Do Cruise Ships cause SCTLD?

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Kind of a clickbaity title. The article talks about commercial shipping in general. It never specifically mentions cruise ships.

The journal article that was the basis for the linked article - Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease Outbreaks in The Bahamas - studied the Bahamas and again talks about commercial shipping, not cruise ships. In fact, the only specific mention of a ship type was this:
During March 2020 surveys off Grand Bahama and a subsequent visit in April 2021, large tanker ships off Freeport were observed to be pumping out large quantities of water (C. Dahlgren, personal observation), suggesting that the practice of releasing ballast water on site may be common.

This is not to say that cruise ships are blameless, they also uptake and discharge large amounts of ballast water. It does suggest the need for ballast water to be tested in accordance with the D2 requirements of the Ballast Water Management Convention - Wikipedia .
 

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