- Following authorization from the Italian government, cruises can depart on the Mediterranean from August 15.
- Real sources of potential contamination, cruise ships ensure that drastic health security plans are in place.
- Long before the coronavirus crisis, cruises were already heavily criticized for the pollution they generate.
Cruising isn't really fun anymore. Hit hard by the coronavirus crisis, the sector has struggled for several years against many headwinds. While the MSC group's cruises are due to resume this Sunday, August 16, the very existence of this type of leisure is called into question. Whether at the health or ecological level, will floating cities be able to withstand new storms?
Sources of contamination
Ironically, at a time when the Covid-19 seems to be regaining ground in France and clusters are multiplying, cruises in the Mediterranean are starting again. It was the Italian government, through its Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who announced the decree allowing cruise passengers to resume their activities on August 15. If the context was not already specific enough, this week, a collective of French passengers from the Costa Magica filed 180 complaints against the company.
Like them, many vacationers found themselves stranded during confinement. According to John Hopkins University, based on figures from the CLIA (The International Federation of Cruise Lines), more than 3,000 people have been infected and 73 have died on board 48 boats, until June 11.
A reinforced health system
Faced with the concerns of possible passengers, shipping groups wanted to be reassuring. The MSC group was the first to speak out on the sanitary conditions that will be applied. These measurements, confirmed at 20 minutes by the group, are divided into 6 stages.
First of all, all passengers and staff on board will be screened for Covid-19, their temperature controlled and a health questionnaire must be completed before boarding. Then new sanitation methods, including the use of products used in a medical environment, are put in place and the air will be sanitized by UV-C technology, which is supposed to destroy 99.97% of microbes. Physical distancing will be ensured by reducing the reception capacity to 70% and by measures for each activity and in the different areas of the boat. Finally, the group claims to have set up medical and surveillance services, as well as an emergency response plan on board. It remains to be seen whether these measures will convince tourists.
A growing economy
If the cruise poses so many questions, it is because the industry still weighs 150 billion euros per year in the global economy and supports 1.17 million jobs worldwide, according to the CLIA. Isemar (Nantes-Saint-Nazaire Higher Institute of Maritime Economy) estimates the number of annual passengers on this type of boat at 25 million. The sector is also important in France, with companies such as Ponant, but also and above all, shipbuilding. The shipyards of the Atlantic also announced the signing, last January, of contracts amounting to 6 billion euros. With all the economy and the jobs that revolve around it, the difficulties in the sector could cause concern. According to Camille Valero, researcher at Isemar, these projects are not being called into question for the moment, only postponed. But cruises also involve hundreds of thousands of tourists for cities like Nice, Marseille, Bordeaux, Nantes, Le Havre and even Calais.
A huge environmental impact
But if the cruise industry is involved, it is not only because of the coronavirus. For several years, environmental defenders have been warning about the impact of these city boats on the environment. Between air pollution, discharges of hydrocarbons and plastic waste into the water, the effects of cruising are disastrous. According to the NGO Transport and Environment, the company Carnival corporation, one of the world leaders in cruising, would have emitted, via its fleet, 10 times the quantity of sulfur oxide that the entire European vehicle fleet emits on the year 2017. All this in addition to nitrogen, methane and carbon dioxide which contribute to global warming.
Faced with this, companies argue that they are acting on waste recycling, plastic reduction and wastewater treatment. They even tend towards a change of fuel since more and more orders placed with shipyards concern ships that run on liquefied natural gas. This is particularly the case for two of the boats ordered this year from the Atlantic shipyards. However, the NGO Transport and Environnent, if it concedes less pollution, opposes the fact that this fossil fuel remains very polluting.
Suspicious stopover towns
It is urgent because cruise ships are becoming less and less popular with stopover towns. On August 7, 2019, the Minister of Transport decided to ban ships over 1,000 tonnes from docking near the city of Venice. The City of the Doges, which is the stopover for nearly 600 boats per year, saw its foundations endangered by the eddies.
In France, Cannes, the fourth cruise port in France (after Marseille, Ajaccio and Le Havre) with 400,000 passengers per year, has set up a control of the sulfur content of boats that want to dock. A measure already applied for many years by the Scandinavian countries. In Marseille (1.75 million cruise passengers per year), the new municipality announced during its campaign that it wanted to put in place a plan to reduce maritime pollution which could block access to its port for boats in the Mediterranean.
In addition to the use of liquefied natural gas, the maritime sector is still trying to limit its environmental impact. The International Maritime Organization imposed on January 1, 2020, new regulations that limit the sulfur content of fuel oil used on board ships. This decision has prompted companies to equip ships with scrubbers to limit sulfur emissions into the air. Some cities, such as Los Angeles or Hamburg have equipped their ports with electric chargers, which allow boats to supply themselves with energy when they are at the dock, without using their fuel, and therefore without emitting smoke. The city of Le Havre recently indicated that it is also thinking about it. First steps towards a (somewhat) less polluting industry.
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