that we didn't even realize were sins at the time," said Capt. Richard Softye, vice president for compliance programs at Wind Star Cruises. "We have gone beyond the regulations" in self-policing, he said.
In Miami, "the cruise capital of the world," the Coast Guard, the Environmental Protection Agency, state and local authorities and the cruise lines all work together, said Nancy J. Wheatley, senior vice president, safety and environment at Royal Caribbean Cruises.
There are big benefits for the cruise lines in voluntarily eliminating pollution, she said. "We have the ability to do things very quickly," she said.
The industry's goal, Wheatley said, is that "if we are discharging, it is going to be drinking water that we are discharging," thoroughly purified before it goes over the side and then well away from the shoreline.
Robert M. Kritzman, senior vice president and general counsel at Norwegian Cruise Lines, said that hazardous materials, such as waste generated form onboard dry cleaning, are usually taken away, perhaps to Los Angeles, and transferred under highly controlled conditions to certified and recognized hazardous-waste hand- lers. When his company bases a 2,200-passenger ship in Hawaii full-time this December, he said, qualified contractors will be retained to take such materials from Hawaii to the mainland for processing and disposal.
The members of the North West CruiseShip Association are Celebrity Cruises, Carnival Cruise Lines, Crystal Cruises, Holland America Line, Norwegian Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Radisson Seven Seas Cruises, Royal Caribbean International and World Explorer Cruises.
Several representatives said in interviews that they are working on becoming more open about how they operate. "Our business depends on having nice places to go" and protecting the environment may be the best way to keep those places nice, Wheatley said.
"We have 1,500 to 2,000 passengers aboard a cruise ship that really have taken that cruise to see these pristine and unspoiled waters," said Al Parrish, vice president of government and community relations at Holland America Line Westours Inc.
His company has policies so strict that an employee found throwing a coffee cup overboard is instantly terminated and the ships have a "no plastics" policy, he said. A passenger trying to board with a foam-plastic coffee cup in his hand will be stopped and told to put it in a shoreside trash bin, he said.