Do Cruise Ships Dump Waste In The Ocean

More than three in four cruise ship customers believe environmental protections are in place and some mistakenly believe that sewage from cruise ships is stored until the ships return to shore.

Do cruise ships dump waste in the ocean. Royal Caribbean touts the fact Symphony of the Seas the worlds largest cruise ship is actually a zero-landfill ship. It is a general belief that cruise ships simply dump their garbage to the ocean. This is because they are constantly on the move making waste management and disposal an added challenge to their day to day operations.

A general belief is that these enormous boats simply dump raw sewage and other pollutants straight into the oceans. Cruise ships the size of small cities ply the waters off our coasts producing and then dumping large amounts of sewage and other wastes into our oceans polluting our beaches contaminating our coral reefs and destroying our valuable marine ecology. Most raw sewage dumped into the oceans actually comes from seaside cities usually by a pipe which sends the sewage several miles out.

According to that 12-mile cut-off cruise ships are allowed to dump human waste in the ocean providing the right conditions are met. This means the ship can deal with their own waste ranging all the way from recycling to water filtration. Federal law requires that cruise ships only dump treated wastewater if they are within three nautical miles of shore.

Do cruise ships dump garbage in the ocean. Three miles from shore the cruise ships that flock to the Caribbean cross a boundary where the sea becomes a dump for metal glass and. But beyond that point its essentially a free-for-all.

However there have not been enough studies to prove this belief. However many companies will set their own regulations that their ships have to comply with. It is perfectly legal for cruise ships to dump treated sewage in the ocean as long as they are three miles offshore.

Ships can dump treated sewage anywhere in the ocean except in Alaskan waters where companies must comply with higher state standards. Yes cruise ships can dump sewage into the ocean. While the oceans are large these cruise ships stick to a standard path whether in the Caribbean or the Baltic disposing of their considerable waste at roughly the same stretch at the same time year in and year out.