Do you have an intro or not? Oh, no, I forgot
all about the intro. I do happen to have one,
so that is good. OK, good. I completely forgot
about the intro. Have you followed what's going
on in Kazakhstan? I did turn on the news this
morning because it's the first time that I got
in my car in the morning for about three weeks.
And I did know that was the Russian Ukraine.
Well, this one somewhat involves Russia again,
because Kazakhstan is a satellite state of Russia
was part of the USSR. Ukraine's paying close
attention to what's going on here, too. Basically,
gas prices in Kazakhstan have been seeing a higher
than normal rate, and it has driven a lot of
the populace to rebellion. This happened early
last week, basically right after the New Year.
That would be like week of January three to 10th,
somewhere in that range. OK. So a lot of people
took to the streets they started messing with
things they broke into gun shops and a lot of
police actually joined the rebellion and military
individuals joined it as well how bad is it.
I'm gonna read a quick article on the guardian
guys an idea of what's going on here. Unrest
in Kazakhstan is continuing and the president,
Kasym Jomart, Kasym Jomart Tokayev has called
on a Moscow -led security alliance to provide
peacekeeping troops to help him regain control.
With a mobile reception and internet blackout,
across much of the country, reliable figures
on casualties are hard to come by, but there
have been violent clashes in Almaty. and other
cities. Tokayev has promised a ruthless crackdown
and blamed terrorists trained abroad for the
violence. The protests started at the weekend
and were sparked by rising fuel prices in the
west of the country. They quickly spread to encompass
other regions and turned into a general protest
against corruption, poverty, and inequality within
the country. Protesters are angry with Tokayev
and benefactor Nursultan Nazarbayev, who ruled
Kazakhstan between independence 1991 to 2019.
And he's still somewhat involved in the country.
So it has sprung to that. It was huge. And the
government had ordered a shoot on site for the
military. Some people were stepping down. Some
weren't from the military and joining the rebellion.
I saw an update from January 9th on Al Jazeera.
So far, they have confirmed 160 people have been
killed and 5000 people have been arrested during
the riots. How high are the gas prices? I have
not found anywhere how high the gas prices are.
It was just like something that broke the camel's
back. Yeah, it's kind of like historians will
say bread prices are what brought about the French
Revolution. Yeah. It's just when things hit a
certain point, people get really pissed off.
OK, I can get that. So it's not like they're
seeing a buck 80 a liter or something like that.
Hell, I believe Kazakhstan's got its own oil.
So it's probably like 60 cents a liter or something
like that. I couldn't tell you one second here.
But as this was all coming down. It was crazy
to see reports of like the police turning over
their weapons to the rebels to help them out.
People raiding gun shops and just taking what
they could and military individuals stepping
down and private jets just fleeing the country
en masse with all the upper class people just
getting the hell away from it. Ninety five octane
gasoline is two hundred and three point eight
Kazakhstan 10 gas per liter, which is about forty
seven cents a liter. So I'm not that far off.
You're not. That's not that bad. Do we rebel?
But then there might be a gap. Yeah. But something
we'll keep an eye on. At the very least, we'll
talk about it in late December of this year.
We'll update you. And from there, I think we've
got a good episode in store. So let's just get
right to it. From the unexplained to the mundane,
come join us on a Journey to the Fringe. Hello
and welcome to Journey to the Fringe. If you
are here for directions to your local Fringe
Festival, I am sorry to say you are in the wrong
place, but we can still help you out with Fringe
topics. I am... one of your podcast hosts today,
Taylor, here along with Chelsea. The tourism
industry has seen much change over the last 50
years from your parents, grandparents and great
grandparents getting on a plane maybe to go visit
Hawaii and or Mexico. Or take the Titanic from
Southampton over. Yeah, make it all the way.
I don't know how many people have relatives on
that, but anyway. No longer can a family be satiated
by getting in the station wagon and driving over
to the nearby exhibitions or next town over.
People need attractions, people need exotic,
people need to do this all on a budget. Hence
the rise of the cruise industry, which has seen
its revenues absolutely explode over the last
two decades, being the only portion of the travel
industry during the 2008 recession to actually
see a profit. People love the convenience of
it, having everything included and seeing many
locales on their travels. And comparatively to
a vacation sitting in one place, it is relatively
cheap. which has drawn many people towards this.
Probably not surprising, there are many dirty
business practices within this industry that
allows them to keep up its persona and its prices
and attract people to its locales. I will include
a trigger warning at this point as we may bring
up sexual assaults later on in the episode. Viewer
discretion is advised, but today we are going
to talk about the underbelly or below the deck
of the crews in We're going to start off by talking
about legal loopholes that they follow. We're
going to follow that up by talking about the
employment issues that are faced within this
industry. Next to crimes, finish it off with
the environmental impact of cruises. This will
be a heavy topic. You don't have to wear a seatbelt
on this one because cruises do not need them.
They move at a luxury pace. Unless there's a
rogue wave. Sorry to break that to you here.
In which case there's still no seatbelt. There's
still no seatbelt. Sold onto something that's
like bolted down. I'm going to start us off here
with an application for a trademark applied for
by the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line in April of
2021. They applied for a trademark, America's
cruise line, quote unquote, and quote America's
favorite cruise line, unquote, emphasis added
by me. I found that very laughable, mostly because
they don't have a great connection to the US
anymore. But on the other hand, isn't that just
the American way of business at this point? Having
no connection to the US. Yes. So that they can
make further money. Oh, yes. OK, I get where
you're going with this. Now, with many companies
actually having their headquarters in Miami,
it may surprise you that there is, in fact, only
one cruise ship in the entire world that is actually
registered in the United States. The rest are
registered in very well -known and prominent
maritime countries such as Liberia, Panama, the
Bahamas, Bermuda. And Malta. What one is registered
to the United States? That is the spirit of the
United States. I'll talk about it at the end.
