Eye kept on cruise pollution

Six big cruise ships visiting New Zealand this summer have been busted for polluting pristine Alaskan sounds in recent months, and their practices will come under scrutiny here amid moves to tighten fuel regulations.

Ships issued with violations for breaching air quality and water standards over the summer season by the Alaskan Department of Environmental Conservation included the Amsterdam (1), Golden Princess (3), Norwegian Jewel (1), Radiance of the Seas (2), Noordam (1) and Seabourn (1).

All are cruising in New Zealand waters this season.

The Alaska Department of Law has yet to decide what enforcement action to take, but fines for air pollution can be about US$46,200 (NZ$71,000) per violation.

The owners of the ships also did not fare well in the Friends of the Earth’s 2016 cruise ship report card which rated companies from A to F based on their sewage treatment, efforts to reduce air pollution, compliance with Alaska’s water quality regulations and the companies’ transparency in responding to requests for information.

The Holland America Line, Norwegian Cruise Lines and Princess Cruises got C grades, while Royal Caribbean International, Carnival and Seabourn Cruise Lines were rated D.

In 2016, Princess Cruises was fined a record $40 million for deliberately illegally dumping oilcontaminated waste for eight years and trying to cover it up.

The offending came to light after a new engineer blew the whistle on use of a ‘‘magic pipe’’ to bypass pollution prevention equipment.

Under a 2017 settlement with the United States Department of Justice, the cruise line remains on probation for five years, its website says.

Maritime New Zealand is well aware of that. Deputy director of the quality assurance team Kenny Crawford said it would focus on the handling of waste oil when inspecting Princess Cruises’ ships.

‘‘I wouldn’t expect to find a problem this time, but we’ll certainly be looking . . . we’re well aware of the magic pipes as they call them.’’

Southland harbourmaster Lyndon Cleaver is also cracking down on smoke from cruise ship funnels after several complaints about air pollution in Milford Sound last summer.

He said ‘‘scrubbers’’ to reduce sulphur dioxide levels emitted from the ships might become mandatory when an access agreement between Environment Southland and the cruise industry was reviewed.

Royal Caribbean’s giant Ovation of the Seas – the subject of a complaint – had scrubbers, but they were not in use because current New Zealand regulations did not require it.

‘‘I said that’s good for other ports, but when you come into Fiordland, we expect you to go above and beyond.’’

Royal Caribbean said it was not aware of any complaints, but three of its four ships cruising in New Zealand waters this summer had scrubbers fitted and would operate them in the fiords.

The cruise company said it was appealing the Alaska air quality violations for Radiance of the Seas because it did not believe the standard applied took account of the clean water vapour emitted by the air purification system.

Carnival Australia said there was ‘‘no legal action current or anticipated’’ over its Alaskan season, and most of its ships coming to New Zealand would have scrubber technology.

‘‘In normal circumstances it would be used during local operations including in Fiordland."

‘‘We’ll certainly be looking . . . we’re well aware of the magic pipes as they call them.’’ Kenny Crawford, Maritime New Zealand deputy director of the quality assurance team