Record numbers of people are taking their vacations on cruise ships, leaving from ports in states such as Florida and California, with destinations such as the Virgin Islands, Hawaii, and Alaska. As the popularity of the cruise industry has increased, so has the size and number of the passenger-carrying vessels traveling our nation's territorial waters.
Alaska was the first coastal state to ask what the possible impacts this flourishing industry might be having on its environment. In a cooperative partnership, state and federal managers collaborated with the industry to review waste management practices and implement a monitoring program. As you will read in the cover story of this edition of Coastal Services, even the industry was surprised by what the testing found.
Alaska's experience, which is profiled in the article, has spurred a number of states to take a closer look at this industry. California has established a cruise ship taskforce, and Florida has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the 15 cruise lines making up the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association.
If you like reading about Alaska's experience with cruise ships and the lessons learned by coastal managers that are reported in this journal, then you will want to attend Coastal Zone 01 (CZ01), which is being held July 15 to 19 in Cleveland, Ohio.
This 12th biennial international symposium will feature important lessons learned by coastal managers around the world and models of successful partnerships. The conference will provide an outstanding opportunity to examine how local and regional issues are connected to worldwide influences of culture, commerce, climate, and biology.
In keeping with the city's strong rock and role tradition, music will help express the conference's theme, "Hands Across the Water" (The Beatles)—Linking Land, Lake, and Sea. More than 1,200 people are expected to attend CZ01, which will feature workshops, plenaries, and more than 100 concurrent sessions.
For more information on CZ01, point you browser to www.csc.noaa.gov/cz2001, or contact Lynn Sellers at (843) 740-1284, or Lynn.Sellers@noaa.gov.
-- Margaret A. Davidson