OK, most of these companies have absolutely no
connection to these countries in any way. Why
exactly do they have the ships registered there?
Well, there are two different types of ship registries
in the world. They're what's known as open registrations
and closed registrations. Closed registrations
require you to have some sort of business connection
to the country at which you're registering, which
would either be the ship is constructed within
that country or you have some sort of business
headquarters in that country. And then there
are open registrations. Now, the reason open
registrations do not require you to have any
connection at all to that country for you to
register your boat. Why is this important? Wherever
you register your boat is the laws that you will
have to follow while you're out at sea, while
you're in port at other countries or in international
waters. It is also the country at which you will
pay taxes on your ship. Instead of registering
in the US, major cruise lines register their
ships in another country, often in the developing
world. This is called a flag of convenience,
which is a contentious maritime industry practice
allowing vessel owners to avoid regulation and
taxes and reduce labor costs by hiring cheaper
foreign mariners, often with questionable credentials.
Oh, they all have to go by maritime law. Well,
they do. But there's maritime ships, not they
don't have to go by it, but maritime law applies
somewhat. There's no real maritime law for personal
individuals, especially those on board of the
ships for intents and purposes. While it's at
sea, unless it's having to do with two ships
interactions, it is just that country's laws
that apply to it. Oh. Okay. That is for the people
on board, that is for the employees on board,
that is for the revenue that is generated on
board. Okay. Does that make sense? Yes, completely.
The flags of convenience require you to fly the
flag of the country on the ship from where it's
registered. I find this hilarious. Chelsea, have
you ever seen the Liberian flag? No, maybe. Look
it up. Is that a United States flag? I fully
believe that they drafted the Liberian flag.
As, hey, let's pretend that we are the United
States flag for ease in shipping and people thinking
that it's just an American flag. Just one star
instead of 50. Is that what the states are? Because
at the flight, it's fairly far away from you.
It looks exactly like an American flag, except
there is one star where the 50 stars should be.
Most Americans might not be able to tell the
difference. Why Liberia, though? I don't know
if you know where Liberia is. It is on the West
Coast. Africa just above the Ivory Coast or Cote
I've war I can't remember it's French Ivory Coast
right below Sierra Leone that's where pirates
come from you're think of a Somalia that's the
other side that's the Horn of Africa okay I thought
we were about to have a crossover. Around the
end of World War II, Edward R. Stettinius Jr.
was heading home from Europe and he made a stop
in Liberia. He saw it was poor, underdeveloped,
rich in natural resources, and he decided he
wanted to get American business to invest. Stettinius
knew a lot of people in big American corporations
and he heard them saying, we want to have a new
country where we can easily register our ships.
A new flag of convenience. Stettinius thought,
Liberia, it's perfect. Not only was the law designed
to help American businesses, it was set up to
be run from an office in the U .S. and managed
by Americans. By the late 1960s, Liberia was
the largest registry in the world. It's second
place today, right behind Panama now. This has
to do with several civil wars that took place.
There is a dictator in place now, I believe his
name is Charles Taylor. Since that happened,
most cruise ships have actually left this flag
of convenience and move over to Panama and the
Bahamas. But to this day, funds from registering
ships continue to supply 70 % of its total government
revenue. After the Civil War of 1990, Liberia
joined the Republic of the Marshall Islands to
develop new maritime and corporate program. The
resulting company, International Registries,
was formed as a parent company and in 1993 was
bought out by its management. After taking over
the Liberian government, American Liberian warlord,
Charles Taylor, signed a new registry contract
with Liberian International Ship and Corporate
Registry, commonly known as Ali - which is one
of the few legal sources of income for Taylor's
regime. Liberia's registry is operated from Virginia
in the United States. This is all very confusing.
Yeah, it's a lot like our Panama Papers episode
in that all the laws are being written in the
United States. That's what I was thinking. Basically,
they're just saying that for all intents and
purposes, we're in our country, the US or Canada
or wherever it is. But legally, the ship is from
this country and it flies its flag. And we follow
these laws. And we pay taxes there on this ship.
I was looking at registration in Liberia. It's
ten cents per ton per year, which on the world's
largest cruise ship, which is two hundred and
eighty thousand tons, it would have been twenty
eight thousand dollars a year. Is that a deal?
That's a pretty good deal considering you're
not paying taxes. That's a smoking deal. OK.
And you're getting other benefits on top of that.
Of course, that was just looking at their their
rates. I'm sure there's other things taken into
account, but that's what I could find. OK, that
wasn't an advertisement for flying a flag of
Liberia for your ship. By the way, they didn't
pay. And that is just that's the biggest thing
right there is you're not worrying about taxes
at that point on any revenue coming from your
cruise ship. I don't think I have to put a disclaimer
on this episode like I did on the Panama Papers,
just because I don't think anybody who listens
to us is in a position to transfer the flag on
their cruise ship to Liberia to get around American
taxes. Better do it just in case again. don't
take legal advice from us. We got a lawyer. Now
again, a big part of this is the tax haven status
that it allows, but there's another legal requirement
that's gotten around this way too, and that is
employment standards. Ship owners often register
their ships under a foreign flag in order to
employ seafarers from developing countries with
lower wages. The Philippines and China supply
a large percentage of maritime labor in general
and major flags of convenience in particular.
In 2009, the flag states employing the highest
number of expat Filipino seafarers were Panama,
the Bahamas, Liberia, and the Marshall Islands.
