How Concerned Should Michigan Be about Cruise Ships on Lake Superior?

When you think of the idea of a cruise vacation and you almost certainly think of destinations like the Bahamas, Jamacia and the Dominican Republic. You probably don't think about places like Sault Ste Marie and Thunder Bay, Ontario. But it's the Great Lakes that is being heralded as the next great destination for the global cruise market.

With those cruise ship visits come an influx of both cash and cache as the Great Lakes ports are being are being discovered by the cruising class. The ships also bring pollution and disruption of wildlife habitat according to environmentalists who raised the alarm in an article published by the Canadian non-profit news organization The Walus.

Just how much waste comes from a typical cruise ship on the Great Lakes, in metric measurements,

the daily waste per passenger comes to at least 300 litres of grey water, forty of black water, ten of bilge water, three and a half kilos of garbage, and thirty grams of toxic waste

The article cites one environmentalist who calls the western Canadian city of Vancouver, the nation's busiest cruise destination, Canada's "toilet bowl."

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Further, activists say there is lax enforcement and loopholes within intended environmental safeguards on cruise ships.

The cruise ships on the lakes, don't just make Canadian ports of call. American lake cities like Milwaukee and Duluth are also on many itineraries.

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Tourism promoters argue that there are proper safeguards in place and the influx of tourism dollars from the ships is important. Further, others argue that ships, both leisure and commercial freighters have been plying the waters of the Great Lakes since colonial times.