Somewhere in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean, I exited the elevator on Deck 7 of the newly relaunched 3,600-passenger MSC Poesia cruise ship and headed into the ornate theater to find a seat for a late-morning lecture hosted by Maria Snell, a marine mammal observer with U.K.-based Orca, a marine life conservation organization.
“Alaska is a summer feeding ground for humpback whales,” Snell was telling the audience, as I quietly settled into my folding chair. It was a day at sea for the Poesia, which was en route to Alaska from Seattle. “Thousands of whales migrate here every summer from Hawai‘i. But as we all know, it’s also a very popular summer cruising destination.”
Therein lies the problem. Everyone, both human cruisers and whales, wants to be in Alaska at the same time, creating a traffic jam that can have devastating—and deadly—consequences for the animals that the ships inadvertently come into contact with, and that they are sailing to Alaska for passengers to see.
No one is driving around hitting whales on purpose. But what MSC are doing is acknowledging the fact that there is more that can be done.
According to Snell, “When a collision does occur, it is very likely that the whale will die. And over the past few decades, the amount of shipping traffic in the world has increased substantially, and it is predicted to increase even further over the coming decades.”
Snell’s talk had taken a dark turn.
This wasn’t exactly the kind of entertainment that would typically take place in the ship’s theater; in fact, later that night I would sit in on a dazzling ’70s-themed musical performance, complete with sparkling bell-bottoms and disco sing-alongs.
The marine researcher’s onboard presentation was both surprising in its brutal honesty and impressive because of the larger undertaking it represents.
According to Orca, tens of thousands of whales die every year due to ship strikes. Rather than ignore the problem, European company MSC Cruises, which sailed its inaugural season in Alaska this summer, is addressing it head-on—not least because Alaska is such a critical habitat for whales.
A closer look at the problem
MSC first partnered with Orca in March 2023, initially to train deck officers in avoiding collisions with whales, dolphins, and porpoises. MSC subsequently reported that 469 crew members had been trained across its fleet by the end of 2024. This year, the two took that partnership a step further.
In late July, I met Snell during her first week aboard the MSC Poesia of what would ultimately be a five-week residency consisting of a combination of research and traveler awareness efforts.
While the ship was sailing, Snell situated herself on the bridge of the vessel and aimed Orca’s newly acquired high-tech camera equipment out the windows to capture and record marine mammal sightings and movement. Previously, Snell and other researchers had been collecting such data manually and by simple human observation (in other words, by using their own eyes and reporting what they saw).
The goal is to better understand the relationship between marine mammals and ships so that the crew can ultimately navigate vessels in ways that would reduce the incidents of strikes.
In addition to data collection, Snell was charged with being an extra pair of eyes in the bridge to help alert the crew when whales were spotted in the ship’s path and reinforce efforts such as voluntary speed restrictions throughout the itinerary—during a bridge tour, the ship’s captain assured me that MSC has a strong track record when it comes to adhering to recommended slowdowns. (MSC’s parent company, which encompasses both the cruise line and shipping operations, scores high marks with Whale Safe North America that rates operators based on speed zone compliance rates.)
“Ultimately, it is the people who live and work at sea that can have the biggest impact on protecting it. And often, I find that it’s these same people that are also most passionate about the ocean as well,” said Snell.
Getting passengers involved
On the consumer-facing side, in addition to her no-holds-barred lecture, Snell set aside some time to meet with guests out on the MSC Poesia’s deck to further discuss Orca’s conservation and research efforts and to tell them about the Orca Ocean Watchers app, which anyone can download and use to record data about whales and dolphins and send it to Orca.
Maria Snell, a marine mammal observer with U.K.-based Orca, meets with passengers on the MSC Poesia cruise ship to discuss whale and marine mammal welfare.
Courtesy of MSC Cruises
When interfacing with guests, “A question I get asked a lot is, ‘Why don’t the whales just hear the ship coming and move out of the way?’ And there are a few reasons why this potentially doesn’t happen,” Snell said during her talk.
She noted that researchers have proposed several possible explanations, including including the sheer amount of noise pollution in the ocean that might mask the sound of an oncoming ship, as well as the high number of ships in the ocean, meaning whales may have become acclimatized to the sound of them and don’t perceive them as a danger.
There’s also a theory called “the bow null effect,” which is that the bow might actually block out the sound of the propeller, creating a sort of quiet zone, and thus a whale that is directly in front of a ship might not hear the ship approaching.
The fact that these are all just theories is exactly what Snell and other researchers are hoping to solve for. With better information, they aim to have a more complete and accurate picture of how whales and other marine mammals respond to vessels so that they can work with shipping lines and cruise companies to come up with solutions that will ultimately result in fewer strikes and deaths.
