Additional cruise stops scheduled for Sydney
Endangered whales led to changes
Efforts to slow down ships in the Gulf of St. Lawrence to mitigate their impact on right whales has resulted in additional calls by cruise ships at the port of Sydney this season.
The Port of Sydney Development Corp. released changes to its cruise schedule this week, with a net gain of three ships pushing the total passenger count to above 137,000, a net increase of almost 3,400 over what was originally anticipated.
“They’re not able to get to all of the ports that were on their itinerary because of the speed restriction going up the gulf,” Nicole MacAulay, acting manager of marketing and development with the port, said in an interview Tuesday. “Because of our positioning, we’re completely outside of that restricted zone so there’s a couple of ports that I know of in Atlantic Canada that are gaining. We’re lucky to be one of them.”
The Norwegian Dawn will make two additional stops in Sydney. The Seven Seas Mariner will also stop in Sydney two additional days, but will no longer be making the Oct. 30 stop it had originally scheduled.
This was already expected to be the busiest cruise season in the port of Sydney’s history, with 90 ship visits, a 67 per cent increase in visits over 2016.
Ten of the endangered right whales have died in the gulf since early June, with at least some of them having collided with ships.
Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Transport Minister Marc Garneau recently announced temporary measures aimed at preventing further whale deaths. Vessels of 20 metres or more are required to slow to 10 knots — or about 19 kilometres per hour — while travelling in the western Gulf of St. Lawrence, from the Quebec north shore to just north of Prince Edward Island.
MacAulay said she’s been hearing positive comments from tourism operators about the current season.
“August was our busiest August that I know of to date, so we’re seeing an increase in the summer traffic, and then September and October are our heavy season anyway,” she said.
Preparations are already underway for both the 2018 and 2019 seasons, MacAulay said.
Transport Canada and the Canadian Coast Guard will enforce the speed limit measure. Ships that don’t comply with the speed limit will be subject to a financial penalty of up to $25,000. Smaller ships are being asked to voluntarily abide by the speed limit, which will remain in place until the whales have migrated from the areas of the gulf that pose the most concern.
On both Sept. 23 and Sept. 26 there are three ships scheduled to arrive at the port.
The season will now come to a close on Oct. 29 with a visit by Northern Gem.