Megayachts are a favorite accessory of the super wealthy, and they're also one of the worst polluters of our environment. Thankfully, more people are snapping pics of these boats in the wild and sharing them on social media to shame the owners.
In the r/Trieste subreddit, a Reddit user posted a photo of a large yacht that they spotted docked far off the coast for an extended period of time. Trieste is a port city in northeast Italy that borders Slovenia.
"It was parked here for a very long time and now [the] front is black like there was fire maybe? It's looking like [...] one of those biggest super sail yachts that cost hundreds of millions. Why is it allowed to be parked here for such a long time and whenever I come I don't see it moved?" they said in the post.
Some commenters were able to identify the yacht, as it had been parked near Trieste for a few years.
"It's a yacht from one of Russian oligarchs. It got confiscated in 2022 because of the war. It's the biggest sailing yacht in the world as far as I know," one user said.
"Best part is since Italy confiscated it, they need to maintain it, and approximately we spent over 30M euros in the last 3-4 years, crazy fact but true," another user commented.
Superyachts can release thousands of times more carbon dioxide than cars do. They have become popular among the rich who have more wealth than they know what to do with. And just like private jets, they are substantially worse for the environment than other forms of transportation because of their size and the number of people using them.
These mini cruise ships, owned and operated by a select few, are destroying our aquatic ecosystems with fuel pollution and propeller erosion. They also disrupt local residents when they dock in small towns and block water access and views.