Observer: "Cruise ships must clean up their act"

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There's a great piece in The Observer (UK) today looking into the problem of cruise pollution, and soon-to-be-released new International Maritime Organization (IMO) regulations to control it:

With their gourmet restaurants and glitzy casinos, they remain the peak of luxury travel for millions. Yet the true cost of cruise ship holidays is coming under increasing scrutiny amid accusations these 'floating cities' are destroying the oceans they were designed to explore.

Conservationists liken them to mobile sewage farms, spewing millions of gallons of untreated and chemical-saturated waste into the sea as they journey to some of the planet's most remote places.

A single cruise liner can pump more than 130,000 litres of sewage a day into the ocean. Only now, after years of mounting protest, will new regulations be announced this week to ban the practice.