Swan Hellenic CEO Andrea Zito shares eco-actions at Ocean Race in Genoa

‘The Shared Transition Plan of Mayors: a best practice for the “Mission Restore our Ocean & Waters by 2030”’ event, organised by the European Commission and Genoa City Council and part of the Ocean Race Grand Finale celebrations, was designed to raise awareness of the EU Mission. The programme featured contributions by EU parliamentarians, Italian government ministers and mayors from across Italy and Spain. 

Last week, Swan Hellenic premiered its first brand video with Seatrade Cruise focussing on the expedition cruise operator’s vision to take people to remote places offering full immersion into its culture, people and nature, through the eyes of experts.

Swan’s latest initiatives 

In the course of the panel discussion, Zito described Swan’s actions for ocean health as an example of how the shipping sector can support the implementation of the EU Mission. He said the line has always been passionately committed to conserving the rarely visited seas that its passengers explore. Zito added that the line has made substantial investments in the latest technologies to ensure its fleet of three expedition cruise ships have the lowest possible emissions and environmental footprint. 

‘But we have also gone further,’ said the CEO. ‘We’ve partnered with numerous citizen science initiatives, enabling our on board experts and guests to contribute valuable conservation data. This ranges from reporting cloud data with NASA and recording whale sightings with Happywhale, to monitoring phytoplankton with the Secchi Disk Study and Antarctic seabird numbers with Stony Brook University.’ 

He continued, ‘Now we’ve taken another important step that is the core of our commitment to Mission Ocean and Waters, offering our ships as data collection and research platforms in remote seas, initially through our partnership with the Fundacion Philippe Cousteau and Sustainable Development Goals for the Mediterranean. The first initiative will be measuring and monitoring microplastic and heavy metal distributions, with more to come.’ 

Declaration of Ocean Rights

The Ocean Race Summit will take place in Genoa today, leading to the draft principles of the Declaration of Ocean Rights that will be presented to the United Nations General Assembly in September.