The trick is focusing on one small similarity — they both float — while ignoring everything that actually matters: size, cargo, turning radius, and spill consequences.
It’s like saying a 350-pound sumo wrestler and a duck are the same opponent because they both float.
A fully-loaded VLCC tanker carrying
3 million barrels of toxic bitumen
weighs 300,000 tonnes (DWT).
Cruise ship with 2,000 drunk
American tourists and snacks:
weighs 12,000 tonnes (DWT).
A Cruise Ship is essentially a floating hotel designed to carry "volume". Cruise ships have a huge Gross Tonnage (internal volume) but a low Deadweight Tonnage (carrying capacity) because snacks and drunk people are light.
Perfect illustration of why comparing cruise ships to VLCCs is petro-bro fantasy physics, not real-world seamanship.
VLCC supertankers need to somehow navigate their 330 metres of length, 22 metres in keel depth, and 2 million barrels of toxic bitumen past 80 kilometres of rock piles and shoals in surging shallow water seas between Prince Rupert or Kitimat and the open ocean.
They require space we do not have
They require depth we cannot create
Insurers will not pretend it exists
Cruise ships navigate sheltered summer waters so their landlubber passengers can drink margaritas, pluck at shrimp cocktails, and not fall down.
The worst spill from an average Alaska cruise ship might involve Americans, buffet food, and some Norovirus.
A VLCC tanker carries 2–3 million BARRELS of raw bitumen, which is persistent, toxic, and deadly to sea life and marine mammals.
The Bottom Line
When Albertans equate the risks posed by VLCC supertankers in our coastal waters to cruise ships, it is not just misleading—it is just wrong. The irreversible harm that would emanate from a VLCC supertanker in our coastal waters would be devastating for marine life and our coastal economy. And very real.
Explainer: