Tourists arrive at King George Island, Antartica, on a cruise ship. A record 105,331 people visited Antarctica over the 2022-23 season.

Antarctic tourism is booming – but can the continent cope?

In tourist hotspots cruise ships must at times queue to disembark passengers and fragile ecosystems may be at risk from visitors. But who gets to decide on who can come?

Outside a scruffy cabin marked “Souvenirs” at Russia’s Bellingshausen Antarctic research station, tourists and scientists clank up the metal stairs, keen to escape the blizzard.

Out pokes the bearded face of Denis Ianenkov, a drilling engineer with the Russian Antarctic programme – and part-time shopkeeper – to invite his next cohort of customers into a tiny room with flags pinned to every wall.

The cabin quickly fills with excited tourists, who rearrange themselves periodically to enquire about prices or admire medals; inspect penguin figurines or try iron-on patches on their sleeves.

“We do well out of this,” says Ianenkov with a chuckle. Through his ad hoc currency conversions, Ianenkov accepts cash payment in Chilean pesos or US dollars.

Fridge magnets and keyrings sell for $5 each, fur-lined hats cost $100.

Russian scientists spend the takings on machinery parts for repairs, or on food and mobile phone data. (One Chilean network offers fairly robust reception on King George Island, where Russia and six other countries have research stations.)

And Ianenkov has reason to be optimistic for his tiny polar venture.

Denis Ianenkov runs the sovenier shop at Russia’s Bellingshausen Antarctic research station.

According to the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO), a record 105,331 people visited Antarctica over the 2022-23 austral season, continuing a rapid rise.

With the exception of the post-financial crash 2008-09 season and the pandemic-affected summer of 2020-21, when just 15 tourists visited Antarctica , the numbers have risen steadily over recent years.

Most tourists visit the temperate, accessible and wildlife-rich Antarctic Peninsula, where they disembark in Fildes Bay to fly from the Chilean air force’s landing strip which sits above on a shallow plateau.

But while Ianenkov and his colleagues might benefit from a steady stream of wealthy customers – an Antarctic cruise can easily cost £10,000 ($12,700) – the concentration of tourists in highly sensitive areas, and over just a few short months during the summer, has a cumulative impact on one of the world’s last pristine regions.

“The impact and footprint are quite enormous,” said Dr Daniela Liggett, an associate professor at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, where she researches Antarctic politics, management and tourism.

The seasonal nature of the business means that delicate ecosystems face a flood of visitors during the summer season and a sudden lull over the winter.

At tourist hotspots, the effect of that influx is often apparent. Queues of cruise liners wait out in Fildes Bay; fuel spills and collisions between vessels and marine life have been recorded, and in some areas tourists have traipsed over delicate mosses and plants. Some historic structures have even been scarred by graffiti.

Tourists arrive from tour ships on King George Island.

In the most visited areas, researchers have even found that the snow has a higher concentration of black carbon from ship exhausts, absorbing heat and accelerating the melt. On parts of the Antarctic Peninsula, this may be causing surface snow to melt up to 23mm each summer.

Another study calculated that each visitor between 2016 and 2020 was in effect melting 75 tonnes of snow just by visiting Antarctica.

“It’s great that tourists get to know this amazing place, because you will always protect what you love,” said Dr Luis Miguel Pardo, a Chilean biologist.

But Pardo expressed concern over the potential introduction of foreign organisms in Antarctica. Several non-native species have already established a presence on the peninsula, with the climate crisis and warmer temperatures increasing the likelihood of more doing so in future.

“This desperately needs to be regulated, and multilaterally, not by just one set of actors,” said Pardo.

According to IAATO data, there were 32,730 cruise-only visitors this summer, as well as 71,258 visits where tourists disembarked.

Some travel to carry out citizen science projects, while others go climbing or cross-country skiing and take helicopter trips. You can even go paddleboarding or snorkelling. Besides cruises and landings, kayaking and the “polar plunge” – a freezing-cold dip in the Southern Ocean – were the most popular activities this summer.

Tourism in Antarctica remains an elite and exclusive pursuit. Of those who set foot on the continent this summer, just over half were from the US, followed by Australia, Germany and the UK.

With so many tourists coming from the northern hemisphere, individual carbon footprints are high. One 2022 study found that average per-passenger CO₂ emissions for an Antarctic holiday are 3.76 tonnes – more than the average person’s annual emissions in countries like Brazil, India or Mexico.

Liggett says that the impact is even felt farther afield in “gateway cities” –such as Punta Arenas in Chile, Ushuaia in Argentina, Cape Town in South Africa, Christchurch in New Zealand and Hobart in Australia.

Elephant seals

Since the 1950s, when the first tourists began to hitch rides on supply ships, numbers have slowly increased. By 1991, when IAATO was created “to advocate and promote the practice of safe and environmentally responsible private-sector travel to the Antarctic”, a structure had been put in place for a thriving Antarctic tourism trade.

IAATO has strict guidelines relating to behaviour around wildlife, litter disposal avoiding damage to vegetation or the introduction of invasive species to the Antarctic.

While it does a good job regulating numbers of people ashore and staff-to-passenger ratios for its members, membership is not compulsory to operate in Antarctica – although permission must be granted to do so by an Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) member.

The ATS, in force since 1959 and governing all human activity below 60 degrees south, designates the entire continent as a “natural reserve, devoted to peace and science”.

Its 1991 protocol on environmental protection, which entered into force in 1998, expressly mentions tourism and sets out its own long list of guidelines.

But ultimately, the industry remains self-regulated.

“At the moment the system still works because all of the operators are self-interested in ensuring that they can showcase as pristine and wild a place as possible,” said Liggett.

But some worry that booming tourist numbers could push the model to breaking point.

In the ATS’s consensus-based system, agreements must be sought among all 56 member parties to move forward, making deals notoriously difficult to strike.

There is no permanent tourist accommodation on Antarctica, and ATS parties have adopted a non-binding resolution against the construction of permanent facilities for tourism and non-governmental activities.

But limiting the overall scale of tourism has proved much harder. Most activities are still permitted and there is no annual cap on the number of tourists who can visit.

With political consensus far from guaranteed, many are asking more philosophical questions as to who should be in Antarctica and why, in order to find more holistic solutions to the problems on the horizon.

“I believe that from an intergenerational point of view, it is not right to privilege a certain activity [such as scientific research] or limit visitation just to certain types of people according to their credentials,” said Liggett.

“But some of the money from people visiting could certainly be set aside to protect the region in a more visionary and strategic manner.”

Table football lies discarded alongside largely abandoned Russian oil storage tanks.

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More than 100,000 tourists will head to Antarctica this summer. Should we worry about damage to the ice and its ecosystems?

More than 100,000 tourists are heading to Antarctica this summer via cruise ship.

More than 100,000 tourists are heading to Antarctica this summer via cruise ship. Image:  Unsplash/James Eades

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  • Visitor numbers to Antarctica have grown more than 40% since the COVID summer of 2020-21.
  • Tourism in Antarctica has environmental impacts, including the release of black carbon from cruise ship funnels and the potential for the introduction of invasive species.
  • As Antarctic tourism booms, some advocacy organisations have warned the impact may be unsustainable.
  • The Antarctic Treaty System signed by countries with an Antarctic presence or interest ensures tour operators based in those nations have to follow stringent environmental regulations.

As the summer sun finally arrives for people in the Southern Hemisphere, more than 100,000 tourists will head for the ice. Travelling on one of more than 50 cruise ships, they will brave the two-day trip across the notoriously rough Drake Passage below Patagonia, destined for the polar continent of Antarctica.

During the COVID summer of 2020-21, just 15 tourists on two yachts visited Antarctica. But now, tourism is back – and bigger than ever. This season’s visitor numbers are up more than 40% over the largest pre-pandemic year .

So are all those tourists going to damage what is often considered the last untouched wilderness on the planet? Yes and no. The industry is well run. Tourists often return with a new appreciation for wild places. They spend a surprisingly short amount of time actually on the continent or its islands.

But as tourism grows, so will environmental impacts such as black carbon from cruise ship funnels. Tourists can carry in microbes, seed and other invasive species on their boots and clothes – a problem that will only worsen as ice melt creates new patches of bare earth. And cruise ships are hardly emissions misers.

Those who do set foot on Antarctica normally make brief visits, rather than taking overnight stays.

How did Antarctic tourism go mainstream?

In the 1950s, the first tourists hitched rides on Chilean and Argentinian naval vessels heading south to resupply research bases on the South Shetland Islands. From the late 1960s, dedicated icebreaker expedition ships were venturing even further south. In the early 1990s, as ex-Soviet icebreakers became available, the industry began to expand – about a dozen companies offered trips at that time. By the turn of this century, the ice continent was receiving more than 10,000 annual visitors: Antarctic tourism had gone mainstream.

What does it look like today?

Most Antarctic tourists travel on small “expedition-style” vessels, usually heading for the relatively accessible Antarctic Peninsula. Once there, they can take a zodiac boat ride for a closer look at wildlife and icebergs or shore excursions to visit penguin or seal colonies. Visitors can kayak, paddle-board and take the polar plunge – a necessarily brief dip into subzero waters.

For most tourists, accommodation, food and other services are provided aboard ship. Over a third of all visitors never stand on the continent.

Those who do set foot on Antarctica normally make brief visits, rather than taking overnight stays.

For more intrepid tourists, a few operators offer overland journeys into the continent’s interior, making use of temporary seasonal camp sites. There are no permanent hotels, and Antarctic Treaty nations recently adopted a resolution against permanent tourist facilities.

As tourists come in increasing numbers, some operators have moved to offer ever more adventurous options such as mountaineering, heli-skiing, underwater trips in submersibles and scuba diving.

Summer is the only time tourists can safely visit Antarctica

Is Antarctic tourism sustainable?

As Antarctic tourism booms, some advocacy organisations have warned the impact may be unsustainable. For instance, the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition argues cruise tourism could put increased pressure on an environment already under significant strain from climate change.

In areas visited most by tourists, the snow has a higher concentration of black carbon from ship exhaust, which soaks up more heat and leads to snow melt. Ship traffic also risks carrying hitchhiking invasive species into the Southern Ocean’s vulnerable marine ecosystems.

That’s to say nothing of greenhouse gas emissions. Because of the continent’s remoteness, tourists visiting Antarctica have a higher per capita carbon footprint than other cruise-ship travellers.

Of course, these impacts aren’t limited to tourism. Scientific expeditions come with similar environmental costs – and while there are far fewer of them, scientists and support personnel spend far more time on the continent.

Antarctic tourism isn’t going away – so we have to plan for the future

Are sustainable cruises an oxymoron? Many believe so .

Through its sheer size, the cruise industry has created mass tourism in new places and overtourism in others, generating unacceptable levels of crowding, disrupting the lives of residents, repurposing local cultures for “exotic” performances, damaging the environment and adding to emissions from fossil fuels.

In Antarctica, crowding, environmental impact and emissions are the most pressing issues. While 100,000 tourists a year is tiny by global tourism standards – Paris had almost 20 million in 2019 – visits are concentrated in highly sensitive ecological areas for only a few months per year. There are no residents to disturb (other than local wildlife), but by the same token, there’s no host community to protest if visitor numbers get too high.

Even so, strong protections are in place. In accordance with the Antarctic Treaty System – the set of international agreements signed by countries with an Antarctic presence or an interest – tourism operators based in those nations have to apply for permits and follow stringent environmental regulations .

To avoid introducing new species, tourists have to follow rules such as disinfecting their boots and vacuuming their pockets before setting foot on the ice, and keeping a set distance from wildlife.

Almost all Antarctic cruise owners belong to the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators, the peak body that manages Antarctic tourism.

For the first time this year, operators have to report their overall fuel consumption as part of IAATO’s efforts to make the industry more climate-friendly. Some operators are now using hybrid vessels that can run partly on electric propulsion for short periods, reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Cruise ships make mass tourism to Antarctica possible - but they come with environmental costs.

Returning from the ice: the ambassador effect

Famed travel writer Pico Iyer recently wrote of his experience in the deep south of the world. The visit, he said, “awakens you to the environmental concerns of the world … you go home with important questions for your conscience as well as radiant memories”.

Iyer isn’t alone. This response is widespread, known in the industry as Antarctic ambassadorship . As you’d expect, this is strongly promoted by tourism operators as a positive.

