Cruise Control : Regulating Cruise Ship Pollution on the Pacific Coast of Canada

Every year over one million passengers board a cruise ship to travel north to Alaska, along BC's famed Inside Passage. Cruise ship travel on the Vancouver to Alaska route grew at a rate of over 5% a year over the past decade. By 2000, there were 336 cruise trips from BC to Alaska carrying 1,053,000 passengers and over 12,000 crewmembers. And each year those passengers and crew members generate more waste than a small town the size of Courtenay or Penticton. This report looks at the effectiveness of the regulations controlling cruise ship pollution. It also reviews the standards set in the US and Alaska to deal with the same problem.