Cuban expert warns against environmental risks of mega-cruise ships

[Judi Lynn]

Havana, 19 Aug (Prensa Latina) Cuban professor and researcher José Luis Perelló warned against the environmental risks posed by giant cruise ships, like the Icon of the Seas, for the Caribbean.
August 19, 2023
00:30


Perelló wrote on Facebook that The Icon of the Seas is the largest cruise ship ever built and will sail the Caribbean in the coming months. However, it also poses a significant risk to the environment. According to Tim Meyer, Managing Director of the Meyer Turku shipyard, in charge of the construction, the Icon of the Seas was commissioned by Royal Caribbean and it has every chance of becoming a floating city.

The new ship has seven swimming pools, a park, shops, an esplanade, more than 40 restaurants, a water park, an obstacle course, and even an ice rink. Weighing 250,800 tons, it can carry 10,000 passengers on 20 decks across the Caribbean, departing from Miami (the United States) in January 2024.

This giant ocean liner, five times the size of the Titanic, will help revive the cruise industry, which was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The expert noted that the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) reports that 31.5 million passengers are expected to sail aboard a cruise ship in 2023, surpassing the pandemic high reported in 2019.

More:
https://www.plenglish.com/news/2023/08/19/cuban-expert-warns-against-environmental-risks-of-mega-cruise-ships/

[GP6971]

1. No way you would get me

on that ship. 10,000 passengers?

How can the ports of call's infrastructure possibly handle that many people? Simple answer is they can't...but they will eventually and destroy the local culture in the process.

[FBaggins]

5. It's closer to 6,000 really

If “passenger” means “paying guest” then the ship is designed for ~5600 with two in each cabin. Most cabins can hold more - so the maximum capacity is closer to 7,600 (which is probably more a measure of what the ship can support with meals and activities rather than the number of bearths)

Add the 2,300 crew and it could occasionally sail with just under 10k people onboard. Which would count as “passengers” in the sense of “number of people on the ship” rather than the traditional sense

[Deuxcents]

2. As I understand it, the Cubans are very protective

Of their environment concerning marine life. They are strict about overfishing, protecting their reefs. Even their interior environment is protected. They may be a poor country but they prize what they have.

[orthoclad]

6. Decades and decades

of the most powerful country in history doing everything possible to break them, and they still persist. Universal medical care, total literacy, and few consumer "pet rocks". Sounds like socialism works.

[No Vested Interest]

3. Send it to Hawaii, to shelter those who lost their homes in the fires....

[murielm99]

4. Not a bad idea!

[No Vested Interest]

8. Cruise ships have been used in the recent past (New Orleans after Katrina, New York)

to shelter homeless.

[Vogon_Glory]

7. I Still Smell Sour Grapes

Last edited Wed Aug 23, 2023, 10:16 AM - Edit history (1)

I still catch a whiff of sour grapes here. Cuba could and did welcome American-owned cruise ships when trade and travel restrictions were relaxed while Obama was President. When Individual One became President in 2017, the restrictions went back in place and were tightened a little further, and American-owned cruise ships (and ships owned by outfits based in other countries) stopped sailing to Cuban destinations.

I’m not at all sure that Cuba would be so down on cruise ships had a raging pandemic of sanity and clarity ran through American red states as virulently in 2016 as the so-called “Spanish Flu” pandemic swept across Europe and America nearly a century before and Donald what’s-his-name remained a has-been celebrity TV host.