Over the weekend, protesters, in a flotilla of small boats, including Venetian gondolas, attempted to block the passage of cruise ships, including one owned by Thomson, through the Venice lagoon. The battle between local residents and environmentalists and the cruise industry has been going on for years. Critics claim that the ships are too large to call on Venice and bring pollution and increased congestion to the ancient city. During peak season some 30,000 day-tripping cruise ship passengers disembark in Venice every day, which locals claim is ruining their city.
In 2012, we posted about a storm of protests in response to the arrival in the Venice lagoon of the MSC Davina, a 139,400 GT cruise ship, which is almost 1,100 feet long, about 125 feet wide and carries up to 5,329 passengers and crew. Local groups demanded that cruise ships no larger than 30,000 GT be allowed to call on the city.
In 2013, an Italian court banned large cruise ships from Venice, only to have the ban overturned on appeal in 2015.
Thanks to Alaric Bond for contributing to this post.
To see such a huge ship passing those unbelievable buildings is very disturbing. It is hard to believe that there is no negative effect from wakes.
Read it yesterday and yes, it does seem stupid to have a large ship there.
Hard to believe, but Florida’s intercostal:
How deep is the intercostal Waterway?
Controlled depth is 6 feet in the Dismal Swamp Canal. The heaviest commercial traffic (oceangoing vessels and barges) are concentrated around the industrial areas of Norfolk, Va;
The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway serves ports for more than 1,100 miles between.