Is it real? That’s contentious. Studies on links between polar travel and pro-environmental behaviour have yielded mixed results . We are working with two operators to examine the Antarctic tourist experience and consider what factors might feed into a long-lasting ambassador effect.

If you’re one of the tourists going to Antarctica this summer, enjoy the experience – but go with care. Be aware that no trip south comes without environmental cost and use this knowledge to make clear-eyed decisions about your activities both in Antarctica and once you’re safely back home.

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Antarctica cruises are more popular than ever. Experts say they need more regulations

Cruises to Antarctica, already popular, have grown dramatically in recent years. Scientists and advocacy groups say tighter regulation is needed to minimize the impact on wildlife and the environment.

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

With the wind-down of COVID-19 restrictions, travel has surged, including to exotic places like Antarctica. More than 100,000 people are expected to visit the southernmost continent this season. That's 40% more than the highest number of visitors seen in past years. As NPR's Greg Allen reports, activists and scientists are concerned about the impact on Antarctica's wildlife and environment.

GREG ALLEN, BYLINE: One hundred thousand visitors to the nation's fifth-largest continent may not sound like much, but nearly all trips take tourists to one area, the Antarctic Peninsula.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Oh, my god. We're in Antarctica, and we're watching penguins. This is...

ALLEN: It's the most northerly part of the continent with coastal areas that are ice-free and teeming with wildlife. Claire Christian is with the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, a partnership of environmental groups.

CLAIRE CHRISTIAN: And the Antarctic Peninsula is actually - it's experiencing a lot of things all at once. There's an increase in tourism. There's an increase in interest in fishing for Antarctic krill. And the peninsula is one of the fastest-warming areas on the planet.

ALLEN: Only cruise ships with 500 or fewer passengers can land visitors on the continent. Even so, the demand for access to a few dozen sites on the Antarctic Peninsula requires elaborate scheduling, Christian says during the season, several tour groups visit the most popular sites with penguins each day, sometimes with negative effects.

CHRISTIAN: For example, some tourists went off the prescribed path at a visitation site, and they trampled it, and several years later, nothing had recovered. So there is some vegetation in Antarctica that did not recover, so we know that humans can have an impact there.

ALLEN: Christian's coalition, along with scientists and some governments, want the group of nations that oversees Antarctica to take a firmer hand in regulating tourism there. Yu-Fai Leung is a professor at North Carolina State University who studied the impact visitors have on penguins. He says some colonies seem resilient and aren't greatly disturbed by tourist groups, but his research shows, when penguins are nesting, chicks are vulnerable to predators and the elements, and visitors can be a dangerous distraction

YU-FAI LEUNG: If they are forced out of their nest for even for a few seconds, the babies are in big jeopardy because of the predator, but also because of the temperature.

ALLEN: On her trips to the region, Antarctic ecologist Ally Kristan says she's observed tour groups ignoring guidelines, disturbing wildlife and also taking safety risks.

ALLY KRISTAN: There were staff that were putting their hands in the water by actively hunting leopard seals and encouraging guests to do the same, which is a tremendous safety concern.

ALLEN: Leopard seals have been known to attack and sometimes puncture inflatable zodiac boats used by guides. Tours to the Antarctic aren't cheap, ranging from several thousand to as much as $100,000 for a seven-day trip to an emperor penguin colony near the South Pole. Emperor penguins are listed as an endangered species because of fears they could be wiped out with the decline of sea ice linked to climate change. Kristan is concerned about plans by one company to fly visitors by helicopter to a vulnerable emperor penguin colony.

KRISTAN: Even if you fly a helicopter above, you can still be causing negative physiological impacts to this species.

ALLEN: Currently, the most important group overseeing tourism in the Antarctic is the industry itself. The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators has received mostly good marks for its guidelines aimed at protecting wildlife and the environment. The group's executive director, Gina Greer, expects the number of visitors to the continent will continue to grow, but she dislikes a phrase some use in the travel industry - last chance tourism.

GINA GREER: It shouldn't be for someone - that last chance kind of perspective - when they come home, our goal and our hope is that they come back changed, and they have a better appreciation for the world as well as for the impact that all of us make down there.

ALLEN: The 50 nations that are part of the Antarctic Treaty system have been discussing measures to manage the growth of tourism, possibly limiting activities, the opening of new sites for visitors, even the length of the season. More discussions are planned to the group's upcoming conference later this month in Finland. Greg Allen, NPR News.

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Smart News | March 7, 2023

How Vacationers on Antarctic Cruises Are Filling in Scientific Gaps

From ships and submarines, citizen scientists can access remote areas ripe for new discoveries. But does the research make up for the climate impact?

Large jellyfish underwater

Daily Correspondent

Cocooned inside a submarine, I held my breath in anticipation as the vessel slowly descended beneath the surface of the Southern Ocean off the coast of Antarctica . Looking out the bubble-shaped acrylic window of the small, seven-person submersible, I watched the water go from bright aquamarine to inky black as we dove deeper and deeper, leaving behind the bright white snow and the last rays of sunlight.

When we reached our final depth of 402 feet—about the length of two-and-a-half Olympic swimming pools—the pilot flicked on the vessel’s high-powered exterior lights, revealing a previously hidden world at the bottom of the sea. I marveled at the vast array of plants and creatures that could survive in such harsh, chilly conditions, including bright orange starfish, yellow algae and sea urchins.

Girl wearing red coat and gray hat climbing into yellow submarine

After traversing an underwater ridgeline with colorful marine life, the submarine—which was, of course, yellow and cheekily named after The Beatles ’ Ringo Starr —gradually ascended to the surface. As we disembarked and prepared to return to our ship, a raft of sleek gentoo penguins swam by, porpoising gracefully toward their nesting colony on land.

It’s entirely possible that no one had ever laid eyes on that particular section of the Southern Ocean seafloor before. Not many people make it to Antarctica to begin with—roughly 23,600 travelers went during the 2021-22 season, according to the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators —let alone get the chance to dive underwater in a submarine while there. And, cheesy as it may sound, that made me feel a bit like Ernest Shackleton , Roald Amundsen or one of the many other legendary Antarctic explorers I’d read so much about before going on this cruise vacation with my partner.

Submarines like the one I recently experienced give travelers a unique underwater view.   But beyond shuttling tourists to the depths of the ocean, these vessels—and, more broadly, the cruise ships that offer them to passengers as excursions—are also facilitating scientific discoveries.

In January last year, travelers aboard a Viking Expeditions submarine off the coast of Antarctica’s Rongé Island spotted and photographed a giant phantom jellyfish , an elusive creature that can measure up to 30 feet long. Since then, other cruise-goers have also sighted the rare, otherworldly giants from the company’s submarines, reports National Geographic ’s Melissa Hobson. 

Until recently, scientists had only spotted the species about 100 times since first observing one in 1899 . The deep-sea creatures “look like UFO spaceships with thick ribbons streaming from their undersides,” as Patrick Pester writes for Live Science . A large, mushroom-shaped bell sits atop their four wavy appendages, which scientists refer to as “oral arms.” In these and other jellyfish, oral arms bring prey to their mouths to eat.

Underwater view of Southern Ocean ridgeline off Antarctica

In a recent paper published in the journal Polar Research , scientists affiliated with Viking Expeditions describe three separate underwater sightings of the massive jellyfish. Based on markings and other distinguishing features—one jellyfish had a knot in its arm, for example—they believe travelers spotted three different individuals. They add that passengers on another cruise line, Scenic, have also spotted the animals from submarines.

The ghostly creatures live in oceans all over the world, with the exception of the Arctic Ocean, and primarily inhabit depths below 3,280 feet—where it’s cold and pitch-black. But they’ve also been spotted in shallower waters, as was the case with these recent Viking Expeditions submarine sightings, which occurred at depths of 920 feet, 285 feet and 260 feet, per the paper.

Scientists aren’t sure what would prompt a giant phantom jellyfish to swim up from the so-called “midnight zone” of the ocean, also known as the bathypelagic zone . One theory is that the behemoths want to expose themselves to the sun’s ultraviolet radiation in a bid to kill off parasites, per the researchers. It’s also possible that the Southern Ocean’s movement—a process known as upwelling , in which colder, deeper water rises because of wind patterns—simply pushed the creatures up from the depths, giving cruise passengers a once-in-a-lifetime view in the process.

Giant phantom jellyfish against blue background

Researchers don’t know a lot about these mysterious jellyfish; they don’t have answers to even some of the most basic questions about their behavior, environmental preferences, reproductive cycle, diet and distribution. The study’s authors see submersibles deployed during cruises as a way to help fill in some of these knowledge gaps. That’s not surprising, given their affiliation with a cruise line, however, other citizen science successes   have also shown the  benefits  of getting the public involved with research. Amateurs have discovered new scorpion species , helped confirm North American bird migration zones and processed infrared images of Jupiter from the James Webb Space Telescope, to name a few. Citizen science initiatives can also help educate and inspire travelers to protect the world around them.

Yellow submarine in ship hangar

However, while considering cruise passengers’ potential scientific contributions, it’s impossible to ignore the industry’s overall environmental impact. Cruise ships emit large amounts of carbon dioxide—a single ship’s impact can rival 12,000 cars, by one estimate —and produce tons of garbage each day. Vessels injure and kill more than 70 species of marine animals, and some ships illegally discharge hazardous waste and other pollutants into the ocean.

The White Continent, in particular, is becoming increasingly imperiled as the planet warms. Antarctic sea ice hit a record low in February for the second time in two years. Researchers recently discovered the famous “ Doomsday Glacier ,” named for its potential to add to sea-level rise, is melting in a surprising way . And studies also show that Antarctica has warmed more than three times faster than the global average over the last three decades.

Submarine pilot

But the cruise industry is working to minimize its footprint and advocate for responsible tourism, particularly in fragile environments like Antarctica . The Cruise Lines International Association pledged to have net-zero carbon emissions in the industry by 2050, for instance, and some cruise operators are already  transitioning to clean energy .

Some ships are also facilitating research projects that could help better understand—and, ideally, protect—the planet, such as sampling for microplastics and conducting oceanographic monitoring in the Southern Ocean. They’re ferrying scientists to remote sites—like the Antarctic Peninsula and the Drake Passage, which may be too expensive and logistically challenging for them to reach otherwise—so they can study everything from seabird distribution to carbon sequestration. And since these ships repeatedly return to the same places, they have the potential to help researchers gather longitudinal data and track changes over time.

“There’s incredible science being brought back [from Antarctic cruises] that is important for all of us living around the Earth right now,” Richard Garriott, president of The Explorer’s Club, a professional society that promotes scientific exploration and has partnered with cruise company Ponant for future onboard programming, says to Condé Nast Traveler ’s Megan Spurrell. “The tourists who ride on these expeditions are, in many ways, subsidizing that research. This public-private partnership, in the modern era, is almost the only way to get science done.”

Penguin walking across snowy hill with cruise ship in the background

As it did with the giant phantom jellyfish, this cruise-ship facilitated research can provide a glimpse into the lives of rarely seen animals, as Paris Stefanoudis , a marine biologist at the University of Oxford who was not involved with the Viking-affiliated study, tells National Geographic . Further submersible observations could reveal how the jellyfish interacts with its environment, for example, or shed light on the myriad other creatures I saw on the dark ocean floor.

Interest in cruises—particularly those sailing to the White Continent—does not appear to be slowing down, and the prospect of a melting continent may even be driving some of that demand, per Condé Nast Traveler . While they’re not a cure-all for the cruise industry, research projects that engage passengers are at least, as Stefanoudis tells National Geographic , “a win for science.”

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Sarah Kuta

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Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.

clock This article was published more than  2 years ago

Antarctica cruises are booming. But can the continent handle it?

An earlier version of this article was incorrectly illustrated with a photo of passengers observing penguins during an Aurora Expeditions cruise to the South Georgia Islands. Based on incorrect information from the company that provided the photo, the caption said the passengers were in Antartica. The photo has been removed.

The passengers have journeyed a long way to get here, including a likely tumultuous 36-hour trip through the 500-mile-wide Drake Passage, regarded as one of the world’s roughest bodies of water. Some board Zodiac rafts for the short ride to shore, where, from a distance, they will observe and photograph nesting penguins. Others will set off in kayaks; if they’re lucky, a curious fin whale or orca might pop up to check them out. Still others will snorkel, dive, snowshoe, or even take a submarine or helicopter ride. They will have the landing spot to themselves for a few hours, and thanks to a scheduling and communication system among all vessels in the area, they probably won’t see another ship — though the penguins will see a stream of parka-clad intruders all day long.