That year, 2009, more than 150 ,000 Filipino
sailors were employed by these four flags of
convenience. And I've seen it upwards as about
400 ,000 today. Wow, that's a lot. Yeah. And
their contracts depend on the labor laws where
the company is registered. Since the 2006 court
ruling, workers haven't been able to file any
claims in U .S. courts. Instead, their contracts
say they must resolve issues through a private
arbitrator paid for by the cruise line and based
outside the U .S. In the last decade, the cruise
industry spent over $31 million lobbying the
U .S. government and several legislators to avoid
federal tax and employment regulation. Cruise
lines utilizing foreign flag ships may argue
the question of mariner competency is moot. This
is a big thing that people bring up is when you're
using these foreigners and paying them next to
nothing, they're not going to be competent mariners,
and really all they're looking for is the cheapest
workers. Yeah, sounds like it. Cruise lines utilizing
foreign flag ships may argue that the question
of mariner competency is moot with the advent
of International Maritime Organizations International
Convention of Standards of Training, Certification,
and Watchkeeping. What these same FOC cruise
lines will not tell you is that each flag state
has the ultimate authority to administer, certify,
and enforce this regulation, STCW. As such a
flag state with limited resources may not have
the training assets or personnel to ensure proper
maritime certification, complicating matters
further, many of these foreign flag states are
ripe for corruption and graft. Together, these
raise questions about the training and skills
of mariners working on foreign flagged cruise
ships. And just to give you an idea of what we're
talking about here for what people are paid on
these ships, a 2006 statistic on the International
Labor Organization gave an average yearly earning
for Filipino and Chinese able semen, somewhere
around $2 ,000 per year. What? These guys are
working upwards of 70 to 90 hours a week. They're
making nothing. Cruise ship employees work over
70 hours a week with no rest days or paid vacations.
If they suffer any mishaps, they are not protected
under the United States justice system. That's
messed up. This is a strange story. Matt and
Susan Davis were on their way to dinner during
their last night aboard the Carnival Ecstasy
when they stumbled upon a shocking scene. Blood
was dripping down the door of the cruise ship's
10th floor elevator. They took out their cell
phones and recorded it. In the video, dated December
27th, 2015, a female employee can be heard asking
guests to leave the area. 45 minutes later, the
elevator was fence off behind a floor sign that
read, Sorry, I'm not working at the moment. Jose
Sandoval Opazo, the Chilean Italian head of maintenance,
had been repairing the elevator when it was suddenly
activated. The 66 -year -old man, who had worked
for Carnival for 17 years, was only two months
away from retirement, died of brain and skull
trauma, according to the family's lawyer, Julio
Ayala. Because the Carnival XC vessel is registered
in Panama and operates on the Panamanian flag,
Sandoval Opazo was subject to that country's
labor laws, which afforded him fewer protections
than U .S. laws would. After his death, his family
ended up agreeing to an out -of -court settlement
with the cruise line. This case demonstrates
something which is sadly common because it happens
seven days a week aboard ships. Cruise lines
say that since they have foreign flags, they
are not subject to the regulations of the United
States. On paper, cruise ship employees are protected
by a U .S. Marine law called the Jones Act, but
for a decade, workers haven't been able to file
any claims in the U .S. Instead, in the terms
of their contract, with major cruise lines dictate
that they must resolve their issues through a
private arbitrator, one that's accepted by both
parties paid for by the cruise line and based
outside the U .S. What? I saw so many stories
about people working upwards of 90 hours a week,
no days off, and they make anywhere from fifteen
hundred dollars a month to fifty dollars a month
plus tips. Oh, my God. That's kind of messed
up, though, that if they do anything, they have
to get a lawyer paid for by the cruise line.
The lawyer is not paid for by the cruise line.
the arbitrator is paid for by the cruise line.
It's an arbitrator. The arbitrator is basically
a private judge. What? Yeah, that's even worse.
So they're just paying for a judge. You would
have to buy your own lawyer. And if the cruise
line is 100 percent paying for the arbitrator,
that means that the arbitrator has to worry in
a rule in their favor, not necessarily rule in
their favor. but they personally will likely
take into consideration the fact that if they
don't do what the paying party wants, they aren't
as likely to get asked back. That's crazy. How
is that legal? Because they're based in another
country. Yeah. OK. They're saving a ton of money,
not only on taxes, they're saving it by paying
their employees next to nothing. They do not
have to worry about worker safety because, again,
these laws don't apply at sea. You know, because
they are flying under the Panamanian flag. or
the Liberian flag or the Bahamas flag. That's
so bad. Hey, this is worse than I thought. The
flag of convenience ships have long been linked
to crime as well on the high seas. And in fact,
in 1982, Honduras shut down its open registry
operations because it had enabled, quote, illegal
traffic of all kinds and had given Honduras a
bad name, unquote. I found stories of North Korea
being a flag of convenience and then immediately
switching itself to flags from Tuvalu, which
I have no idea where that is. but basically they
were importing heroin to Australia under a North
Korean flag and then they decided to switch flags
so that they couldn't be caught. It's in Oceania.
Oh, okay, so it's near Australia. Interesting.
Yeah. And this is a legal activity from open
registration and open registration legislation
for flags of convenience do not just apply to
cruise lines. They apply to all shipping types.
They apply to fisheries. They apply to shipping
companies. They apply to cruise ships and any
other types of ships I can't think of off the
top of my head. But we are just focusing on cruise
ships at this point. Yeah. When we talk about
the legal loopholes, we also need to talk about
actual crime. Chelsea's gonna talk about environmental
crime at a later point, but I am going to talk
about criminal activities with regards to bodily
harm and theft property harm when cruise ships
dock somewhere or within 12 miles of a country
Nautical miles I should say they technically
fall under the criminal law or the criminal code
of that country. So anything that happens at
that point is under the jurisdiction of the country
that it's either docked at or within the 12 mile
vicinity of when it gives me a little peace of
mind. Well, depending on what countries it's
actually going to. True. I want to go to legally
sound countries. If you take a cruise after this,
when it's on international waters, it has to
abide by the criminal code or the criminal code
of the country its registered at applies. There
is no criminal code that applies to international
waters necessarily on its own. And this can make
actually filing a police report or a criminal
complaint against a party very difficult. A reported
sexual assault case aboard a Mediterranean cruise
ship highlighted this legal ambiguity when a
Spanish judge released a detained suspect after
the ship docked in Valencia. The judge declared
that Spain had no jurisdiction in the case because
the alleged crime was said to have taken place
in international waters, according to a report
by the Spanish newspaper Levante. With the question
if Spain cannot prosecute, then which country
can? There's no cut and dried rule, said Frederick
Kenny, the director of legal affairs and external
relations for the International Maritime Organization,
a United Nations agency responsible for global
shipping safety. There is no international law
that covers the situation at the moment, he said.
