Photo: Reuters
We posted in June 2012 about protests over the docking of large cruise ships in Venice, Italy. The arrival of the MSC Davina at 139,400 GT, almost 1,100 feet long, about 125 feet wide and carries up to 5,329 passengers and crew, kicked off a campaign to limit the size of cruise ships calling on the island city.
Critics of the cruise ships argued that the large ships damaged the ecology of the lagoon and the pollution and vibration might damage the city’s historic buildings. In 2013, Venice proposed banning liners of more than 96,000 tonnes from Saint Mark’s basin and the Giudecca Canal, but the decree was overturned by a regional tribunal. Now the Italian government has reinstated the ban which also limits the number of smaller cruise ships calling on the city. Italian news agency, ANSA, reports that 650 cruise ships currently pass through the city annually. Eight large ships currently calling on Venice will be banned under the new rules.
The the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), an industry lobbying group, is calling for the Italian government to dredge a new channel in the Venice lagoon to allow additional cruise traffic. Local groups, however, oppose the new dredging. An environmental report on the potential impact of the new channel is expected be completed within 90 days.
Is the proposed size limit based on gross tons, displacement, or deadweight. I suppose for a cruise ship, GRT might make sense as a measure of the overall size. But I suspect that the displacement is more closely correlated with the environmental effects of the ship itself.
Ban cattle barges!!
They are a scourge of the seas and especially ports, World Treasure Ports!! If they somehow do not ruin the ecology of the lagoon and wetlands and contribute to the accelerated deterioration of Venice’s structures and underpinnings, they ruin the ecology of the aesthetic communitas. For that they should be scuttled somewhere to add some reef habitat.
I love to use one for 40# balls from the cannon of the US Constitution at sea. Boom- twaaang.
I am all in favour of bannong those behemoths from crushing and raping Venice. Surely, if the city of Venice wanted to stop those livestock carriers from calling, it could have its port authority charge prohibitive harbour dues.