These travelers are among an elite group who have journeyed to Antarctica, one of the most remote, pristine and inhospitable places on earth. Some come for the intimate wildlife encounters. Some come to see calving glaciers and climate change in action. Some come just to say they have been here. For the expedition teams who guide guests through this fragile, fast-melting ecosystem, the hope is that passengers will go home committed to serving as ambassadors for Antarctica, messengers for the need to arrest climate change and save not just Antarctica, but the rest of the world’s wild places.

Tourism in Antarctica is booming — more than 50,000 expedition cruise tourists visited the continent in the 2019-2020 season, which was cut short because of the pandemic. It’s regulated, but by a body where membership is voluntary. It’s privileged. Only ships with 500 or fewer berths can make landings in Antarctica, and those passengers typically pay at least $15,000 for an 11-to-20-day cruise. (Some pay two or three times that.) And it’s complicated. Antarctica is a continent with no country, no full-time inhabitants, and no one who is obligated to make decisions, defend it, or act on its behalf.

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The luxury era

A lot has changed since 1966, when the first tourists set foot on Antarctica, led by Lars-Eric Lindblad, whose pioneering trips also opened the Arctic and the Galapagos to tourism. Lindblad is widely regarded as the father of ecotourism and modern adventure tourism, and more than 50 years later, Lindblad Expeditions is run by his son, Sven Lindblad. The younger Lindblad’s first season in Antarctica was in 1973, on his father’s ship. In those nascent days of Antarctic tourism, they often had to wing it, he recalls. “How we got out of that year alive, I don’t know.”

Advancements in ship design make a voyage to the Antarctic a lot safer — and cushier — than it used to be, explains Thomas P. Illes, a shipping and cruise analyst, adviser, and university lecturer. “Optimized sea-keeping characteristics, ice-strengthened hulls, protected fuel tanks, innovative environmental, navigation and maneuvering technology — these all improve safety, environmental impact and passenger comfort,” he says. Today, purpose-built expedition ships are a far cry from the hulking research vessels of old, and for new ships, luxury is most often the norm. Balcony cabins, panoramic suites, saunas, Jacuzzis, bars and, on some ships, multiple gourmet restaurants, ensure that however harsh the conditions outside, there’s plenty of pampering onboard.

Not every cruise is a five-figure expenditure. Another 18,000 people saw the Antarctic Peninsula from a distance in 2019-2020, aboard one of the many “cruise-only” voyages on big ships that per industry rules are not allowed to discharge passengers on the continent. These itineraries can run as low as $3,000, though Illes jokes that from those ships, “sure, you’ll see penguins — as little black dots.”

But the steep price tag of high-end expedition voyages doesn’t appear to be a disincentive to travelers — 14 new expedition vessels are scheduled to come online in 2021, most with fewer than 200 berths. Ice-classed, luxury vessels cost from $65 million to nearly $200 million to build and outfit, and there would be no supply without demand. Expedition cruise lines report encouraging levels of interest and bookings for the 2021-2022 Antarctic season, and even greater enthusiasm for 2022-2023.

A continent without a voice

Tourism to Antarctica is regulated by the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO), founded in 1991 by seven tour operators, including Lindblad. Though membership is voluntary, IAATO now has more than 100 members, all directly or peripherally engaged in Antarctic tourism. Members must agree that their activities in the region have “minor and transitory impact,” according to Gina Greer, the organization’s executive director. Greer’s been with IAATO for a year and says she’s not found a more cohesive organization. “The collaboration among members is high. They’re all working together to help manage activities and be respectful to the environment. They all benefit from their shared knowledge of the region and agree on guidelines that everyone works to meet.”

Still, when it comes to setting and enforcing the rules of Antarctic tourism, from ships’ emissions to the rules around shore excursions, IAATO lacks teeth. Only the Antarctic Treaty System, an international agreement to protect the stateless continent, has any real authority. First enacted during the Cold War and now signed onto by 52 nations, including the United States, Russia, China and Australia, the treaty ensures that the Antarctic will be used only for peaceful and scientific purposes. It sets guidelines for tourism and tour operators, but on a day-to-day basis, adherence and enforcement function on something of an honor system that, so far, is working. “Gross violations and noncompliance with agreed-upon rules would very likely ruin the business’s reputation,” says Illes. “And the people in power” — he cites Sven Lindblad as one of the IAATO’s most formidable voices — “would probably not just stand idly by and certainly not keep quiet.”

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One after another, the tour operators, marketing staff, scientists and industry experts interviewed for this article echoed the same refrain — it’s in the cruise industry’s own best interests to protect Antarctica. “The industry wants a future,” Lindblad says. And if there’s no Antarctica, there’s no business. “Beyond a moral ethos, there’s a business model,” says Lisa Bolton, general manager of product for Scenic , whose Scenic Eclipse is one of the most luxurious ships operating in the region. “You have to protect your income, and our income is Antarctica.”

Even Illes, who as a third-party observer is quick to criticize the cruise industry as well as the broader travel industry, says IAATO operators are different. “They know their business model is based on an intact nature,” he says. “Even though it’s self-regulated, it’s one of the very few examples where it still works very well.”

And Illes, who has made several journeys to Antarctica, says that is true from the CEOs to the people literally at the helms of the ships. “At 3 a.m. on a ship’s bridge, people speak candidly,” he says. “All the operators and crew I’ve encountered on expedition vessels act very differently from most mainstream cruise operators in many ways.”

Daniela Liggett, an associate professor specializing in polar tourism and Antarctic governance at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, points out that a lot of the expedition leaders are former researchers themselves. “These are educators who are passionately speaking on behalf of the Antarctic and wilderness and conservation initiatives.” Plus, she adds, “many of the smaller-scale operators are passionate about Antarctic conservation, and that’s why they started in the first place.”

Antarctic ambassadors?

“Sustainable travel, with a minimal footprint and environmental impact, is our mission,” says Monique Ponfoort, CEO of long-standing polar expedition cruise line Aurora , one of the earliest IAATO members. It is a mission that is ostensibly shared by all expedition operators in the region, and one that’s based on a genuine desire to protect the region and educate guests. Most operators provide monetary or collaborative support to conservation initiatives in the region, and Liggett says they help in other ways, whether through sharing information, bringing supplies to remote research stations or letting scientists hitch a ride home — though presumably not in one of the Jacuzzi suites.

Yet tourism in Antarctica is not without impact. Most of the travelers who have life-changing experiences on their cruises sail back to Ushuaia, Argentina, from where they head home on carbon-coughing long-haul flights. And even though tourists traipse on just a tiny percent of Antarctica’s landmass, they still leave their mark, Liggett says, in the form of footpaths, soil erosion, unintentional disturbances of nesting birds, and underwater noise from ships’ engines and motorized small watercraft.

Safety is another concern, as more and more ships head to the region, inevitably with less experienced crew. “This is not a place for amateurs,” says Lindblad. “You go to the Antarctic and you go to a wild and woolly place.” One major fear is that a maritime accident, especially one involving a big ship in a region with no emergency infrastructure, could result in high loss of life and a devastating environmental disaster.

“Tourism doesn’t ‘benefit’ Antarctica,” says Lindblad, whose company runs all carbon-neutral cruises. “It’s not like there are local communities that are helped economically. The impact,” he says, “is in how people think about the world more broadly, and Antarctica is a stage to help understand the implications of climate change.”

“We all take the education part of our mission seriously,” Bolton says. “Every operator has different types of programming, but it all contains a green, environmentally friendly message.” She refers to Antarctica as a living classroom and cites the “now I get it” moments that so many passengers have. “Seeing your first iceberg calve makes you realize how small you are and what your place on the planet actually is.”

And the unscripted interactions with animals also make a big impression on guests. While IAATO rules dictate that humans must stay five meters away from wildlife, wildlife can come to them. And it often does, whether it’s a friendly penguin, a seal fleeing a pod of hungry orcas or an intrigued cetacean. “From personal experience,” says Bolton, who recalls being in a kayak when a whale breached beside her, “being snotted on by a whale is a marvelous interaction with nature.”

Heath is a writer based in Allerona, Italy. Her website is elizabethfheath.com . Find her on Instagram: @myvillageinumbria .

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Antarctic tourism: Should we worry about damage to the ice and ecosystems?

by Elizabeth Leane, Anne Hardy, Can Seng Ooi, Carolyn Philpott, Hanne E.F. Nielsen and Katie Marx, The Conversation

Antarctic tourism: Should we worry about damage to the ice and ecosystems?

As the summer sun finally arrives for people in the Southern Hemisphere, more than 100,000 tourists will head for the ice. Travelling on one of more than 50 cruise ships, they will brave the two-day trip across the notoriously rough Drake Passage below Patagonia, destined for the polar continent of Antarctica.

During the COVID summer of 2020-21, just 15 tourists on two yachts visited Antarctica. But now, tourism is back—and bigger than ever. This season's visitor numbers are up more than 40% over the largest pre-pandemic year .

So are all those tourists going to damage what is often considered the last untouched wilderness on the planet? Yes and no. The industry is well run. Tourists often return with a new appreciation for wild places. They spend a surprisingly short amount of time actually on the continent or its islands.

But as tourism grows, so will environmental impacts such as black carbon from cruise ship funnels. Tourists can carry in microbes, seed and other invasive species on their boots and clothes—a problem that will only worsen as ice melt creates new patches of bare earth. And cruise ships are hardly emissions misers.

How did Antarctic tourism go mainstream?

In the 1950s, the first tourists hitched rides on Chilean and Argentinian naval vessels heading south to resupply research bases on the South Shetland Islands. From the late 1960s, dedicated icebreaker expedition ships were venturing even further south. In the early 1990s, as ex-Soviet icebreakers became available, the industry began to expand—about a dozen companies offered trips at that time. By the turn of this century, the ice continent was receiving more than 10,000 annual visitors: Antarctic tourism had gone mainstream.

What does it look like today?

Most Antarctic tourists travel on small "expedition-style" vessels, usually heading for the relatively accessible Antarctic Peninsula. Once there, they can take a zodiac boat ride for a closer look at wildlife and icebergs or shore excursions to visit penguin or seal colonies. Visitors can kayak, paddle-board and take the polar plunge—a necessarily brief dip into subzero waters.

For most tourists, accommodation, food and other services are provided aboard ship. Over a third of all visitors never stand on the continent.

Those who do set foot on Antarctica normally make brief visits, rather than taking overnight stays.

Antarctic tourism: Should we worry about damage to the ice and ecosystems?

For more intrepid tourists, a few operators offer overland journeys into the continent's interior, making use of temporary seasonal camp sites. There are no permanent hotels, and Antarctic Treaty nations recently adopted a resolution against permanent tourist facilities.

As tourists come in increasing numbers, some operators have moved to offer ever more adventurous options such as mountaineering, heli-skiing, underwater trips in submersibles and scuba diving.

Is Antarctic tourism sustainable?

As Antarctic tourism booms, some advocacy organisations have warned the impact may be unsustainable. For instance, the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition argues cruise tourism could put increased pressure on an environment already under significant strain from climate change.

In areas visited most by tourists, the snow has a higher concentration of black carbon from ship exhaust, which soaks up more heat and leads to snow melt. Ship traffic also risks carrying hitchhiking invasive species into the Southern Ocean's vulnerable marine ecosystems.

That's to say nothing of greenhouse gas emissions. Because of the continent's remoteness, tourists visiting Antarctica have a higher per capita carbon footprint than other cruise-ship travellers.

Of course, these impacts aren't limited to tourism. Scientific expeditions come with similar environmental costs—and while there are far fewer of them, scientists and support personnel spend far more time on the continent.

Antarctic tourism isn't going away—so we have to plan for the future

Are sustainable cruises an oxymoron? Many believe so .

Through its sheer size, the cruise industry has created mass tourism in new places and overtourism in others, generating unacceptable levels of crowding, disrupting the lives of residents, repurposing local cultures for "exotic" performances, damaging the environment and adding to emissions from fossil fuels.

Antarctic tourism: Should we worry about damage to the ice and ecosystems?

