To date, the contribution of sea-based sources to the global marine litter and plastic pollution problem remains poorly understood. Cruise ships produce large amounts of wastewater and concentrate their activities in fragile and ecologically valuable areas. This paper explores for the first time the sources of microplastics in cruise ship wastewater, as well as their pathways from source to sea. It thereto uses a novel approach for the identification of sources and pathways, based on scientific literature on microplastic sources and pathways, literature on cruise operations and wastewater management as well as a questionnaire among cruise lines. The study highlights personal care and cosmetic products, cleaning and maintenance products and synthetic microfibers released from textiles in laundry as relevant source categories. Untreated grey water and the overboard discharge of biosludge, resulting from the treatment of sewage and grey water, were identified as key pathways. Cruise lines can reduce microplastic emissions by adapting their purchasing policies for personal care, cosmetic, cleaning and maintenance products and professional textiles. In addition, the holistic management of all wastewater streams and resulting waste products is essential to prevent leakages of microplastics from cruise ships to vulnerable coastal and marine ecosystems. Furthermore, the approach can be used to guide company-level assessments and can be modified to address microplastic leakages in other maritime sectors.
As the 2017 International Oil Spill Conference (IOSC) was wrapping up in Los Angeles, CA, an oil spill on a magnitude no one had expected was making its way across the lower Wider Caribbean Region. The Regional Activity Center, The Regional Marine Pollution Emergency, Information and Training Centre – Caribe (RAC/REMPEITC-Caribe), that was established in 1994 under the Cartegena Convention, stood up for the first time as a regionally coordinating body to facilitate communication, coordination and exchange of information during a major spill as was designed and intended under the Caribbean Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Cooperation (OPRC) Plan. What was confirmed months later, was that a large spill from a refinery in Trinidad and Tobago had in fact impacted the States of Venezuela, Bonaire, Curacao and Aruba. On April 23, 2017, it became public knowledge that a spill had occurred from a 150,000 barrel (6.3 million gallon) waste oil tank at the Petrotrin Refinery in Pointe-a Pierre, Trinidad. What fallowed was successive reporting of subsurface oil and tarballs washing ashore over a thirty-six day period: first on Venezuelan Gulf of Paria coasts; then Paria, Isla Margarita, Los Roques and La Orchila coasts; followed by Bonnaire; then Klein Curacao and Curacao; and ultimately beaches in Aruba. Had it not been for the coordinating body of RAC/REMPEITCCaribe, these impacts may have never been officially connected to a single point source. Miraculously, through the Regional Center each of the impacted States exchanged oil samples from each other's coasts and the potential source tank in Trinidad. Subsequent analysis from laboratories in the Netherlands proved that the oiling events, which occurred across 600 nautical miles of ocean, were in fact from the same source, Storage Tank #70 of the Petrotrin Refinery. This paper discusses how RAC/REMPEITC-Caribe worked across borders to help identify the source of a spill that reached across more than 600 miles of the Wider Caribbean Region, and shows just how connected these countries are. It sheds light on a major oil spill that few people outside the impacted countries are aware of, and it presents the April 2017 Petrotrin Spill as a realization that, not only are these scenarios likely, they are real cause for increased regional spill coordination and preparation.
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