An Appraisal of Potential Cruise Liner Environmental Liabilities - Coral Reefs - August 2017
This refers to a comprehensive guidance document prepared for the insurance and cruise line industries in an attempt to contextualise the gravity of avoidable damage to coral reefs and the reasons why the potential damage liabilities are so high. It has been written against a background of legislation in the form of the "Coral Reef Protection Act of 2017" and a layman's explanation of coral reef growth, status, restoration and recovery. Extracts of the guidance document are shown below.
The Initiative

The initiative – to provide underwriters of Cruise Ship operators with an appraisal of potential environmental liabilities – has arisen specifically from the involvement of www.consonamus.com in a claims assessment of one of two recent high profile incidents in which damage was caused to coral reefs by cruise vessels. The recent increase in cruise vessels and, in particular, the rise of eco-destinations has prompted me to identify and address the following pointers to assist the insurance industry in understanding the potential liabilities:-
These pointers have been discussed following a summary of the legislative frameworks enacted to protect coral reefs through the recovery of monetary damages.
- Eco-destinations
- Scale of liability
- Protocol development & adherence
- Framework for compensation
- Corporate responsibility
These pointers have been discussed following a summary of the legislative frameworks enacted to protect coral reefs through the recovery of monetary damages.
Unavoidable & Avoidable Damage
Coral reef destinations, by their very nature, are areas of important biodiversity and are sensitive to changes in water quality and physical damage. These changes (features) fall loosely into 2 categories. Those that are unavoidable and those that are avoidable as follows:-
The features in the table above all result, individually or in combination, in the degradation of the reef. The loss of biodiversity resulting from this degradation renders the coral reef unappealing to the eco-tourism sector. With the exception of physical and long term antifouling damage, all of the features above are caused by or exacerbated by the presence of cruise vessels maintaining geostationary position at the edge of the reef. The reasons for this practice are twofold:-
- tour operators wish to operate close to the reef to enable their clients to have easy access
- newly opened up eco-destinations have neither infrastructure nor enforceable protocols to prevent this practice – the reasons for this are discussed below.
Disclaimers
The document does not address the following issues as they relate to the global environment:-
- potential catastrophic marine pollution issues
- operational gaseous & particulate emission
- anti-fouling
- carbon footprint
- climate change per se