More gloom for Antarctic cruises

Following the recent decision by those countries signatory to the Antarctic Treaty to ban cruise ships carrying more than 500 passengers entering the waters of Antarctica and limiting the number of passengers ashore at any one time to just 100, comes further bad news for cruise lines with the region on their schedules. There is currently a new proposal to ban cruise ships sailing in Antarctic waters from carrying and burning heavy fuel oil in their main and auxiliary diesel engines. This would mean that the ships would have to burn the more expensive marine diesel or marine gas oil, thereby increasing their operating costs significantly. A number of operators have decided to drop Antarctic cruise scheduled from the end of this year due to this looming problem, which is expected to be brought in under MARPOL regulations from 2011, and other larger operators are expected to follow! Sphere: Related Content