In Antarctica, crowding, environmental impact and emissions are the most pressing issues. While 100,000 tourists a year is tiny by global tourism standards—Paris had almost 20 million in 2019—visits are concentrated in highly sensitive ecological areas for only a few months per year. There are no residents to disturb (other than local wildlife), but by the same token, there's no host community to protest if visitor numbers get too high.

Even so, strong protections are in place. In accordance with the Antarctic Treaty System—the set of international agreements signed by countries with an Antarctic presence or an interest—tourism operators based in those nations have to apply for permits and follow stringent environmental regulations .

To avoid introducing new species, tourists have to follow rules such as disinfecting their boots and vacuuming their pockets before setting foot on the ice, and keeping a set distance from wildlife.

Almost all Antarctic cruise owners belong to the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators, the peak body that manages Antarctic tourism.

For the first time this year, operators have to report their overall fuel consumption as part of IAATO's efforts to make the industry more climate-friendly. Some operators are now using hybrid vessels that can run partly on electric propulsion for short periods, reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Returning from the ice: the ambassador effect

Famed travel writer Pico Iyer recently wrote of his experience in the deep south of the world. The visit, he said, "awakens you to the environmental concerns of the world … you go home with important questions for your conscience as well as radiant memories".

Iyer isn't alone. This response is widespread, known in the industry as Antarctic ambassadorship . As you'd expect, this is strongly promoted by tourism operators as a positive.

Is it real? That's contentious. Studies on links between polar travel and pro-environmental behaviour have yielded mixed results . We are working with two operators to examine the Antarctic tourist experience and consider what factors might feed into a long-lasting ambassador effect.

If you're one of the tourists going to Antarctica this summer, enjoy the experience—but go with care. Be aware that no trip south comes without environmental cost and use this knowledge to make clear-eyed decisions about your activities both in Antarctica and once you're safely back home.

Provided by The Conversation

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Tourism in Antarctica: Edging Toward the (Risky) Mainstream

Travel to one of the most remote parts of the planet is booming. What does that mean for the environment and visitor safety?

antarctica cruise environmental impact

By Paige McClanahan

In January, the Coral Princess, a ship with 2,000 berths and a crew of nearly 900, plowed through the frigid waters off the Antarctic Peninsula, cruising past icebergs, glaciers and mountains clad in snow. The cruise, which had been advertised at less than $4,000 per person, is remarkably cheaper than most Antarctic expeditions, which often charge guests at least three times that amount for the privilege of visiting one of the wildest parts of the planet. Visitors to the region — and the ships that carry them — are growing in number: Antarctica, once accessible only to well-funded explorers, is now edging toward the mainstream.

But managing tourism is a tricky issue in this distant region where no individual government has the power to set the rules, and the challenge is becoming more complex as Antarctica’s popularity grows. During the current austral summer, which runs from roughly November to March, visitor numbers to Antarctica are expected to rise by nearly 40 percent from the previous season. Some observers warn that such rapid growth risks imperiling visitor safety and adding pressure to this fragile region, which is already straining under the effects of climate change, commercial fishing for krill, toothfish and other species, and even scientific research.

Human activity in Antarctica falls under the governance of the Antarctic Treaty system, a model of international cooperation that dates to the Cold War era. But day-to-day management of tourism is regulated by the tour operators themselves, through a voluntary trade association that sets and enforces rules among its members. Observers agree that this system has worked well since it was set up in the 1990s, but some worry that booming tourist numbers could push the old system to a breaking point. They say that the consultative parties to the Antarctic Treaty system — governments like those of the United States, France, New Zealand, Argentina and some two dozen others — must act more quickly to manage tourism, and protect the region’s value as a wilderness.

“The bottom line for us is that there aren’t a lot of hard rules governing tourism. It’s mostly voluntary,” said Claire Christian, executive director of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC), a network of more than 15 conservation groups that serves as an observer to the Antarctic Treaty system. “Right now, there is a lot of good will. But that’s not something you can guarantee.”

A booming industry

Tourism in the Antarctic began with a trickle in the 1950s, but the industry remained exclusive and expensive. Expeditions grew steadily and by the late 1980s, a handful of companies were offering sea- and land-based trips. In 1991, seven private tour operators came together to form the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO). Among other things, the group’s aims were to promote “environmentally safe and responsible travel”; improve collaboration among its members; and create — among the operators’ paying clients — a “corps of ambassadors” who could advocate conservation of the Antarctic region after they returned home from their trips.

Visitor figures soon began to creep up, increasing from roughly 6,700 in the 1992-1993 season to nearly 15,000 by the end of that decade, according to IAATO figures. Apart from a dip after the 2008 financial crisis, numbers have risen steadily ever since. More than 56,000 tourists visited Antarctica during the 2018-2019 season. The figure for the current season is expected to rise to more than 78,500, more than double the total from a decade ago. The vast majority of visitors come by cruise ship, setting sail from ports like Ushuaia in Argentina or Punta Arenas in Chile.

Meanwhile, IAATO has been gaining an average of two to five operators every year, according to Lisa Kelley, IAATO’s head of operations. Its members now include 48 tour operators, as well as five provisional members (Princess Cruises among them) and more than 60 associates — travel agents, marketers and others that work in the industry but don’t run their own tours.

“At the end of the day, we’re all a bunch of competitors,” said Bob Simpson, vice president of expedition cruising at the luxury travel company Abercrombie & Kent and a former chair of IAATO’s executive committee. “But it’s in our best interest to work together and cooperate,” he added, “to ensure this extraordinary place is protected for future generations.”

Mr. Simpson said that IAATO has been “remarkably successful” in promoting sustainable travel to the region, noting that, in his view, the education and experiences that they offer their guests outweigh the negative impact of the carbon emissions associated with the trip.

Abercrombie & Kent and other IAATO members agree to abide by the organization’s bylaws and guidelines, as well as the rules set out by the Antarctic Treaty system. These govern things like the number of passengers allowed ashore during site visits, staff-to-visitor ratios, and the amount of experience required of the crew.

The rules also stipulate that vessels — like the Coral Princess — that carry more than 500 people are not allowed to make landings; they can only “cruise” off the coast. Smaller vessel expeditions — offered by companies such as Abercrombie & Kent, Hurtigruten and Lindblad Expeditions, among others — are allowed to make landings, and their passengers might have the opportunity to disembark with guides to walk, kayak, snowshoe, or even camp or ski onshore.

Membership in IAATO remains voluntary, although all Antarctic tour operators must obtain a permit to travel in Antarctica from one of the parties to the Antarctic Treaty. For now, Ms. Kelley said, every passenger ship operating in the Antarctic is either a member or provisional member of IAATO, apart from some private yachts, defined as vessels carrying 12 or fewer passengers. She is confident that the organization is ready to accommodate the surge in tourist numbers.

“We’ve learned our lesson from the previous two big spurts of growth,” Ms. Kelley said in a recent phone interview. “We’ve really looked at our systems carefully and really worked on trying to make them as robust as we possibly can.”

Safety concerns

Other observers are less confident that rising tourist numbers are sustainable. The risks range from possible damage to sites that tourists visit to the potential growth in non-IAATO tour operators to ensuring visitor safety.

Accidents are rare, but not unheard-of. In November 2007, the MS Explorer, a Liberian-flagged vessel carrying about 100 passengers and 50 crew, cracked its hull on submerged ice, then started to take on water and list severely. Those aboard evacuated to lifeboats around 2:30 a.m., then floated in the cold for more than three hours before another ship, the cruise liner Nordnorge, rescued them. No one was killed or injured, but that was in part because of the weather.

“Within two hours after the passengers and crew were aboard the Nordnorge, the weather conditions deteriorated with gale force winds,” according to the official investigative report into the incident, which was conducted by the Liberian Bureau of Maritime Affairs. “If the Nordnorge’s speed to the scene had been reduced due to rough sea conditions, there may have been fatalities from hypothermia.”

The environment didn’t fare as well. The MS Explorer slipped beneath the waves carrying more than 55,000 gallons of oil, lubricant and petrol; two days later, an oil slick spread over an area of nearly two square miles near the site of the wreck. A Chilean naval ship passed through to try to speed up the dispersal of the fuel, but the report noted that the “oil sheen” was still visible more than a year later.

Ms. Kelley said that measures have been introduced since the Explorer incident, including the International Maritime Organization’s new “ polar code ,” which, she said, imposes “real limits on where and how vessels can operate and how new ships should be built.” Fuel tanks must now be situated away from the vessel’s hull, for example; navigation officers are required to have more experience and environmental rules have been tightened.

But as visitor numbers grow, so, too, does the risk of an accident. And while all tour operators in the Antarctic are currently IAATO members or provisional members, a status that offers them a degree of support, there is no guarantee that companies new to the region will see the value in joining the organization. If they decide to go it alone, there is nothing to stop them.

“There have been incidents, but we have always been quite lucky in the sense that maybe the weather conditions were right or there were other ships around,” said Machiel Lamers, an associate professor at the Environmental Policy Group of Wageningen University in the Netherlands. “Having a couple of thousands of passengers and crew in Antarctic waters is, of course, another thing than having a couple of hundred.”

A fragile environment

Scientists warn that the rise in tourism also increases the risk of disrupting the fragile environment. The introduction of invasive species — nonnative crabs or mussels clinging to the hull of a ship, foreign plant seeds stuck in the lining of a tourist’s parka — remains an important and ever-present threat . There is also evidence that populations of penguins and other wildlife have been disturbed by human activity in some areas. At the popular Hannah Point, there have been two reported instances of elephant seals falling off a cliff because of visitor disturbance. At other sites , historic structures have been marred by graffiti.

The Antarctic Treaty parties have drawn up “ site visitor guidelines ” for 42 of the most popular landing sites; these govern things like where ships are allowed to land, where visitors are allowed to walk, and how many landings are allowed per day. But the IAATO website lists more than 100 landing sites on the Antarctic Peninsula. Those with no guidelines in place may become more popular as tour operators try to avoid the crowds.

Pollution from ships is another concern. Although the International Maritime Organization’s polar code introduced new measures to control pollution, it still allows ships to dump raw sewage into the ocean if they are more than 12 nautical miles, roughly 13.8 miles, away from the nearest ice shelf or “fast ice” — stationary sea ice attached to the continent or grounded icebergs. It also fails to regulate discharges of “graywater,” runoff from ships’ sinks, showers and laundries that has been shown to contain high levels of fecal coliform as well as other pathogens and pollutants. Concerns about pollution are perhaps all the more worrying given the arrival of Princess Cruise Lines, which — alongside its parent company, Carnival Corporation — has been heavily fined for committing serious environmental crimes in other parts of the world.

A spokeswoman for Princess Cruises stressed in an email that the company is “committed to environmental practices that set a high standard for excellence and responsibility to help preserve the marine environment in Antarctica.” Negin Kamali, Princess Cruises’ director of public relations, added that the company meets or exceeds all regulatory requirements for Antarctica.

Fuel pollution, especially carbon emissions — is another concern, although there have been some positive steps. In 2011, the use of heavy fuel oil in the Antarctic was banned under the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL). Today, ships in the region generally use less-polluting marine diesel, although some — like the MS Roald Amundsen , run by the Norwegian company Hurtigruten — have gone a step further, supplementing their traditional fuel with battery power. Princess Cruises is currently testing similar technologies, said Ms. Kamali.

In the background, warmer temperatures are making the entire continent more vulnerable to external threats.

“It’s important to understand that all of these impacts — climate change, fishing, tourism — are cumulative,” Cassandra Brooks, an assistant professor in environmental studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, wrote in an email. “Given the sheer carbon footprint of Antarctic tourism, and the rapid growth in the industry, these operations will become increasingly difficult to justify.”

The way forward

Antarctic Treaty parties are aware that tourism growth will require a new approach. But it’s not clear what steps they will take, nor how quickly they will act. And reaching consensus — which is what decision-making within the Antarctic Treaty system requires — can be a slow and arduous process.

In April 2019, the government of the Netherlands hosted an informal meeting to discuss how to manage Antarctic tourism. The participants — including representatives of 17 treaty parties, IAATO and ASOC, the civil society group, as well as other experts — identified “key concerns” related to the predicted growth in ship tourism: pressure on sites where tourists visit, the expansion of tourism to new areas, and the possible rise in tour operators who choose not to join IAATO, among other issues.

