Seabourn Cruise Line - Final Grade: "D"

Seabourn Cruise Line was founded in 1986. Headquartered in Washington State, Seabourn describes itself as a luxury cruise line that operates four cruise ships worldwide. Seabourn is a subsidiary of Carnival Corp., which controls almost 50 percent of the worldwide cruise ship market. The Seabourn fleet consisted of smaller ships with carrying capacities between 370 and 780 passengers and crew, but in 2015 the line sold its two smallest ships to Windstar Cruises and began building the Seabourn Encore. The Seabourn Encore will have a larger capacity of 1,054 passengers and crew and launches in December 2016.

All of Seabourn’s four ships have installed advanced sewage treatment systems, resulting in a grade of A for the company’s 100 percent sewage treatment score. Yet only the Seabourn Encore will have any scrubber or shore power technology, earning Seabourn an F for air pollution reduction. No Seabourn ships traveled to Alaska between 2010 and 2014. 

Seabourn Cruise Line - Cruise Ship Fleet

Ship Name Cruise Line Total Persons on Board Destinations Sewage Treatment Air Pollution Reduction Water Quality Compliance Final Ship Grade
Odyssey Seabourn Cruise Line 780 Mediterranean, Africa, Caribbean, Central America, Mexico, South America, U.S. East Coast, U.S. West Coast 11 00 N/A 04
Quest Seabourn Cruise Line 780 Antarctic, Caribbean, Europe, Mediterranean, South America, U.S. East Coast, Arctic, Canada 11 00 N/A 04
Sojourn Seabourn Cruise Line 780 Canada, India, Mediterranean, U.S. West Coast, Asia, Middle East, Southeast Asia, Alaska 11 00 N/A 04
Seabourn Encore Seabourn Cruise Line 1054 Australia, India, Mediterranean, Middle East, New Zealand, South Pacific, Southeast Asia 11 08 N/A 10
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Grading methodology for the 2016 Cruise Ship Report Card

Friends of the Earth’s Cruise Ship Report Card ranks 17 major cruise lines and 171 cruise ships -- Carnival Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruises, Costa Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Cunard Cruise Line, Disney Cruise Line, Fathom, Holland America Line, MSC Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Oceania Cruises, P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Royal Caribbean Int’l, Seabourn Cruise Line and Silversea Cruises -- according to four environmental criteria: Sewage Treatment, Air Pollution Reduction, Water Quality Compliance and Transparency.

  • To determine a cruise line’s Sewage Treatment grade, we compared the number of cruise ships in the cruise line that have installed advanced sewage treatment systems against the total number of ships in the cruise line.
  • To determine the Air Pollution Reduction grade for each ship in a cruise line, we graded ships on whether they had installed scrubbers or were capable of plugging into shoreside power. Cruise ships that installed both technologies and docked in ports with shore power received an A, while ships that only installed scrubbers or only installed shore power capability but did not dock at ports with shoreside power were given a C. In addition, ships were given credit if they only utilize low sulfur fuels continuously at levels lower than required by international and U.S. law.
  • To determine the Water Quality Compliance grade for ships operating in Alaska, we used notices of violation issued for individual cruise ships to each cruise line by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation from 2010 to 2014. Ships were given an ‘N/A’ if they traveled to Alaska but avoided Alaska’s strong water quality standards by discharging outside of those protected waters.
  • To determine the Transparency grade for each cruise line we graded each line based on whether it responded to our 2015 requests for information regarding their environmental practices.
  • The grades for each of the four criteria were averaged to calculate the Final Grade for each cruise line.