Cruisers angry as fourth luxury ship banned from New Zealand's waters

After their dream retirement cruise on the Queen Mary 2 from London to New York was lost to COVID in 2020, Sharon and Peter Clarke instead booked a voyage, with eight friends, to New Zealand's stunning Fiordland on the Queen Elizabeth.

But just 48 hours before their due departure on Saturday, January 7, they were told by Cunard that the ship would no longer be sailing anywhere near either Fiordland or Dunedin – the two highlights of the cruise – because of another case of "dirty hull syndrome".

"We are heartbroken," said Sharon Clarke, 72, a retired university lecturer. "That's exactly why we all booked this cruise, to see those two places. But when we asked if we could postpone until the problem was sorted out, Cunard wouldn't hear of it.

"We've paid thousands of dollars for this cruise but, as compensation, they've insulted us further by offering just US$100 per person to be spent on board while 'enjoying two more sea days'. They must have known about this dirty hull syndrome problem for some time but to have given us such short notice."

The Queen Elizabeth is the fourth ship to have been hit in the past two weeks with clean-up orders by New Zealand authorities around biofouling – high-risk organisms like mussels, oysters, foliose algae, hydroids, tunicates, sponges, crabs and starfish stuck onto the hull - which accounts for 90 per cent of marine pests arriving in their waters.

Recently, the snail-encrusted Coral Princess was cleaned 77 kilometres off the coast of Tauranga and then was allowed to visit New Zealand, whereas the Viking Origin and Seven Seas Explorer were only allowed to stop at approved ports. Now the Queen Elizabeth has also been hit by the same order.

Biosecurity New Zealand environmental health manager Paul Hallett said the Queen Elizabeth had visited approved ports in December, but was instructed to have biofouling removed before subsequent voyages back.

"The current biofouling standards were introduced in 2018, and Biosecurity New Zealand undertakes significant stakeholder engagement to help vessel operators comply with bio-fouling requirements," he said. "As a result, we have seen an increase in proactive management of vessel hulls by operators and in awareness of our bio-fouling rules.

"For context, a total of 6121 international vessels arrived in New Zealand from January 1, 2020, to September 2022. Of these, 6 per cent (377) were issued a notice of direction to address bio-fouling issues."