Ahoy there, Everyone - Captain here ...

Here aboard Prow's Edge we are concerned about safety issues at sea and we have been one of the first on-line general cruise magazines beyond those who specialize in the "unpleasant" issues to devote an entire section to the "not-so-nice" side of the world of cruising.

Our Safety at Sea section at http://www.prowsedge.com/cruises-safety-at-sea.html is an example of this. The idea is not to sensationalize the ugly side of the industry, but rather to make cruise passengers aware of what is happening.

In that same vein, this forum addresses the environmental issues concerning cruise ships at sea.

According to CruiseJunkie.com at http://www.cruisejunkie.com/index.html#Environmental_Issues things are not as rosy as one might expect.



If you have any comments about this or other issues in this topic, we would like to hear about it.

Looking forward to hearing your views ...

We’ve all wondered at the end of that midnight buffet who is going to scoff up the tons of food that remains. Check your own garbage collection at home and multiply that in some cases by many, many thousand. That gives you an idea of the problem facing cruise lines.

In fact, the cruise industry has been very proactive in its efforts to minimize all types of pollution at sea. Many have installed state-of-the-art environmental equipment including grinders for food and product waste, separators for galley products and recycling, crushers for glass, aluminum and cardboard materials; incinerators for food, cardboard, paper and other waste by-products; and sophisticated engine room equipment to reduce or eliminate liquid discharge.

That having been said, you’re always going to get the occasional “rogue” ship which ditches its rubbish into the sea. So we have to be on guard against these

On the bright side, CLIA (Cruise Lines International Association) which represents the interests of 25 member lines has identified a number of trends that will help define cruising in 2010. One of them is to use new green, environment-friendly shipboard technologies like solar power, advanced water treatment systems, Alternative Maritime Power, fuel conservation, innovative hull treatments and others.

So give them credit for trying.