"Poop In The Ocean"

[Immigrant]

...and anyone who thinks a thousand people's poop is gonna pollute the ocean must have never seen one in person. The ocean will dissolve and disseminate that stuff in no time flat.

That kind of makes sense but if someone used that as an argument for the one cigarette butt they toss on the ground, it wouldn't fly.

If it doesn't belong there or have to be that way, it should stop. It doesn't have to be that way. They can hold it in a "poop hold" and pump it out at the end of the cruise like a giant Honeybucket.

 

[Pilgrim]

...and anyone who thinks a thousand people's poop is gonna pollute the ocean must have never seen one in person. The ocean will dissolve and disseminate that stuff in no time flat.

And that kind of naive assumption is the reason that the Cuyahoga River caught fire in 1969. Invalid Link Removed

 

[Dave W]

...and anyone who thinks a thousand people's poop is gonna pollute the ocean must have never seen one in person. The ocean will dissolve and disseminate that stuff in no time flat.

Cruise ships hold a lot more than 1000 people. The smallest boat in Royal Caribbean's fleet hold almost 3000, and they have 25 larger ships (some of which can hold over 6000). That's just one cruise line. Just for easy math, 3K * 26 = roughly 78,000 peoples poop getting dumped.

 

[ChrisB2]

That kind of makes sense but if someone used that as an argument for the one cigarette butt they toss on the ground, it wouldn't fly.

I see your point, but cigarette butts don't dissolve, they lie there and are unpleasant to look at. Human waste will totally dissolve rapidly in the ocean and never affect anything.

 

[ChrisB2]

And that kind of naive assumption is the reason that the Cuyahoga Riger caught fire in 1969. Invalid Link Removed

You're comparing an oil slick in a tiny river to some turds in the OCEAN? Gimme a break.

Realize how vast the ocean is; it can handle a few turds.

 

[Altitude]

You're comparing an oil slick in a tiny river to some turds in the OCEAN? Gimme a break.

Realize how vast the ocean is; it can handle a few turds.

Agree; that comparison is beyond a stretch.

 

[Pilgrim]

You're comparing an oil slick in a tiny river to some turds in the OCEAN? Gimme a break.

Realize how vast the ocean is; it can handle a few turds.

Correct. It can handle a few. But it can't handle the volume from thousands of people day after day as multiple cruise ships work similar passages in the ocean. As I noted earlier, environmental systems do have a significant capacity to process environmental insults. But there are limits to that capacity. The ocean(s) do not have infinite capacity, which seems to be your underlying assumption.

Why is it hard to understand that repeatedly dumping tons of sewage into the ocean will have a negative result on the water quality and the biological systems existing in that water? It's not just the organics which must be processed, there is also a significant bacteria loading.

Understand too, when you change the biological system, you may not kill off all the wildlife, but you change the system so that some types of fish and organisms can no longer live in it. The system shifts, other organisms start to dominate, and the change is often for the worse.

There's a reason that outhouses are no longer built over rivers. The same applies to ocean liners.

 

[ONYX]

Looks like some enterprising individuals in a third-world country have come up with another easy way to make $50,000 +.........

 

[pacojas]

our local news paper has a "fecal count" in the Tide report for the surfers. poop flows from town into the ocean. stop that s**t first, imo!

 

[Altitude]

There's a reason that outhouses are no longer built over rivers. The same applies to ocean liners.

Just so we're aligned on scale here - an outhouse built along the Cache La Poudre river, if built to the same scale relative to amount of water flowing beneath it as an ocean liner in the Caribbean Sea, would probably be too small to see with the naked eye.

The fish in that river introduce more fecal matter, proportionally to the amount of water, than the people on all the cruise ships in the ocean could, by orders of magnitude.

 

[guitar ed]

Having been on a few cruises, I thought I might comment.....

First, the big cruise ships do NOT dump their waste in to the water, at least, not on purpose. For all intents & purposes they run a septic tank, which is pumped out at the end of the cruise.

Second, human waste is not a pollutant, at least not in the middle of the ocean. On shore yes. Off shore, it's just food for scavengers.