A lot of the time, when anything happens in international
waters, waters it is the duty of the staff and
crew to take actions to mitigate damage, preserve
evidence, and to ensure that people are brought
to justice or not justice, but at least dealt
with at the next port or reported to the proper
authorities. This duty is counterintuitive to
an industry that is entirely based on PR and
making sure that you look like a fun and suitable
place for a family to be. But if they reported
someone at the next port a call, that even do
anything because then it's not their jurisdiction.
And that's part of it too, like maybe they get
discharged at that port. To be perfectly frank,
outside of steps that the US has taken in the
last 10 years, it's hard to find a lot of information
about this and I do think it is because if crime
happens on a cruise ship, their first action
is to downplay it and keep it quiet. I don't
want you to know that there's nothing to deal
with any crime when you're in international waters.
That is at least my perception of this after
reading so many stories. If you wish to read
some of these stories of people who have had
crimes committed against them on cruise ships,
there is a website called internationalcruisevictims
.org. Many stories as well as discussion on crimes
that happen abroad or on cruise ships. Most people
that have stories on there, I was going to read
a couple, but they are long. They would take
a long time to go over. So I'm just going to
leave. Take a look at these on your own time.
If you would like International Cruise Victims.
Under victim stories, they have it broken down
by different categories, sexual assaults, deaths,
missing persons, overboard incidents. But whenever
anybody talks to staff about an issue with crime,
they are met with people trying to keep it quiet
so that other people don't hear that a crime
was committed aboard and then trying to dismiss
the complaint. Keep in mind, there is no police
organization on cruise ships. It is just whatever
staff happened to be around at the time. Maybe
they have security. But maybe they're not there.
You have a jail cell. They do have a brig. Yes,
there can be upwards of 10 ,000 people on these
cruise ships. So it is it's a small town of people
on this boat that doesn't have a police organization.
Now, there were laws passed in the United States
that required any vessels that go through a port
of the US needs to keep records of any crimes
committed on board. And they, to their credit,
at least they have been reporting these at least
somewhat. And I actually had the numbers from
last quarter of 2020. Do you want to guess how
many crimes were committed last quarter of 2020?
I'm going to go with none because I don't think
there were none. In the third quarter of 2019,
which is kind of the last like normal cruise
season I think you could kind of go with, there
were 46 reported sexual assaults. That is the
biggest category of everything that is reported
is sexual assaults on cruise ships. The biggest
one being Carnival Cruise Lines who had 28 reported
against them, but they did bring up a good point.
The data that is collected for crimes committed
on cruise ships only collects data on cruise
ships that have a port in the U .S. Oh, and Carnival
is the biggest cruise line out of the U .S. Therefore,
they are likely to have the most against them.
Interesting. I could not find. any information
there are fines upwards of $25 ,000 per action
for not reporting these crimes but I could not
find a single piece of information and sorry
this is the cruise vessel security and safety
act that was put in place in 2010 I could not
find a single piece of evidence online that anybody
had ever been fined or in trouble for not reporting
crimes. And all the stories that I was reading,
again, are people who had been told, basically,
don't worry about it. There's nothing we can
do about this. Let's not bring it anywhere. I
don't even know what one could do even if you
didn't accept that. Thankfully, if you're an
American, any crimes that happen on a cruise
ship can be reported to the FBI, regardless of
if it happened in U .S. waters. Any U .S. nationals
have the protection of the FBI while on cruise
ships. OK, if you learn anything from this, please
make it that if a crime is committed against
you on a cruise ship and you're American reported
to the FBI. If you're anybody else. it becomes
really tricky to figure out. As Canadians, we
don't have that luxury. Basically, the best thing
you can do is report it to the authorities in
the port that you're nearest to when you get
there. If not, talk to a lawyer when you get
home, see what you can do in your jurisdiction.
And regardless of all that, always check with
a lawyer in your area to see what you can and
shouldn't do. The biggest categories that they're
collecting information on under the Cruise Vessel
Security and Safety Act are homicides, deaths,
suspicious, missing U .S. nationals, kidnapping,
assaults with serious bodily injury, firing or
tampering with vessel, theft greater than $10
,000 in sexual assault. And before this and in
any other jurisdiction, none of this information
is collected. So nobody really knows how bad
it is. We are forced to do anecdotal evidence
on this. If we're just looking at this report
tool to say what the actual rate is, what was
it? 28 per quarter. That's about 100. Let's just
say there's 100 sexual assaults reported per
year and that's way higher than it actually is
because that was a particularly high year. Carnival
Cruise in 2019 had 12 .9 million passengers on
its ship so if they only had a hundred sexual
assaults per 12 .9 million that's one for every
about one per every 129 ,000 passengers which
is ridiculously low for there being no support
staff to actually do anything. And for being,
let's face it, drunk people on a boat. What else
did I want to say here? Yeah. Eventually, the
US got around to passing the Cruise Vessel Security
and Safety Act. Under United States law, the
FBI can choose to investigate cases involving
American citizens, even when the cruise ship
did not dock in the United States ports. The
law provides passengers with the right to call
the FBI directly. Passengers usually don't realize
this. They have no idea. Even when the United
States has asserted jurisdiction, there are many
questions about what happens next. We had so
many discussions with the FBI and Coast Guard.