The group’s recommendations were presented to the Antarctic Treaty’s Committee for Environmental Protection as well as to the most recent annual meeting of the treaty parties in July. The discussions seemed to go in the right direction, said Ms. Christian, but they are still a long way from implementing major changes.

Stronger regulations could come in many forms, including a prohibition on potentially disruptive activities such as heli-skiing or jet-skiing, both of which are currently allowed; a general strengthening of the Antarctic Treaty system’s existing guidelines for visitors , which already instruct people not to litter, take away souvenirs, or get too close to wildlife, among other things. Parties to the Antarctic Treaty system could also establish protected areas that could be made off limits to tourist vessels, or agree to enact domestic laws to enable authorities to prosecute visitors for Antarctic misbehavior (penguin cuddling, for instance) after they return home.

Or the treaty parties could go even further: They could require all passenger vessels to obtain IAATO membership before being granted a permit, or set a cap on the total number of visitors allowed each season. Most observers agree that both steps would be politically very difficult to enact, mainly because treaty parties have diverging views of what Antarctic tourism should look like.

Tour operators and some academics maintain that tourism in Antarctica is vital because it creates awareness and builds a network of people who will go home to fight for stronger protections in the region. but — as with scientific research, or any human activity in Antarctica — the risks and potential negative impacts of tourism must be weighed against its benefits.

Whatever policy steps might be on the table, self-regulation in the tourism industry is no longer sufficient, said Ms. Brooks, who adds that Antarctica is already straining under its many pressures.

“IAATO is truly amazing in what they have accomplished, but it’s difficult to imagine how they will manage to control this burgeoning industry,” she wrote in an email. “It’s equally difficult to imagine how more than 78,000 people visiting Antarctica as tourists won’t have a negative impact on the region.”

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Environment

Antarctica can be described as amazingly beautiful, peaceful and unspoiled -- like no other place on Earth -- but it is also the single most isolated, cold and unforgiving region on the planet. Characterized by picturesque landscapes of snow and ice, Antarctica has a history that only extends as far back as the early 1800s, when explorers first sighted its coastline, and even today, there isn't much there, other than research stations and the personnel who operate them. The research conducted on the continent is important and includes studies in geology, global warming and climate change, as well as seasonal ozone depletion.

Internationally diverse, Antarctica has no cities, no indigenous people and no government to speak of, but people worldwide travel to the continent to work and live at fewer than 75 research facilities, less than half of which operate year-round. The Antarctic Treaty, signed by a select group of nations in 1959, established the continent as a peaceful research zone and provided nations with a universal set of rules to follow. These guidelines are still in effect today and have contributed to Antarctica's pristine and peaceful environment.

Although commercial endeavors are of little importance, Antarctica has limited fishing off the coast and a growing tourism industry, which primarily consists of visitors arriving by ship. The Antarctic Peninsula hosts approximately 38,000 cruise passengers each year, who anxiously brave the harsh conditions and unpredictable weather for a chance to see towering sculptures of ice and a unique display of wildlife that cannot be duplicated anywhere in the world. Antarctica is truly the last frontier, a place that has been carefully studied and well-preserved for generations to come.

antarctica cruise environmental impact

Red buildings of a research station on rocky slope down to icy sea with snow-capped mountains behind

Doing science in Antarctica has harmed an environment under great pressure. Here’s how we can do better

antarctica cruise environmental impact

Fieldwork Coordinator/Research Technician, CSIRO

Disclosure statement

This work was funded and supported by the Australian Antarctic Division, Australian Antarctic Science project 4565.

CSIRO provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation AU.

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Scientific research in Antarctica has played a key role in many important discoveries of the past century. But it has also come at a considerable cost to the environment.

Science in Antarctica is typically based at one of the 77 research stations . While their role is to support science, their isolation means they need to provide the infrastructure of a town.

As well as the local impacts of these stations, the Antarctic environment is facing massive challenges from external pressures such as climate change. The loss of sea ice could mean some of the continent’s most iconic wildlife face extinction this century. For example, the early melting of sea ice recently led to complete breeding failure at several emperor penguin colonies.

So how can we keep doing research in Antarctica while minimising our impact on the environment? This question led to our new research published in the Journal of Environmental Management.

We found little evidence of conservation planning and few limits on permissible activities such as building new stations, despite Antarctica being declared a natural reserve. This has left plenty of room to improve planning, technology and research methods to reduce impacts on the fragile Antarctic environment.

emperor penguin chicks huddled on the Antarctic ice with a few adults in the background

Read more: Devastatingly low Antarctic sea ice may be the ‘new abnormal', study warns

What are the impacts of all these stations?

The majority of stations were built before the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty took effect in the late 1990s. These older stations were established during an era when environmental protection was a lower priority.

As a result, some stations were located in the most rare and sensitive ice-free areas. They probably would not be built there today, but only a few have been removed . Most old stations continue to operate.

At the larger stations, in addition to living quarters and laboratories, facilities include sewage and power plants, bulk fuel tanks and handling, roads, workshops, helipads, runways, wharfs, quarries, fire stations and even one short-lived nuclear reactor .

Read more: Remembering Antarctica's nuclear past with 'Nukey Poo'

antarctica cruise environmental impact

Adding to the impacts are ongoing demands to expand stations. This might be to provide new scientific apparatus to answer new questions, house more people, improve logistical capacity, or increase the safety of ageing infrastructure.

This background means research stations are often industrial-looking sites, with industrial-scale environmental impacts . It’s a stark contrast to the near-pristine natural reserve they are situated in.

The stations that support science to help understand Antarctica have created the most intense human impacts on the place. These impacts include:

a growing disturbance footprint on rare but vital ice-free areas

marine contamination that rivals the most polluted harbours in the world

fuel spills

non-native species introductions , including weeds and invertebrates

disturbance to wildlife .

Many stations have displaced some of the best areas of habitat for plants and animals.

Environmental management and impact assessments are now routine practice in Antarctica, and do curtail impacts. However, these practices do not stop the footprint of stations from continuing to spread.

In a case study of a long-established Antarctic station, Australia’s Casey, we found the area of heavy disturbance expanded by 18% and the area of medium disturbance by 42% over a 16-year period. This growth has encroached on one of the most important areas of vegetation in Antarctica.

Read more: For the first time, we can measure the human footprint on Antarctica

So what are the answers?

Using better technology is one option. This can include installing cleaner sewage treatment to reduce contamination of the marine environment . And using passive design and renewable energy can reduce fuel handling and storage.

Similarly, substituting harmful research practices with techniques that have fewer impacts is another option. Researchers have, for example, determined the prey species of penguins from poo , rather than handling the birds.

As well as better technology and different research methods, a systematic approach to conservation planning, which identifies the best ways to protect the environment, will help.

Our international team looked into best-practice conservation planning for reserves elsewhere in the world. We adapted these approaches to the unique characteristics of each region of Antarctica and to the various ways in which stations operate.

antarctica cruise environmental impact

Read more: I've spent 40 years studying Antarctica. The frozen continent has never needed our help more

We deliberately designed our conservation planning approach to support station operators to continue to provide new science capabilities. However, we did it in a way that minimises long-term environmental impacts.

For conservation planning to work properly, we need more environmental monitoring data. And data collection must be sustained over a long time.

In the absence of legal limits, we also encourage station operators to set their own self-imposed limits on their footprint and restore degraded areas no longer used. The less area we impact, the more room it gives Antarctic species to shift and adapt to a changing climate.

  • Climate change
  • Global warming
  • Emperor penguins
  • Antarctic Treaty
  • Research stations
  • Antarctic research
  • Antarctic sea ice

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View from the Norwegian Coastal Express, also known as Hurtigruten,towards snowy hills and snowy houses

Can cruising be green? These eco operators are starting to make waves

​Adventure cruise operators are taking active measures to ensure a more sustainable future — from hybrid batteries that reduce CO2 emissions to working with organisations to alleviate passenger impact.

In late January of 1966, a Swedish-American travel agent called Lars-Eric Lindblad led a group of 52 paying guests aboard Lapataia, an Argentinian naval ship that he chartered for a voyage to Antarctica. On that ship — and from 1969 on the much plusher, purpose-built Lindblad Explorer — passengers wore bow-ties as they dined on lobster while breaking ice on the continent known as the White Desert.   Antarctica had, until then, been the preserve of scientists, polar explorers and penguins. In adding it to the map for wealthy tourists, Lindblad was a good half century ahead of his time. The cruise industry would grow to such a huge extent, that ships are now capable of carrying up to 7,000 passengers. But the ‘expedition’ or ‘adventure’ cruise that he pioneered has only recently built up a head of steam. Some of the biggest cruise lines are today competing with specialists to court growing demand for experiences that take the comforts of classic itineraries to more remote seas, on smaller ships. “Antarctica is still the number one destination,” says Edwina Lonsdale, an industry veteran and managing director of   Mundy Cruising in London, which started selling cruises in 1970. In 2012, Lonsdale launched the spin-off   Mundy Adventures , the UK’s first adventure cruise agency. “But it’s just over the past three or four years that we’ve seen this huge build programme,” she adds. Even among the handful of high-end adventure lines Mundy works with, berth numbers have almost doubled from a pre-pandemic high of more than 18,000 to a projected 30,000 by 2025. “It’s extraordinary,” Lonsdale says. With such growth comes a new dimension to the vexed question of sustainability. Adventure cruises offer access to stunning but often imperilled regions (Londsale says the Galápagos and the Arctic are the next most in-demand destinations). They often require more and longer flights to get to and from the ships. And, per passenger, the impact of smaller ships can be worse than the giant liners that ply the Mediterranean and Caribbean. Yet demand for new ships is also giving cruise lines an opportunity to research and build more sustainable vessels and practices — and market their sustainability claims in a more environmentally conscious world. “There’s this disconnect between conservation and cruising, but when you dig deeper, the cruise industry is developing technologies in a much more focused way, and with higher investment, than, for example, building hotels on the Galápagos Islands,” Londsdale says. While the pandemic was a disaster for the cruise industry, Londsdale says it boosted demand among older would-be cruisers, in particular for bucket-list adventure experiences — despite prices that tend to be about double those of bigger cruise ships of comparable quality and comfort. According to   Cruise Lines International Association   (CLIA), the largest cruise industry trade association, nine of the 16 ships its members were expected to launch in 2022 were classed as expedition ships. In December 2021, new Norwegian cruise line, Havila Voyages , launched the first of four ships that are at the front of this new wave. The Havila Capella now sails the classic Bergen to Kirkenes route up and down the west coast of Norway, well into the Arctic Circle. It looks like a typical ship but rather than relying on highly polluting marine fuel, or relatively cleaner diesel, the Capella is a hybrid. An 86-ton battery pack — purportedly the largest found on any passenger ship — gives it the electric capacity of more than 600 top-range Teslas. The batteries, which are designed to be recharged from the grid while Capella is in port, ideally via renewable energy, mean the ship can sail almost silently for up to four hours. The vessel otherwise runs on liquid nitrogen gas (LNG). Havila claims its hybrid system cuts NOx emissions by around 90% overall, and CO2 emissions by around 40% compared to comparable ships running on heavy fuel.  

“The fact that we can run for four hours on a battery is revolutionary,” says Sandra Ness, Havila’s head of climate, environment and expeditions. Havila is not alone in going down the hybrid-LNG route. Its local rival Hurtigruten is building or converting several ships that use the technology, while in 2021 the French cruise line Ponant took delivery of its sparkling new Le Commandant Charcot, a 123-cabin ship also powered by batteries and LNG. The polar class ship sails to the geographic North Pole, Greenland, the Svalbard archipelago, the Bellingshausen Sea and the Larsen Ice Shelf. Five of its 16 ships that launched in 2022 ran on LNG, according to CLIA.  

Blue-footed boobies, one of three booby species living in the Galápagos.

