The Carnival Corp. Panorama cruise ship sits docked in Long Beach, Calif., on March, 7, 2020. Photo: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images
SAM DUNCOMBE, head of the Bahamian environmental organization reEarth, looked on with concern Thursday as island authorities debated whether to allow passengers to disembark from Fred Olsen Cruise Lines’ Braemar, the latest ship hit by the novel coronavirus. Duncombe is a longtime critic of the cruise industry and has led the fight against Disney’s plan to build a private cruise port in an area recommended for marine-protected status, home to a fragile coral reef ecosystem. Cruise ships have repeatedly come under fire in the Bahamas for dumping sewage, food waste, plastic, and oil into the aqua waters. Duncombe doesn’t trust the cruise industry to protect the islands from a health crisis any more than she trusts it to protect the environment. Read more >>