There were many cruise ships in Antarctica in 2022-2023.
In some spots several ships were waiting to disembark in turn (we, sail ships, avoid most of these spots).
70 cruise ships, 468 trips, 111.400 visitors: this is what the Antarctic Treaty allowed for the season 2022-2023
Since the season 2019-2020, the Antarctic Treaty allowed: 26% more visitors 79% more ships 61% more travels
Compare with small ships (sail ships and motor vessels below 70 persons): 34 vessels, 90 trips, 1299 visitors: this is 1.2% of the visitors.
Source: Antarctic Treaty database
The Antarctic Treaty delivers mandatory permits before the season. So we know how many visitors, boats and trips are allowed. Warning: the actual figures may be slightly different (2023 06 03: the figures for the season 2022-2023 are not updated yet). 1) cruise ships are not always full; 2) inversely some ships are not listed, for instance seen in the Drak: a ship with 2300 passengers, in Antarctica, another ship with 1950 passengers.
database - pre-season 2022-2023 pdf - list of ships database - pre-season 2019-2020 pdf - list of ships xls - lists of ships and totals
2023 02 12 - Paradise Bay
