Tag: Baltic Sea

Improving the efficiency of transport in the Baltic Sea - Black Sea areas Ukraine, Moldova, Lithuania and Georgia will work to improve the efficiency of transport in the Baltic Sea - Black Sea areas with the use of combined Viking transport and the existing rail and train ferries. This agreement was reached during a ministerial council meeting held in Batumi.Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia Vera Kobalia, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Infrastructure Boris Kolesnikov, Minister of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Lithuania Eligiyus Masiulis and Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications of Belarus Alexander Shishkov attended the ministerial meeting.The transit issue is extremely important for Georgia and now there is an opportunity to establish a transit towards the Baltic and Black Sea areas, Kobalia told reporters on Wednesday."Today we need to work out the basic principles for the coordinated development of the rail-ferry service. To do this it's necessary to attract additional cargo and customer base, to form a competitive tariff policy and eliminate barriers to the successful development of transportation," she said. Kobalia said the necessary procedures for accession to the Agreement on the development of goods transportation in the areas of ...

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Vessels have to comply with a 0.1% limit on fuel sulphur content Trade association Interferry says that ferry operators in northern Europe face a near-impossible choice in trying to meet the 2015 deadline for ultra-low sulphur emissions from bunker fuel.The association also warns that the low-sulphur legislation will prompt an environmentally damaging modal shift from short-sea to overland transport and pose severe financial implications for the overall European economy.Under pending IMO and soon to be agreed European Union (EU) environmental requirements, vessels operating in the Baltic, North Sea and Channel Emission Control Areas (ECAs) will have to comply with a 0.1% limit on fuel sulphur content.Interferry says it acknowledges ferry operators' responsibility to reduce emissions and supports the move to lower sulphur limits globally by 2020 - but claims that the 2015 timescale is 'mission impossible´ due to unsustainable cost increases. It argues that, despite the ferry industry's efforts to develop alternative technologies and feasible alternative fuels, abatement technologies and financial support will not be available or sufficient enough to avoid a modal shift from sea to road. These alternatives are the elements in a 'toolbox' of technical and financial solutions proposed by the European Commission (EC).The toolbox suggests the ...

EfficienSea - a Flagship Project in the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region EfficienSea is a Flagship Project in the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, a maritime safety project lead by the Danish Maritime Authority.The main aim of e-Navigation is to ensure safety and security at sea and protection of the marine environment. If we succeed, we will be able to meet the challenges ever increasing maritime transport without increasing the overall risk and consequential costs to society.E-Navigation Read more on www.efficiensea.org

EfficienSea is a flagship project in the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region

At least 268 vessels inspected and US$100,000 retrieved in wages owed to crew The ITF's week of action in Baltic Sea ports ended with at least 268 vessels inspected in the 10 countries involved, and getting on for US$100,000 retrieved in wages owed to crew.The action week, 10-14 October, involved inspectors and seafarer and dockworker union activists in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia and Sweden. More than US$86,400 was recovered in back pay owed to crewmembers in the first three days aloneThe week ended with at least a further US$7,090 in wages retrieved. ITF agreements were also signed or renewed on several vessels, and US$18,000 collected for the ITF welfare fund. The MSC Fabiola containership was boycotted while it was in Hamburg, as part of the action - the German owner then agreed to sign an ITF agreement for the ship, as well as to sign three new agreements and renew seven expired ones for other ships in its fleet.Source: ITF

DMA cooperates with several partners in examining the possibility of using LNG In the recent year, the Danish Maritime Authority has cooperated with several partners in examining the possibility of using liquefied natural gas as an environmentally friendly alternative to ships' ordinary fuels.Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is an environmentally and climate friendly fuel that has, in the recent year, been the object of closer scrutiny: Is it possible to make it a competitive alternative through an effective infrastructure and good framework conditions? The Nordic countries and Belgium, ports, several major energy companies and private companies take part in the project, where the Danish Maritime Authority is the coordinating partner.A status report on the project has just been published. It establishes that there are extremely good possibilities of having greener voyages in short sea shipping in the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the English Channel. However, there are also a number of challenges with which further work must be made. It is especially clear that solutions must be created making it possible for ships to tank LNG, while loading and unloading passengers and goods. There is also a need for so-called LNG bunkering and feeder vessels, just as the regulations ...

The Baltic Sea emits more carbon dioxide than it can bind The Baltic Sea emits more carbon dioxide than it can bind. Local variations have increased the exposure of the Bay of Bothnia. These are the results from a study of how carbon dioxide flows between the water of the Baltic Sea and the atmosphere, carried out by scientists at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden."The capacity of the Baltic Sea to absorb carbon dioxide without major changes to the acidity of the water has changed in recent centuries. In the Bay of Bothnia, the ability to resist change has fallen, while it has increased in the south-eastern parts of the Baltic Sea", says Karin Wesslander of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Gothenburg.The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is rising steadily as a result of human activities, but global climate models remain inaccurate.The coastal seas are rarely included in large-scale climate models. Karin Wesslander has investigated the carbon dioxide system of the surface water of the Baltic Sea, in order to increase understanding of how the concentration of carbon dioxide affects seas.Carbon dioxide is an important component of photosynthesis, which converts the energy from sunlight, ...

EfficienSea Project

It is one of Germany's most unusual ships One of Germany's most unusual ships, the 12,800dwt E-Ship 1, has sailed through the Kiel Canal for the first time adding the Baltic to her areas of operation.The 130m ship used the waterway, linking the North Sea and the Baltic, on her way to Klaipeda in Lithuania from Emden. She was carrying a cargo of wind energy rotors for owners Enercon.E-Ship 1 is unusual because of her four 27m high and 4m diameter Flettner rotors and Magnus Effect propulsion. She is also unusual because she was built at two German shipyards. She sailed for the first time last year after completion at Cassens Shipyard in Emden but was designed by owners Enercon in partnership with Lindenau Schiffswerft in Kiel, where her keel was laid in 2007. Enercon moved the largely finished hull to Emden in 2009 after insolvency trouble at Lindenau.Reports say E-Ship 1 is equipped with Mitsubishi marine diesels with a total output of 3.5MW, but Enercon has not released exact details of her propulsion system. The firm does however claim projected fuel savings with the rotors of 30-40% at a speed of 16knots.Source: The Motorship