Large ocean-class cruise ships pose numerous and well-documented threats to coastal ecosystems and inhabitants, and Virginia's coastal ecosystems, which are home to hundreds of thousands of residents and support a billion-dollar seafood industry, are particularly vulnerable.  Our region relies heavily on the health of the Chesapeake Bay estuary and its surrounding waters.  Cruise lines are turning out record profits while coastal communities pay the price, largely because existing regulations are outdated (and sometimes intentionally ignored) - it is time for these companies to assume the cost for protecting our waters and our residents by complying with modern and updated science-based regulations.  Impact studies might suggest it is in our best interest to turn our backs and allow this pollution to continue because of the short-term impact that an influx of cruise passengers has on the "dockside economy", but this rationale will have devastating long-term effects - we have seen this time and time again.  Virginia needs to put itself on the right side of history here by taking a far-sighted approach that utilizes the most recent scientific data to regulate both air and wastewater pollution generated by these ships.  

For a comprehensive and well-written review of modern cruise ship environmental impact data, please visit: https://www.pacificenvironment.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Ship-pollution-From-air-to-ocean-Scrubbers_August-2024.pdf