We were cruising on one of the old carnival fascination class ships, and a woman walked to the back of the serenity deck, knelt briefly seemingly in prayer, opened a container and attempted to throw ashes into the sea. But of course, the wind took them, and they blew right back on deck, scattering them everywhere.
Not a pretty sight. It was probably a pet though the volume wasn’t as great 🙂
(The “official” way is obviously the way to do it!)