Cruise Ships and Excessive Water Pollution

kansasphoto / CC BY 2.0

If you thought peeing in the ocean was kind of of gross, imagine the cruise ship industry dumping about 3.8 BILLION tons of raw bodily fluids into the ocean every year, the majority of it untreated. Poop, pee, vomit, feminine hygiene stuff. I'm talking the whole lot here, my friends. The whole nasty lot.

The idea that billions of tons of crap is floating around in the ocean doesn't exactly make me want to take a trip to the beach, or enjoy some wild caught fish that could be sick or contaminated any time soon. Gross factor is not the biggest issue here though. The vacationers waste that is flushed into the ocean by these "luxury floating toilets" directly harm whales, dolphins, other marine life, while destroying the fragile ecosystems within the waters.