Baltic Sea becomes world's first to ban cruise vessels from dumping waste water offshore. According to a decision announced by the International Maritime Organization this May, starting in 2019 all new ships entering the Baltic must either take their waste water away with them or pump it on land to be treated. In 2021 the rules will be extended to include older ships as well.
The timeframe still leaves the sea vulnerable in the interim. Currently, untreated waste water can be dumped 12 nautical miles (13.8 land miles) offshore and treated sewage just 3 nautical miles (3.5 land miles), which is why Port Helsinki announced sweeteners that will encourage visiting ships to stop dumping at sea now. Taken all together, they show the Baltic region taking a lead that other heavily frequented or vulnerable marine areas could well follow.
The city of Helsinki isn’t waiting until 2019 for the no-dump laws to kick in.
If the Baltic region is showing leadership in the issue, it’s because it badly needs to. This year, the European Commission pronounced it “one of the most polluted seas in the world.” Cruise ships aren’t the key problem behind this of course. The Baltic’s waters have actually been most heavily blighted by two other factors. One is poor urban wastewater management, especially in the numerous cities along the sea’s Eastern and Southern coasts. The other is agricultural waste and fertilizer run-off. Combined, these two pollution sources fill the sea with nutrients that cause vast algae blooms that severely deplete sea water’s oxygen levels.
The Baltic Sea Action Plan, introduced in 2007, has done much to help matters, improving wastewater management in St Petersburg Russia (sea’s largest port city), Baltic States and Poland, albeit not yet in the heavily polluting Russian city of Kaliningrad. But with algal blooms still commonplace, the region’s countries still need to attack pollution on all fronts, and even if they aren’t the main problem, cruise liners are nonetheless a major source of all sorts of filth.
That’s why the city of Helsinki isn’t waiting until 2019 for the no-dump laws to kick in. It can’t really afford to. Over 236 ships will dock in the city’s harbor this summer, according to Finnish broadcaster YLE, and 12 large cruise liners will dock there within the next fortnight alone. In order to keep its waters relatively clear, the Port of Helsinki is offering a 20 percent discount to vessels that pump their waste on land to be treated. The uptake for this offer is likely to be all but unanimous, because ships that dock in the port must all pay the fee, whether they actually off-load waste there or not. Simply by taking advantage of a service they’ve already paid for, ships can cut their overheads. The offer should also get them used to using a service that will be mandatory for all ships after 2021.