Once the crimes occurred, said Jamie Barnett,
the president of International Cruise Victims
Association. If I spoke to 100 different FBI
field agents, I would get 100 different responses
as to what would happen after a report. It is
very murky and citizens of countries that do
not assert jurisdiction have less recourse. I
wish I had more information. It's hard to come
by the actual rates of crimes on cruise ships.
These are multi -billion dollar companies who
are trying to keep their image as happy and family
friendly. So they are trying to keep this downplayed.
All I can tell you is that I do believe it's
under reported and be aware. Yes, I wouldn't
suspect that it would be easy information to
find. But with that, I think we've talked enough
about all of this legality. Let's talk about
some environmental impact. Yes. I just wanted
to start with a fun fact to start this all off
with. Did you know that by taking a cruise each
passengers carbon footprint triples in size in
relation to the emissions produced just in general
living your life? Yes. It does, but it doesn't
stop there. So with that, here are some sources
of pollution that come from cruise ships. The
first one being sewage, which is human waste.
The second being gray water, which is wastewater
from sinks, showers, galleys, and laundry, which
may contain or do contain detergents, cleaners,
oil and grease, metals, pesticides, and medical
waste. The next is oil and bilge water, which
is fuel, oil, oily water, on board. Spills collected
in the bilge located in the bottom of the cruise
ship's hull. Hazardous waste. which are toxic
chemical waste from dry cleaning, photo processing.
Yes, cruise ships have large photo processing
centers because they want to sell you those photos
of you getting off the cruise ship in whatever
port of call you are. Just while I was doing
my research, they make 24 % of the revenue selling
you add ons once you get on the ship. So that's
just one of those things that's super important
to have it ready so that you can buy that memory
that you normally wouldn't of you and your family
having a great time doing God knows what. Yeah.
Hazardous waste also include batteries, fluorescent
lamps and other hazardous waste that could be
out there. Solid waste, which is plastic, paper,
wood, cardboard, food waste, cans or glass, just
general garbage. And then finally, air pollution.
I'm sure we could come up with more ways that
they pollute. According to the Bureau of Transportation
Statistics, a 3000 passenger cruise ship generates
the following amount of waste that I just talked
about. Keep in mind, the mega cruise ships carry
much more people than 3 ,000. It can be about
triple that size. Yeah, this is one cruise ship.
One million gallons of gray water, which is the
wastewater from sink showers, whatever, galleys,
oil, everything. Twenty one thousand gallons
of sewage. Twenty five thousand gallons of oily
bilge water. Over a hundred gallons of hazardous
or toxic waste 50 tons of garbage and solid waste
diesel exhaust emissions and ultrafine particles
similar to levels in highly polluted urban areas
the cruise ship industry is responsible for a
continuously increasing impact on the environment
as well as health and well -being of both humans
and animals A review published in Marine Pollution
Bulletin finds that cruising is a major source
of environmental pollution and degradation with
air, water, soil, fragile habitats and areas
and wildlife affected. First, I'm going to talk
about pollution. Cruise ships are referred to
as floating cities and contribute as much pollution
as a city. Available research suggests that a
large cruise ship can have a carbon footprint
greater than one million cars. So for example,
passengers on an Antarctic cruise can produce
as much CO2 emissions while on an average seven
-day voyage as the average European in a year,
which is pretty scary being that Antarctic is
pretty untouched but you bring people in on cruise
ships and that just blows it all to hell. Within
the Mediterranean, cruise and ferry ship CO2
emissions are estimated to be up to 10 % of all
ship emissions and are providing about 10 % of
those port cities pollution there. Traditionally
ships use diesel engines, gas turbines, or a
combination of both. Diesel fuel is linked to
pollution as it produces nitrogen oxide emissions
which have been linked to respiratory disease.
and lung cancer. The high sulfur content of the
fuels are also harmful to the environment since
sulfur, when mixed with water and air, forms
sulfuric acid, which is the main component of
acid rain. And acid rain can cause deforestation,
it destroys aquatic life, and corrodes building
materials. Recently, the International Maritime
Organization, the IMO, announced that all vessels
must switch to cleaner fuel with a lower sulfur
content. by 2020. However, instead of paying
for more expensive but less sulfuric fuel, such
as liquefied natural gas, ships are installing
emission cheat systems called scrubbers. A scrubber
allows a ship to wash cheat fuel and meet these
requirements, then they discharge the pollutants
from the cheat fuel into the ocean, which would
otherwise be illegal to dump anywhere on land.
It is less expensive after all, so why not? study
found that the emission factors for a cruise
ship journeying to New Zealand were at least
three times higher than emission factors related
to international aviation. Something to think
about there. And energy use for staying overnight
on a cruise ship versus overnight in a land -based
hotel is 12 times larger because these cruise
ships never turn off their engines because they
have to give power to the whole entire ship or
obviously your whole trip so they're pretty much
just constantly running all this crap unless
they can't make a profit off the casino exactly
the casino must always be running in international
waters yes so i'm sure by now you're wondering
what the regulation is for this and all the pollution
being dumped everywhere basically for us to be
surrounded by I guess. As far as emissions go,
the waste streams generated by cruise ships are
governed by a number of international protocols,
especially MARPOL and U .S. domestic laws, including
the Clean Water Act and the Act to Prevent Pollution.
