From the comfort of cruise ships, a typical trip to Alaska offers magnificent views of glaciers and wild national parks and visits to quaint seaside towns. For years, these draws have made Alaska cruises the most booked vacation in the US.
But the journey to these pristine areas, which involves sailing along Canada’s west coast for two or three days, leaves behind a trail of toxic waste, including in marine protected areas (MPAs), according to new research.
More than 31 billion liters (8.5 billion US gallons) of pollution are expected to be dumped off Canada’s west coast by cruise ships en route to and from Alaska, according to a report by environmental organizations Stand.earth and West Coast Environmental Law ( WCEL).
“There’s this perverse incentive to treat Canada like a toilet bowl,” says Anna Barford, a Canadian shipping activist at Stand.earth. “They’re just using us as a highway and throwing stuff left, right and center.”
Killer whale or killer whale in Johnston Strait, British Columbia, Canada. Littering from cruise ships poses a significant risk to marine wildlife. Photo: François Gohier/VWPics/Alamy
Along Canada’s 151,019 miles (243,042 km) of coastline, ships generate 147 billion liters of harmful waste each year, the equivalent of 59,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, according to a March 2022 report by WWF-Canada. Based on data from more than 5,000 ships, the report found that cruise ships were the biggest polluters, even though they accounted for only 2% of the maritime traffic analyzed.
Pollution from cruise ships includes large volumes of toxic sewage from toilets, gray water from sinks, showers and washing machines, and bilge water, the oily liquid that collects in the lowest part of the ship. By far the biggest source of pollution identified in the WWF report is from so-called scrubbers – devices installed to remove exhaust gases such as sulfur oxide and nitrogen oxide, as well as particulates, from the heavy bunker oil used as ship fuel. Scrubbers create acidic wastewater containing a cocktail of chemicals.
On a one-week trip to Alaska and back along the Canadian coast, a cruise ship would generate nearly 200 million liters of waste from the scrubbers, according to the report by Stand.earth and WCEL. While ships can decide whether to discharge at sea or in port, most waste from scrubbers is discharged as it is generated.
Globally, cruise ships have a patchy record of meeting environmental regulations, including in Alaska, but the Pacific waters off the coast of British Columbia are particularly polluted. That’s because of the many cruise ships, but also because Canada’s federal dumping regulations are less stringent than U.S. laws, according to Michael Bissonnette, a lawyer with WCEL, especially compared to regulations in Washington and Alaska, the two U.S. states in the two end of the West Coast of Canada.
Protest in April against the discharge of sewage from cruise ships arriving in Vancouver. Photo: Jennifer Gauthier/Reuters
In Washington, more than 6,000 sq km (2,300 sq mi) of ocean habitat is protected in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound, near the Canadian border, and is now classified as a no-discharge area. Alaska requires cruise ships to apply for and obtain a sewage and gray water discharge permit.
Those regulations encourage ships to “retain their waste when they’re in American waters and then dump it when they’re in Canadian waters,” says Bissonnette.
In Canadian waters, untreated sewage from cruise ships can legally be discharged beyond the 12 nautical mile limit under vessel pollution regulations, which can often overlap critical habitat. Meanwhile, treated sewage – which includes waste from toilets and gray water from sinks and washing machines – can be dumped three nautical miles offshore.
It’s a terrible way to say goodbye to a community you’ve just visited Anna Barford, Stand.earth
Sigrid Kuenemund, vice-president of wildlife and industry at WWF-Canada, says that while each federal MPA has its own regulations, very few in Canada prohibit operational waste discharges—all the waste that accumulates on board when ships are move. “The regulations that currently protect MPAs allow freedom of navigation and there are no clear regulations to limit dumping within those limits.”
Efforts are underway to tighten pollution rules. In April, ahead of the new cruise ship season, the federal government’s Department of Transport Canada announced new measures to limit the discharge of gray water and wastewater from cruise ships operating in Canadian waters.
However, while welcome, the move is not enough, says Bissonnette, noting that the measures are voluntary and do not apply to scrubbers.
Tourists visit Hubbard Glacier on a cruise to Alaska. Photo: Shorex.koss/Alamy
When released into the ocean, a wide range of toxic substances pose a significant threat to aquatic wildlife and the habitats and food webs they depend on, including the threatened populations of sea otters and killer whales that live off the coast of British Columbia.
According to an analysis by the International Clean Transportation Council, about 10% of scrubber wash water discharged from ships off British Columbia is in critical killer whale habitat. Of particular concern, Kuenemund says, is the threat to wildlife in the Scott Islands Marine National Park, a group of five islands off the northwest tip of Vancouver Island. This protected area is subject to the highest amount of pollution from the dumping of waste from cruise ships, according to the WWF report.
A Steller sea lion feeding on salmon off the coast of Alaska. Photo: Ron Niebrugge/Alamy
Located on a busy cruise ship route, the park has some of the largest roosts of Steller sea lions in the world. Each spring, more than 1 million seabirds—including 90 percent of Canada’s terns and half of the world’s Cassin’s nest—breed on the island’s cliffs. Kuenemund describes the area as a “biodiversity hotspot”.
There is fear in some coastal communities that as cruise ship traffic increases, so will the threat to their waters. Popular port destinations including Victoria and Seattle have seen protests against the return of cruise ships since pandemic restrictions were lifted.
Fishing communities in Southeast Alaska have also complained about waste dumped in their waters bordering Canada, fearing that critical fish species are being exposed to harmful substances.
One fisherman, Mark Severson, remembers sailing through miles of frothy yellow waters in the summer of 2019 in Petersburg, a small island community about 30 miles from the Canadian border and a popular port of call on the Alaskan cruise route. Since then, Severson and his wife, Karen, have been advocating for stricter monitoring of cruise ship waste disposal.
“Passengers who love to cruise with Alaska don’t even realize that the ships are polluting our pristine parts of the world,” he says.
With the new pollution measures in place, a Transport Canada spokesperson said, “Canada is among the countries with the most stringent requirements for these types of discharges in the world.” The department said it is aware of concerns about scrubber waste in Canadian waters and is working to develop approaches , which could reduce discharge.
But Barford says the problem of cruise ship pollution will only be solved when Canada implements mandatory regulations. “It’s a terrible way to say goodbye to a community you’ve just visited,” she says. “Waving from behind as the ship empties its tank. It’s not something I want to leave behind.”
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