When he commented on this month's gondola crash, Venice mayor Giorgio Orsoni spoke as if crowded waterways were to blame.
Ferries, fishing boats, private launches and container ships jostle for space in these crowded waterways, presided over by flocks of screeching seagulls that supply another of the city's signature sounds.
Turkish maritime officials and environmental organizations are concerned that the already crowded waterway will become more dangerous later this year, when an increasing number of tankers are expected to come down from the Black Sea carrying oil originating in the Tengiz fields in Kazakhstan.
Some business owners find those curbs outdated, they have told commissioners, because so many restaurants and condos are now crowded along the narrow waterway.
Disrupting ecosystems thanks to their voracious appetite for plankton and algae that other species need to survive, the carp swam up the Mississippi River, crowded the Illinois River and other regional waterways, and zeroed in on Chicago and the Great Lakes.
The first barges were moved into place in April, and as construction picks up speed, the waterway is expected to get even more crowded.
The thousands of animals crowded together on each giant feedlot produce waste that pollutes waterways and contaminates drinking water.
Unlike inlets to the north, the Western Schelde continues to be kept open to the North Sea as an important and very crowded shipping route to Antwerp, Belg., and destinations on canalized waterways farther north, south, and east.
The city has turned to its waterways before when its buildings on land have become too crowded.
It is usually crowded at Greg Norman's AUSTRALIAN GRILLE (843-361-0000, $90 for dinner for two, including wine and tip), on the edge of the Intracoastal Waterway.
Philip Smith, trade relations manager of the British Tourist Authority in London and a director of Waterway Holidays UK, a consortium of waterway operators, says he regards May, June and September as the best time to be on the canals because that is when they are not so crowded and good weather is most likely.
