Travel and vacations - Vancouver Sun gets it right about new Canadian cruise pollution regulations

Congrats to Barbara Yaffe for informatively conveying a perspective
that goes against the tide of so many 'industry-placed' news pieces.

Those big cruise ships are also big polluters

Barbara Yaffe
Vancouver Sun

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Those sparkling white behemoths that each year at this time begin
sidling up
to Coal Harbour piers bring far more than tourists and their cash.

Cruise ships are purveyors of some pretty putrid pollution and, in an
age of
all things green, are posing a stiff political challenge for
government.

This week, Environment Minister John Baird and Transportation Minister
Lawrence Cannon -- keen to convince Canadians the Harper government
has got
on board the eco-program -- announced changes to the Canada Shipping
Act.
Boasted the cabinet ministers, the changes are aimed at "making Canada
a
leader in the prevention of marine pollution."

In fact, the new regulations aren't as proactive as they sound.

They merely try to bring Canada in line with still-optional provisions
of
the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from
Ships.

The announcement was a component of the Harper government's National
Water
Strategy, first unveiled as part of the 2007 budget, according to a
federal
press release.

Human beings, of course, tend to be a bit lax about what they cannot
see.
And since ships operating at sea, both of the cruise and cargo
variety, are
mostly out of sight and mind, they've been operating with relative
impunity
-- in Canada, at least -- spewing and belching substances and
chemicals you
don't want to know about.

Governments wish they didn't have to know about this stuff, either.
After
all, who wants to offend an industry that during the tourist season
daily
deposits thousands of well-heeled consumers on one's doorstep?

The cruise industry is worth $500 million annually to B.C. It's the
second-largest generator of jobs and economic output at Vancouver's
port.

So perhaps it isn't surprising that B.C. has a reputation for casual
neglect
when it comes to policing cruise ships, in contrast to both Washington
State
and Alaska. Indeed, it's the federal government, not the province,
that does
the policing around provincial waters.

Alaska's state government, meanwhile, has instituted for the 2007
season a
rigorous enforcement regime that calls for the stationing of a marine
engineer on every ship operating in Alaskan waters. The engineer will
monitor waste-treatment practices and scrutinize discharges.

Such vigilance is clearly warranted.

Ross Klein, a sociology prof at Memorial University in Newfoundland,
has
made a side career of critiquing the industry from his perch in St.
John's.

My home printer ran out of paper running off a list Klein has compiled
of
known pollution and environmental violations committed by cruise ships
going
back to 1992.

The list, by the way, was devoid of Canadian incidents, which has led
Klein
to question Canadian monitoring and enforcement standards
(www.cruisejunkie.com/envirofines).

Ships on the miscreant list were found guilty of shocking stuff:
Damaging
delicate reefs; bumping into whales; dumping raw sewage straight into
an
Orca habitat area; discharging oil and diesel fuel.

In several recorded cases, crew members just dropped plastic bags of
garbage
from the side of ships or allowed oil-based paint to spill into ports.

So will the Harper government's new regulations force ships to start
minding
their Ps and Qs in Canadian waters?

One B.C.-based environment group, Travel Just, declares that the newly
announced regulations deserve "a big poopie award."

Howard Breen, the group's spokesman, says in a news release that the
federal
initiative constitutes "a greenwash of oceanic magnitude." He insists
the
regulations aren't nearly tough enough and lack specific harsh
penalties and
adequate enforcement measures.

Breen cites the need for a beefed-up inspection regime by Transport
Canada
by way of independent observers to inspect vessels plying West Coast
waters.
He also wants a system of waste-compliance monitoring through
installation
of electronic transponders on cruise ships.

Breen points out that B.C. has highly sensitive marine ecosystems and
20
endangered coastal species that stand to be negatively affected by
cruise
ship pollution.

A pursuit such as the cruise ship industry might have been
environmentally
overlooked in the past, but these days no sector can escape scrutiny.
Not
even one that is single-mindedly devoted to fun, frolic and escape
from the
real world.

C The Vancouver Sun 2007

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/c...9d0f3a-8a3a-4b
c6-9bab-430889d0c2d3