Sapphire Princess vs Humpback Whale

[FINLANDER]

Just reading articles about the Sapphire Princess having a full grown female humpback whale 'attached' to her bulbous bow outside of
Juneau earlier this week. The article goes on to say that a necropsy would be preformed today to determine if the whale was dead before becoming 'stuck' or whether the ship hit her. I understand Princess could face serious reprimands and fines if they are found 'guilty' of running into the whale...as they are a protected species. I understand this has happened before to Princess. Does anyone know if other lines have had the same issue?
I know ships are huge, but would it not be noticable if a ship struck a whale (this one was approx 45 ft. long)???

[penny3333]

I was thinking the same thing, FINLANDER. Surely it had to have slowed the ship down dragging something that huge. The article I read stated that it was not the first time it had happened. I've always thought that people in water craft that pull out in front of cruise ships were nuts. Now I know for sure. If they can't tell they've hit something as large as a whale, a jet ski would be nothing.

[f-mattox]

The same thing happened to Sapphire Princess last season; the whale wasn't discovered until the ship was docking in Vancouver. I believe it was determined that the animal was dead when struck by the ship. I hope that is the case this time.

And yet several passengers were very critical of a Princess Captain when he took an evasive action to avoid hitting a whale a couple of months ago. It knocked a few people down but there were no injuries--just some broken dishes and glassware. Seems like the Captains are damned if they do and damned it they don't.

[penny3333]

You're right f-mattox, it's a no win situation.