For instance, one question they have is whether it’s better for ships to simply reduce their speed if they see whales within their path, giving the whales time to move out of the way, or to actively try to divert the vessel away from the whales—or to use both tactics simultaneously.
Protecting the whales people go to Alaska to see
Over the past three years, from 2023 to 2025, Alaska welcomed upwards of 1.6 million cruise passengers annually—more than any other prior year. (The previous record was 1.33 million passengers in 2019.) And many of them come seeking wildlife encounters, including on myriad whale-watching excursions offered by cruise lines making port calls throughout the Last Frontier.
On the fourth day of our late July sailing, Snell and I joined a whale-watching outing in Icy Strait Point. After climbing into the comfortable two-deck sightseeing boat with both indoor and outdoor viewing areas and sailing along what seemed like endless forests and rocky beaches through a perfectly Alaskan misty morning, we finally came upon a pod of humpback whales. The excitement was infectious as the passengers scrambled around the vessel to secure a prime viewing spot. Some managed to snap amazing photos of humpbacks breaching in unison, the dramatic bursts of air and water emerging from their blowholes, and their huge tails and fins slapping the water.
A big part of the thrill is the uncertainty of what you might see and when. It’s hard to prepare yourself for the awe that you feel when you do spot one of these massive creatures, a feeling that is only multiplied when you see an entire pod all breaching in unison. It’s like a well-choreographed ballet; time stands still while nature performs.
When we returned to Icy Strait Point, Snell and I sat down to a lunch feast of crab and corn, which was included in the excursion. In addition to her research efforts, she was also tasked with joining excursions such as this one to evaluate how smaller operators are responding around whales (if at all) and whether they are operating ethically and responsibly.
I asked her what she thought of the excursion and she said she was pleased with the fact that the boats appeared to keep a safe distance from the whales (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, states that vessels in Alaska must stay at least 100 yards from humpback whales), while simultaneously balancing the desire of passengers to get closer to the action.
It’s a quagmire that defines the very essence of this entire effort. Cruise lines want to help people get to Alaska to see these majestic beasts up close, but it defeats the entire purpose if they inadvertently harm them—or worse—along the way.
“A thriving cruise industry needs thriving whale populations”
Is there a way for cruise ships and whales to live in harmony?
Photo by Jonathan Hsu/Unsplash
“When we were [first] planning to go to Alaska, we started this conversation, [and asked] how can we operate in the best possible way?” Jon Olav Stedje, manager of sustainability and community engagement for MSC Cruises, tells me as we sit in the Top Sail Lounge on MSC Poesia, an exclusive space for members of the ship’s Yacht Club, the boutique ship-within-a-ship concept on MSC vessels and a way to avoid the masses on a big ship.
Stedje added that being aware that Alaska is a “hot spot for whales,” MSC wanted to make an effort to enter the market more responsibly.
MSC reached out to Orca for ideas on how to address the situation of entering the Alaska market but in a meaningful way that could move in the right direction with regard to marine mammal protections and helping to better preserve the very whale populations that make this destination so coveted.
“No one is driving around hitting whales on purpose. There isn’t a ship in the world that is doing this deliberately. Every single vessel strike is accidental. But what MSC are doing is acknowledging the fact that there is more that can be done,” Steve Jones, Orca’s chief operating officer, told me back in April while sitting around a conference room table at the Miami Convention Center during Seatrade Cruise Global.
My April meeting with Jones was the first time I had heard about the partnership being forged between Orca and MSC, and his excitement about the positive change the liaison could bring to the cruise industry at large was palpable.
The hope, he said, is “that other cruise lines would follow suit, and hopefully work with Orca and implement similar programs. . . . When a brand like MSC essentially puts its head above the parapet, I think it does inspire others to follow.”
Now that Snell’s residency is complete and MSC’s 2026 Alaska season has wrapped—the cruise line has already committed to returning to Alaska again in 2027 and 2028—Orca is collating the data obtained and is reviewing the findings, Jones told me in a recent follow-up via email. The goal is to have some concrete findings based on that research by November.
MSC’s sister luxury boutique cruising brand, Explora Journeys, will sail its inaugural season in Alaska season in 2027 with its new 922-passenger Explora III vessel, and Explora Journeys has also partnered with Orca on crew training programs.
As for where Orca and MSC go from here, neither could confirm concrete plans for the forthcoming Alaska seasons yet, but Jones wrote me that Orca “will continue to train all MSC officers to help them reduce their impact on whales, [and will] continue to support the team on responsible wildlife-related shore excursions.”
The ultimate desire is that this initiative will spark a domino effect across the industry.
“MSC Cruises have made it clear from day one that they want to see this project inspire other [cruise] brands,” noted Jones.
He added, “We know that a thriving cruise industry wants and needs thriving whale populations, and so I’m sure we’ll see new projects, collaborations, and research inspired by the work this summer.”
