With the U.S. State Department giving warnings to travelers, cautioning to travel to Mexico only if necessary, cruise lines are looking for alternative ports for their guests.
In years past, cruise lines made the stop in Santa Barbara just five times a year.
This year there will be a lot more cruise ships coming through our channel.
We have seen Sapphire Princess, a 951 foot ship owned by Princess Cruises most recently.
In the mix are ships from Celebrity Cruises and Crystal Cruises.
Most of these ships carry 700 guests, however, some of these floating cities can accommodate 3100 guests.
From January to June Santa Barbara will see 18 cruise ships, tentatively one ship a week during the summer months.
With the thousands of guests coming ashore for the day, local business will undoubtably see boosts in profits.
“We have always believed that the numbers indicate a couple hundred dollars per couple, so we got a ship that holds 2850 people and 1500 crew so we might see a good economic pop for Santa Barbara” said Harbor Operations Manger Mick Kronman.
Not everyone is in favor of this change. Santa Barbara Channelkeeper, a local environmental group, is concerned about the possible environmental impacts of cruise ships.
Cruise ships are required by law to dump hazardous waste at least 12 miles off of Santa Barbara.
Channelkeepers goes out to meet the ships at the 12-mile line to make sure that the 30,000 gallons of sewage, 250,000 gallons of gray water, and 5,000 gallons of oily bilge water, which are created daily, are not dumped illegally.
Garbage collected on ships is burned in incinerators. The solid sewage sludge that is left behind is either incinerated onboard, along with plastics and garbage, or discharged at sea.
The cumulative effect of this added nutrient load on ocean ecosystems, if any, is largely unknown.
The waste creates pollution in the air and the water, which could have an impact to the oceans around Santa Barbara.
So far, the Santa Barbara Channelkeepers have not found any pollution during with the cruise ships.