25 November 2024
At dawn on Monday 25 November, 16 Christchurch and Lyttelton supporters of Climate Liberation Aotearoa (CLA) kayaked out to meet the Diamond Princes cruise ship as it docked at Lyttelton Port. This was part of a planned phase of escalation to on-water tactics by the climate action group, in keeping with advice by New Zealand Cruise Association CEO Jacqui Lloyd to directly target the industry itself rather than passengers.
CLA supporters in kayaks held banners saying “Cruise Emissions Kill” and waved flags showing the endangered Hector’s Dolphin (tūpoupou) whose Lyttelton and Akaroa harbour habitats are encroached on by the cruise industry.
“We need to start seriously questioning the climate and ecological impacts of this industry, particularly given recent revelations that academics and peer reviewed research suggest that much of the supposed economic benefits of this industry are overestimated by un-transparent industry funded studies,” said Michael Apathy, CLA spokesperson.
“Respectful and carefully managed interactions with creatures such as Hector’s Dolphin (tūpoupou) are a perfect example of genuinely sustainable tourism that we need to be supporting more, rather than the polluting low-value mass tourism model that the cruise industry is an extreme example of. We need to be much more actively regulating this industry, and in some areas such as Piopiotahi (Milford Sounds) cruise ships should be completely banned.”
Cruise ships hurt marine mammals through noise pollution, habitat displacement, discharge of inadequately treated sewerage and other waste, climate impacts on oceans, and through direct strikes by the ships on marine mammals. Many cruise companies have recorded strikes by their ships on whales. The estimated killing of 20,000 whales per year by shipping, dwarfs the numbers of whales killed by whaling.
Today’s protest followed a protest against the same ship in Wellington the day before in which protesters in bow ties and top hats greeted the Princess Cruises cruise ship, waving monopoly money at the shuttles heading into the city, and precedes a planned protest in Dunedin in which supporters of CLA will meet passengers at the railway station, one of Aotearoa’s most photographed buildings, to let them know the harm that cruising causes.
Apathy states that, “The more the industry misrepresents the consequences of cruising, the more we are resolved to escalate our non-violent resistance to climate and ecological breakdown.”