Monthly Archives: April 2024

Its full steam ahead for the cruise ship industry after Royal Caribbean hiked its full-year profit guidance on Thursday, saying it expects 60% growth from last year following record bookings during the first quarter.

Travelers are paying record ticket prices, according to Royal Caribbean despite a recent spate of high-sea deaths and missing passengers reports, including a Florida 20-year-old who jumped off a Royal Caribbean cruise this month.

Soaring demand for vacations at sea has given cruise operators ample room to raise ticket prices as the industry looks to close the pricing gap between more expensive land-based holidays and give their profits a lift.

Royal Caribbean, which operates the Celebrity Cruises, now expects annual profits of between $10.70 and $10.90 per share, compared with its earlier forecast of $9.90 to $10.10.

Our existing fleet along with our new ships continue to perform exceptionally well, highlighted by the market response to the launch of Icon of the Seas, CEO Jason Liberty said.

Royal Caribbeans shares which have spiked 126% in the past year, were up 2% on Thursday morning, to $139.32.

I remember owning the stock in 2022 and every client was giving me grief about it, said Peter Ahluwalia, manager at Belinvest Global Equity Fund that holdsRoyalCaribbean stocks and chief investment officer at Swiss Partners Group. Were turning almost 45% return on equity at the moment, which is quite incredible.

Overall, the industry which was among the hardest hit during the pandemic, is expected to grow to 39.4 million passengers in 2027 from 31.7 million last year, according to Statista.

The surge in demand comes amid major publicity blows from incidents at sea involving passengers who have gone missing, including the Florida man who jumped overboard on April 4 in front of his brother and father after a night of drinking.

Last December, a 41-year-old Royal Caribbean passenger went overboard on a cruise to the Bahamas. That followed an incident last August involving a 64 year-old woman sailing fromSingapore to Malaysia on Royal Caribbean who is presumed to have jumped to her death.

On average, 19 people go overboard on cruise ships every year and of those, only about four are rescued, according to a 2020 study commissioned by the industry trade group Cruise Lines International Association.

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Cruise ship industry is booming despite spate of high-seas deaths - New York Post

The vote is an important signal to the rest of the world that the EU is serious about prioritising greater ocean protection.

The European Union has voted in favour of ratifying the High Seas Treaty.

This treaty aims to protect marine life in areas that are outside of countries maritime borders including the high seas and the seabed.

The decision is a key step in the process of approving the ratification of the High Seas Treaty.

The Parliaments decision will now be formally adopted by the European Council, after which the EU will be ready to deposit its instrument of ratification at the United Nations (UN).

It has been classified as a mixed agreement by the EU, which means it needs to be ratified at both the EU and at EU member state level.

The EU was a significant player during Treaty negotiations, so its ratification is a pivotal moment in the race to ratify, says Chris Thorne, Greenpeace campaigner for Protect the Oceans.

This vote is the first by a regional organisation and must trigger a wave of ratifications. The 27 EU governments must follow the EU's lead and fast-track ratification before the 2025 UN Oceans Conference in Nice.

The High Seas Alliance, a group of organisations pushing for the conservation of the High Seas, welcomed the European Parliament vote.

This progress provides a big boost to EU countries to accelerate the ratification of this important Treaty at a member state level, and sends an important signal to the rest of the world that the EU is serious about prioritising greater ocean protection with international law as a matter of urgency, says Rebecca Hubbard, director of the High Seas Alliance.

For the High Seas Treaty to come into force, at least 60 countries will need to sign and ratify it. So far, 89 countries have signed it and four have formally ratified it at the UN: Palau, Chile, Belize and Seychelles.

Though the EU itself doesnt count as an additional party, when it and the 27 member states officially submit their ratification it will have a significant impact on progress towards the treaty coming into force.

It could also help more countries to complete the process and bring the total up to 60 countries before the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France in June 2025.

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EU votes to ratify landmark High Seas Treaty - Euronews

This week Louis Vuitton unveiled a nautical-inspired campaign to mark the first release of Pharells premier Pre-Fall collection. Steeped in maritime imagery and bohemian splendour, the collection draws on the idea of travel as a connective force as the brand explores various subcultures from Hawaii to Hong Kong.

