International Cruising Regulations?

[NutsAboutGolf]

1 hour ago, monkey@cruise said:

The waters off Hokkaido are a migration route of humpback whales from the northern feeding areas to the southern Asian breeding areas. The Right Whale Ship Speed Rule which set a speed limit of 10 knots for boats larger than 65 feet in whale habitat areas. 

 

Unfortunately, Japan is one of 3 countries (Japan, Norway, and Iceland) that still perform commercial whaling.  Therefore I doubt there are any speed restrictions and if there are, it's most likely not for the whale's benefits

[monkey@cruise]

6 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

Unfortunately, Japan is one of 3 countries (Japan, Norway, and Iceland) that still perform commercial whaling.  Therefore I doubt there are any speed restrictions and if there are, it's most likely not for the whale's benefits

Under Japanese law, three species of whale are permitted to be hunted in its territorial waters and exclusive economic zones - sei whales, minke whales and Brycle's whales, not the endangered humpback whales .

When a ship collides with a whale, the consequences can be severe for both the whale and the ship !

[bEwAbG]

Whale migrations have been happening for a long time.  What has changed?  Has it really changed or is this a corporate decision to justify cost savings?

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

31 minutes ago, monkey@cruise said:

When a ship collides with a whale, the consequences can be severe for both the whale and the ship!

As evidenced by what happened recently when MSC pulled into the Brooklyn Navy Yard with a dead Sei whale (which was classified as endangered in all the reports about this) on her bow.

 

Though in this case I think the ship was ok. 😞

 

I wonder if this incident has led to crack-downs (or Celebrity being extra cautious) and re-routings.

Edited June 22 by WrittenOnYourHeart

[NutsAboutGolf]

I do feel bad when any sailing has a deviation

  

15 minutes ago, monkey@cruise said:

Under Japanese law, three species of whale are permitted to be hunted in its territorial waters and exclusive economic zones - sei whales, minke whales and Brycle's whales, not the endangered humpback whales .

When a ship collides with a whale, the consequences can be severe for both the whale and the ship !

 

Japan just added a fourth whale to hunt, Fin, earlier this month.  Japan is also building a new "mother" whaling ship which is expected to hunt in the Antarctic waters where humpback whales can gather.  I am not saying they will hunt humpbacks, I am just saying they're going to continue to expand operations.  There's no whaling enforcement so there's the theory they are relocating to the South Pole waters as it would be far more dangerous and expensive for activist or international Govt vessels to monitor them

 

Absolutely a whale and a ship colliding is bad news but the larger the ship, the higher the odds they have of having radar/sonar; it doesn't stop whale strikes but it is very helpful

 

Humpbacks are known to help other mammals from danger, if anyone would enjoy a humpback saving a human, it's an incredibly moving video: 

 

[monkey@cruise]

4 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

I do feel bad when any sailing has a deviation

  

 

Japan just added a fourth whale to hunt, Fin, earlier this month.  Japan is also building a new "mother" whaling ship which is expected to hunt in the Antarctic waters where humpback whales can gather.  I am not saying they will hunt humpbacks, I am just saying they're going to continue to expand operations.  There's no whaling enforcement so there's the theory they are relocating to the South Pole waters as it would be far more dangerous and expensive for activist or international Govt vessels to monitor them

 

Norway kills the most whales each year out of the three.

[zitsky]

I eat eel and fish so I won’t tell other people what kind of meat they should eat.  

[mumcat]

On 6/21/2024 at 9:19 PM, cinnamon said:

I’m booked on Millenium 24th September. As soon as I paid my balance I received an email telling me that the itinerary has changed dramatically and Celebrity say it is due to International Cruising Regulations.  
We were due to sail to Northern Japan for two ports and now all the ports are south of Tokyo. To say I’m peeved is a big understatement. 
 

Try as I might I’ve not been able to discover what regulations have changed recently. 
Any ideas?  

I assume that you booked the cruise in the UK. If so, have you checked the applicable T&Cs and whether you have ABTA protection? It's likely that there is a clause about 'significant changes' to the cruise. This clause will tell you what the cruise company should do if they have to make a significant change to the cruise, even if it's not their fault. Last year I successfully challenged an American  cruise company who are ABTA members when they made  a big change to the itinerary but failed to offer me options. It's worth reading the small print. Good luck

[DaKahuna]

I am all about saving endangered species. Life, any life, is precious but I have no qualms about consuming whale that was harvested legally.  That being said, Japan is the only country I have visited where I had the pleasure of dining on whale.  The best bacon I have ever had in my life was some whale bacon we bought at a store in Japan.  My wife and I still talk about how delicious it was. 

