Tag: marine environment

At a press conference under the suspended blue whale replica at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society USA joined with partners Bionic Yarn and Cookies for All for the U.S. unveiling of The Vortex Project, an unprecedented partner campaign to clean the oceans of plastic debris and transform it into fashion, and its first collaboration, G-Star's ‘RAW for the Oceans,' a long-term partnership between denim brand G-Star RAW and Bionic Yarn to turn ocean plastic into denim. The New York Fashion Week event is part of Parley for the Oceans, an initiative comprised of artists, activists, tastemakers, entrepreneurs and innovators to address and solve the plastic pollution problem impacting ocean ecosystems. Sea Shepherd is an official partner of Parley for the Oceans and together with Bionic Yarn is cofounder of The Vortex Project. The Vortex Project takes waste from the oceans and shorelines, and recycles, enhances, and reuses it for yarn, fabric, and other elements in consumer products. Parley collaboration partners will use the reclaimed plastic waste from the oceans to create exclusive products with a unique product story. They will also seek to close the loop by again recycling these products at ...

Andrew Mason with NOAA's Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment collecting a sediment sample. (Image Credit: NOAA) The pollutants measured in the sediments of Guánica Bay, Puerto Rico, in a new NOAA study were among the highest concentrations of PCBs, chlordane, chromium and nickel ever measured in the history of NOAA's National Status & Trends, a nationwide contaminant monitoring program that began in 1986. Researchers from the National Ocean Service's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) studied the reef's ecology to help establish baseline conditions that coastal managers can use to measure changes resulting from new efforts to manage pollution. Among the items studied were habitat types, coral cover, fish and pollution stressors such as nutrients, sedimentation, toxic contaminants in Guánica Bay. "These concentrations of pollutants represent serious toxic threats to corals, fish and benthic fauna -- bottom dwelling animal life and plants," said David Whitall, Ph.D., the report's principal investigator and NOAA ecologist. "We also observed lower indicators of biological health, such as how much of the coral covers the sea floor offshore from Guánica Bay when compared to an adjacent study area, La Parguera. Further research is needed to determine if this is the result of the ...

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has awarded two substantial new contracts to provide emergency towage services in Far North Queensland and maintain its aids to navigation network. AMSA Chief Executive Officer Graham Peachey said the Level 1 emergency capability operates out of Cairns and provides a dedicated 24/7 vessel and crew to provide emergency towage and first strike emergency response on behalf of AMSA. "This allows AMSA the ability to respond to maritime environmental emergencies in sensitive sea areas of the Torres Strait, the northern Great Barrier Reef, as well as within the Coral Sea both quickly and effectively," Mr Peachey said. AMSA manages a network of 492 navigational aids at 381 sites around Australia, assisting the commercial shipping industry to make safe and efficient passages. "About 40 per cent of AMSA's aids to navigation are located within the Great Barrier Reef, Torres Strait and the Coral Sea regions, which are challenging to navigate," Mr Peachey said. "The emergency towage vessel also provides a platform to support the maintenance of aids to navigation in these areas."  A MSA entered into the contracts with Brisbane-based company Australian Maritime Systems Limited on February 5 following a rigorous open tender process which began in 2013, when the tender was released on the ...

The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) has been given a Multi-annual Funding envelope for its 'anti-pollution' activities. One of the conditions for receiving this is that the Agency submits a report to the Commission and the Administrative Board, by 31 January each year, concerning the financial execution of the detailed plan (comprising separate Action Plans) for the Agency's pollution preparedness and response activities and gives an update of the status of all actions funded under that plan. The activities of the Agency in the field of marine pollution preparedness and response are focused on providing operational assistance and information to Member States. The main service pillars are: The Network of Stand-by Oil Spill Response Vessels distributed along the European coastline CleanSeaNet: the satellite based oil spill and vessel detection and monitoring service The MAR-ICE (Marine-Intervention in Chemical Emergencies) Information Service in case of chemical spills at sea Cooperation and coordination with the EU Commission, EU Member States, EFTA/EEA Coastal Countries, Candidate Countries, Acceding Countries, Regional Agreements and other relevant international organisations such as the International Maritime Organization (IMO); The provision of information through publications and workshops. Network of Stand-by Oil Spill Response Vessels At the end of 2013 EMSA maintained ...