Thirdly, because they want to minimize smell & other problems, cruise ships use a lot of chemicals in the septic tanks. These chemicals are pollutants, on shore and off shore.

Fourth, as previously mentioned, these septic tanks contain many products besides human waste. These products, again, are pollutants, on shore and off shore.

Later,

edg

 

[SoComSurfing]

That kind of makes sense but if someone used that as an argument for the one cigarette butt they toss on the ground, it wouldn't fly.

If it doesn't belong there or have to be that way, it should stop. It doesn't have to be that way. They can hold it in a "poop hold" and pump it out at the end of the cruise like a giant Honeybucket.

They do.

Having been on a few cruises, I thought I might comment.....

First, the big cruise ships do NOT dump their waste in to the water, at least, not on purpose. For all intents & purposes they run a septic tank, which is pumped out at the end of the cruise.

Second, human waste is not a pollutant, at least not in the middle of the ocean. On shore yes. Off shore, it's just food for scavengers.

Thirdly, because they want to minimize smell & other problems, cruise ships use a lot of chemicals in the septic tanks. These chemicals are pollutants, on shore and off shore.

Fourth, as previously mentioned, these septic tanks contain many products besides human waste. These products, again, are pollutants, on shore and off shore.

Later,

edg

This guy has sense.

Annex IV Prevention of Pollution by Sewage from Ships (entered into force 27 September 2003)

Contains requirements to control pollution of the sea by sewage; the discharge of sewage into the sea is prohibited, except when the ship has in operation an approved sewage treatment plant or when the ship is discharging comminuted and disinfected sewage using an approved system at a distance of more than three nautical miles from the nearest land; sewage which is not comminuted or disinfected has to be discharged at a distance of more than 12 nautical miles from the nearest land.

 

[bass12]

Anyone who thinks it is okay to dump human excrement into the ocean greatly overestimates the quality of what most humans pass through their digestive tracts.

 

[pacojas]

Anyone who thinks it is okay to dump human excrement into the ocean greatly overestimates the quality of what most humans pass through their digestive tracts.

let's just say it ain't going in my garden, but our goats & chickens poop can!

 

[ChrisB2]

But it can't handle the volume from thousands of people day after day

Really? I don't think you can know that. I think you're postulating your opinion, not stating a proven fact.

My opinion is the ocean can handle a lot more than you think.

...besides the fact that this appears to be a non-issue, if in fact cruise ships are practicing turd retention until they make landfall.

The ocean(s) do not have infinite capacity, which seems to be your underlying assumption.

Wrong, I do not assume the oceans have unlimited capacity to process unlimited human turds.

But they have enough to process a few thousand.

 

[James Keith]

I wonder how fish flush the toilet, and reproduce in all that water....

 

[cfsporn]

I wonder how fish flush the toilet, and reproduce in all that water....

Probably because they have evolved an innate tolerance over millions of years for a baseline amount waste that exists in their habitat. Add in additional waste from a species that has very different dietary habits than any ocean dwelling creature and that is known to flush non-biodegradable stuff and you start to have a problem.

 

[Happynoj]

I would imagine that China is probably dumping more pollutants into water than the combined cruise ships of the world.

EDIT: According to this website (Link Removed) there are slightly over 20 million cruise ship passengers annually. China's population is over 1 billion, and China doesn't have the best record on pollution.

EDIT 2: Rivers of blood: the dead pigs rotting in China's water supply | World news | The Guardian

 

[Solarmist]

It's a good thing the Airlines don't dump raw sewage - "look out below". I'd hate to be hit by a piece of poop at terminal velocity!

 

[cfsporn]

I would imagine that China is probably dumping more pollutants into water than the combined cruise ships of the world.

EDIT: According to this website (Link Removed) there are slightly over 20 million cruise ship passengers annually. China's population is over 1 billion, and China doesn't have the best record on pollution.

EDIT 2: Rivers of blood: the dead pigs rotting in China's water supply | World news | The Guardian

So that makes it okay? Or to put it another way, do we really want China to be our ecological role model?