The Viking Orion was reportedly denied permission to drop its anchors in Adelaide, a city in South Australia after authorities discovered “biofuol”- an accumulation of microorganisms, plants, algae or small animals.
Picture: Unsplash
Passengers were reportedly stranded on board the luxury New Year’s cruise around New Zealand and Australia for a week due to marine growth on the ship’s hull.
According to Republic World, the Australian Fisheries Department ordered that the ship first be cleared of the harmful algae to gain permission to sail. It cited the reason that the “harmful marine organisms” would infiltrate the Australian territory if the vessel wasn’t first properly cleaned.
‘The vessel is required to undergo hull cleaning to remove the biofoul and prevent potentially harmful marine organisms being transported by the vessel,’ the Australian fisheries department said.
The ship authorities said, ‘While the ship [Viking Orion] needed to miss several stops on this itinerary in order for the required cleaning to be conducted, she is expected to sail for Melbourne as planned on 1 January, and we are expecting the scheduled itinerary to resume completely by 2 January.’
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