August 25, 2021
The 2021 cruise season at the Port of Seattle is now fully underway with scheduled passenger sailings. Until the season ends in October, residents will see ships coming into port to disembark passengers, load supplies, and embark passengers, and then sailing away for the next voyage.
While the season is now a full month into operations, passenger volume remains less than we would expect in a normal season, in part to accommodate physical distancing. Cruise lines hosted nearly 89,000 revenue passengers since July 19.
Protecting health
Cruise lines continue to adapt COVID-related health and safety measures in response to public health guidance and recommendations. For example, in Seattle cruise lines updated their existing measures to begin requiring negative COVID tests within 72 hours of embarkation for all passengers regardless of vaccination status. Norwegian Cruise Line requires all passengers to show proof of vaccination and all passengers to test negative for COVID at the terminal before boarding the ship. Cruise line and passenger commitments to these safety measurers protect fellow passengers, crew, employees, our community here in Seattle, and along the Alaska itinerary.
Protecting the environment
Health and safety is not our only focus for the 2021 season. The Port of Seattle is on its way to becoming the greenest port in North America by encouraging cruise partners to continue to embrace our region’s sustainability goals, supporting cruise lines’ own sustainability initiatives, and in some cases requiring practices that go above and beyond already stringent environmental regulations to further protect our environment.
This year, the Port embraced a new Northwest Ports Clean Air Strategy vision, to phase out seaport-related emissions by 2050, supporting cleaner air for our local communities and fulfilling our shared responsibility to help limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Bringing clean energy to our waterfront is a major piece of that strategy. The Port already provides clean shore power to ships at Terminal 91’s two cruise berths and is on track to provide shore power to the Pier 66 cruise terminal in time for the 2023 cruise season. The cruise lines are also showing their support for clean air and climate action by continuing to increase the number of vessels that are shore power capable. This season, 100 percent of Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America Line, and Princess Cruises ships calling at Terminal 91 can plug into shore power and shut down their engines while at berth in Seattle.
The Port is also doing its part to ensure water quality protections in Puget Sound. Since 2004 the Port has partnered with Washington State Department of Ecology and the cruise industry in a voluntary agreement, called the Cruise Operations in Washington State Memorandum of Understanding — or the “Cruise MOU.” The agreement was originally put in place to ban wastewater discharges into Washington state waters from all cruise ships (except discharges treated with advanced wastewater treatment systems), allows inspections of wastewater treatment systems on each vessel, and requires cruise lines to sample and monitor any advanced wastewater treatment system discharges from their ships.
Every three years the Cruise MOU partners consider new amendments that are proposed by the public. For an amendment to be included in the MOU, all parties need to agree on the terms. This year, all MOU parties support an amendment proposed by Washington Department of Ecology to update language in the MOU regarding Puget Sound’s No Discharge Zone to be consistent with state law. A coalition of environmental organizations also proposed an amendment to ban exhaust gas cleaning system (EGCS) wash water from cruise ships throughout all of Puget Sound. EGCS are an approved technology used by some ships to meet the requirements of the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) North America Emission Control Area, which sets stringent limits on sulfur content in ships’ exhaust. Ships can use EGCS instead of using low sulfur fuel to achieve these emission reductions.
The Port believes strongly in a precautionary approach to the discharge of EGCS wash water and water quality protections, and supports a pause in these wash water discharges from cruise ships in Puget Sound until a reputable third party research institution can complete an assessment of wash water impacts on local water quality and share the findings for public awareness.
The Port and our cruise line partners have heard loud and clear the public interest in a sustainable cruise industry in Seattle and we are committed to continuing to build a sustainable cruise industry in Puget Sound. While we did not reach the consensus needed to include the proposed ban on EGCS wash water in the Cruise MOU, we have reached out directly to our cruise line customers and we believe we have a way forward for a pause in discharge of EGCS wash water in Puget Sound. This pause will be formalized outside of the MOU and will go into effect immediately once agreed to and will remain in effect until the findings from the assessment can be evaluated and show that the discharges do not impact Puget Sound water quality.
The 2021 cruise season represents our commitment to bring cruise back to our community safer, stronger, and more sustainable than ever before. Communities in Alaska rely on tourism income to maintain their livelihoods, as do businesses in our region. Locally, a typical cruise season brings $900 million in business revenue to the region and supports up to 5,000 jobs.
The safe return of cruise has been critical to local small businesses. Bonnie B’s Peppers has been selling jars of sweet and spicy pickled peppers out of its Pike Place Market location since 2019, after five successful years working Seattle’s farmer’s market circuit. During the first six weeks of Seattle’s cruise season, owner Dylan Randolph estimated that business had gone up six times what it was a year ago.
“It’s been a happy coincidence having a front-line booth at the market with cruise ships coming back,” he said. “Resiliency and pivoting have been key for me. I worked every day since COVID was announced. Customers love our product and that is what has kept me going. I am moving toward my 10-year goal when I started the business and it’s surreal to think I may actually get where I had hoped.”
Getting business owners to their goals is embedded into our mission at the Port of Seattle. The 2021 cruise season represents our commitment to bring cruise back to our community safer, stronger, and more sustainable than ever before.
