10.06.2025
⬆️ Mer de Merde! Victorian bathing beauties take a dip in the Med during UNOC 2025, Nice. Photo by João Daniel Pereira.
The cruise industry is not only responsible for carbon and methane pollution, but oceans of sewage too. The ‘Nice Mermaids’, went for a dip in the picturesque Mediterranean in Nice and were surprised to be choking on sewerage.
Lounging in deckchairs after their (un)constitutional swim in the Med, the Bathing Beauties felt sick to their stomachs from all the toxins and excrement, baby wipes and effluent coming out of the backside of the cruise liners and bobbing about on the surface of the Med. Since Victorian times and before, people have swum in this idyllic spot but now the idyll is being destroyed by the cruise industry, which doesn’t give a shit about the environments it takes its passengers to see.
⬆️ The bathers vomit and lie gasping for their life after swallowing sewerage pumped from the backside of a cruise liner. Photos by João Daniel Pereira. ⬇️
The fate of the Ocean depends on us all.
Our interventions depend on your support.
CEOs of cruise companies Royal Caribbean, Carnival and MSC were invited to join the swim by The Nice Mermaids, but declined, presumably because they can’t afford to take days off sick. But their absence was a disappointment given the fact that a good proportion of the sewerage came from cruise ships (an estimated 1 billion gallons [or 12,500,000 bathtubs / 1,534 Olympic swimming pools] of raw sewage is pumped into the Ocean by cruise ships every year).
And sewerage isn’t the only thing they’re pumping out:
⬆️ The experience was truly disgusting. The Victorian bathers couldn’t believe that water pollution would still be this bad in the 21st Century.
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⬇️ A dip seemed such a good idea, but there was a warning sign. Photos by João Daniel Pereira.
Ocean Rebellion demands the Cruise Industry stops dumping its waste at sea, including the rubbish thrown overboard, and, if it doesn’t, cruise industry CEOs are held personally responsible by facing fines and imprisonment. Coupled to this we suggest a cordial invite to take a dip in the smelly Med just as a cruise ship lets loose its stinky load.
And, just to add, do you really think cruising is a good idea?
⬆️ Through another leap of time Jacques Cousteau joined the bathers to show his solidarity. As the sea dies we die.Photo by João Daniel Pereira.
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