Italy’s government has approved a new decree banning the practice of showboating by cruise ships blamed in part for a shipwreck tragedy last month in which 32 people were killed.
The decree bans cruise ships from going within two nautical miles of marine sanctuaries and natural parks.
The ban also extends to protected areas for whales, dolphins and porpoises near Sardinia and Tuscany, an environment ministry spokesman said, adding that it would go into force within days.
The decree also states that ships with a gross tonnage of more than 40,000 will be banned from cruising through the Giudecca Canal and the San Marco Basin in Venice as soon as an alternative navigation channel is set up.
“It should take a couple of years to dig it up,” the spokesman said.
Local authorities in Venice have complained about disruption from passing cruise ships, which sail past very close to some of its most famous monuments, and say that the daily volume of cruise-goers clogs up the city.
The giant Costa Concordia liner crashed into the picturesque Italian island of Giglio in January with 4,229 people on board.
The ship was sailing close to the shore of the Tuscan archipelago – a nature reserve – in a showboating manoeuvre that is common practice in the Italian cruise ship industry as a way of promoting the brand.
The Costa Concordia hit rocks just off Giglio and keeled over, prompting a panicked and chaotic evacuation on the night of January 13.