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Insight > Safety at sea
On thin
ice
The
Shaken by the Liberian Bureau of
Maritime Affairs report into the 2007
sinking of the MV Explorer in the
we did an immediate audit of all our
systems after the Explorer event to check if
such a thing could happen to one of our
Antarctic, most cruise lines are re-evaluating ships,” he says.
their procedures, training and equipment for Hurtigruten’s vice-president of marine
future voyages into polar regions. At the operations, Torkild Torkildsen, was also driven
same time, the industry is coming under to check his company’s procedures after
pressure from official maritime bodies to tidy witnessing the sinking of the Explorer, having While using the event as a catalyst for
up its act before there is an ecological and helped coordinate a rescue operation by his re-evaluating their polar operations, both
human catastrophe.
own ship, the Nordnorge.
veteran shipping executives were shocked at
the fate of the Explorer, one of the first
“
We’ve been cruising without incident in the Antarctic
for 20 years but we did an immediate audit of all our
systems after the Explorer event to check if such a
thing could happen to one of our ships.
vessels to bring tourists into the region.
“I was unable to understand how an iceclass
ship could have sunk. An expedition
vessel does not sink. It can only happen if
watertight compartments are compromised,”
Ahrens says.
Sebastian Ahrens
Meantime, a flurry of maritime diplomatic
action has been triggered by the report as
bodies such as the Antarctic and Southern
For Hapag-Lloyd Cruises managing
“I sat down with the captain afterwards Ocean Coalition (ASOC) apply pressure
director Sebastian Ahrens, cruise lines and conducted a total review of all our through formal channels to establish the
reacted to the sinking by reviewing their written procedures, not just to see if they same safety, evacuation and ecological
procedures. “We’ve been cruising without were adequate, but also to check they are standards in the Antarctic that are required
incident in the Antarctic for 20 years but being properly observed,” he recalls.
by sovereign states such as Canada.
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World Cruise Industry Review | www.worldcruiseindustryreview.com
sinking of the MV Explorer
in the Antarctic in 2007 made
cruise lines operating in the
area urgently reassess their
safety procedures. ASOC’s
Jim Barnes, Hurtigruten’s
Torkild Torkildsen, and
Hapag-Lloyd Cruises’
Sebastian Ahrens tell Selwyn
Parker how the incident has
affected the industry.