Wastewater from ships harming orcas, study finds

Cruise ships that use scrubbers to comply with international limits on sulphur emissions may be unintentionally harming endangered whales off the coast of B.C., says a new Wwf-commissioned study.

The report “A whale of a problem? Heavy fuel oil, exhaust gas cleaning systems, and British Columbia’s resident killer whales” was released this week by the International Council on Clean Transportation. It was funded by World Wildlife Fund Canada.

Researchers analyzed 30 commercial ships operating off the coast of B.C. that are equipped with exhaust gas cleaning systems, also called scrubbers, which remove harmful sulphur oxides from exhaust gases of heavy fuel oil used in marine engines.

Open-looped scrubbers, the most commonly used system, pump a mix of water and contaminants into the ocean called wash water. The wash water contains “carcinogenic substances such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals,” according to the report.

There are no federal laws about ships operating in “open” mode, but the report calls for legislation to eliminate open-looped scrubbers.

Transport Canada spokeswoman Annie Joannette said the department is reviewing the report.

She said the international rules for the scrubbers require continuous monitoring of discharges to measure their acidity, levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and particulate content.

The WWF report found that the 30 ships studied in 2017 emitted nearly 35 million tonnes of scrubber waste water off the B.C. coast, including in areas where there are endangered species of killer whales. Cruise ships were responsible for 90 per cent of these discharges, according to the study.

Of the 30 ships with scrubbers installed, 16 had open-loop scrubbers and 14 had a hybrid of openand closed-loop scrubbers.

The report said it is possible that some ship operators sometimes voluntarily operate in closed-loop mode, which collects the slurry to be deposited at a waste-disposal site on land.

The researchers say that the reason ship operators may not use the closed-loop mode is because it is more expensive.

Robert Lewis-manning, president of the Chamber of Shipping, says it’s much more complicated than that. There are many other reasons why a ship may not use the closed-loop system, including that it requires carrying more chemicals on board to employ the system.

“It’s a trade-off and a risk-management decision when to use that technology. So you can imagine if you are in the business of moving dangerous substances, adding another risk is something you don’t want to do,” said Lewis-manning.

While more than 50 per cent of ships in the study use open-looped scrubbers, the researchers predict this could grow by 35 per cent in 2020, and that cruise ships could account for two-thirds of this increase.

Lewis-manning said while the report also suggests there will be an increase in heavy fuel oil use, he believes this is not the case.

There will be a decrease in the use of heavy fuel oil, driven by climate change objectives, which will force ship owners to use alternative fuels like LNG and biofuels, said Lewis-manning.

This is all “evolving very quickly because of the pressure to decrease greenhouse gas emissions,” he added.

Southern resident killer whales are critically endangered, and northern resident killer whales are threatened. Hussein Alidina, lead specialist of oceans with Wwf-canada, says the discharge from ships may be adding to their stress.

“Pollution and contamination from all sources, including shipping, need to be reduced for longterm recovery of this population to be possible, he said. “I think the situation with the residents is that there are multiple threats . ... the lack of food, the noise, the disturbance, the toxic contamination, they are facing death by a thousand cuts, and here is another thing we are exposing them to.”

He said more studies are needed to show how much of an effect the wash water is having on the whales.

WWF Canada says transitioning away from heavy oil to fuels that don’t require scrubbers will eliminate this threat and help set a course for zero-emission shipping by 2050. Companies have been installing scrubbers because in 2020 the International Maritime Organization will begin enforcing a lower fuel sulphur limit.

The report says many companies have switched to scrubbers to comply with the regulations so they do not have to switch to cleaner and more expensive fuels.

Lewis-manning said the report lacks the global context in which the decisions to use scrubbers have been made. On Jan. 1, the shipping industry will be required to reduce sulphur emissions, in a $10-billion investment he called “the single biggest regulatory shipping change” in history.

“What companies need to do is use lower sulphur fuel or use that scrubber technology to reduce sulphur, so it’s huge. On a global scale this is a massive change,” he said.