The cruise industry has copped a bit of flack recently over the use of scrubbers, with the exhaust gas cleaning systems having been heavily criticised for reducing air pollution at the expense of the seas.
So, what do agents need to know about this, especially for the eco minded clients?
First of all, scrubbers effectively remove sulphur oxide pollution from ship exhausts, says Clear Seas, removing it with seawater which is then discharged into the marine environment.
This technology has been approved by the International Maritime Organization, which essentially requires ships to either switch to a low sulphur type of fuel, which costs up to 50% more than conventional heavy fuel oil, or install scrubbers to stay within acceptable sulphur ranges.
Auckland Council lead water scientist Jennifer Gadd told the NZ Herald that the risks associated with the scrubbers were not that significant in analysed New Zealand ports compared to all the other issues that some of these harbours already have related to stormwater or industrial discharges.
“The risks are really restricted to places where you’ve got less circulation,” Gadd told the news outlet. “So, where the scrubbers are being used in the open ocean or in shipping lanes, there’s really minimal risk, and dilution is the solution in those cases.”
Research does state there are still environmental risks though, and as such there are calls from environ mental groups to ban these.
For clients who are concerned it may be worth looking at lines such as Hurtigruten, HX Expeditions, Disney Cruise Line and Regent Seven Seas Cruises, all of which Friends of the Earth report do not use scrubbers.
