BEFOULING IS REALLY A THING

 DAY 9/138   Yesterday afternoon after our walking tour of old Panama City we returned to the ship and expected a departure time of 5:00 PM.  John and I walked up to the top deck for a drink to watch the ship sail away from Panama on our way to Costa Rica.  Much to John's surprise he saw 3 scuba divers go over the deck to the water below and heard equipment start up on a small boat below the Viking SKY.   Word quickly spread that the ship's hull needed to be cleaned before we could enter New Zealand or Australia.  Apparently this cleaning had been scheduled but they got a late start so our departure was delayed for several hours.  Imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning and the ship had still not left port.  Apparently the visibility was too low for work to continue last night and resumed this morning  until around 1:00  PM.  

Picture of  dive boat parked alongside our ship. 


Photo of  a diver getting ready to start scrubbing the hull of our ship.

I love researching subjects and this is what I learned about the ocean's contamination from shipping.  

BIMCO, the world’s largest shipping association, has moved a step closer to finishing a global set of guidelines needed to protect the marine environment from invasive species and reduce CO2 emissions. Currently, there is no common global standard for cleaning ships’ hulls to avoid transferring invasive aquatic species, nor for the potentially damaging debris washed off in the process. 

 For shipowners, the lack of a common set of global rules creates economic and administrative headaches. Countries like Australia and New Zealand, as well as regions such as Hawaii and California, have already implemented regulation on biofouling on ships arriving in their waters, or are in the process of doing so, as some of the first.

Our second surprise this morning was seeing the  Emerald Princess docked next to us and two of its passengers are friends of ours from Yuma, AZ. ,  John and Rita Ham.  We knew that were cruising on that ship but they were scheduled to leave Florida after us.  Through a few phone calls we were able to connect with them and John was able to wave and take their photo while they stood on deck. What are the odds?   Such a small world.  

John and Rita Ham  on the dock waving to John Razmus. 

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