Principles of Responsible Cruise Ship Tourism

 The Chesapeake Bay, rivers, watersheds, and the air quality in Virginia should be protected by limiting environmental impacts of cruise tourism. This is essential to protect our river and the businesses and sportsmen that depend on it. Long-term environmental effects must always be considered to protect future generations. A key stipulation toward this goal is the use of low-sulfur fuels, which avoids the requirement for open-loop scrubbers. Cleaner fuels directly reduce toxicants in the ship’s exhaust that can be harmful to both wildlife and human health, whereas open loop scrubbers remove these components from the exhaust and then flush them into the river. Other pollution impacts should be carefully examined as well to protect our fragile ecosystem. Shore power should be required to limit air/water pollution in port communities. 

Port communities and neighboring localities that are impacted and should have the right to self-determine. In each home port, cruise tourism plans and operations should be collaboratively developed with prior, and informed consent of the people most directly negatively affected by cruise tourism operations and pollution.  This means that cruise companies should not interfere in local politics and political processes. Powerful multinational cruise corporations have used lobbying and campaign contributions to sway local elections, gain access to our leaders, and influence votes. The cruise industry is character altering and therefore the Commonwealth needs to ensure the rights of the localities are protected from predatory business practices.

Adopt Natural Capital Accounting and Social/Cultural Valuation methods and apply them to assess the viability of the cruise industry in a port, prior to any agreements [1].  Any economic analysis should include multiple accounts analyses, including a public financial account, a private financial (or economic development) account, a social account, and an environmental account. The multiple account perspective must be central to any analysis, providing information about who benefits and who absorbs costs. Ensure negative externalities are internalized into the cost of doing business rather than forcing the burden on to port communities (e.g., waste management).  Redefine economic success by using metrics that quantify the benefits to local small business development, equitable distribution of income, and enhancement of sustainable, local supply chains. 

 The US corporate tax is 21%, yet  “According to annual report filings, the major cruise lines pay an average tax rate of 0.8%.” [2]. This is because most large cruise ships fly a foreign flag-of- convenience allowing them to skirt US tax and labor laws. If foreign flagged cruise ships are allowed to dock in Virginia, sail in Virginia waters, and leverage Virginia infrastructure for profit (projected to be $30B in 2024 [3]), fees (docking, passenger, license, etc.) should be equitable to compensate for the industry's tax avoidance practice. The Commonwealth should also consider restricting the cruise industry in Virginia to US-flagged ships only. 

The cruise industry has an abysmal water and air pollution record.  The Commonwealth and port localities should require continuous monitoring equipment for monitoring air emissions, including but not limited to NOx, SOx, particulate matter, and CO2. Data should be publicly reported from all air emission and effluent discharge monitoring equipment, including the location and volume of discharges and all other data. Monitor effluent discharges at the point of discharge, including but not limited to temperature (thermal pollution), PH, PAHs, BOD, turbidity, chlorine concentrations, and fecal coliforms. Make discharge, discharge location, and effluent data publicly available. Virginia should consider funding programs to ensure that Internal Maritime Organization (IMO) certified, third-party monitors are on board all vessels to monitor and enforce local, state, and national environmental and public health regulations for all ports of call.  

Port cities with high levels of pollution can cause respiratory difficulties [3], disease, and premature deaths [4]. Fine particulate matter released by cruise ships can enter the bloodstream and brain. There is a strong correlation between Nitrogen Oxides (Nox) and cancer. Additionally, given the number of passenger on cruise ships (e.g. Icon of the Seas has capacity for 7,600 passengers + 2,350 crew [5]), gatherings of such a large number of people on a ship present a unique public heath challenge when exposed to a contagious disease (e.g. virus [6]) . Plans for community protection and disease management must be developed apriori. The Commonwealth and Virginia ports must ensure public safety through cruise ship management and regulation. 

Commonwealth and Virginia ports must plan for cruise mishaps. Ship fires [7], sludge spills [8] and other accidents [9] have occurred. These events although infrequent can tax local infrastructure. Given the growth of the cruise industry these events will likely increase in occurrence. The Commonwealth and Virginia ports must ensure cruise ship contingency management plans are in place and validated prior to any arrival of cruise ships in Virginia.