Princess Cruises have been voted “Best Cruise Line in Alaska” for the seventh year in a row, by the annual Travel Weekly Readers’ Choice Awards. The cruise line also won awards for “Best Itinerary Design” and “Best Travel Agent Educational Program.” These are all industry awards. Every year Marcie Keever of Friends of the Earth (FoE) grades the industry’s environmental records in her Cruise Line Report. The “B ” she gave the Princess Line was good, but not exceptional. Keever gave most Alaskan Cruise Lines high marks.
The ECOreport uses Marica Keever’s 2013 Cruise Report Card to evaluate California Cruise Ships: an Environmental Report Card
By Roy L Hales
According to a report released three days ago, Cruise ships dumped more than 1 billion gallons of sewage in the ocean last year, much of it raw or poorly treated. More than 40% of the 162 ships in the 2013 Cruise Report Card“still rely on 30-year-old waste treatment technology, leaving treated sewage with levels of fecal matter, bacteria, heavy metals and other contaminants harmful to aquatic life and people.”
“It’s time for cruise ships to stop using our oceans as a toilet!” said Marcie Keever, author of the Friends of the Earth report.
