Cruise start-up Positive Polar aims to open bookings this summer

Co-founders Hugo Hinrichsen, who is also CEO, and Jennifer Bonilla told Seatrade Cruise News an expedition vessel has been acquired which will have capacity for up to 200 passengers. The company has two years of working capital from a bank loan. 

By boosting the biological carbon pump, the polar voyages will mimic what whales do naturally to increase fish stocks, improve biodiversity and help to restore the climate, the concept being to ‘get the environment better than before,’ according to Hinrichsen. 

Hans Lagerweij recently resigned his post as CEO of Albatros Expeditions to become the company’s CCO.

Helping to heal the planet

‘Positive Polar is a cruise line but with a new concept: we are going to make our guests proud to be going to these pristine places,’ said Hinrichsen. As a descendent of whalers, for the ex-frigate captain from Denmark who has a background as a polar helicopter pilot and sailor, the mission to restore whale populations is personal. 

‘All of the work – and the way we're thinking about this company, and what it will bring – is in partnership and collaboration with scientists,’ Bonilla asserted, who has a PhD in psychology from Princeton and 25 years’ experience leading corporate, development, commercialisation strategy and operations for science-driven companies. ‘We want to contribute to helping scientists answer questions using our ship, and engaging passengers in that science.’ 

Whales create a faecal plume released into the photic zone of the ocean where it nourishes and fertilises the waters for phytoplankton. The hypothesis Positive Polar is working towards is that if whales existed in the numbers they did before they were hunted, it could have a positive impact on biodiversity and potentially the climate. 

‘What we're doing, and what people are supporting by being on the ship with us, is actual science, meaning peer-reviewed under protocol, with a specific scientific hypothesis and focus, which is a little different than some of the cruises I've been on where they have scientists on board,’ Bonilla added. ‘We want to go a step further by being more focused on what we're trying to do with this specific thesis. We hope that inspires our passengers, but also contributes in a meaningful way to the scientific literature.’ 

Positive Polar is currently liaising with suppliers of sophisticated carbon-capture technology for the ship, in the absence of a feasible alternative for regular light marine diesel in areas where it will operate. 

The science is there

The science is mature enough to start to translate into real deployment actions, the founders said. Among the characteristics that set Positive Polar apart from others is that a large area of the ship will be dedicated to scientific equipment.

‘Why hasn’t the cruise industry brought a concept like this? It's funny to say that we in the cruise industry have been very much focused on optimising space as part of our ships. And optimising means bigger cabins, bigger facilities, with bigger spas, etc.,’ Lagerweij stated. ‘Jen came to me and said no, we want to do serious science on the ships. Once she explained, I was like, whoa, now you need serious space for our labs! This is not a desk in the corner with a microscope and a laptop. You need to allocate major space for this.’ 

That isn’t to say the experience will be all science: ‘I'm an ex Navy officer, I like to have fun,’ noted Hinrichsen. ‘It will be a ship that combines both.’

Positive Polar will share more details about its new concept at a press conference next month at Seatrade Cruise Global taking place April 8-11 at the Miami Beach Convention Center.