EMSA adopted an action plan for response to marine pollution during its Administrative Board, 37th Meeting held in Lisbon, Porugal, on 23-24 November 2013. EMSA's Action Plan covers the response to oil pollution caused by offshore installations. The response to pollution caused by gas installations is not addressed due to the particularities of such incidents. EMSA's expertise and response capabilities are primarily focused on oil pollution in the marine environment. Gas emissions may include liquid condensates, which evaporate into the atmosphere, with limited residues persisting on the water surface, meaning that on-site recovery is not feasible. However, gas plumes from gas installation incidents can pose a significant hazard to responders and EMSA will therefore explore monitoring options for oil and gas incidents, taking into consideration recent technological advances in this area. The Action Plan provides: an overview of international and regional regulatory and cooperation structures for pollution response, addressing offshore installations in particular; information regarding particularities and challenges of pollution caused by offshore installations and response measures to marine pollution caused by such installations, including some case studies; a brief overview of both Member States' and oil industry's preparedness and response activities regarding oil pollution caused by offshore installations; and ...

ICS, BIMCO, Intercargo, Intertanko, WSC have jointly made a submission to upcoming IMO Maritime Environment Protection Committee (IMO MEPC 66) to amend the Guidelines for approval of ballast water management systems in order to ensure success of the BWM Convention. The MEPC 66 will be held in IMO headquarters from 31 March 2014 to 4 April 2014. The authors suggest that the only way to satisfactorily address concerns regardinf the BWM Convention is to amend the G8 Guidelines to provide a robust and consistently applied testing protocol that will provide confidence that type approved treatment systems are 'fit for purpose'. The Convention provides a procedure for making changes to the guidelines in Regulation D-5 It is recommended that treatment systems should be subject to testing in all types and conditions of water normally encountered in world trade and any limitations discovered should be clearly identified. The current, recently revised, recommendatory procedures permit a treatment system to be tested only in high and medium salinity temperate water with the type approval certificate stating this; this does not provide any indication of the actual limitations of the system. The type approval Guidelines also need to be consistently applied and the legislation should be amended to achieve this without the ...

Transport Malta will collaborate with the Norwegian Coastal Administration to strengthen the country's maritime pollution response. During the launching of the project "Oil / HNS Spill Response Capacity Building For The Protection Of Malta's Seas", Transport and Infrastructure Minister Joe Mizzi, said that the undertaking, supported through grants from the European Economic Area, aims to address our island's capacity building in the field of maritime incident response, particularly spills from oil and other hazardous and noxious substances. Through this project, Transport Malta will have the distinction to share the Norwegian partner's vast experience in this field. "There is no doubt that the Norwegian Coastal Administration is the ideal partner to enhance Malta's response to maritime pollution," Minister Mizzi said. It is a well known fact that there is heavy maritime traffic in the Malta Channel, with approximately 25% of the world's oil transport passing through the Central Mediterranean. Therefore, a particular level of national preparedness against oil spills and other hazardous and noxious substances is crucial, in order to counteract any incidents that may potentially arise and affect our seas, shores and potentially our economy. Minister Mizzi added that one of the major objectives of the project is to increase the ...

A new action plan has been presented to facilitate the further development of the renewable ocean energy sector in Europe. A central element in this action plan will be to establish an Ocean Energy Forum, bringing together stakeholders to build capacity and foster cooperation. The action plan should help drive forward this nascent 'blue energy' sector towards full industrialisation. Ocean energy covers all technologies to harvest the renewable energy of our seas and oceans other than offshore wind. Its exploitation would contribute to the decarbonisation of the EU's economy and provide secure and reliable renewable energy to Europe. European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Maria Damanaki, said: "As our Blue Growth strategy highlights, seas and oceans have the potential to generate huge economic growth and much-needed jobs. By helping the ocean energy sector to fully develop we can fulfil this potential through innovation while also securing clean, renewable energy for Europe." European Commissioner for Energy Günther Oettinger said: "Ocean energy has a significant potential to enhance the security of supply. This Communication aims to contribute to promote technological innovation and to reach the Objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy and beyond. Developing a wide portfolio of renewable energy sources ...