Salvage delay worries Giglio Island residents

AFP/Rome

Residents of the Italian island of Giglio voiced concern for their livelihoods yesterday after officials said it could take 10 months to remove the wreck of a cruise ship blighting the tourist hot-spot.The population on the Tuscan island swells from 800 to 5,000 in the summer months as tourists flock to swim, snorkel and dive in the crystal-clear waters, but islanders fear the beached ship and pollution risks may put off tourists.Notices went up around the island yesterday calling for the creation of a “civic committee” to aid the island ahead of the summer 2012 season.The risk of a fuel leak from the Costa Concordia into one of Europe’s biggest marine parks would not only be environmentally disastrous, it would deal a heavy blow to restaurants, bars and hotels which thrive on tourism, locals say.“If there is an oil spill from the wreck, it is going to bring the island to its knees. Not just the island but the whole of the Tuscan coast,” the head of the island’s tourism department Samantha Brizzi said earlier.Dolphin-spotting in the Tuscan archipelago’s emerald waters has been replaced for now by day-trip tourists who come to photograph the vast luxury cruiser and the emergency crews swarming around the stricken vessel.Technicians from the Dutch company SMIT Salvage had planned to begin syphoning off the estimated 2,380 tonnes of fuel in the Costa Concordia’s tanks over the weekend, but the operation was called off after the sea turned rough.Italian navy frogmen meanwhile set off explosive charges to open more holes in the side of the cruise liner yesterday to allow divers access to deck five, an entertainment deck, as the search continued for bodies.The 114,500-tonne ship ran aground on rocks with more than 4,200 people aboard on January 13 in a tragedy which left 32 people presumed dead.A total of 17 bodies have been recovered – of which 16 have so far been identified – and 15 people remain missing.The head of Italy’s civil protection agency, Franco Gabrielli, assured relatives of “the moral imperative to return the bodies to their families”.Carnival Corporation cuts profit outlookCarnival Corporation said yesterday that it would take a $155-175mn hit against net income in fiscal 2012, blaming the Costa Concordia cruise ship catastrophe.The Costa Concordia-related hit against earnings could be higher because of lower net revenue yields. But Carnival said in a US regulatory filing that it has not yet determined that impact.The accident and loss of the ship off the coast of Italy will hurt net income by $85mn to $95mn in fiscal 2012, Carnival said in an annual report filing.Insurance deductibles will reduce net income by another $40mn and other incident-related costs are pegged between $30mn and $40mn.Carnival also said it significantly reduced its marketing activities after the disaster.Excluding its Costa European subsidiary, Carnival said fleet-wide booking volumes, from after the ship wrecked through January 25, declined in the “mid-teens” compared with the previous year.“Costa’s booking activity is difficult to interpret because of the significant rebooking activity stemming from the loss of the ship’s use and related re-deployments,” the company said. “However, we believe it to be down significantly. Despite these recent trends, we believe the incident will not have a significant long-term impact on our business.”