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Missile attacks from Yemen on Western military craft risk spilling over into nearby busy sea lanes which could disrupt oil supplies…

As Western firms wait to for Arctic shipping to show its worth, Asian countries are already betting on the emergence of an Arctic economic rim.

The U.S. military has a problem in the Western Pacific: the tyranny of distance and time. Delivering military force across the vast Pacific Ocean has never been easy, even for a country as blessed in resources and ingenuity as the United States. The problem has worsened as America's chief regional rival, China, has improved its ability to harm American interests quickly and with limited forewarning. Seventy years after Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China, China's military capabilities have matured to the point where, if directed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the People's Liberation Army (PLA) could launch a rapid attack to change the status quo, including territorial seizure, before the United States could meaningfully respond, thus presenting Washington with a fait accompli. American forces located outside the conflict area would have to penetrate China's anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) network to restore the status quo ex-ante, a daunting proposition. Under these circumstances, Washington might face the unenviable choice of doing nothing or escalating to higher levels of violence. Either way, the national interests of both the United States and its closest allies would suffer dramatically.

Biological invasions often result from transfers of organisms during trade activities. In coastal ecosystems, commercial ships are a dominant source of species transfers globally, and ships' ballast water (BW) is a major focus of biosecurity management and policy to reduce invasions. While trade drives shipping patterns, diverse vessel types and behaviors exist such that the quantitative relationship between trade and BW dynamics is still poorly resolved, limiting both science and management. Here, we evaluated a new method to predict BW discharge using trade data, by explicitly considering known BW practices according to vessel and commodity type. Specifically, we estimated the relationship between tonnage of overseas exports and BW discharge volume for San Francisco Bay (SFB), California, as a model system to demonstrate this approach. Using extensive datasets on shipborne exports and BW discharge, we (a) evaluated spatial and temporal patterns across nearly 20 ports in this estuary from 2006 to 2014 and (b) developed a predictive model to estimate overseas BW discharge volume from foreign export tonnage for the whole estuary. Although vessel arrivals in SFB remained nearly constant from 2006 to 2014, associated tonnage of exported commodities more than doubled and BW discharge more than tripled. Increased BW volume resulted from increased frequency and per capita discharge of bulk carriers from Asia and tankers from western Central America and Hawaii, reflecting shifts in direction of commodity movement. The top 11 export commodities (59% of total export tonnage) were transported on bulk carriers or tankers. In a multivariate linear model, annual tonnage of these top 11 export commodities by vessel type were strong predictors of total bay-wide overseas BW discharge (adjusted R2 = 0.92), creating the potential to estimate past or future BW delivery in SFB. Bulk export tonnage provides valuable insights into BW flux, since most BW discharge to ports is driven by

Collisions with ships (ship strikes) are a pressing conservation concern for fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) along western North America. Fin whales exhibit strong diel patterns in dive behavior, remaining near the surface for most of the night, but how this behavior affects ship-strike risk is unknown. We combined diel patterns of surface use, habitat suitability predictions, and ship traffic data to evaluate spatial and temporal trends in ship-strike risk to fin whales of the California Current System (CCS). We tested a range of surface-use scenarios and found that both increased use of the upper water column and increased ship traffic contribute to elevated ship-strike risk at night. Lengthening nights elevate risk during winter throughout the CCS, though the Southern California Bight experienced consistently high risk both day and night year-round. Within designated shipping lanes, total annual nighttime strike risk was twice daytime risk. Avoidance probability models based on ship speed were used to compare the potential efficacy of speed restrictions at various scales. Speed reductions within lanes may be an efficient remediation, but they would address only a small fraction (13%) of overall ship-strike risk. Additional speed restrictions in the approaches to lanes would more effectively reduce overall risk.

The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) says Australia is facing economic carnage from clogged ports as a result of rapidly worsening crew change crisis around its coasts, as the crews of two further ships in Western Australia and Victoria refused to keep sailing today in bids for repatriation.

Prioritizing groupings of organisms or 'units' below the species level is a critical issue for conservation purposes. Several techniques encompassing different time-frames, from genetics to ecological markers, have been considered to evaluate existing biological diversity at a sufficient temporal resolution to define conservation units. Given that acoustic signals are expressions of phenotypic diversity, their analysis may provide crucial information on current differentiation patterns within species. Here, we tested whether differences previously delineated within dolphin species based on i) geographic isolation, ii) genetics regardless isolation, and iii) habitat, regardless isolation and genetics, can be detected through acoustic monitoring. Recordings collected from 104 acoustic encounters of Stenella coeruleoalba, Delphinus delphis and Tursiops truncatus in the Azores, Canary Islands, the Alboran Sea and the Western Mediterranean basin between 1996 and 2012 were analyzed. The acoustic structure of communication signals was evaluated by analyzing parameters of whistles in relation to the known genetic and habitat-driven population structure.

The French Navy Frigate FLOREAL, part of the operation, captures almost 6 tons of hashish.

Climate change generates impacts on coastal areas due to sea-level rise and potential modifications in wave and storm surge patterns. Since harbours are located in littoral areas, they will experience different impacts associated to such processes. In this paper, the effects of climate change on port berthing areas in terms of operability are quantified. The study is focused on the ports of the Balearic Islands (Western Mediterranean Sea) and analyses the loss of operability due to the reduction of freeboard in berthing structures and the potential variation in agitation within these harbours during the 21st century, considering two different climate scenarios (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) and two-time horizons (2045 and 2100). In addition, adaptation measures to address such impacts are proposed and their cost estimated. The results indicate that climate change will not generate significant changes in wave agitation due to negligible variations in wave patterns under future scenarios. On the contrary, sea-level rise will cause huge increases of inoperability for berthing structures due to insufficient freeboard: 10.5% under RCP4.5 or 20.5% under RCP8.5 in 2045, increasing to 57.1% (RCP4.5) and even 83.2% (RCP8.5) in 2100.