Passengers aboard Viking’s luxury cruise ship Viking Orion saw themselves stranded at sea after port in New Zealand and then Australia refused the cruise ship’s arrival.
The Viking Orion (47,861 gross tons) introduced in 2018 as the fifth cruise ship in the company’s ocean fleet, departed Sydney, Australia on December 22 for a two-week Australia-New Zealand Christmas-New Year’s cruise.
The Viking Orion was reportedly denied permission to dock in Adelaide after authorities discovered a “marine growth” on the ship.
Australia’s fisheries department said the fungus – which it called biofoul – was “potentially harmful”.
Officials said the ship’s hull must be cleared before entering the country.
According to reports, the cruise ship made two port calls on New Zealand’s North Island at Tauranga and Napier before the problem was identified while the vessel was at Wellington, New Zealand on December 26. Since then, she has been a cruise ship in search of a port of call.
Biofoul is an accumulation of microorganisms, plants, algae, or small animal and can allow the importation of invasive species into non-native habitats.
The fisheries department said the management of fungus was a “common practice for all arriving international vessels” and said that the ship had to be cleaned to avoid “harmful marine organisms being transported” into Australian waters.
“Professional divers were engaged directly by the vessel line/agent to clean the hull while at anchor outside Australian waters,” it said.
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