Cruise Ships: Good or Bad for coastal communities?

Friends of the Earth recently came out with their ratings of large cruise ship companies on their green efforts. Large cruise ships have tremendous impacts on ocean habitats and coastal communities and its good to see organizations advocating for improvement. The ratings were based upon companies records on sewage treatment, air pollution reduction, water quality compliance, and transparency of information. We would like to see in future reports how these companies interact (positively or negatively) with coastal communities and if there is support for local environmental and social programs.

Cruise ships can damage ocean habitats by dumping their waste at sea and the large boats (which are basically floating cities) can emit a significant amount of air pollution. Local communities also lose out on a large amount of the economic benefits of tourism, as people spend only a short time on shore and don't stay in local hotels. On the other hand, cruise ships do reduce the need for a lot of coastal infrastructure in fragile ecosystems.

The top rated companies include Holland America (B+), Norwegian (B-), and Princess Cruises (B-). The lowest ratings (F) went to Royal Caribbean and Disney Cruise Lines. These ratings however, didn't include some very responsible companies who use smaller boats. Our favorite is Linblad Expeditions, one the world's top ecotourism companies, who take strong measures to reduce their impacts and generate large amounts of funding for conservation efforts.

You can find more information on environmentally-friendly cruises in our Resources for Responsible Turtle Travel Page. More on the report, including the response from the cruise industry on MSNBC.com.