It's hard to think of a business more detrimental to life on Earth than the cruise ship industry. It kills the human spirit by repackaging the experience of being locked in a dingy Florida motel as a "voyage," and it spews out two times more greenhouse gas emissions than air travel; in 2022, 218 cruise ships emitted more carbon than all of Europe's automobiles, combined. There's also the eight gallons of sewage that cruise ships discharge into the ocean per guest, per day, and the fun bouts of pooping and puking that seize people unlucky enough to board the wrong ships.
Cruise liners have been a comically awful cliche for decades, and yet, we can't get enough—Creed and other shitty butt rock bands have packed onto a cruise ship? Sure, sign me up. Literally, the biggest and best cruise ship ever made is famous for hitting a fucking iceberg and killing 1,500 people!
This week, New Yorkers got yet another reminder of how terrible these boats are, when a 44-foot long, adult female Sei whale was found dead on the bow of a cruise ship docked at the Port of Brooklyn in Red Hook on Saturday morning. The whale, which is endangered, was towed to Sandy Hook, New Jersey, for a necropsy to determine when and how it died, but experts told the New York Post that the 214-foot tall MSC Meraviglia is the likely culprit.
Rob DiGiovanni, the founder and chief scientist of the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society, however, told The Post it was more than likely that the "interaction with the vessel contributed to her death."
"It looks like she was eating," DiGiovanni said, indicating she was a healthy whale with relatively fresh food in her stomach.
How often do ships kill whales? Thousands of times a year, but that's likely an undercount, because experts estimate that only five percent of these struck whales ever wash ashore.
"We are deeply saddened by the loss of any marine life," MSC said in a statement.
In March, the City Council passed the Our Air Our Water Act, which requires cruise ships to plug into the electrical grid when docked at New York City ports (New York City's Economic Development Corporation opposed the legislation, because of all the money the cruise passengers bring to the city, you see). The law took effect immediately, but it obviously doesn't do anything to protect the whales that are becoming more common in New York's waters. Maybe there ought to be another law.
Don't cruise for links—we have some here for you:
- The New York Knicks defeated the Indiana Pacers to take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals playoff series AND Josh Hart said a cuss word to Reggie Miller on live TV.
- The Adams administration keeps pushing back crucial repair work on the BQE's triple cantilever. What could go wrong?
- NYC Schools Chancellor David Banks testified before Congress with the assistance of…Mayor Eric Adams?
- "Winnie Greco, Top Eric Adams Aide, Back at Work After Being Sidelined by FBI Raid"
- A man who was shot in the back by an NYPD cop guarding Mayor Adams's house in Brooklyn in 2022 is suing the City in federal court.
- Roughly 40 NYPD officers are facing potential CCRB charges related to encounters that happened during protests across the city in recent months. Some of those arrested at the protests were credentialed journalists.
- A real estate developer related to the founder of a pro-Israel terrorist group was charged with felony assault for driving his car into a group of pro-Palestinian protesters on the Upper East Side on Tuesday morning, and hitting one woman, who suffered minor injuries. "What does my being a distant cousin of someone who passed away 35 years ago have anything to do with this?" he told the AP.
- Oh yeah? You were just "taking a little nap" with your date in the back of your BMW at 3 a.m. when you were carjacked?
- There might be fewer spicy tweets from the NYPD now that the City Council has asked the Department of Investigation to look into their social media posts (and cited a Hell Gate story in their letter to the DOI). The mayor, however, is still fully supportive of his boys in blue.
- Rents are at record highs, again, and rents are also rising seven times faster than wages.
- Start saving your pennies for that massive e-bike you've always wanted but never wanted to lug up your stairs: NYC has a goal of installing 500 on-street bike storage units across the five boroughs.
- And finally, Brooklyn State Senator Zellnor Myrie has released his first campaign video in his quest to challenge Mayor Adams in next year's Democratic primary
