Tag: Caribbean Sea MOU

MSC Cruises, the world’s largest privately-owned cruise company, announced it has received approval from the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners for an innovative cruise terminal at PortMiami, as part of its expanding presence in North America and in the Caribbean. 

Container throughput in ports of Latin America and the Caribbean increased by 7.7% in 2018 compared to 2017, according to data provided by UN ECLAC. This analysis is based on the performance of a sampling of 31 countries and 118 ports and port areas in the region.

OPEC crude production fell by 240,000 b/d in February to 30.68 million b/d, its lowest level in 4 years, said Gibson Shipbrokers in its weekly tanker market report. The heavy crude market is already incredibly tight and production cuts come at a time when demand for heavy grades is rising, the report notes. 

The Royal Navy auxiliary RFA Mounts Bay has partnered with US Coast Guard counter-narcotics experts and a law enforcement boarding team on the continuous efforts to prevent illegal drugs from South and Central America reaching North America and the wider world, drugs which are typically smuggled across the Caribbean in small speedboats known as go-fasts.

Piracy and armed robbery in Asia decreased in 2018, says the latest ReCAAP ISC report. However, recognizing the challenge in other parts of the world too, particularly in in the West Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, there is still great need of law enforcement agencies to continue their effective ship protection measures.

A new study found that cruise tourism and the 29.6 million passenger and crew onshore visits in 36 Caribbean and Latin American destinations generated a record $3.36 billion in total expenditures during the last cruise year. This is more than 6% higher than the record set by the previous study in 2015.

Travel Leaders Group conducted a survey among 1,000 North American travel advisors, revealing that Scotland and the Netherlands moved up among the top five upcoming European destinations. As for the international cruise category, the Caribbean remained at the top spot.

USCG has conducted three operations in the Eastern Pacific, Puerto Rico and Caribbean, where it seized 1,300 pounds of cocaine, 2,324 pounds of cocaine and 3,516 pounds of cocaine along with 50 pounds of marijuana respectively. Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Basin, which are known drug transit zones.

Petroleum Geo-Services launched a concept for collecting plastics at sea using seismic vessels. This project involves a single seismic vessel towing a boom and skirt arrangement with a bubble curtain that lifts plastic. The pilot will be carried out offshore, over a period of about two months in either the Atlantic or the Caribbean.

In two different cases on Sunday and Monday, the US Coast Guard and the Caribbean Border Interagency Group seized a total of two million dollars of cocaine and seven smugglers, as part of the ongoing multi-agency law enforcement efforts off Puerto Rico.