As many as 20,000 whales worldwide are killed by vessel strikes every year, according to data from the International Marine Mammal Project. A new partnership with a cruise line that stops in Seattle aims to change that.
The MSC Poesia is heading from Seattle to Alaska for the first time this season. It has 16 decks that carry about 4,000 passengers and crew — pretty small by cruise ship standards. The cruise line projects a cosmopolitan European vibe, with plenty of crystal chandeliers and other shiny finishes.
It is also among the most globally oriented and sustainable brands in the industry. It was one of the first to set carbon neutral cruises as a goal. It also employs advanced recycling systems and has prioritized protecting world oceans and marine life. Since 2022, almost 800 crewmembers and MSC officers have been trained on how to detect and avoid whales.
Observing marine mammals
A partnership with the British conservation group, ORCA is taking that effort to help whales to the next level on its inaugural Alaska cruise.
The ship’s new Marine Mammal Observer, Maria Snell, is a new fixture on the bridge of the Poesia. She stood next to the huge picture windows wearing a custom-rigged camera that records video through a pair of high-powered binoculars. It’s connected to her laptop, which records real-time GPS data every second to go with the images.
Snell’s research will inform new ways to avoid ship strikes.
“There's currently a very big knowledge gap about how whales actually respond and behave in close proximity to a vessel. So if we learn anything about what the whales do, I would say that would be a success,” she said.
Steve Jones, ORCA’s chief operating officer, said MSC’s leaders wanted to do more to reduce their impact on marine life as they began traversing some of the most whale-rich waters in the world. They asked ORCA for help.
“They came to us and said, 'We're going to Alaska, what can we do?'" Jones said. "This was sort of the very much top of the list, where we could look at this incredibly high density area, and then take advantage to study the way that whales and ships interact and get a view that is really, really difficult to get."
The measurements that Snell is recording include behaviors and responses as the ship approaches. She also holds a weekly informational session with passengers and encourages them to use a smartphone app developed by ORCA to help collect citizen sightings of whales and dolphins. ORCA is helping the cruise line audit the whale watching companies it employs for shore excursions by sending Snell along to observe how well they follow regulations and employ best practices.
Snell will be on board the MSC Poesia for five weeks to start. She hopes to expand her research into a PhD project that would go on for several years.
ORCA has worked with multiple cruise lines on similar efforts, but says this is its most ambitious yet.
