Coronavirus risk creates powerful argument for immediately reinstating Ocean Rangers
With the specter of the coronavirus looming large, the state needs a program to monitor cruise ships to be able to “insure that passengers, crew, and residents at ports are protected from improper sanitation, health, and safety practices.”
A program like that makes so much sense that even the cruise ship industry should recognize the health and safety benefits for passengers, crew and the residents of Alaska.
Lucky for Alaska, we already have a program intended to do just that, paid for by the $4 fee collected from cruise ship passengers under terms of a 2006 voter initiative to improve monitoring of the industry.
Unlucky for Alaska, Gov. Mike Dunleavy decided to do the cruise ship industry a favor by vetoing funds for Ocean Rangers for this summer. With the worldwide disruption to the travel industry, a reduction in cruise ship monitoring will do nothing to calm the nerves of potential passengers, who are still paying the fee.
Because of the fears associated with travel and all that is unknown about the transmission of the coronavirus, Dunleavy’s veto looks worse by the day.
The marine engineers who serve as Ocean Rangers are not doctors or health care officials, but their presence aboard ships would certainly help keep Alaska authorities informed about health conditions, an essential part in ensuring safety for everyone involved.
The Legislature needs to act immediately to restore the voter-approved program. The House budget approved this week restores the program, but that is for the fiscal year that starts July 1.
Ocean Rangers are required by law to observe marine pollution and discharge compliance, but they are also assigned to “insure that passengers, crew, and residents at ports are protected from improper sanitation, health, and safety practices.”
It’s a level of monitoring that the state needs on cruise ships this summer to benefit passengers, crew and the residents of every city visited in Alaska by cruise ship passengers.
It’s not clear why the Dunleavy administration has been so hostile to Ocean Rangers, except Jason Brune, the commissioner of environmental conservation, said a year ago that eliminating the cruise ship oversight work of the rangers was “near and dear to my heart.”
Brune’s major complaint was that he objected to having the rangers on ships at all times in Alaska waters.
“These are people that are basically breathing down the neck of folks on the cruise ships,” Brune told the Resource Development Council a year ago.
“They’re not adding any additional environmental oversight or care to the environment. These people are not Alaskans predominately and no other industry in the state is regulated 24/7. Can you imagine having someone breathing down your neck at your office 24/7? It’s not appropriate.”
The cruise ship industry doesn’t like the Ocean Rangers, but Brune says he was acting on his own with this idea.
“People have said, ‘Ah, the industry put him up to this.’ No, This was, this was my baby, I talked with the governor about this one. When I was at RDC we worked on the cruise ship initiative, I was always grumpy about the Ocean Rangers,” Brune said last March.
Dunleavy is also grumpy about having round-the-clock compliance, claiming that is unfair to the cruise ship industry.
The problem with Brune’s and Dunleavy’s 24/7 complaint is that the cruise ships are traveling cities with thousands of passengers that cover thousands of miles in state waters, far beyond the sight of regulators.
Because of the coronavirus, the Ocean Rangers are needed this summer more than ever as an extra set of eyes, looking out for Alaskans.
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