Fathom - Final Grade: "D"
Fathom - Cruise Ship Fleet
Ship Name | Cruise Line | Total Persons on Board | Destinations | Sewage Treatment | Air Pollution Reduction | Water Quality Compliance | Final Ship Grade |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adonia | Fathom | 1199 | Caribbean, U.S. East Coast | 11 | 00 | N/A | 04 |
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.
Fathom cruise line was established in 2015 as a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation, which controls almost 50 percent of the worldwide cruise ship market. Fathom currently operates one cruise ship, the Adonia, which was moved from the P&O Cruises fleet by Carnival. Fathom operates what it calls “social impact travel” consisting of cruises from Florida to the Dominican Republic and Cuba.
The Fathom ship Adonia has installed an advanced sewage treatment system, resulting in a grade of A for the company’s 100 percent sewage treatment score. In determining the air pollution reduction grade for each cruise line, only ships that have installed scrubbers or are capable of plugging into shoreside power were considered. The Adonia has not installed a scrubber or shore power capability, giving the company an F in this category. No Fathom cruise ships traveled to Alaska between 2010 and 2014.