# is that a brown whale **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 25, 2013, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-a-brown-whale/653965 "2013-03-25T23:06:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![auntlohimein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/74df32/32.png) [@auntlohimein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auntlohimein)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-a-brown-whale/653965/1 "2013-03-25T23:06:03Z")
Hi all- Quick ?- Cruise ships, with what -3,000-5,000- people on board, were does waste go? Pump out in port like RV’s ?- my god thats a lot, where to then? on board plant?, I do know sometimes the ocean! I asked before about Key West a while back. Thanks someone! ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-a-brown-whale/653965/2 "2013-03-25T23:17:16Z")
They’re not supposed to dump human waste into the ocean, and unless there is a mistake they don’t. [http://www.princess.com/news/backgrounders\_and\_fact\_sheets/factsheet/Princess-Cruises'-Commitment-to-the-Environment.html#.UVDavlee3oE](http://www.princess.com/news/backgrounders_and_fact_sheets/factsheet/Princess-Cruises%27-Commitment-to-the-Environment.html#.UVDavlee3oE) ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-a-brown-whale/653965/3 "2013-03-25T23:58:05Z")
Indeed cruise ships can legally discharge human waste to the ocean. And frequently do. The restriction is on discharge within a certain distance of shore. As the link in **Telemark** ’s post noted, some ships do have some onboard treatment capacity for sewage prior to discharge of effluent at sea. In addition to sewage, biodegradable food waste is discharged overboard as well. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-a-brown-whale/653965/4 "2013-03-26T00:51:15Z")
Humans are polluting the oceans all right, but effluent from cruise ships, indeed from all ships of any sort, is a negligible component of that pollution. The oceans are big, so too, are the inhabited continents, all full of people who piss and shit and produce all sorts of garbage. All the world’s shipping, even taken all together, is, by comparison, very, very tiny. The oceans are quite capable of absorbing all the effluent from the world’s cruise ships without any problem at all: from all of land-bound humanity, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Shadowfyre](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shadowfyre/32/9972_2.png) [@Shadowfyre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shadowfyre)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-a-brown-whale/653965/5 "2013-03-26T14:45:09Z")
As I posted in the thread about the Carnival cruise ship that had issues a couple months ago, I took a Carnival cruise over Christmas break. They offered a “behind the scenes” tour of the ship on the last full day of the cruise. (If you are ever on a cruise and they offer this kind of tour, take it. It is amazing to see the amount of logistics needed to make a cruise successful.) According to the Chief Engineer, they treat the waste and dump it into the open ocean, some distance away from shore.