Silversea Cruises - Final Grade: "D"
Silversea Cruises (Silversea) was founded in 1994. Headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Silversea describes itself as a luxury cruise line that operates six cruise ships worldwide. The Silversea cruise ship fleet consists of smaller ships with carrying capacities between 250 and 910 passengers and crew.
Of Silversea’s six ships, only one (the Silver Shadow) has installed an advanced sewage treatment system, resulting in a grade of F for the company’s 17 percent sewage treatment score. In determining the air pollution reduction grade for each cruise line, only ships that dock at a port that currently has shoreside power (thereby avoiding burning dirty fuel in port) were considered. In total, none of Silversea’s ships that dock at a port with shoreside power are plug-in capable, giving the company an F in this category. In 2010, Alaskan officials did not cite any Silversea ships for violations of Alaskan water pollution standards, giving Silversea a 100 percent for water quality compliance in Alaska, or an A.
Silversea Cruises - Cruise Ship Fleet
| Ship Name | Total Persons on Board | Destinations | Sewage Treatment | Air Pollution Reduction | Water Quality Compliance | Final Ship Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Silver Shadow | 677 | Alaska, Australia, New Zealand, Asia | A | F | A | C+ |
| Silver Explorer | 249 | Africa, Antarctic, Central America, Europe, South America, Arctic, Caribbean | F | F | N/A | F |
| Silver Cloud | 508 | Caribbean, Central America, Europe, Mediterranean, Mexico, South America, U.S. East Coast | F | F | N/A | F |
| Silver Spirit | 916 | Caribbean, Central America, Europe, Mediterranean, Mexico, South America, South Pacific, Hawaii | F | F | N/A | F |
| Silver Whisper | 677 | Canada, Caribbean, Central America, Europe, New England, South America, U.S. East Coast, Africa, Asia | F | F | N/A | F |
| Silver Wind | 508 | Africa, Europe, Mediterranean | F | F | N/A | F |
Grading methodology for the 2012 Cruise Ship Report Card
Friends of the Earth’s Cruise Ship Report Card ranks 15 major cruise lines and 148 cruise ships -- Carnival Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruises, Costa Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Cunard Cruise Line, Disney Cruise Line, Holland America Line, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Oceania Cruises, P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Royal Caribbean Int’l, Seabourn Cruise Line and Silversea Cruises -- according to three environmental criteria: Sewage Treatment, Air Pollution Reduction, and Water Quality Compliance.
- To determine a cruise line’s Sewage Treatment grade, we compared the number of cruise ships in the cruise line that have installed advanced sewage treatment systems against the total number of ships in the cruise line.
- To determine the Air Pollution Reduction grade for each ship in a cruise line, only ships that dock at a port and plug in to available shoreside power hookups were graded.
- To determine the Water Quality Compliance grade for ships operating in Alaska, we used 2010 notices of violation issued for individual cruise ships to each cruise line by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. Ships were given an ‘N/A’ if they traveled to Alaska but avoided Alaska’s strong water quality standards by discharging outside of those protected waters.
- The grades for each of the criteria were averaged to calculate the Final Grade for each cruise line.