Going greener

Adventure cruise lines are increasingly also burnishing their green credentials beyond the engine room. Ponant’s new ship has hi-tech stabilisers that mean it no longer needs to damage the seafloor with heavy anchors. New hulls are designed to slip through water with less drag, improving fuel economy. “We use the surplus heat from the LNG to heat up our rooms and water,” Ness says. Havila’s smaller ships make it easy to bin the traditional cruise buffet, reducing food waste, while the more sustainable cruise lines have programmes to reduce plastics use. When you’re sailing the relative minnows of the cruise ecosystem, advantages of scale also extend to shore, where the biggest ships have sparked fraught debates about overtourism in destinations such as Venice. There are also increasingly strict rules in more remote destinations. In the Galápagos, for example, no ship may carry more than 100 passengers; while in Antarctica vessels with more than 500 passengers can’t make landings.   But the more progressive lines go further. Ponant ’s ships have a capacity range of 32 to 350 passengers. “But even if we’re 200 people going to a remote area, we have to inspect and preview the limits of our activity,” says Wassim Daoud, head of sustainability and corporate social responsibility at Ponant, which in 2018 announced an ongoing partnership with National Geographic Expeditions .   Before Ponant added an itinerary that took in the Bissagos Islands off the Atlantic coast of Guinea-Bissau in West Africa, Daoud says the company sent a team of scientists, social experts and naturalist guides to meet local authorities and charitable organisations. Together they established sympathetic systems for docking and disembarkation, while also assessing the possible wider impacts of passengers. The company is also funding a school on the islands, with two members of Ponant staff based there to manage the project. “We try to not only be in connection with the local population when we’re there, but also when we aren’t,” adds Daoud, who says the programme continued while the pandemic took the islands off its destination list. Beyond the restrictions put in place by destinations, it would be easy to imagine that increasingly eco-aware consumers are driving this change. Lonsdale thinks it’s not as simple as that. “I’ve very rarely had a customer who asks, for example, ‘What’s the carbon footprint of that ship’,” she says. “When people have it in their heads they want to go on a cruise, they just want to go.” But, she adds: “I do think the fact that the expedition cruise operators are grabbing hold of this and leading the way is important to the consumer and it’s become a marketing tool.”

Le Commandant Charcot, an icebreaking cruise ship by Ponant

Fuelling the future

But is it enough? While a lot of the noise and apparent progress is coming from the adventure cruise sector, environmental groups say the smaller size of boats remains a problem. “Even if you have a ship that you could call ‘clean’, it’s still running on fossil fuels and per person it’s terrible,” says Sönke Diesener, Transport Policy Officer at Nabu (Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union), a German non-governmental organisation   that’s one of Europe’s biggest environmental associations. Diesener estimates that per-person emissions on smaller adventure cruise ships can be up to three times as high as those of the giants. In just a few days, he says passengers in the Antarctic can easily exceed the annual emissions targets each of us would need to hit if, as nations, we’re going to control global heating. And that’s before we consider the additional impact of flying long distances to and from remote ports. “I recently met the person responsible for sustainability at a luxury adventure cruise company about all the pledges they were making,” Diesener says. “Then the guy tells me that many of their customers use private jets to get to the ships. If you do that, it doesn’t matter what fuel your ship uses — you’ve already ruined your personal CO2 footprint.” While a positive shift, the move to LNG is far from perfect. “It’s still a fossil fuel — it’s methane,” Diesener says. And while emissions are lower, a proportion of gas not burnt in a ship’s engine slips into the atmosphere. Over a 20-year period, methane is 80 times more potent at warming than carbon dioxide, according to the UN.   Yet even Diesener welcomes the momentum being created by adventure cruise lines, many of which see LNG as a stepping stone. “This is only the start of our journey,” says Ness at Havila. The cruise line soon plans to use a liquid biogas that Ness says would reduce CO2 emissions by about 90%. Ships are already in development that will use hydrogen or methanol as fuel sources, allowing Ponant ambitiously to target a date of 2028 for emissions-free sailing. “I think we’re very close to a tipping point where the first zero emissions cruises are available,” Diesener says. The challenge then will be to retrofit existing ships, he adds. Nabu has demanded that the whole cruise industry should be climate-neutral by 2040. What’s not in doubt is the rewards that await for tourists who have the time and money to embark on adventure cruises. Lonsdale, who’s been on more than most, recalls an early morning wake-up call on a luxury liner in Svalbard, way north of Norway. The captain had spotted a polar bear and her cub. From a safe distance on the ship’s rigid inflatable boats, passengers watched the animals cross the ice to the water’s edge. “It was a beautiful morning with glorious sunshine and for about two hours we watched this bear and her cub leaping in the snow behind her,” Londsdale recalls. “It was just the most extraordinary experience.” All the industry figures I speak to say that it’s the chance to witness species and regions under threat, backed up with the expertise of the onboard naturalists and guest speakers increasingly demanded by adventure cruise passengers, which justifies the endeavour. In this regard, Lars-Eric Lindblad, who died in 1994, 15 years after his son launched the still thriving Lindblad Expeditions cruise line, was also ahead of his time. In an age before mass tourism, before the first international climate agreements — and long before David Attenborough’s Blue Planet — Lindblad saw his cruises as a way to inspire people to care about the environment. As he’s reported to have put it himself, back in the 1960s: “You can’t protect what you can’t see”.  

Published in the Cruise 2023 guide, distributed with the Jan/Feb 2023 issue of   National Geographic Traveller (UK)

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Sustainable cruises: 6 cruise lines making progress.

These cruise lines are taking steps toward eco-conscious cruising.

Sustainable Cruises

The Hon. Philip Edward Davis, Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, speaks at the ground-breaking of the Marine Conservation Center at Ocean Cay, MSC Cruises’ private island in The Bahamas on November 18, 2021.

James McEntee | Courtesy of AP Images for MSC Cruises

MSC Cruises' conservation effort is just one of many sustainable choices cruise lines are adopting.

Cruising comes with a lot of positives – it's fun, relaxing, convenient and often relatively affordable. But when it comes to the environment, it isn't all smooth sailing. According to recent research, a large cruise ship can result in a carbon footprint greater than that of 12,000 cars. Another study found that an individual traveler's carbon footprint is roughly eight times greater than the carbon footprint of a person vacationing on land.

"When we measure sustainability, it's important to look at the whole picture, and overall, cruise ships are too big, too dirty and too invasive to pristine ecosystems to be considered sustainable or environmentally conscious," says Marcie Keever, director of oceans and vessels at environmentalist group Friends of the Earth. "Their   significant carbon footprint and ongoing use of polluting scrubber technology that continues to result in the dumping of toxic chemicals into the ocean are two major issues."

So, how does that translate for the average cruiser – and what can you do to make a difference? While some environmentally conscious travelers may choose to take a vacation on land, those who would like to stick with a cruise getaway should consider their options carefully. Not all cruise lines are created equal, and some are making more progress than others in implementing policies around more sustainable fuel types, hybrid-electric ships and their commitments to a cleaner future.

If your heart is set on taking a cruise vacation , consider these tips to leave less of an impact on the environment during your trip.

  • Opt for a shorter voyage (or a smaller ship):  One simple way to keep the environment in mind during your vacation at sea is by choosing a shorter itinerary and avoiding massive megaships built to carry thousands of people. "Some cruise lines are limiting the length of cruise runs which is a good start, and [they] are also commissioning smaller vessels to travel shorter distances for shorter periods of time," says Keever. Opting for a midsize ship or a  small ship  and a three- or four-night voyage over a cruise lasting seven to 10 days will keep the mileage to a minimum, which in turn will limit the carbon emissions and other damage inflicted upon the environment.
  • Choose a cruise line that values transparency:  In an effort to keep cruisegoers in the loop, many cruise lines have begun making public commitments to improve their operations. On top of that, some have also started including annual sustainability reports on their websites. Major lines like Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Virgin Voyages, Disney Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line all earned an "A" for transparency on Friends of the Earth's 2022 Cruise Line Report Card, which the organization based on the cruise lines' willingness to provide detailed information about environmental practices when asked.

Below, you'll find six cruise lines around the world that are working toward a greener future on the high seas.

Hurtigruten Norway

The largest expedition cruise line in the world, Hurtigruten highlights four pillars on its journey toward sustainability: emissions, people, community and nature. To protect destinations from the effects of overtourism, the line avoids popular areas during peak seasons, restricts the number of guests on shore and limits the size of its vessels. Hurtigruten's ships also source about 80% of their food from local providers and work to minimize the amount of food waste on board.

Perhaps most impactful is Hurtigruten's current work to develop state-of-the-art, eco-conscious vessels. Between 2020 and 2021, the expedition line debuted three battery-powered hybrid-electric ships, and all 14 vessels can be connected to shore power while in port (if the option is available at that destination).

"Hurtigruten is looking to launch zero-emissions ships, which will reduce the amount of heavy fuel they use," notes Keever. The first of these ships is set to launch by 2030; the line is aiming for carbon neutral operations by 2040 and net-zero emissions by 2050.

The cruise provider also uses other eco-conscious equipment and transportation options on tours, including power through solar panels, electric snowmobiles and tour buses, hybrid sightseeing boats and battery-powered catamarans.

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MSC Cruises

MSC Foundation on MSC Euribia.

Ivan Sarfatti | Courtesy of MSC Cruises

With the goal of achieving a 40% emissions reduction by 2030 and total net-zero cruising by 2050, MSC Cruises ' commitment to the environment spans each of its 20-plus ships. The line has been steadily working toward a more sustainable future for the past 15 years: Since 2008, it has reduced its carbon emissions by 35%. Much of the more recent success stems from MSC's use of liquid natural gas (LNG). The line currently operates two LNG-fueled vessels – MSC World Europa and MSC Euribia – and a third natural gas-powered ship is in the works. Euribia's inaugural sailing in June 2023 was the first net-zero greenhouse gas emissions voyage in history, saving 43 tons of fuel.

Additional environmental efforts include the use of shore energy when in port (as of 2022, 65% of MSC's ships were fitted or retrofitted to use shore power), water-saving technologies that allow ships to self-produce almost all of their water supply on board (to the tune of almost 800,000 gallons maximum per day) and smaller scale features like energy-efficient lighting and ventilation systems.

The eco-conscious initiatives continue on land, where travelers can opt for special shore excursions called "Protectours." These outings are centered on low-impact transportation – think: walking, kayaking, cycling and use of electric or hybrid shuttles. Select Caribbean itineraries may also visit the unspoiled beaches of Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve, the line's private island in the Bahamas . Formerly used as an industrial sand excavation site, Ocean Cay covers 64 square miles of marine reserve and is home to 400 restored coral reef colonies, as well as a variety of bird, fish and other marine species. The island runs on a mix of solar panels and energy-efficient power sources; and single-use plastics are prohibited.

Book an MSC Cruise on GoToSea, a service of U.S. News.

Aurora Expeditions

Exterior of the Aurora Expeditions Sylvia Earle ship in Antarctica.

Courtesy of Aurora Expeditions

Billed as 100% climate neutral and a member of two sustainability groups – the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators and the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators – Aurora Expeditions is committed to responsible cruising. The line carries small groups of adventurers on 10- to 26-day voyages to the Arctic, Antarctica and other less-traveled destinations, such as the Patagonia wilderness.

To offset its greenhouse gas emissions, Aurora Expeditions invests in two climate action initiatives: a renewable energy wind farm in Taiwan and a conservation program in Australia. Environmentally focused cruisers may feel most at home aboard the Sylvia Earle expedition ship, which has seven decks all named after well-known ocean preservationists. On day six of each itinerary on the Sylvia Earle, Aurora hosts a Sustainable Sea Day, when seafood is not served on board to help protect marine populations.

Additional environmental efforts include specialized water and waste management systems, efficient onboard energy sources, reduced single-use plastics, locally sourced food, eco-friendly products on board and more. On top of that, two of Aurora Expeditions' ships, Greg Mortimer and Sylvia Earle, feature a fuel-efficient bow design that can travel at higher speeds while reducing wave-load vibrations, which in turn produces fewer emissions.

Havila Voyages

Havila Voyages debuted in late 2021 and operates four small ships along the Norwegian coast. Hybrid vessels are equipped with the largest ship battery packs found among passenger ships, which power each ship for up to four hours with zero emissions. The ships utilize LNG for the remaining route; between the natural gas and battery power, carbon emissions are cut by 35%. Havila has the goal of reaching climate-neutral operations by 2028 and emission-free operations by 2030.

On board, Havila serves locally sourced meals and is committed to reducing food waste; as such, there are no buffets. In 2022, the line successfully limited the daily average food waste per passenger to 71 grams (about 2.5 ounces). Havila ships also minimize the amount of paper and plastic products on board, encouraging guests to bring and refill reusable water bottles instead.

