Passengers on an organized New Year’s cruise between New Zealand and Australia were stranded aboard the ship for a week because of algae on the ship’s hull that had to be cleaned before the ship was allowed to enter port.
Divers had to remove “biofouling” – a buildup of microorganisms, plants, algae or small animals – while the Viking Orion was at anchor in international waters, the Australian government said. The cleanup was necessary to protect Australian waters from “potentially harmful marine organisms,” the Department of Fisheries said.
Built in 2018, the nine-story Viking Orion, featuring a spa, theatre, sports area and swimming pool, departed Auckland on 23 December and called at Weelington on 26 December, but missed scheduled stops at Christchurch, Dunedin and Tasmania’s state capital, Hobart.
After clean-up work in front of the South Australian capital Adelaide, the Viking Orion should finally arrive in Melbourne on Tuesday at the latest, the company and the Australian government said.
The Viking company confirmed that it removed “a limited amount of standard sea growth” from the hull. “The ship had to miss several stops along the route in order to be able to carry out the necessary cleaning. Now it is expected to resume the scheduled voyage – Viking said –. We agree on the compensation methods with the guests.”