 

[monkey@cruise]

5 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

I am all about saving endangered species. Life, any life, is precious but I have no qualms about consuming whale that was harvested legally.  That being said, Japan is the only country I have visited where I had the pleasure of dining on whale.  The best bacon I have ever had in my life was some whale bacon we bought at a store in Japan.  My wife and I still talk about how delicious it was. 

 

Currently Japan is only allowed to whaling 300 per year in their own waters, so now importing 2,700 tons whale meat annually from Iceland. Hope your Moby-Dick bacon is not an Icelandic product.

[zitsky]

13 minutes ago, monkey@cruise said:

Currently Japan is only allowed to whaling 300 per year in their own waters, so now importing 2,700 tons whale meat annually from Iceland. Hope your Moby-Dick bacon is not an Icelandic product.

Uh oh.  I guess Celebrity is canceling all cruises to Iceland now?

[NutsAboutGolf]

 

17 minutes ago, monkey@cruise said:

Currently Japan is only allowed to whaling 300 per year in their own waters, so now importing 2,700 tons whale meat annually from Iceland. Hope your Moby-Dick bacon is not an Icelandic product.

 

That is for offshore commercial whaling and we're not sure if their government is actually enforcing that, there are also "small hunts" as well

[foodsvcmgr]

I don’t support whaling except by indigenous peoples but has anyone with an affected cruise actually gotten Celebrity to give a more detailed explanation?

[Charles4515]

54 minutes ago, foodsvcmgr said:

I don’t support whaling except by indigenous peoples but has anyone with an affected cruise actually gotten Celebrity to give a more detailed explanation?

I believe there was a thread last year about this. It was claimed that cruise ships are by voluntarily agreement reducing speeds in whale migration season to avoid non voluntary regulation or something like that. 

[DaKahuna]

3 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

I believe there was a thread last year about this. It was claimed that cruise ships are by voluntarily agreement reducing speeds in whale migration season to avoid non voluntary regulation or something like that. 

 

 I think I read these as well.  Concerned some cruises up the coast of California during the migration season having to change itineraries due to speed restrictions if I recall correctly. 

 

[zitsky]

In other news Celebrity is removing all meat from its cruise ships.

[cinnamon]

8 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

I believe there was a thread last year about this. It was claimed that cruise ships are by voluntarily agreement reducing speeds in whale migration season to avoid non voluntary regulation or something like that. 

If that’s the case, and they knew about it last year, why did they continue to seek this cruise as visiting the northern ports and only tell us a few days ago that they had changed the itinerary?

[Charles4515]

30 minutes ago, cinnamon said:

If that’s the case, and they knew about it last year, why did they continue to seek this cruise as visiting the northern ports and only tell us a few days ago that they had changed the itinerary?

Now that you mention it that question came up in previous discussions. I asked AI and it came up with this:

“Whale migration routes are dynamic and can change due to a combination of natural and human-induced factors. Continuous research and monitoring are essential to understand these changes and their implications for whale populations and conservation efforts.”

 

International Regulations seems like the best explanation for the changes in itinerary but of course some pundits on Cruise Critic prefer conspiracy theory’s.Believe what you like. 

[ewalke22]

On 6/22/2024 at 6:12 AM, StopTheWorld said:

Following. On the 6th Oct 2024 cruise.

I just checked and all 2024 cruise itineraries have now been updated, with Hakodate and Aomori dropped.
So far 2025 cruise itineraries are unchanged (though Celebrity may be going through the cruises in date order). 
We received an email on Thursday advising of change. 

We are on the July 14, 2024 sailing and as far as I know our itinerary remains unchanged and we are still stopping in Hakodate and Aomori.  

[StopTheWorld]

11 minutes ago, ewalke22 said:

We are on the July 14, 2024 sailing and as far as I know our itinerary remains unchanged and we are still stopping in Hakodate and Aomori.  

Thanks. Those sailings weren’t showing on celebrity’s website (maybe because they’re sold out?) so I couldn’t check them. 
That’s strange that only a select number of cruises have had an itinerary change! The plot thickens….