SIGN NOW: Tell the EPA to protect manatees from corporate cruise ship pollution!

Manatees are DYING OUT rapidly with the last two years reaching record-breaking numbers of manatee deaths.

These beloved gentle giants are STARVING TO DEATH due to excessive loss of seagrass that corporate cruise ship pollution can DECIMATE.

Without seagrass, manatees cannot survive. AND this vital plant also plays a crucial role in our planet’s oceanic ecosystem by absorbing almost a fifth of the entire world’s ocean carbon, defending us from worsening climate crisis impacts.

If we’re going to restore this critical plant and save Florida’s last remaining manatees, we urgently need 1,406 more environmentalists like YOU to speak up and demand that the EPA takes action on rampant cruise pollution. Can we count on you to step up for manatees and our oceans today?

Comments

Dear EPA Administrator Regan,

Over the years, cruise companies have polluted our air, water, and climate -- much of this pollution is legal, but cruise companies are also responsible for significant illegal pollution. In 2020, the cruise industry was thrust into the spotlight for knowingly putting public health at risk from COVID-19. Thousands of people contracted the virus while on cruise ships, and hundreds died. The cruise industry has repeatedly made choices that put the health of people and the planet at risk, and their bad decisions continue today.

Manatees are at serious risk. The cruise industry is dumping its exhaust gas scrubber wastewater into the marine waters where manatees live -- contributing to the destruction of seagrass, an essential food source for manatees. This practice is exacerbating the threats to this iconic species. Manatees are sounding the alarm bells; more Florida manatees died in 2021 than in any other year on record. They are starving due to the lack of seagrass. They are stressed and hungry, and the cruise industry is only making matters worse.

Scrubbers were supposed to be one of the solutions to clean up the cruise industry’s dirty smokestacks. Instead, these scrubbers merely convert the industry’s dirty air pollution into toxic water pollution. Most scrubbers used by the cruise industry are open-loop and emit acidic wastewater that is warmer than ambient seawater and contains heavy metals, PAHs, particulate matter, and nitrates, all of which are very harmful to the marine environment and the marine creatures that inhabit it. All our oceans are at risk from the cruise industry’s polluting emissions, and they need to stop immediately.

The world’s largest cruise company -- Carnival Corporation -- has been on criminal probation for the last four years as part of a record-setting $40 million fine and plea agreement for illegally dumping oily waste into the ocean for nearly a decade, as well as obstruction of justice for hiding its criminal activities from regulators. Carnival was allowed to restart cruising in the US last year despite its continued and ongoing pollution during its probation. Without this prosecution, we would likely have no knowledge of Carnival’s ongoing environmental crimes. And in January, Carnival pled guilty and was fined another $1 million for its ongoing failure to comply with the terms of its probation. To properly monitor and enforce environmental and public health laws on cruise ships, we need independent federal observers for all large cruise ships in the US.

I am calling on you to protect public health and the environment. Please commit to addressing the cruise industry's negative impacts on passengers, crew, communities, oceans, and marine wildlife through improved and increased regulation and oversight of the cruise industry.

Sincerely,

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