Stories about plastic don't sell....plastic sells.

I just returned from the Philippines. Plastic was everywhere including washing up on the beaches. Many people go there to scuba dive but as a landlubber, I found the ecosystem there pretty ugly, spoiled by too many people throwing their crap away.

Don't read CNN anymore, so appreciate your posting this link in your essay

wild caught.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polychlorinated_biphenyl

One long-running issue that doesn't tend to get mentioned is the amount of pollution - including plastics - dumped by the multi-billion-dollar-a-year cruise industry, often quietly disposed of outside national boundaries, going by what I've read of this over the years, although claims of improvement seem to have removed them as a suspect to be mentioned at all. Oh, wait, they almost never really were publicly mentioned as culprits in this area at all in corporate media...

A popular theory long heavily promoted seems to be that the problem is entirely with the consumer and that all of this garbage washing up on shores and forming enormous plastic islands is the fault of individuals filling landfills which transfers this junk through unknown methods into massive amounts then appearing in oceans and other waterways through which typically unmentioned city-sized cruise ships pass or where currents carry solid refuse. (Now it appears that China and other countries are considered likely culprits, but not the notorious and highly lucrative cruise industry.) The long-running victim blame liability transfer strategy of polluting industry works in every area where it's used by the most powerful of the ruthless or, if you prefer, the most ruthless of the powerful. I notice that the linked-to article posted here says specifically that the plastics didn't fall off a ship. Tourism (incidentally being ruined by this cruise-ship and other pollution) is too locally important, although it pales by the billions of dollars gained by the cruise industry, with thousands of passengers per trip all spending like sailors - and it's so much cheaper and easier to dump those tons of garbage overboard when nobody's looking.

http://www.albionmonitor.com/0502a/copyright/carribeancruiseships.html

Cruise Ships Dumping Tons Of Waste In Caribbean Waters

by Dionne Jackson Miller

http://qz.com/308970/cruise-ships-dump-1-billion-tons-of-sewage-into-the...

Cruise ships dump 1 billion gallons of sewage into the ocean every year

... Correction (Dec. 10, 2014, 9am EST): A previous version of this article reported that FOE estimates a billion tons of sewage are dumped per year. The correct unit is gallons.

(Emphasis mine.)

http://oceana.org/sites/default/files/reports/polling_report1.pdf

...Executive Summary
While thousands of gallons of crude oil from the sunken tanker, Prestige, are still washing up on European beaches
killing countless fish, mammals and birds, a more insidious threat placidly sails the ocean in plain sight – cruise ships.
When you see the gleaming white boats on television commercials, you would never think that those same ships are
a major and growing source of ocean pollution. These floating vacation resorts, like cities, are literally producing thousands
of gallons of pollutants and tons of solid waste on each ship every day. Unlike cities, however, cruise ships are exempt from the discharge permitting program of the nation’s preeminent water pollution control law, the Clean Water Act. ...

...Fun, fun, fun. This is all the cruise industry wants passengers
to think about when planning their next vacation. The
industry is also working hard to present themselves as good
environmentalists who are doing everything they can to
protect the oceans on which they rely for their business. The
last thought the cruise industry wants their passengers to
have is about the amount of pollution a cruise ship produces.
Many of these ships house 3,000 passengers and crew. Think
of a cruise ship as a floating city. Throughout that “city,”
floors are mopped, sheets are washed, clothes are dry-cleaned,
toilets are flushed, leftover food is tossed, and photographs
are developed. That all adds up to an incredible amount of
sewage, garbage, oil and toxic waste. Much of this waste is
being needlessly dumped in some of the most pristine areas of
our oceans. ...

...A single cruise ship produces smokestack and exhaust
emissions equivalent to 12,000 automobiles every day.
Most ships burn low-grade fuel that produces 50 times more
toxic pollutants than the dirtiest diesel trucks. Ships’ waste
incinerators release toxic chemicals, including cancer-causing
chemicals like dioxins and mercury. These emissions add to
the smog in the air, create dead zones and algae blooms in the
ocean, and contribute to acid rain, global climate change and
respiratory diseases like asthma. Yet, cruise ship air emissions
are almost entirely unregulated. The proposed standards for
governing air pollution from ships that are being considered by
the EPA are not likely to significantly reduce air pollution from
cruise ships.
>
The average cruise ship produces seven tons of garbage
and solid waste every day.
In one year, 15 billion pounds of
trash is dumped in oceans worldwide. Although trash is often
incinerated on-board and the ash is dumped into the ocean,
some ships have been fined for dumping their un-incinerated
trash straight into the ocean. As a result, millions of animals
become trapped or poisoned every year from this garbage.
Sea turtles die from eating plastic bags mistaken for jellyfish.
Sea lions, and birds and other marine life become entangled
in plastics, causing starvation, strangulation and drowning.
The trash also washes up on our beaches, endangering human
health and the natural beauty of our shorelines. ...

(Evidently from 2008/09)
http://www.hotelresortinsider.com/news_story.php?news_id=1561&cat_id=2

Luxury & Spa News

Cruise Ships on a Size-Increasing spree

Constant ante upping has long been the driving force for the cruise industry. The worldwide recession is not a hindrance to the launching of new ships in 2009. The surprising factor is that they are competing with each other in prices and amenities during a time, when other industries are curtailing production. The wave rider machines, water parks and glass blowing classes are recent trends in creating an extravagant entertainment facility.

To keep up with the trend, the Royal Caribbean’s new Oasis of the Seas will boast the first onboard zip-line and the AquaTheater, the deepest pool afloat. However, the size is what made the biggest impression in 2009.

The size factor has suddenly gained so much mileage that even the river ships are trying to break the shackles. The Viking Legend, arriving in April, will be Europe's largest river cruise for passengers. It will help the passengers, visit places like Slovakia and Netherlands. The biggest news of late Autumn is of course the Oasis of the Seas. With a passenger capacity of 5,400 and weighing 220,000 tons, the monster size ship will be the biggest ship in the world by far. To deal with its' enormous size, the onboard has been fragmented into seven neighborhoods. Its' huge size makes it more like a floating city. ...

... Another big story that deals with size is the Yachts of Seabourn, which is set to add the $250 million Seabourn Odyssey to its fleet. The launch will end the six-year drought of a new built liner in the luxury cruise market. The Odyssey is three times the size of any other Seabourn ship. However, the extra room provides an accommodation of only twice as any passengers because the room is mostly used by larger staterooms and more amenities. The largest spa in the fleet, with a complete spa villas and sunbathing terraces will be in the Odyssey.

The Silversea Cruises is also set to launch its first new ship build since 2001.The Silver Spirit brings the advent of largest staterooms to the fleet along with a new Asian restaurant and supper club concept. The Celebrity Cruise's Equinox, sister ship of Solstice is also set for a 2009 launch. Equinox boasts the penthouses suites with a separate dining room and a living room. The suits also boast private verandas. ...

So, since my search engines seem to often provide only older material on searches in 'sensitive' areas, and I do know that the trend was for vastly increased cruise ship size for thousands more passengers and corresponding increases in garbage production, I'd say that there's plenty of oceanic/beach-polluting and animal-killing plastic and other waste to go around even with these alone being considered as producers.

Edited to add brackets and for the addition of a word in the interest of clarification of the portion of a sentence within said brackets.