This unusual news made me remember my first sailing trips in the 80s, although I had been sailing since the end of the 60s. It was an immediate passion. Sailing without the noise of the engine, feeling the wind on your body and perceiving the immensity of the ocean in contrast to the smallness of the sailboats, even with a lot of technology, fascinated me from the beginning. While sailing, we talked about sea stories. I remember the astonishment of hearing about a huge ship that arrived in port with several steel cables attached to the bow. Where did they come from? The cables were stays from the mast of a sailing ship on the high seas with automatic pilot, just like the ship, with no one watching. The result? The ship passed over it, destroyed the sailboat and didn’t even notice. The same thing happens with cetaceans, see the whale on the bow of the MSC Meraviglia.
Ships are dirty, whether freighters or cruises
I studied what the global maritime industry is and how it operates. It is vitally important for world trade, no one doubts it. But his dark side to the general public is appalling. A save for those who can, a cartel of shipowners that dominates the market and resists any slightest change, even causing brutal sea or air pollution.
An industry that, for profit and the shortest route, does not hesitate to enter protected areas, hotspots of global biodiversity, with immense ships, most of them around 300 m long, (the largest ship in the world is almost half a kilometer long), causing accidents that they don’t even notice. Bioinvasion is just one of these problems.
O sensorex.com released studies showing that the introduction of invasive molluscs in the USA, via ballast water, costs around US$6 billion per year. Note the figure: six billion dollars a year only in the United States!
The theme of noise pollution, already discussed in these pages, and it is dramatic. A National Geographic confirms: ‘Noise pollution, including pulsations from the use of sonar and seismic surveys, interfere with whales’ communication and movement abilities, and can drive them ashore due to deafness, disorientation or fear.’
Noise pollution may be one of the causes of cetacean strandings
In other words, scientists suspect that noise pollution caused by huge ships could be one of the causes of mass strandings of cetaceans, sometimes with up to 300 animals.
In the case of cruise ships, all the negative situations of the cargo fleet are repeated. Furthermore, these iron monsters are increasingly sailing in what remains of the pristine waters of the oceans, in the Arctic and Antarctica. And they always carry with them an immense load of pollution, not to mention the noise pollution they cause, often stressing and even causing the death of marine mammals. Finally, there are collisions in the middle of trips without the officers even realizing that there is an extra load of 50 or 100 tons in the bow. It is impossible to see anything at sea, on top of something as big and tall as the ships built today.
To conclude the issue of cruises, know that numerous companies are frequent users of violating environmental legislation around the world. In 2019 the Carnival Corp., largest cruise line in the world, agreed to pay US$20 million in fines (in the USA) because their ships continued to pollute despite promises to stop years ago. MSC is also tired of being fined for the same reasons.
O El Pais published a masterpiece of material, ‘The Dark Side of Cruises‘, with the subtitle, ‘A Univision network investigation reveals a world of flags of convenience to avoid taxes and environmental restrictions‘, which won the Ortega y Gasset award – 2017.
Scientists, researchers, NGOs and other entities have been denouncing these industry ‘secrets’ for some time. Little by little they gained international attention in the media. Today the problem is known and discussed at the UN and other global organizations.
Discover the MSC Cruises ship Meraviglia
MSC Meraviglia is the fifth largest passenger ship in the world. It was built in 2017 by the STX Europe shipyard in Saint-Nazaire and is operated by MSC Crociere. It has a capacity of 4,500 passengers. Some of the colossal dimensions include 316 m in length, with a crew that includes 1,536 crew members.
80 thousand ships across the oceans
A Bimco, The world’s largest direct membership organization for shipowners, charterers, ship brokers and agents, estimates that in 2021 there were 74,505 cargo ships in the planet’s seas.
Meanwhile, the www.cruisemummy.co.uk, which produces cruise ship statistics, reports that in 2022 there were 323 ships packing tourists across the seas. And despite the enormity of these numbers, the tendency is to increase even further as around 90% of world trade is done through ships.
Eighty thousand ships, not counting the thousands of boats and fishing vessels that continually sail after shoals.
Now, knowing the size of the world fleet, imagine how many accidents happen every year? No one knows exactly, but there are estimates. Award-winning filmmaker Philip Hamilton, whose documentary, Collision, explores why these accidents happen, did not give a number but cited ‘thousands of cetaceans’ per year.
Sources cite 20,000 deaths per year
In September 2023, Hamilton’s documentary had a special section at the headquarters of UNESCO with the presence of the director. The invitation was for a Special Screening of the award-winning documentary “Colisão”: Reducing the Impacts of Maritime Traffic on Oceanic Biodiversity, This shows the importance of the topic.
Already the Inside Climate News was blunt: Shipping, cruise and fishing vessels are estimated to fatally strike around 20,000 whales per year worldwide. In the United States, 80 endangered whales are killed at sea every year off the western coast and more than a third of all Atlantic right whale deaths along the northeast coast can be attributed to ship strikes.
20,000 whales per year, for a species just out of the general threat of extinction, is too much.
Watch the trailer for Collision
COLLISION from OCEAN SOULS FILMS on Vimeo.
The positive side of this accident
MSC Cruises’ Meraviglia carried a sei whale on its bow. I recommend the reader the website of Oceana to get to know the species. Sei whales suffered intense exploitation, mainly in the southern hemisphere and the northern Pacific between 1950 and 1970. It is estimated that more than 80% of the population was decimated, making the species still threatened, no longer by hunting, but due to noise pollution, accidental capture It is collisions with vessels. These whales usually migrate to tropical waters in winter and return to the poles in summer. They can reach up to 18 meters in length, weigh 45 tons and live up to 70 years.
The positive side is that, just as the photo of the caramel horse motionless on top of a piece of roof in Rio Grande do Sul won the world, the same happened with this common, but rarely caught, collision.
The English The Guardian announced that ‘a cruise ship traveled into New York Harbor with a horrific cargo in the form of a huge dead whale sprawled across its bow.’
‘The incident occurred on Saturday, according to local US media outlets. The event is being seen by some as further proof of the unfortunate impact that large ships can have on marine life.’
This is the positive side: shining a light on endangered marine fauna. It is already being massacred by pollution, ocean warming, acidification, overfishing, noise, and even being run over.
CBS News: Cruise Arrives in New York Harbor with Dead, Endangered 40-foot Whale Stranded on Bow
The matter of CBS News highlights that ‘the whale, identified as an endangered sei whale, was captured from the bow of the ship when it arrived in Brooklyn Harbor on Saturday. A necropsy performed later confirmed the species and determined that it was a mature female.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of any marine life,” officials said. MSC Cruises has ensured that it follows all regulations designed to protect whales, such as changing itineraries in certain regions to avoid run over.
A CBS also recalled that in March, NOAA said that the first puppy North Atlantic right whale born this season died after being hit by a ship.
New York Times
O New York Times it was at the same pace as CBS. As the cruise ship approached New York, it was discovered to be carrying a sinister and unexpected catch: The carcass of an endangered whale, hanging from its bow.
O Teams also gave the floor to MSC Cruises: A company spokeswoman said in an email that it followed “comprehensive measures” in place to prevent such collisions. These include training deck officers and changing itineraries in certain areas to avoid them. We will continue to evaluate and update procedures with our partners and authorities.”
Watch Pablo Santa Cruz’s video
The world plants mangrove trees while Brazil cuts