Travelers looking to go the extra mile have the option of participating in Havila's Eco-Voyager Program, which challenges guests to make environmentally friendly choices while on board. Items on the checklist include reusing towels and opting for room service every other day, recycling any trash at the ship's dedicated stations, unplugging device chargers when not in use and more. The line also offers eco-excursions in port; tour groups are kept small and Havila partners with local providers that utilize eco-friendly transportation, like battery-powered buses.

Virgin Voyages

Noodle Around eatery in The Galley on Virgin Voyages ship.

Courtesy of Virgin Voyages

Like other lines on this list, Virgin Voyages aims to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Virgin's ships are all on the newer side (the line's first ship, Scarlet Lady , debuted in 2021), so they benefit from modern technology that optimizes energy and fuel usage. Additionally, the ships boast futuristic features like in-room energy-saving sensors to operate the lights, curtains and air conditioning, as well as smart wearable bands (used as room keys, for boarding and more) made of recycled ocean plastic.

Virgin's ships serve ethically sourced seafood and other local ingredients, and they do not have any buffets, which helps lower food waste on board. There is also an onboard recycling system, and single-use plastics are not on any ships. In fact, Virgin primarily offers sustainable products for all of its paper, plastic and other disposable items (using materials like wheat and sugar cane stalks). 

All three of Virgin Voyages' vessels utilize bipolar ionization (BPI) systems shipwide. "Dozens of cruise companies have made their ships more sustainable by adding BPI technology to their HVAC systems," says Steve Levine, president and CEO of sustainable indoor air technology company AtmosAir Solutions. "BPI devices make ships more energy efficient by lowering the amount of outside air that needs to be brought into a ship, essentially recycling and treating the air indoors and saving energy."

Book a Virgin Voyages cruise on GoToSea.

Silhouette of Le Ponant yacht against setting sun.

Courtesy of Ponant

Founded in 1988, PONANT is a French-owned luxury line of expedition yachts. The line is working toward six major environmental goals: minimizing nitrogen and sulfur oxide emissions, reducing carbon emissions, banning single-use plastics, reusing and tracing all waste, investing in scientific research and supporting the development of protected marine areas.

In practice, PONANT utilizes high-quality wastewater treatment systems, navigation technology to help reduce fuel usage, and locally sourced food and drinks. On top of that, 60% of packaging on board is recycled, and PONANT regularly organizes beach cleanups. In 2018, PONANT founded the PONANT Foundation, which aims to support conservation efforts across the oceans and polar regions.

PONANT's Le Commandant Charcot expedition ship runs on a combination of battery power and LNG, and the line was the first to be awarded Green Marine certification for its commitments to improving its sustainability.

Why Trust U.S. News

Nicola Wood is a senior travel editor who manages the U.S. News Best Cruise Lines rankings. She is always reading up on the ways cruise lines are evolving and working toward a more sustainable future. Her passion for the environment extends beyond the cruising industry; in fact, she and some of her colleagues recently worked with EARTHDAY.ORG to pick up almost 750 pounds of trash along the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C., in celebration of U.S. News & World Report's 90th anniversary . Wood used her researching skills and guidance from environmental experts to write this article.

You might also be interested in:

  • The Best Cruise Lines in the Caribbean
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Top Ecolodges Around the World

Rainbow over the Welcome Dome at EcoCamp Patagonia in Chilean Patagonia.

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  • # 1 South Island, New Zealand
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It's not for everyone: 3 things to know about Antarctica expedition cruises

W hen James Rameson stepped on land in Antarctica during an expedition cruise last month, it’s possible it was the first time anyone had ever set foot on that part of the ice-covered continent.

When the Zodiac boat arrived at the rocky shore, the expedition leader told the Santa Barbara, California, 13-year-old and his fellow passengers – of which I was one – that our group on board Aurora Expeditions’ Sylvia Earle ship may have been the first to visit that particular spot.

Rameson, who took the cruise as a birthday gift with his father, Tyler, 49, made the most of his sudden pioneer status. “I walked over to this random spot, and I'm like, ‘Look, dad, no one has ever been here,’ ” he told USA TODAY. “It's like, ‘I’m the first person to set foot right here,’ which I thought was pretty cool.”

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Not every trip can offer that. “One of the most incredible things about visiting Antarctica is the feeling of exploration and being somewhere very few people have been before,” said Kristin Winkaffe, a luxury travel designer and founder of Winkaffe Global Travel.

But the continent has become an increasingly popular destination. More than 71,200 people visited the ice during the 2022-2023 season, up from around 24,000 in 2021-2022 in the wake of COVID-19 and just under 56,000 in 2019-2020, according to the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators. There has been a surge in inventory , too, with new ships and itineraries from a range of expedition lines.

Here are three things to know about taking an Antarctica cruise:

I did a polar plunge in Antarctica. It meant more than I expected.

1. You’ll have to cross the Drake Passage – maybe

Most expedition cruises to Antarctica depart from Ushuaia, Argentina, and cross the infamous Drake Passage . The waterway is notoriously treacherous, and travelers could experience a rough “Drake Shake” or calm “Drake Lake” during the journey, which takes about two days to complete each way (you may have seen videos of it on TikTok ).

My trip fell somewhere in the middle on the way down with waves as high as about 13 feet. “A lot of people, even if they haven't experienced seasickness before, tend to experience seasickness on the Drake Passage,” Winkaffe said.

Expedition ships tend to be small, but larger cruise ships visit Antarctica as well and guests may feel the impact of the waves less thanks to their size. However, travelers should note that ships carrying more than 500 passengers are not permitted to take them on land , according to the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators. 

Some cruise operators offer flights over the Drake Passage. But Winkaffe warned that those trips are not only “exponentially more expensive” – Antarctica cruises can range from around $5,000 per person to more than $20,000 and those flights could add between $5,000 and $10,000 – but also less reliable since weather in the area can be unpredictable.

“There is the possibility that (ships will) get canceled or delayed due to weather but they're able to cross during worse weather than the flights are,” she said.

Lindblad Expeditions is the latest operator to add the option, allowing guests to skip potentially rough waters and shave time off their trip. CEO and founder Sven-Olof Lindblad said last month at the luxury travel trade show ILTM Cannes that the brand had long held off due to concerns passengers wouldn’t take off and land as scheduled, but that technology has made the flights more predictable, Travel + Leisure reported .

2. You have to be flexible

Given the extreme climate, Antarctica cruises may not always go as planned. 

During my trip with Aurora, the expedition team shared an intended itinerary for the next day each night with guests, with the caveat that it was only a Plan A. After they assessed the conditions upon arrival, we sometimes explored by Zodiac rather than attempting to go on land or relocated altogether.

That may be an adjustment for travelers who have been on other types of cruises with detailed itineraries from start to finish. “Antarctica is a totally different beast in that you basically just have to accept that you’re going on a tour to Antarctica and not get attached to any specific place,” Winkaffe said.

She recommended going into the trip with a “sense of adventure,” and that travelers avoid Googling specific locations ahead of time to minimize disappointment if they don’t make it there. Destinations may also look different from their photos, particularly because the environment changes throughout the year (the Antarctica cruise season runs from October through March , encompassing its summer).

“Everybody has FOMO ( fear of missing out ) and everything, but everybody’s experience is different,” said Jeff Nagel, the assistant expedition leader on my trip.

3. Keep the environment in mind

As harrowing as the Antarctic environment can seem, it’s also vulnerable. Scientists have already warned of dire impacts due to climate change.

That makes visiting with care especially important. On board the expedition with Aurora, we received information on the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators guidelines and followed biosecurity protocols , like cleaning and having our gear inspected to avoid transporting nonnative species and scrubbing our boots after landings (the ship even played songs like Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” while we twisted our feet against rubber mats to remove debris).

“We are aware that, of course, in spite of all the work we do to make it as sustainable … as possible, we do have an impact,” said Mario Placidi Spring, the expedition leader on my trip.

What is wave season?: Why you should book your next cruise now

Winkaffe recommended doing research before booking and choosing a cruise operator that is putting effort and money toward operating sustainably.

“I'd like to believe that through our educational programs and (other programming) on board that we are creating ambassadors, and people are going home and maybe thinking about those small changes they can make in their life that will protect these areas and protect the world as a whole,” Nagel added.

Editor’s note: The reporter on this story received access to this expedition from Aurora Expeditions. USA TODAY maintains editorial control of reviews.

Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. You can reach him at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: It's not for everyone: 3 things to know about Antarctica expedition cruises

Aurora Expeditions' Sylvia Earle ship.

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Assessing the Global Climate in February 2024

The earth’s record temperature streak continued in february for nine months and counting.

Vinicunca Rainbow Mountain in Peru with a black bird flying overhead and rain drops collecting on the lens of the camera taking the photo.

Highlights:

  • Temperatures were above average over much of the globe, but eastern Asia, much of Greenland, and parts of Antarctica were cooler than average. 
  • There is a 45% chance that 2024 will be the warmest year in NOAA’s 175-year record and a 99% chance it will rank in the top five.
  • North American snow cover extent and Antarctic sea ice extent were much below average, ranking third and second lowest on record, respectively. 
  • Global tropical cyclone activity was above average, but only two storms made landfall—both of which were in Australia.

Temperature

Map of the world showing land/ocean temperature percentiles for February 2024 with warmer areas in gradients of red and cooler areas in gradients of blue.

The February global surface temperature was 2.52°F (1.40°C) above the 20th-century average of 53.8°F (12.1°C), making it the warmest February on record and the ninth consecutive month of record-high global temperatures. According to NCEI’s Global Annual Temperature Outlook, there is a 45% chance that 2024 will rank as the warmest year on record and a 99% chance that it will rank in the top five.

February temperatures were above average across most of the Arctic, the Americas, Africa, Europe, and Australia whereas much of Greenland, eastern Asia, and parts of Antarctica were cooler than average. North America, South America, and Europe had their warmest February on record while Africa was second warmest. Sea surface temperatures were above average over most areas (and record warm over the tropical Atlantic Ocean), while much of the Southern Ocean and parts of the southeastern Pacific and southern Indian Oceans were below average.

Temperatures in the mid-troposphere (approximately 2–6 miles above the surface) were record warm in February, according to satellite data from NESDIS. Each of the past eight months set global records for the mid-troposphere.

Map of the world showing land/ocean temperature departures from average for December 2023 through February 2024 with warmer areas in gradients of red and cooler areas in gradients of blue.

The December 2023–February 2024 global surface temperature was the warmest such period on record, 2.45°F (1.36°C) above the 20th-century average for December–February. The 2024 year-to-date temperature currently ranks warmest on record.   

Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent in February was below the 1991–2020 average. Both Eurasia and North America were below average (by 240,000 and 490,000 square miles, respectively), the latter ranking third lowest on record. In general, much of Asia was near to above average, whereas much of Europe and the eastern United States were below average.

Arctic (left) and Antarctic (right) average sea ice extent for February 2024

Global sea ice extent was the fourth smallest in the 46-year record at 6.47 million square miles, which was 460,000 square miles below the 1991–2020 average. Arctic sea ice extent was slightly below average (by 100,000 square miles), whereas Antarctic sea ice extent was much below average (by 370,000 square miles), ranking second smallest on record.

Tropical Cyclones

Eleven named storms occurred across the globe in February, which was above the 1991–2020 average of seven. Only two storms made landfall, both bringing gusty winds to northern Australia. The only major tropical cyclone was Very Intense Tropical Cyclone Djoungou, which remained in the central Indian Ocean, well away from any major land masses. There were no active storms in the Pacific Ocean or the North Atlantic, but there was one weak tropical cyclone (Akara) in the South Atlantic, which is notable because atmospheric conditions usually inhibit tropical storm development in that basin.

For a more complete summary of climate conditions and events, see our February 2024 Global Climate Report or explore our Climate at a Glance Global Time Series .  

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March 14, 2024

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  • International

March 26, 2024 - Baltimore Key Bridge collapses after ship collision

By Helen Regan , Kathleen Magramo , Antoinette Radford, Alisha Ebrahimji , Maureen Chowdhury , Rachel Ramirez , Elise Hammond , Aditi Sangal , Tori B. Powell , Piper Hudspeth Blackburn and Kathleen Magramo , CNN

Our live coverage of the Baltimore bridge collapse has moved here .

Crew member on DALI said everyone on board was safe hours after bridge collapse, official says

From CNN’s Amy Simonson

A crew member on the DALI cargo ship sent a message hours after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed Tuesday saying everybody on board was safe, according to Apostleship of the Sea director Andy Middleton.