Split into two drops (the other to be announced in the coming weeks), the collection debuted on the runway last November, when the French fashion house transported the global fashion crowd to Hong Kong for Pharrells first-ever Pre-Fall collection for Louis Vuitton.

The show emphasised the importance of Pharrells community, inviting a mix of Hawaiian surfers, local models and friends of the brand to model the collection, a theme that carries through to the campaign. Lensed by photographer Leslie Zhang and set on a vast boat under a grey sky, the campaign features a range of models including Ayden Williams, Carlisle Aikens, Joey Lanham, Martial Crum, and Yuhi Miyahara, each doubling as skateboarders, surfers and designers.

Dressed head-to-toe in pieces from the Pre-Fall 2024 collection, each model exudes the nautical, preppy and bohemian surfer sensibilities that define the collection. The campaign features two distinctly branded varsity jackets, a tailored pinstripe suit, a full linen set with a matching sailor hat, softly held leather pieces and more. An original track titled Airplane Tickets by Pharrell Williams, Swae Lee and Rauw Alejandro makes a grand return following its debut at the runway show in Hong Kong. Check out the campaign video here.

The first drop of the Louis Vuitton Pre-Fall 2024 collection is available in stores now.

Visit louisvuitton.com

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Pharrell Takes To The High Seas For Louis Vuitton Pre-Fall 2024 | Fashion - Clash Magazine

A global effort by seabird researchers, including those from NIWA, has resulted in the first assessment of where the worlds most threatened seabirds spend their time.

The movements of almost 6000 seabirds, collected from tagging data from around the world, have been collated to find out how much time albatrosses and large petrels spend on the high seas, outside the jurisdiction of any single country.

Albatrosses and their close relatives, the large petrels, are among the worlds most-threatened animals, with over half of the species at risk of extinction.

Approximately 168 seabird taxa have been recorded in New Zealand waters, many of which breed nowhere else. In fact, New Zealand hosts the largest number of breeding species of seabirds anywhere in the world, including 25 species of albatrosses and large petrels.

This new research, published today in Science Advances, shows the birds spend almost 40% of their time on the high seas which the authors say highlights the need for international co-operation to ensure their survival.

NIWA seabird ecologist Dr David Thompson says while seabird tracking research has not been carried out for all albatrosses and large petrels in New Zealand, we know that several species also spend time in Chile and Peru, in Japan and the USA in the north Pacific Ocean, while others visit Namibia and South Africa.

For some species we simply dont know.

Martin Beal, the Portugal-based lead author of the research, described albatrosses as the ultimate globetrotters.

However, this incredible lifestyle makes them vulnerable to threats in places where legal protection is inadequate, he said.

The researchers tracked the movements of 5775 individual birds belonging to 39 species using miniature electronic tags. The tracked birds were tagged at 87 breeding sites in 17 countries.

The results showed that all species regularly cross into the waters of other countries, meaning that no single nation can adequately ensure their conservation. Furthermore, all species depended on the high seas, which are areas of international waters covering half of the worlds oceans and a third of the earths surface.

The researchers revealed the extent to which seabirds connect countries to one another, as well as to the high seas. The study comes as the United Nations is discussing a global treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in international waters. Our study unequivocally shows that albatrosses and large petrels need reliable protection that extends beyond the borders of any single country, Mr Beal said.

While at sea, albatrosses and large petrels face a number of threats, primarily from interactions with commercial fishing vessels and pollution.

Dr Thompson says hundreds of seabirds are killed in New Zealand waters each year caught on longlines or in trawl nets near to the surface.

However, he says that New Zealand is ahead of the game in attempting to quantify the risk to all New Zealand seabird species from commercial fishing. This means that decisions can be made that target resources in order to produce the best conservation outcomes for seabirds.

Dr Thompson says he hopes the research will highlight how little control countries have over seabirds when they are using the high seas.

A very large proportion of seabird tracking researchers globally were involved in this work, which has quantified for the first time the extent to which albatrosses and large petrels use Exclusive Economic Zones of different countries and the high seas."

Its hugely important because now we have a comprehensive international framework that allows different countries to collaborate on the conservation issues facing this group of seabirds, and for all countries that have breeding populations of these species to take collective responsibility for their conservation in the high seas. This type of research could not have been produced any other way.

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Seabirds spend nearly 40% of their time on high seas, study finds - NIWA