Regulations and Standards but there is no single
law or rule so basically it comes down to each
country the cruise ship is entering which varies
greatly and in international waters there's nothing
even in Canada we don't I found this hard to
believe actually. In Canada we don't have adequate
laws to protect us against cruise ship pollution
because we don't do any inspecting monitoring
or enforcement of any sort which yeah shocking
you would think having some of the natural you
need that we have that we're not doing anything
to preserve it from cruise ships because we're
quite a popular cruise destination yeah just
to add why we're a popular cruise destination
first off the reason a lot of countries or cities
especially allow cruises to dock is because of
the profit generated by 10 ,000 people coming
into your city for a day or two. They say it's
the economic benefit of allowing a ship of that
size to dock in your area. What they don't really
talk about is that environmental impact. The
reason Vancouver is a very popular port for cruise
ships is because a ship sailing from one US port
to another US port has to be registered in the
US. All Alaskan cruises stop before they go to
Alaska. in Vancouver so that they can get over
that and continue their flag of convenience status.
Yes. And during the end of last year, the U .S.
actually applied to overwrite that because Canada
still wasn't allowing cruise ships. So they were
operating without. They would go right from Seattle
to Alaska. Yeah. And Canada does have the inside
passage. That's not the United States. Oh, between
Vancouver and Victoria. Yeah, which is going
up to Alaska. So that any cruise ship would have
to go around Vancouver Island and the waves get
pretty bad out that way. Do they? Well, they
can. That's where Tofino is. Oh, I guess inside
passage is protected. The funny thing I found
about all of this in regards to the cruise industry
and just regular human things and countries and
stuff, I'd say. corporations as well. However,
I know that they're held to completely untouchable
standards. You look at countries that go to like
the G20 summit and talk about making changes
to address major issues related to the global
economy, such as international financial stability,
climate change is a huge topic there, sustainable
development and lowering CO2 emissions, single
plastic use, etc. By the way, none of it's actually
fast enough to prop address the trouble we're
in but they're putting face that they're doing
something kind of but that's neither here nor
there for this episode but with the cruise industry
which is also obviously a large untouchable corporation
there's no international or global monitoring
as I said previously and there's only a minor
call for any regulation mostly by environmentalists
it's minimal compared to the outrage that people
should be having about this Money speaks louder
obviously and that's what's gonna sustain the
industry from continuing to operate that way.
So long as they're being fed the money they don't
have to change. Obviously it's something we need
for many reasons including its devastating effect
on the environment and our oceans and it seems
that without any regulation the cruise lines
will continue to find ways around pretty much
all of their issues. So next one I'm gonna touch
on quickly is sewage. recall a 3 ,000 person
cruise ship generates 210 ,000 gallons of sewage
weekly. All cruise ships sewage goes through
what is called sewage treatment where solid and
liquid waste is separated and sterilized and
then the solid is incinerated and the liquid
is released back into the ocean. Apparently it's
just like clean water. I don't know would you
drink it? I've watched a few videos where they
said these guys are all saying it is nice and
natural and environmental groups are saying yeah
Yeah, we don't really believe you. Yeah, I don't
know. I'd like to see them drink it if they were
so confident. In 2016, Princess Cruises was fined
$40 million for polluting the ocean by dumping
4 ,227 gallons of oily waste off the coast of
Britain. And the list goes on of just cruises
dumping it wherever they want, even if a country
does have regulations. Other cruise lines have
been charged with unauthorized discharge of untreated
gray water or a stream of sewage that comes from
everywhere but the toilet. I mean what are you
gonna do to a cruise line that just has unlimited
funds to pay these fines they don't really care
they're worth so much money. Not to mention but
sometimes it just happens accidentally not only
where it is illegal to do so but also in protected
waters such as Alaska and cruise lines face minimal
fines like I said it's no skin off their back.
With all that being said if they're in international
waters they legally can dump sewage straight
into the ocean without treating it in any way
like they apparently do by cleaning it. And the
EPA, which is the Environmental Protection Agency,
estimates that a single 3 ,000 person cruise
pumps 150 ,000 gallons of sewage into the ocean
per week. That's more than one billion gallons
per year. Yeah, and these ships are running year
round. It's not like once the vacation is done,
it just sits. Yeah, it just loads back. and goes
again and then those people poop and then they
need to dump it somewhere sewage is gross obviously
but what's the big deal i know i was thinking
it like they use cow fertilizer for places and
it's good for farmland ocean's a big spot yeah
gray water can lead to the spread of pathogenic
bacteria and viruses and increase nutrient levels
in the surrounding ecosystem sounds good right
this leads to massive increases of concentrated
and phosphorus and causes toxic algal blooms
which removes oxygen from the water and creates
dead zones suffocating fish crustaceans coral
reefs and basically any marine life that could
live in that I know they're underwater but they
do need oxygen in the water to be able to breathe
and live and in just one year the cruise industry
contributes to 1 billion gallons of sewage dumped
into the ocean and it's growing as the cruise
industry grows so does the sewage that it dumps
into the ocean, whether it's cleaned or not.
Total amount of garbage produced by a cruise
ship carrying 2 ,700 passengers can exceed a
ton per day. 2 ,700 is even less than the 3 ,000
people, so that's huge. While cruise vessels
make up only a small percentage of the global
shipping industry, it's estimated that around
24 % of all waste produced by shipping comes
from cruise liners. This last one... that I'm
going to touch on really, I mean, not that that
other stuff isn't infuriating. This one really
got to me. It's super sad, which is invasive
species in marine life. Not that the inconceivable
amount of pollution that is dumped into the ocean
is not enough to put you up in arms about the
cruise industry's impact on wildlife. I have
much more to discuss. Another form of pollution
introduced by cruise ship is ballast water pollution.
I hope I said that right. Yeah, the ballast is
ships take on water. in particular areas if they
want to ride lower, and they can release that
when they want to ride higher. That's exactly
it. So cruise ships and other big vessels use
a huge amount of ballast water to stabilize the
ship while traveling, like exactly like Taylor
said. As these vessels travel for a longer period,
the ballast water is often filled from one region
and discharged in another whenever required.
The amount of ballast water released typically
is around 1000 metric tons. This discharge of
the ballast water from the cruise ship is a major
cause of cruise pollution. Since the ballast
water can contains microbes and microorganisms.
