Santa Barbara is moving away from its courting of cruise ships.

The City Council voted 6-1 on Tuesday to cap the number of cruise ships that visit annually to 20 and increase environmental protections for the ships’ discharge into ocean waters.

For City Councilman Eric Friedman, the two-hour discussion conjured up memories of the 1970s television show “The Love Boat” and its memorable theme song.

“But in all seriousness, Santa Barbara is not ‘The Love Boat,'” he said. “There are real implications of what we need to do in terms of protecting our environment, but also our economy.”

The city’s Waterfront Department established a Cruise Ship Program in 2002. The number of ships has been in the area of 15 to 30 visits per year.

The Santa Barbara cruise ship season is usually September through May. Cruise ships generate between $3 million and $5 million annually for local businesses, officials said.

Environmentalists raised concerns at the meeting about the discharges into the ocean, while business advocates touted the financial benefits of bringing more tourists to Santa Barbara.

“The Santa Barbara Channel is a remarkable resource which supports our valuable coastal recreation and tourism industries,” said Brian Trautwein, a senior policy analyst with the Environmental Defense Center. “It’s a global diversity hotspot, and it’s a really important area for the fishing industry.”

However, Trautwein said, “cruise ships threaten” all of these important values.

He said there should be no more than 18 cruise ships visiting Santa Barbara every year.

The ships that come to Santa Barbara, he said, should be those with the best pollution prevention technology and environmental background. He said cruise ships in the Santa Barbara Channel should travel at 10 knots or fewer to protect marine mammals.

City Councilman Oscar Gutierrez agreed.

“Historically, people have been arriving in Santa Barbara via ships, I guess you could say since its founding by Europeans,” Gutierrez said. “It’s not something that is too alien, but what is different is the amount of impact that it is has had on the environment.”

Gutierrez said it’s not a problem that can be ignored.

“We need to be more restrictive on who and what is allowed through our channel and our beaches,” he said.

The council directed city staff to work on a plan to require water treatment scrubbers and best practices for minimizing environmental impacts.

The panel also agreed to request that cruise ships calling on Santa Barbara be equipped with Advanced Wastewater Treatment Systems by 2025.

Councilwoman Alejandra Gutierrez said she grew up in the community and noted that cruise ships started only 20 years ago. She said Santa Barbara should not rely on them to boost the economy.

“I understand the economic benefits that the ships bring, but in reality we have a bigger issue,” Gutierrez said. “We really need to focus on how to bring businesses here and how to keep them here.

“I grew up in Santa Barbara, and State Street is not what it is now. If we rely on the ships for that economy for our city, it wasn’t there 20 years ago.”

Mayor Randy Rowse voted in opposition, saying the requirements were too rigorous and would add unnecessary work for staff.

In a statement to Noozhawk after the meeting, he said:

“I thought that staff had done an excellent job of listening to their (harbor) commission and had brought 15 out of 20 recommendations for approval, while respectfully explaining why the others weren’t practical or enforceable,” Rowse said. “The motion was too complex and added more work for staff.

“I believe that staff has been very diligent in their oversight and sensitive to the community’s needs while helping to produce the needed economic vitality. Finally, the idea that the need for a ‘pilot’ in the open road stead of Santa Barbara was not a conversation worth pursuing.”