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Tasmania's environmental watchdog will monitor emissions from bunker fuel from cruise ships while they are in port.
A record number of cruise ships will dock at Tasmanian ports this summer, raising environmental concerns and causing division within the tourism industry.
The number of cruise ships has more than doubled in two years and 138 ships are scheduled to visit Hobart's Macquarie Wharf, Burnie, Port Arthur and Wineglass Bay, starting next month.
Some of those ships will burn bunker fuel at port, a cheap low-grade fuel that emits sulphur dioxide.
For the first time, the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) will monitor air quality around Hobart's port to detect if cruise ships are polluting at harmful levels.
The air will be tested every 10 minutes from equipment set up near the CSIRO.
EPA director Wes Ford said he would be taking cruise ship companies to task if ships were burning the fuel unnecessarily.
"The point of the monitoring is to see if we can get a signal from the cruise ships being here and whether we can actually detect the level of sulphur dioxide emissions," Mr Ford said.
"It will also give the community a level of confidence that those emissions are within the national standards."
Alderman calls for ban on cheap fuel
Hobart City Council Greens Alderman Helen Burnet wanted authorities to go even further and follow Sydney in banning low-grade fuel from being burnt when at port in Hobart.
Alderman Burnett said she would be pushing the council to write to the State and Federal governments calling for a ban.
"Sydney's ban was a result of political pressure, and it's high time we saw the same sort of standards for Hobart," she said.
"We need to see a reduction in the emissions of cruise ship fuels."
Mr Ford said he didn't see the need for a ban yet.
"I think the number of cruise ships that are coming to Hobart are significantly lower than Sydney, but we'll soon find out over this summer what the level of emissions are," he said.
Market share at risk, tourism chief warns
Tourism Industry Council Tasmania chief executive Luke Martin said there was a risk Tasmania could lose control of the rapidly growing cruise ship industry.
"We certainly don't want to go down a path where the perception of doing Tasmania by cruise becomes the norm, because it's not how the industry is structured and not how the industry wants to grow," Mr Martin said.
"If we don't get a hold of it, we're going to quickly lose control.
"There's a real risk we can lose control of a sector of the market that's growing of its own accord, and is inconsistent with the rest of the destination."
Mr Martin said cruise ships represented 25 per cent of the state's visitor numbers, but made up only 1 per cent of tourism spending.
Destination Southern Tasmania chief executive Melinda Anderson said cruise ship visitors gave a well-needed boost to regional areas like Burnie and Port Arthur.
She said they also brought additional visitors to Hobart when hotels were already full, spending almost $200 each on average.
"Whilst they might only be here a short time, they are actually spreading around the region, so we see the cruise sector as a way of introducing visitors to Tasmania and encouraging them to come back," she said.
Ms Anderson said cruise visitors brought $25 million to the state last year and there was a need to strategically plan for cruise ship growth.
Topics: environmental-impact, tourism, environmental-management, tas
First posted