In addition to vegetation and other sea animals,
the pollution aspect is mainly caused by the
local species and marine life. An example of
such ecological damage would be the huge swell
of the population of jellyfish in the Black Sea.
This contributes largely to the introduction
and spread of invasive species. Other impacts
on marine life include noise pollution not above
the water but below the water so you're on a
cruise ship you can hear the engines revving
nobody wants to be in a cruise ship stateroom
that's close to the engines because it'll disrupt
their sleep at being the gigantic engines required
to propel these massive floating cities which
is very minimal to you like above to marine life
it has a huge impact the sound reverberates through
the water for really long distances since noise
travels further in water and it's so loud which
has a huge impact on animals and I'm just gonna
touch on mostly big marine animals in this but
it does also have a huge impact on the smaller
ones as well I'm not forgetting them they just
have more studies done on the bigger ones such
as whales and dolphins they're extremely dependent
on sound for basic life function most use echolocation
to hunt their prey communicate with others in
their past or just species for many reasons including
mating, navigating the oceans, etc. Even just
getting out a call to the other members of its
pod that there's danger or something like that.
If the ocean is so full of noise it makes it
harder for them to hunt, migrate, and talk to
each other. Population of whales and dolphins
has declined in areas prone to such noise pollution
from ships. It can also dislocate movement of
marine animals to new locations as They aren't
being able to communicate and use echolocation
the same so they'll find themselves in a completely
different location that they didn't intend to.
Deaths can occur due to hemorrhages and the impact
of the loud noises to them. Deaths of animals
can even be caused after exposure to extreme
underwater noise including sonar which cruises
also use navigating obstacles and bottom composition
detection. beachings have also been reporting
in Greece, Madeira, Hawaii, Spain, and coastal
US areas. And I'm pretty sure the correlation
was with sonar on that one. That's not just cruise
ships. That's sonar in general. It's not just
cruise ships. No, but cruise ships do. They contribute
it as well, as well as all the other noise. And
for a hearing based underwater group like whales
and dolphins, the amount of noise pollution in
their life has just completely changed. how they
act as a species. It's fairly sad. It's so sad.
And like the fact that a lot of scientists now
believe that the good chunk of beached whales
are literally just trying to get away from the
sound. Like they can't, they know what's going
to kill them to get on land and they don't care
at that point. And it's so, it's such a different
environment to being on land. um because it is
generally a more quiet environment being down
there but sound also travels so much and it's
so sensitive to sound so yeah it's not even something
that i thought about before reading this and
it is very sad a blue whale can hear another
blue whale at the other end of the pacific ocean
like that's how loud those things are and how
well they can hear yeah that's super crazy how
loud are they Or maybe it's just their hearing
that's super good. It's a bit of both. I would
have to check. It's pretty high volume, though.
Yeah. It also changes their diving patterns,
their migration to newer places and damage to
internal organs and overall panic response to
foreign sounds, just like Taylor said. For example,
there is a mass stranding of giant squids in
the coastal areas of Spain between 2001 and 2003,
just of the implications of noise pollution.
And then Here's my little thing about the small
guys in the ocean. It's not much. There's much
more research done on whales and dolphins. They're
a little easier to study, but in 2017 a study
found that a loud blast of underwater noise killed
nearly two -thirds of zooplankton in three -quarters
of a mile on either side. Zooplankton, while
incredibly small, provide a food source for everything
from whales to shrimp. Krill, a tiny crustacean
vital to whales and others. animals can be especially
hard and their hearing is just as sensitive so
they're just very fragile environments that we're
screwing with with these cruise ships. Anything
to add on that one? No. It's about to get sadder.
Oh good. The cruise industry has a huge impact
on marine life as I'm really trying to hit home
with I guess because I've repeated that a lot
and even more shockingly there are as many deaths
of marine life caused by the carelessness of
operators of these ships. I came across some
pretty disturbing pictures here. So I'm going
to tell you a few stories. The first one I'm
going to tell you of is a humpback whale named
Snow and she was a 45 foot pregnant humpback
whale who was first identified by researchers
in 1975. According to passengers and crew on
board a Princess Cruise ship, everyone was excited
that they had spotted humpback whales in Glacier
Bay, Alaska in July 12, 2001. The whales were
on a direct course to intersect with the ship.
The Dawn Princess continued to accelerate from
16 miles per hour and did not change course.
One whale dove and the other did not and they
were not seen again after that. Some reports
of feeling the ship's shutter were made and there
were no reports made to the National Park Service
or any other agency and there was no made in
the ship's log. Seeing a whale on a ship is a
huge deal. They make announcements especially
on cruise ships where that is a major thing that
people are looking out for, so for it to not
made it into ships logs. I know I've gone on
whale watching tours, even on ferries around
here. They'll announce when there's orcas. They'll
announce, but there are protocols when there
are whales in the area. I believe they fly certain
flags. there's a whale in the area I can't remember
exactly what it was they were telling us what
it was but there's protocols and maybe they're
new I don't know how new it is but yeah snow
was found dead 16 July 2021 with a massive skull
fracture consistent with being struck by a ship
and by the way humpbacks are endangered princess
cruise lines paid seven hundred and fifty thousand
to settle charges that it failed to operate at
ships in a safe manner near protective waters
of Glacier Bay National Park. And one more for
the famed Princess Cruise Lines for killing marine
life. It's not that funny, but it is murder.
The Grand Princess 2017 pulls into Ketchikan,
Alaska with a carcass of a humpback whale on
its bow. No recollection or idea of how it got
there and everybody was dumbfounded. It was actually
the second time in a short period of time that
this happened. And just the year before, Holland
America's Zandam did the very same thing. Just
pulled up with a whale on the bow of the ship.
I did actually see a picture of this. It was
pretty disturbing. Yeah, I don't want to know.
