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Building a "Maritime Community with a Shared Future" (MCSF) is a maritime development concept with Chinese characteristics proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2019. It is based on the rich cultural tradition and unique historical value of China's maritime civilization. It aims to solve real ocean problems and has outlined the future direction of human ocean development from the perspective of China. The essence of the MCSF is an issue of both ocean cultural and development concepts. It is a conceptual issue that transcends specific national boundaries and regions and is based on how all of humankind, with common interests and common values, can develop in harmony with the oceans. It is not a covert discourse strategy adopted by China in order to realize its "maritime power" ambition, as occasionally described by some Western countries. Starting with an analysis of the essential nature and implications of maritime culture by Chinese researchers, this article clarifies and summarizes the interaction, exchange, and integration of Chinese maritime culture in East Asia from a historical perspective, and extracts the unique characteristics and values of Chinese maritime culture. From the perspective of human-sea interactions, the three historical stages, as well as the existing problems of transforming and upgrading human-ocean culture, are analyzed. The article also contrasts Chinese and Western maritime cultures and proposes to absorb the outstanding achievements of both Chinese and Western maritime civilizations into a common framework in order to fundamentally reverse the antagonistic human-sea relationship that has existed historically. Finally, we propose giving full play to the fundamental role of marine cultural exchange and integration and, through international cooperation on specific issues in the field of global ocean international relations, propose specific and feasible practical pathways to promoting the realization of the MCSF.

Oil rig runs aground in storm off Western Isles of Scotland.

Oil rig runs aground in storm off Western Isles of Scotland.

New Traffic Separation Schemes For Western Australia.

Protesters halt operations at some western ports.

Eleven migrants drown after boat sinks off Turkey's western coast.

Eleven migrants drown after boat sinks off Turkey's western coast.

Mexican shippers mirror American shift from western to eastern ports.

A wooden boat carrying 17 people sank in western Indonesia on Sunday, leaving 10 people dead. Two people were rescued and are in a critical condition.

A wooden boat carrying 17 people sank in western Indonesia on Sunday, leaving 10 people dead. Two people were rescued and are in a critical condition

A petition calling for the reinstatement of an emergency towing vessel (ETV) for the Western Isles has been handed to the UK government.

Polish Port to Compete with Western Europe.

Libya exports three oil tankers from western Mellitah port.

Australian forces help seize 915 kilograms of heroin in the Western Indian Ocean.

Ferry service ends 109 years of history in western Japan.

Many marine megafauna taxa are tied to the sea surface for breathing which makes them vulnerable to vessel collisions. Sea turtles have developed efficient mechanisms to reduce surface time for breathing to a few seconds, but they can extend their surface periods to rest or to rewarm after diving into deep and colder waters. However, knowledge of collision occurrences is limited to data of turtles stranded along the coastline worldwide, whereas events occurring offshore go likely underestimated due to the sinking of carcasses. Here we performed a spatially explicit assessment to identify, for the first time, oceanic areas of higher exposure for sea turtles from maritime traffic in the Tyrrhenian Sea, Western Mediterranean. Satellite-tracking data were used to estimate utilization distributions of loggerhead turtles using Brownian bridge kernel density estimation. Maritime traffic density maps based on Automatic Identification System (AIS) data were extracted from open-access data layers, provided by the European Maritime Safety Agency, summarized, and used for the exposure analysis. Turtle occurrences were also investigated in response to vessel densities and seasonal patterns by fitting a generalized additive model to the data. Our results demonstrated that loggerhead turtles are potentially exposed to maritime traffic across the entire basin, especially in the easternmost part. The exposure varies among spring/summer and autumn/winter months. Highest turtle occurrences were found in regions primarily subjected to cargo, tanker, and passenger transportation. This study represents the first-ever effort to characterize the exposure of oceanic loggerhead turtles to maritime traffic and highlights oceanic areas of higher exposure where research and conservation efforts should be directed to understand the effective impact of this stressor on the species.

Signatory States to the revised Code of Conduct concerning the repression of piracy, armed robbery against ships and illicit maritime activity in the western Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden Area, known as the Jeddah Amendment to the Djibouti Code of Conduct 2017, have agreed a raft of measures to combat new and emerging threats to maritime security.

Last month, operation 'Ocean Shield' terminated, ending NATO's six year mission to protect the sea lanes of Western Indian Ocean.

The United States on Monday offered its backing for a NATO naval operation off Libya in support of a controversial Italian plan to close the Western Mediterranean migrant route to Europe.

One of the primary tasks of the EU Naval Force Somalia Operation Atalanta is the protection of World Food Programme (WFP) ships and other vulnerable shipping in the Gulf of Aden and Western Indian Ocean.

Malta turns away merchant ship over Ebola suspicion.

Swaying palms, white-sand beaches and sparkling water with the sweet smell of sand and bougainvillea, doesn't it just sound heavenly? Goa, is this glorious slice of India that has a lot of these balmy beaches hugging the western coast bounded by the Arabian Sea. This is not just India's but one of the world's favourite tourist destinations.

Despite reduced activity in the Western Indian Ocean Region in recent years, pirate networks responsible for the original Somali piracy crisis have sustained themselves through small-scale attacks and involvement in an array of maritime crimes. The spate of attacks over the last few months off the Horn of Africa, apparently triggered by perceived vulnerability in vessels transiting the area, may point to an elevated risk for a return of piracy. This is a key issue raised in the State of Maritime Piracy 2016, published today by Oceans Beyond Piracy (OBP). This annual reportanalyzes the human and economic impacts of maritime piracy and robbery at sea off the Horn of Africa, in the Gulf of Guinea, Asia, and for the first time, Latin America.