Tag: hazardous weather at sea

Heavy fog reduced visibility Tanker traffic through Turkey's Bosphorus Strait, a key shipping channel for Russian oil, was suspended on Wednesday after heavy fog reduced visibility, shipping agent GAC said.The Istanbul channel was closed in both directions at 7:21 a.m. (0521 GMT), GAC said in an e-mailed statement. It was not clear when the strait will re-open, but a GAC official told Reuters that they expected the fog to clear in the afternoon.Six tankers were scheduled to transit the Bosphorus on Wednesday, the agent said, and only one of them passed early on Wednesday before the traffic was closed.Weather conditions were clear at the Dardenelles Strait at the other end of the Sea of Marmara and the channel remained open, it said.The Bosphorus and Dardenelles are the only maritime outlet for Black Sea countries shipping oil, grains and other commodities to world markets.Traffic disruptions are common in winter in the straits as poor weather makes it difficult for tanker captains to traverse the narrow, environmentally sensitive waterways. The delays can raise Black Sea crude grades and world tanker rates.Source: Reuters

10 crew on board Brigitte Bardot Anti-whaling activists chasing the Japanese harpoon fleet suffered a major setback Thursday when the hull of one of their ships cracked in massive seas and a second had to divert to its rescue.The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said the Brigitte Bardot's hull split when it was struck by a "rogue wave" as it tailed the Japanese factory ship Nisshin Maru in six metre (20-foot) swells some 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometres) southwest of Australia."The crack has been getting wider as the seas continue to pound the vessel," the activist group said.Sea Shepherd spokesman Paul Watson said lead vessel the Steve Irwin was en route to the troubled Brigitte Bardot, which has also suffered severe damage to one of its pontoons, but warned it would take 20 hours to get there.The Bardot's captain, South African-born Jonathan Miles Renecle, was "confident that the ship will stay afloat until the Steve Irwin arrives" he added."This is disappointing but these are hostile seas and we have always been prepared for situations like this," Watson said."Right now the safety of my crew on the Brigitte Bardot is our priority and we intend to reach the crew and then do what ...

A terrible storm in the Atlantic might cause terrible carnage One hundred years ago it would not be even remarkable to hear that even well-found ships had been overwhelmed by seasonal storms. A terrible storm in the Atlantic might cause terrible carnage to the fishing fleets of Northern Europe which had been caught out by the weather, far from shelter.Today, we have a far better understanding of the progress of weather with, by and large, excellent and relatively accurate forecasts of anything likely to cause real concern to shipping. Although we are sometime lulled into a false sense of security by the size and power of modern ships and our apparent comprehension of what meteorology might have in store for us on the voyage. Every Winter will give us unpleasant reminders of the power of nature and its unpredictability, confounding all our technology. We have had some already this northern Winter.Everyone needs a reminder from time to time of the power of the sea. Mariners need to take the proper precautions, like battening down a ship and making it secure, and ensuring that there are no loose objects that will be thrown around and hurt people or do damage. It ...

Hazardous weather at sea

Hazardous weather at sea

Extreme weather events are becoming more likely The world's climate is not only continuing to warm, it's adding heat-trapping greenhouse gases even faster than in the past, researchers said Tuesday.Indeed, the global temperature has been warmer than the 20th century average every month for more than 25 years, they said at a teleconference."The indicators show unequivocally that the world continues to warm," Thomas R. Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center, said in releasing the annual State of the Climate report for 2010."There is a clear and unmistakable signal from the top of the atmosphere to the depths of the oceans," added Peter Thorne of the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites, North Carolina State University.Carbon dioxide increased by 2.60 parts per million in the atmosphere in 2010, which is more than the average annual increase seen from 1980-2010, Karl added. Carbon dioxide is the major greenhouse gas accumulating in the air that atmospheric scientists blame for warming the climate.The warmer conditions are consistent with events such as heat waves and extreme rainfall, Karl said at a teleconference. However, it is more difficult to make a direct connection with things like tornado outbreaks, he said."Any single weather event is ...