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Santa Barbara Channelkeeper

Keeping Watch for Clean Water

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Santa Barbara Channelkeeper's team testing the water for pollution behind a huge cruise ship.

Cruise Ship Monitoring

Until the late 2000s, Santa Barbara hosted only a few cruise ship visits annually, but today we see upwards of 30 cruise ships anchored off the harbor ever year.

Cruise ships are floating cities that generate enormous volumes of waste. Every day, a typical cruise ship generates 30,000 gallons of sewage, 250,000 gallons of graywater (wastewater from galleys, showers, sinks and laundry), 5,000 gallons of oily bilge water, 15 gallons of toxic chemicals, and seven tons of solid waste, as well as air pollution equal to that of 12,000 cars.

Though existing regulations prohibit cruise ships from dumping any waste within three miles of shore, and the Santa Barbara Waterfront Department requires cruise ship captains to sign an “Environmental Declaration” promising not to dump sewage or graywater within 12 miles of the Santa Barbara coast, monitoring and enforcement of these provisions is extremely minimal, and the cruise industry has a checkered past when it comes to environmental compliance.

Channelkeeper conducts cruise ship watchdog patrols on our boat in an effort to ensure that the large number of cruise ships visiting Santa Barbara and transiting through the Santa Barbara Channel doesn’t result in increased pollution. We meet the giant ships as they enter the 12-mile no discharge zone and communicate with the captain over marine radio to remind them of the no dumping rules and to let them know we’re watching, which we believe serves as an effective deterrent.

Contact Us

714 Bond Avenue
Santa Barbara, CA 93103
info@sbck.org
(805) 563-3377

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NAVIGATION
  • About
    • Our Mission & Vision
    • Our Team
    • Our Boat
    • Our History
    • Our Impact
    • About the Santa Barbara Channel
    • Financial Information
    • Contact Us
  • Our Work
    • Education
    • Community Engagement
      • Oil Spill Resource Guide
      • Trash Clean-Ups
      • Film Plastic Recyling
      • Water Conservation
      • Events
      • Volunteer
      • Action Alerts
      • Report Pollution
    • Field Work
      • Beach Water Quality
      • Stream Team
        • Water Quality Indicators
        • Stream Team Data Portal
        • Leydecker Archives
      • MPA Watch
      • Cruise Ship Monitoring
      • Ocean Acidification
      • Trash Clean-Ups
    • Advocacy
      • Polluted Runoff
      • Agriculture
      • Oil & Gas
        • Refugio Oil Spill
        • Oil Spill Resource Guide
        • Platform Decommissioning
        • Legacy Oil Wells
        • Offshore Fracking
      • Ventura River
      • Plastic
        • Film Plastic Recyling
      • Marine Protected Areas
        • MPA Watch
      • Water Supply
        • Desalination
        • Conservation
    • Enforcement
      • Ventura River
      • Offshore Fracking
      • Agriculture
      • Sewage
      • Ojai Quarry
      • Halaco
  • Take Action
    • Donate
    • Volunteer
      • Watershed Brigade
        • Watershed Brigade Event
        • Watershed Brigade Monthly Challenge
        • Watershed Brigade Corporate Challenge
      • Stream Team
      • MPA Watch
      • Trash Clean-Ups
      • Events & Outreach
    • Report Pollution
    • Subscribe to eNews
    • Action Alerts
    • Shop
      • Buy Channelkeeper Gear
      • Shop & Support Channelkeeper
    • Upcoming Events
  • Media
    • Press Releases
    • Blog
    • Newsletter Archive
    • eNews Archive
    • Video Gallery
  • Donate