I'm not going to share it, not only just because
it crashes our whole thing, but it's disturbing.
Yeah. So that's my part on pollution. and just
general atrocities by the cruise industry. OK,
thank you for the moral implications of cruise
industries hit on the biome. Just a couple of
things I wanted to hit on. Cruise industries
have obviously been very hard hit over covid,
which led me to see crazy rumor stories that
the US has bailed out cruise ship companies,
which a article on USA Today says is a mostly
false rumor. Mostly when it turns out Carnival
never publicly and as far as they know privately
Requested a bailout, but they did sell six billion
dollars in bonds to the US Federal Reserve Okay,
which means they basically got a six billion
dollar loan No idea what the interest rate it
is on it or if they'll ever have to pay it back
Cool. Yeah. Not only are they avoiding taxes,
the US government is giving them a little bit
of cash back to make sure they stay afloat in
these trying times. And let's face it, they are
an absolute typhoid Mary of the pandemic. I like
what you did there. They are. After learning
all this, is there anything that we can do about
this? Well, first and foremost, if you're looking
to take a vacation. I personally after reading
all this would prefer that everybody not get
on a cruise ship. There are many better ways
to spend your vacations by visiting the next
town over doing a staycation or flying to a town
that you've never been to. Stay off the water
if not at least for the nice whales to have a
nice time. Yeah there's tons of other ways to
have a vacation and not put it towards this industry
that is exploiting everything. Humans, animals.
Yeah, if you absolutely have to take a cruise,
may I suggest the pride of America? It is the
only. cruise ship that has the US flag as its
flag of not convenience, its registration. All
right, how many stars are on it? Are we sure?
It would be. Yeah, I'm pretty sure. It's actually
a weird story because it's Norwegian Cruise Lines
that owns it because the company that built it
went under and for it to register in the US,
it needed to be built in the US. But the company
that was building it went under. And to finish
it off, they actually sent it to Germany to get
all the insides finished up and then sent it
back. And they still considered it American built
so it could register. It mostly does cruises
in and around Hawaii. So if you're looking to
do a cruise, I would highly recommend that one,
as they have to abide by all American laws. That
doesn't seem that bad. There's also something
that I found for friends of the Earth. They have
a cruise report card that you can go through
all of the different categories sewage treatment
air pollution reduction water quality compliance
transparency criminal violations it is and perhaps
we can post it up friends of the earth which
is foe .org slash cruise dash report dash card
and it has all that information on there as well
broken down by cruise lines and if you do end
up on a cruise and anything goes wrong i would
urge you to first off see a lawyer but there
are also other avenues of reach out internationalcruisevictims
.org does have a lot of resources to help you
get through any issues you may be having with
the industry. And with that, I think we can wash
our hands of this dirty industry. Yes, we can.
Any parting thoughts, Chelsea? As with everything,
I mean, corporations are corporations. But the
only way to do anything with these things is
to stop buying it. really just take its funds
away. But I mean, so many people don't know the
problems that are associated with these corporations.
And cruise lines are another one of them. I know
we've done a few on different corporations. And
it's just you look at this information, you go,
oh, that's so appalling that they could operate
that like that. Yet it's something that's so
popular to do. And it just keeps growing. Part
of it is, is because They don't really have any
legislation that they need to follow or regulations.
It's hidden very well. They can offer significantly
cheaper vacations compared to just flying to
one place and staying there the entire time.
I know a lot of cities are now getting wise to
cruise ships and are now saying that we don't
let cruise ships dock or if they dock we don't
let any of the tourists out or if the tourists
can go out there limited to very specific regions
of the city that they can go to or very particular
beaches. I did read another thing and this probably
isn't the time to bring it up. about cruise ships
bullying ports for raising taxes. They threaten
to pull out of the ports entirely so that the
ports make very little money, if any money, which
goes along kind of with what wages they're paying
their workers. And they have such a... impact
on what they push to passengers on board as far
as where they go when they get off the ship.
Yeah, they get a very large commission for people
going on very specific tours. And then people
will pay off the cruise line for them to recommend
that tour, if not one directly off. Cruise ships
have been famous for even building their own
islands so that they don't have to stop at a
port of call to give a port money or I believe
that it was Belize where they would come off
the cruise ship and it was a major thing when
they got off the cruise ship they were kind of
all herded over to this boardwalk where they
could buy things and the cruise line had developed
a little bit and invested half of the boardwalk
therefore they regained all of the entry the
port taxes that they paid gaining it back from
the increase because of this boardwalk it's just
like the labor laws and stuff that they're getting
around they kind of strong -arm the little communities
that are poor and rely on the tourism that they
bring in. And especially with the bigger cities,
they don't really. Yeah, it's nice to have those
10 ,000 people stop in for a day or two, but
it's not like that vital at the end of the day
to the city. They can eventually say no, like
buzz off. You're destroying. Are our tourism
you're destroying our beaches you're destroying
our waterways get the hell out of here not the
smaller towns like their economies are built
around these things stopping at i mean who's
really gonna give a crap about a city that they're
stopping in for five hours. Or so when you're
getting off, you're going to treat it like a
garbage can, too. And it's just I mean, it that
cruises symbolism for that because they just
I mean, it's not doing any good for the environments
that they're stopping in. Hell, this episode
draws a lot of parallels with the Panama Papers
episode, because at the end of the day, they're
small island nations that outside of this revenue
don't really have anything. It's true. Yeah.
So they take both. Yeah. and they just get pushed
around but that's i think all we have everybody
can get back to their happy lives hopefully cruise
free but we'll see from here next week we're
going to be talking about time slips which is
a fun little fringy topic in itself that you
can listen to at any point in time preferably
earlier for the numbers if you are a company
or industry that has just listened to this and
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I have been Taylor. I have been Chelsea. And
we have been Journey Through the Fringe. Thanks
for stopping by. We'll see you next time. Bye.