On February 26, 2025 while docked at Tortola, British Virgin Islands, the 4,200-passenger Norwegian Epic emitted a plume of white smoke that raised concerns among local authorities.
This prompted the Environmental Health Division (EHD) to conduct an evaluation of the emissions to ensure no harmful chemicals were being released.
According to a statement issued by the government on February 27, 2025, the assessment tested the smoke for various hazardous substances — including volatile organic compounds, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter.
“This was to ensure that the air quality was not being compromised by the ship’s emissions,” the government statement added, elaborating the reasoning behind the assessment.
Soon after, the EHD announced that the results from the tests were within normal range — proving that the smoke did not pose any threat to passengers or residents of the island.
The EHD report clarified, “The visible plume is primarily composed of water vapor, a by-product of the ship’s Exhaust Gas Cleaning System (EGCS), commonly referred to as scrubbers.”
This report also explained that the technology on the ship is designed to significantly reduce sulphur oxide emissions — which ensures compliance with International Maritime Organization (IMO) standards.
The IMO began adopting mandatory measures in 2011 to reduce carbon emissions — but in 2023 they adopted a revised greenhouse gas strategy, aiming for net-zero emissions by 2050.
It was disclosed that Norwegian Epic’s environmental officer fully cooperated with the EHD, providing the documentation needed for the investigation — including the EGCS emissions report and a certificate of conformity.
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While the vessel has been confirmed to be adhering to international environmental regulations, the EDH still recommended that the vessel switch from using scrubbers to using low-sulphur fuel while it is berthed.
This would further enhance the air quality for the port and the passengers — something that the ship’s environmental officer was willing to consider.
Until that is implemented, the plans for the ship will be to switch to marine gas oil within an hour of berthing and will revert back within an hour of departure when visiting Tortola.
Norwegian Epic’s Long Standing History with Tortola
Norwegian Epic began visiting Tortola in 2016 — just after spending 2015 at its year-round homeport in Barcelona — something uncommon for this vessel.
The only Epic class ship has mostly spent its years alternating between the Caribbean in the winter and Europe in the summer — something it still continues to do.
It is scheduled for a transatlantic crossing in April, 2025 — then the 155,873 gross ton vessel will briefly be dry docked for maintenance ahead of its summer schedule in Europe.
The cruise Norwegian Epic was on while it got tested by the EHD was a 7-night round-trip Caribbean itinerary out of Port Canaveral. In addition to Tortola, other stops included Puerto Plata, St. Thomas, and Great Stirrup Cay.
Tortola itself has become an increasingly popular cruise port — seeing a jump from 343,571 passengers in 2022 to 720,392 in 2023.
Tortola Pier Park opened in 2015, improving the port’s capacity by enabling modern ships to dock and accommodating 2 vessels simultaneously. Previously, the port could only handle a single small cruise ship at a time.
This so-called smoke incident comes at a time where locals at popular cruise destinations are more aware than ever that large cruise ships are impacting the surrounding areas.
Globally, many ports have started implementing limits on cruise ships due to the negative environmental impact they have — protests have even broken out barring some vessels from even docking.
However, Tortola remains committed to welcoming cruises and plans to continue to work directly with ships such as Norwegian Epic — ones that are willing to adapt their environmental standards to make sure they can still dock while minimizing its impact on the island.
