Two dozen activists from around the globe have come together virtually to pressure the cruise industry into having more respect for Mother Nature and its workers.
They have formed Global Cruise Activist Network (GCAN) to collaborate via digital platforms on issues such as illegal waste dumping, carbon emissions and mistreatment of seafarers.
"Our purpose is to exchange information and find places we want to work together on," co-founder Karla Hart said during GCAN's first meeting, which was held over digital sharing platform Zoom due to the pandemic.
"We are people who are committed to working together constructively to try to make a difference and share information. I expect that hopefully after our launch, we'll get a lot more people who want to participate. We meet every couple of weeks on Zoom and communicate that way."
GCAN's ultimate mission is to get the entire industry to adhere to the group's so-called 12 Principles of Responsible Tourism, which cover topics from environmental impacts to labour and crime victims.
The founders
Hart, a former tourism business owner from Juneau, Alaska, co-founded the Alaska Wilderness Recreation and Tourism Association after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
She was also a governor’s appointee to the Alaska Tourism Marketing Council in the mid-1990s.
She and Ruth Starr, co-founder of Alliance for Responsible Tourism Maine, founded GCAN after connecting through social media.
At the time, Hart was looking for fellow activists to join her in her fight against cruise operators flying helicopters over her house to offer a bird's-eye view of Mendenhall Glacier.
"Obviously, Covid changed our plans for an international, in-person conference and sort of sent us into the world of Zoom," she said.
"We started reaching out and the more of us we found through the snowball sampling effect of reaching out, we've been connecting people. It's really very grass roots."
Cruise sector stays silent
The network has welcomed passengership owners to join the discussion on environmental stewardship and workers' rights, but its offer has been met with silence, said Jane Da Mosto, founder of We Are Here Venice.
"I can speak for Venice, where we regularly tried to engage with the port authority or the representatives of the cruise companies," she said.
"They refuse to meet directly. We would welcome the chance to have the cruise companies engage with us. They could have joined this Zoom session."
Arnold Donald-led Carnival Corp, the world's largest cruise outfit with 90 ships, declined to comment for this story.
Calls to smaller cruise majors — Richard Fain-led Royal Caribbean Group and Frank Del Rio-led Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings — were not returned.
Almost 25 GCAN member activists spoke out against the cruise sector on the call, including US-based Stand.earth and Seattle Cruise Control, Australia's Save the Bay Coalition and the UK's Ocean Rebellion.
Other speakers included environmentalists from the UK's Port of Southampton, Canada, the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Belgium and the US.
"Thanks to the network, we can plan to do initiatives in parallel in all places around the world or regions of the world," Hart said.
