CuriousMe
Guest
scubaspider:I'll admit that I havent throughly read this tread but just skimmed, but I would like to add my 2 cents. I am highly against cruise ships, I have never been on one but have heard they are an excellent vacation. The problem is they are destroying coral reefs by resorts allowing cruise ships to park near the resort for more business. When they do this, they crash into the reef which physically damages it on impact. Depending on the duration of the say, it scares fish and blocks sunlight for the photosynthesis process in corals, which can lead to bleaching if this consistantly occurs. Thus, if you would like to continue experiencing coral reefs first hand, please dont take a cruise, this just adds to cause of the destruction of reefs. It is predicted that in 2030, only 30% of coral reefs will be remaining in the world.
Thanks
I guess I'm curious as to where you're getting your information from.
We don't dock at resorts.....we're far to big for that, there are cruise ship piers that 16 out of our 19 ships can't even dock at. We also just have to many people onboard.....what resort can handle an extra 2,000 - 4,000 guests (per ship) on top of the guests that are staying there? We dock at established cruise ship piers......now is it possible that there was some reef destroyed to facilitate the building of these piers....yup. But the cruise industry didn't do that, the governments of the various islands decide where to put the piers....we can't build anything without local approval.
The other thing that cruise ships do is bring lots of tourists.....lots of those tourists want to snorkel/scuba on healthy reefs.....this helps make a business case for protecting govts to protect their reefs.
As far as environmental impact.....things are very strict around here environmentally. I would guess that any land based resort in the islands has a far greater impact on the environment then any of the big cruise ships.
When it comes right down to it....it would be very bad business for any major cruise company to do anything but protect the environment.
Peace,
Cathie