Not that I know about anything marine in nature, but I looked up "azipod" and it describes itself as a thruster. Bow thrusters have "thruster" in the name. Based on that, I would assume each of those require energy and thus fuel. My understanding is that anchors, once deployed, are passive. Disregarding (only for the purposes of this conversation) the ethics, is that not why they're still used?

[–] radiofreebc@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Even when a ship is anchored (or even docked) the engines are usually still running to generate power (unless there is shore power, which is becoming more common, but still not that common). The extra power needed for the autopilot to use the pods and thrusters to stay in place isn't much more than is needed to keep the power on.

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Gotcha, thank you for the edification.