Tag: reports

Two shipwrecks were discovered 2,300km off the coast of Western Australia during the initial search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. The shipwrecks have been identified as 19th Century merchant sailing vessels carrying cargoes of coal. The Western Australian Museum analysed sonar and video data taken by the search vessels Fugro Equator and Havilah Harmony.

The US Marine Safety Center posted the updated Frequently Asked Questions to its Ballast Water Management Type Approval Management webpage. These FAQs, as of April 24, 2018, are updated regularly to help the ballast water community better understand and navigate the type approval process.

ICS published its Annual Review for 2018. The Review contains an overview of the many regulatory and policy issues confronting ship operators. The ICS Annual Review focuses on issues such as the IMO agreement on reducing CO2 emissions, as well as the many safety, legal and trade policy developments affecting international shipping.

IEA reports that policy support, technology advances and a maturing supply chain are making offshore wind a viable option for renewables-based electricity generation, leveraging the consistent and higher wind speeds available offshore. Investment has increased in recent years and, with less restrictions on size and height than their onshore counterparts, offshore wind turbines became giants.

During 2017, a total of 5674 inspections recorded in the Indian MoU region. Out of these, 3017 inspections had deficiencies and the total numbers of deficiencies were 13099. Serious deficiencies led to the detention of 281 ships and needed to be rectified prior to the ships departure.

Throughout 2017, there were 31,315 inspections in the Tokyo MoU region, involving 17,369 individual ships registered under 99 flags, according to Tokyo MoU 2017 annual report. Out of these, there were 18,113 inspections where ships were found with deficiencies. The detention percentage has decreased continuously.

The Diesel Technology Forum and the Environmental Defense Fund released a report highlighting the emission reduction benefits that can be offered by the latest clean diesel models. The joint research estimates that replacing older engines in a tug boat with the latest clean diesel model that meets the latest emissions milestones can reduce on average 14.9 tons of NOx emissions per year.

A new study led by University of Victoria marine biologist Lauren McWhinnie warns that as Arctic sea ice shrinks and shipping traffic increases, vessel disturbance could very likely impact marine mammals such as belugas and bowhead whales, which rely on a quiet environment to communicate and forage.

IEA released its Offshore Energy Outlook, saying that the energy produced offshore is a major component of global oil and natural gas supply and could provide an increasingly important source of renewable electricity. Resources are vast, but offshore projects have to prove that they have to be sustainable, amid a variety of pressures on the world’s oceans.

According to a new study, published in Science Advances, sea-level rise and wave-driven flooding will negatively impact freshwater resources on many low-lying atoll islands in such a way that many could be uninhabitable in just a few decades. Scientists found that such flooding will also make the limited freshwater resources non-potable.