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In terms of cargo transport, the shipping industry plays a critical role in the global economy, carrying approximately 90% of the world’s traded goods. [1] [2]
Concerning mobility of people, we have to distinguish between short-distance and long-distance once more: Travelling long-distance by ship is almost exclusively done in the form of leisure travel, by boarding cruise ships, due to the reason that ships take a significantly longer time to reach their destination than other means of transport, especially compared to airborne travel. [3]
In 2019, 7,71 million passengers travelled on ocean cruise ships in Europe. This number has been steadily increasing over the last 20 years. [4]
While this number is quite high for a mode of transport that is purely used leisurely, it is rather small in comparison to the number of people that regularly rely on short-distance commutes by ship: In 2020, a total of 11.5 million people boarded or left passenger ships in Germany alone [5] and especially in regions that have broad access to waterways, like the Baltic Sea Region (mainly Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia), people have been relying on ferry services as a means of mobility and even “primary transport branch” [6] for decades.
In conclusion, the cruise ship industry is not to be overlooked in itself but cruise ships are not considered a mode of mobility as the other ones mentioned in this paper are. Therefore we exclude it from this paper.
And for completeness’ sake we want to mention that we also evaluated submarines as a means of maritime mobility. While there have been ideas of using submarines as a means of cargo transportation in the past [7], there are currently no commercially viable submarines in use. One of the reasons being limiting phenomena, like cavitation [8]. Nonetheless, projects exist that are developing solutions for short distance point-to-point cargo transport with zero emissions. [9] [10]
Sources
[1] IRENA. (2015, February). Renewable Energy Options for Shipping. https://www.irena.org/publications/2015/Feb/Renewable-Energy-Options-for-Shipping.
[2] Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR). (2011, December 19). LNG as an alternative fuel for the operation of ships and heavy-duty vehicles: Short study in the context of the scientific supervision, support and guidance of the BMVI in the sectors Transport and Mobility with a specific focus on fuels and propulsion technologies, as well as energy and climate. pp.10-11.
[3] Bailey, V. Compare Plane & Ship Travel. https://traveltips.usatoday.com/compare-plane-ship-travel-103896.html.
[4] CLIA. (2021, February 9). Anzahl der Passagiere auf dem europäischen Kreuzfahrtmarkt von 2001 bis 2019 (in Millionen) [Graph]. In Statista. https://de-statista-com.eaccess.ub.tum.de/statistik/daten/studie/217087/umfrage/kreuzfahrtpassagiere-in-europa/
[5] Gemeinsames Statistikportal der statistischen Ämter des Bundes und der Länder. (2021). Ein- und Ausgestiegene Fahrgäste nach Fahrtgebieten. https://www.statistikportal.de/de/transport-und-verkehr/seeverkehr.
[6] Mańkowska, M. (2015, May). The concept of development of passenger ferry services in the Baltic Sea Region in terms of the growing interbranch competition. 17th International Conference on Transport Science. pp.284-286.
[7] Kudrik, I. (2003, May 14). Typhoon Subs to Ship Oil and Gas. https://bellona.org/news/nuclear-issues/russian-navy/2003-05-typhoon-subs-to-ship-oil-and-gas.
[8] White, R. (2021, April 15). Why do submarines have higher top speed when fully submerged? https://navalpost.com/submarine-cavitation-drag-underwater-speed/.
[9] Harrabin, R. (2021, September 15). Unmanned submarine earmarked for Irish Sea freight crossings. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-58571143.
[10] Oceanways. Zero emission cargo delivery and ocean clean-up submarine fleet. https://www.oceanways.co/.