The Viking Star is Viking Cruise’s New Ocean Ship

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Viking Cruise Lines has unveiled the very first of its oceanic ships in a video earlier this week. While that may not sounds all that impressive, people should consider that the Viking Cruise Line used to be solely river cruises around Europe, Asia, and parts of Egypt. The branching out into ocean cruises (the Viking Start launches in 2015) is a big step for the company and takes them into direct competition with a number of larger and better known companies including Norwegian Cruise Line and Carnival Cruise line. While the ship can only carry 930 passengers (leading to a different type of cruise experience), it wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine Viking eventually owning a fleet of large cruise ships as well as smaller ones.

The video released showed the inaugural floating of the ship, the first time it has ever touched water. It also sets the stage for the final chapter of the ship’s construction, the building and outfitting of the interior of the ship. While the ship is being built/inaugurated in Italy, the mayor of Bergen, Norway and godmother to the Viking Star, Trude Drevland, was there as well to officially inaugurate the ship. Soon the Viking Star will be officially used to ferry passengers around the world’s oceans and will take Viking Cruise Lines to a whole new level.

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No-Take Zones Are A Good Thing

The Wildlife Conservation Society has released a new report that speaks to the effectiveness of “no-take” zones and how they benefit both local economies as well as the surrounding ecology. Focused on the Central American country of Belize (a world leader in this effort), the study focuses on the efforts of the Belize government to enforce the “no-take” zones and how these zones impact the lives of both humans as well as marine animals. The study found that, contrary to what people might think, the “no-take” zones were good for the livelihoods of the people who lived near them. The zones allowed commercially viable and economically valuable species to recover from overfishing and, once they spread from the zone, fishermen and others can catch the species to both eat and sell. Species like lobsters, conch, and certain fish have been able to catch up and reproduce safely, allowing their populations to recover to a sustainable level. As long as these “no-take” zones stay in place, all sea creatures will have an area where they can breed safely.

Unsurprisingly, these zones are also good for helping the ecology recover. Coral reefs that were dying and abandoned saw an increase in recolonization which could lead to regrowth of the coral. The large number of new animals means that new places to live will have to be found and coral reefs are perfect for that. With the regrowth and repopulation of the reefs and the new levels of sea creatures it is easy to imagine that the tourism industry will explode as well, further adding to the local economy. These zones are a good thing for a variety of reasons. Hopefully this report will allow us to see more countries taking the health of the oceans and their own people into their hands.

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