Middleton, who spent time with the captain of the DALI Monday, told CNN’s Laura Coates he reached out to a crew member after hearing about the incident Tuesday morning. 

He said there were 22 members aboard the ship from India who were setting sail earlier Tuesday morning and were heading toward Sri Lanka.

“I was able to reach out to a crew member very early this morning around 5:30 (a.m. ET) or 6 (a.m. ET) and get a message to them asking if they were OK,” he said. “That crew member responded within just a few minutes advising that the crew was safe, and everybody that [was] on board was safe.”

Middleton was told by the ship's captain Monday that the vessel was going to take a longer route to avoid risks along the Yemen coast.

“When I was out with the captain yesterday, we were talking while we were driving, and he advised that they were sailing down and around the tip of South Africa in order to avoid the incidents that are going on off the Yemen coast, and it was a safer way to go,” he said.

Middleton said the  Apostleship of the Sea  is a ministry to seafarers with members that spend time in the port and on the vessels as a friendly face to the seafarers that visit the Port of Baltimore, “taking care of their needs to make sure that they're reminded of their God-given human dignity when they're here in Baltimore.”

Search operation ends in "heartbreaking conclusion," Maryland governor says. Here's the latest

From CNN staff

The Dali container vessel after striking the Francis Scott Key Bridge that collapsed into the Patapsco River in Baltimore, Maryland, on Tuesday, March 26.

Six people, who were believed to be part of a road construction crew, are presumed dead after Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed early Tuesday morning. The collapse came after a 984-foot cargo ship hit the bridge's pillar.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore told reporters Tuesday evening it's a "really heartbreaking conclusion to a challenging day."

Late Tuesday, it was discovered that two of the construction workers who went missing after the bridge collapsed were from Guatemala , the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said late Tuesday.

Here's what you should know to get up to speed:

  • The victims: Eight people were on the bridge  when it fell, according to officials. At least two people were rescued — one was taken to the hospital and was later  discharged , fire official and the medical center said.
  • The incident: Video shows the moment the entire bridge structure falls into the water, as the ship hits one of the bridge's pillars. CNN analysis shows that the  ships lights flickered  and it veered off course before it hit the bridge. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said the crew on the ship were able to issue a "mayday" before colliding into the bridge, which allowed the authorities to stop incoming traffic from going onto the bridge.
  • Response efforts: Earlier, dive teams from various state and local agencies were brought in to assist in search-and-rescue operations, according to Maryland State Police Secretary Col. Roland L. Butler Jr.. The mission started with 50 personnel and continued to grow before the Coast Guard announced Tuesday evening that it was suspending its active search-and-rescue operation and transitioning to a "different phase."
  • The investigation: Authorities are still working to establish exactly how the crash occurred. The National Transportation Safety Board will look into  how the bridge was built  and investigate the structure itself. It will "take time to dig through" whether the bridge had ever been  flagged for any safety deficiencies , NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said.
  • Rebuilding the bridge: US Sen. Chris Van Hollen said the path to rebuilding the bridge will be "long and expensive." Senior White House adviser Tom Perez told reporters Tuesday “it’s too early” to tell how long it will take to rebuild the bridge. President Joe Biden said Tuesday he wants the federal government to bear the full cost of rebuilding the collapsed bridge, noting that it will not wait for the company who owns the container ship DALI to shoulder the costs. Funding could come from the Federal Highway Administration as well as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, but it may require additional funding from Congress.

2 of the missing construction workers from bridge collapse were from Guatemala, foreign ministry says

From CNN’s Allison Gordon, Flora Charner and Amy Simonson

Two of the construction workers missing from the bridge collapse in Baltimore were from Guatemala, the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement late Tuesday.

Those missing included a 26-year-old originally from San Luis, Petén. The other is a 35-year-old from Camotán, Chiquimula, the statement said.

The ministry said both were part of a work team “repairing the asphalt on the bridge at the time of the accident.”

The statement did not name the two people missing, but it said the country’s consul general in Maryland “went to the area where the families of those affected are located,” where he hopes to be able to meet with the brothers of both missing people.

The consulate   also issued a statement Tuesday saying its consul general in Maryland "remains in contact with local authorities," and also confirmed that two of those missing "were of Guatemalan origin.”

Six people, who were believed to be part of a road construction crew, are presumed dead after Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed early Tuesday morning when a cargo ship hit the bridge's pillar.

State and federal officials have not released information about the identities of any of the six missing workers.

Underwater mapping of bridge collapse area to begin Wednesday, Baltimore fire chief says

From CNN's Jennifer Henderson

Search operations near the Key Bridge collapse have shut down for the night due to dangerous conditions, but the process of underwater mapping with many local, state and federal dive teams will begin Wednesday, Baltimore City Fire Chief James Wallace told CNN’s Anderson Cooper Tuesday night.

Wallace said the portion of the Patapsco River is “tidal influenced, so it goes through tide cycles just like the open waters of the Chesapeake Bay does.”

The water depths in the area under the bridge vary from 40 feet to more than 60 feet, Wallace said. The deeper the divers go, the colder the temperatures they encounter, and the visibility is zero, he added.

 Wallace said when crews arrived Tuesday morning, the surface water temperatures of the Patapsco River were about 47 degrees with an air temperature of 44-45 degrees.

Here's what you should know about the historic Francis Scott Key Bridge

The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed early Tuesday after a massive container ship lost power and crashed into the iconic Baltimore bridge, sending people and vehicles into the frigid Patapsco River.

Six people, believed to be part of a road construction crew, are presumed dead and the Coast Guard has ended its active search and rescue mission.

Here's what you should know about the historic bridge:

  • How old?: The Francis Scott Key Bridge, also referred to as just the Key Bridge, opened to traffic in March 1977 and is the final link in the Baltimore Beltway, according to the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA.) It crosses over the 50-foot-deep Patapsco River, where former US attorney Francis Scott Key found inspiration to write the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner, the MDTA says.
  • How long?: The bridge was 1.6 miles long when standing, MDTA reports.
  • Traffic volume: More than 30,000 people commuted daily on the bridge, according to Maryland Gov. Wes Moore.
  • How much did it cost?: The bridge cost $60.3 million to build, MDTA says. Since its collapse, President Joe Biden said he’s committed to helping rebuild the bridge as soon as possible.
  • About the port: Baltimore ranks as the ninth biggest US port for international cargo. It handled a record 52.3 million tons, valued at $80.8 billion, in 2023. According to the Maryland state government, the port supports 15,330 direct jobs and 139,180 jobs in related services.
  • About the ship: The bridge collapsed after a container vessel called Dali collided with one of its supports. Dali is operated by Singapore-based Synergy Group but had been chartered to carry cargo by Danish shipping giant Maersk . The ship is about 984 feet long , according to MarineTraffic data. That’s the length of almost three football fields.

Baltimore woman says bridge collapse was "like a piece of family dissolved"

From CNN's Kit Maher

For longtime Baltimore resident, Ceely, who opted not to share her last name, seeing footage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse  Tuesday was deeply personal.

“I was very heavy-hearted,” Ceely told CNN. “Very tearful, thinking about the families whose loved ones may be in the water and just remembering when the bridge was constructed, and it was just like a piece of family dissolved.”

Ceely was at a prayer group Tuesday morning when she saw the news. She recalled being afraid when she first crossed the bridge while in Ford Maverick in 1975, but grew to like it because it saved time on the road.

“It was a main artery just like a blood line. It was a main artery to the other side of town. It was awesome. It beat going through the city all the time,” she said.

Elder Rashad A. Singletary , a senior pastor who led Tuesday night’s vigil at Mt. Olive Baptist Church told CNN that many church members watched the bridge's construction.

"It’s a part of the community. A lot of our individuals in our congregation drive that bridge to go to work, and so now it’s really a life changing moment,” he said.

"Heartbreaking conclusion to a challenging day," Maryland governor says as Coast Guard ended search operation

From CNN's Aditi Sangal

People look out toward the Francis Scott Key Bridge following its collapse in Baltimore, Maryland on March 26.

More than 18 hours after the collapse of the Baltimore bridge, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said it was a heartbreaking conclusion after the Coast Guard ended the search-and-rescue operation for the six people who were on the bridge when it collapsed.

It's a "really heartbreaking conclusion to a challenging day," he said.

"We put every single asset possible — air, land and sea" to find the missing people, he told reporters on Tuesday evening. "While even though we're moving on now to a recovery mission, we're still fully committed to making sure that we're going to use every single asset to now bring a sense of closure to the families," the governor added.

6 people presumed dead after Baltimore bridge collapse, Coast Guard says. Here's what we know

As the sun sets in Baltimore, six people are presumed dead after a major bridge collapsed overnight Tuesday, according to the Coast Guard. The Francis Scott Key Bridge came down around 1:30 a.m. ET after a cargo ship collided with it.

The Coast Guard said it has ended its active search-and-rescue operation for the missing construction workers who were on the bridge when it collapsed.

  • What we know: Eight people were on the bridge when it fell, according to officials. At least two people were rescued — one was taken to the hospital and has been discharged . The Coast Guard has been searching for six other people. But, around 7:30 p.m. ET, the Coast Guard said it has transitioned to a “different phase” of operation, now it did “not believe we are going to find any of these individuals alive,” Rear Adm. Shannon Gilreath said.
  • About the ship: The bridge collapsed after a container vessel called Dali collided with one of its supports. The vessel is operated by Singapore-based Synergy Group but had been chartered to carry cargo by Danish shipping giant Maersk . The US Embassy in Singapore has been in contact with the country’s Maritime and Port Authority, a State Department spokesperson said.
  • The investigation: The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation into the collapse. A team of 24 experts will dig into nautical operations, vessel operations, safety history records, owners, operators, company policy and any safety management systems or programs, said NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy. A voyage data recorder will be critical to the investigation, she added. 
  • Vehicles on the bridge: Officials are also working to verify the numbers of how many cars and people were on the bridge, Homendy said. Gov. Wes Moore said the quick work of authorities in closing the bridge had saved lives . Radio traffic captured how authorities stopped traffic and worked to clear the bridge seconds before the impact . Maryland State Police Secretary Col. Roland L. Butler Jr. said there is a “ distinct possibility ” more vehicles were on the bridge, but authorities have not found any evidence to support that.
  • Looking ahead: NTSB will look into how the bridge was built and investigate the structure itself, including if it was flagged for any safety deficiencies , Homendy said. The federal government has also directed its resources to help with search and rescue, to reopen the port and rebuild the bridge, Vice President Kamala Harris said . Earlier, President Joe Biden said t he federal government will pay to fix the bridge.
  • The economy: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg warned the collapse will have a serious impact on supply chains . Until the channel is reopened, ships will likely already be changing course for other East Coast ports. Ocean carriers are already being diverted from the Port of Baltimore, where the bridge collapsed, to the Port of Virginia to “keep trade moving."

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  19. Sustainable Cruises: 6 Cruise Lines Making Progress

    With the goal of achieving a 40% emissions reduction by 2030 and total net-zero cruising by 2050, MSC Cruises ' commitment to the environment spans each of its 20-plus ships. The line has been ...

  20. Cruise Ships' Environmental Impact • Friends of the Earth

    Disney Cruise Lines Environmental Impact. Of the top cruise lines, Disney is open and transparent about their environmental impacts. Disney ships utilize fuel with a 0.1% sulfur content which is key to reducing climate-harming emissions. But Disney isn't perfect. They like to provide their vacationers with a once-in-a-lifetime travel ...

  21. It's not for everyone: 3 things to know about Antarctica expedition cruises

    Be wary of fake solar eclipse glasses, local astronomy expert warns. More than 71,200 people visited Antartica during the 2022-2023 season. Expedition cruises can offer travel experiences unlike ...

  22. News

    Our Impact; Enter Search Term(s): Search ... Temperatures were above average over much of the globe, but eastern Asia, much of Greenland, and parts of Antarctica were cooler than average. There is a 45% chance that 2024 will be the warmest year in NOAA's 175-year record and a 99% chance it will rank in the top five.

  23. Baltimore Key Bridge collapses after ship collision

    The US Coast Guard (USCG) is responding to the Francis Scott Key Bridge emergency after receiving a report that a container ship hit it at 1:27 a.m. ET "and it subsequently collapsed," according ...