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International limits on the concentrations of living organisms in ballast water are now in force for commercial ships. Microscopy-based, "direct count" assays estimate the concentrations of organisms. These assays are used in performance tests of Ballast Water Management Systems (BWMSs), which are shipboard technologies designed to reduce living organisms in ballast water to below the discharge limits. Here, we examine the factors that affect the method detection limit (MDL) of direct count assays. The MDL depends upon the volumes sampled, concentrated (or diluted), and analyzed, so the MDL will vary as these volumes vary from analysis-to-analysis. Decreasing the MDL to detect exceedingly rare individuals (e.g., ~1 individual per m3 or fewer) is possible, but problematic, given the challenges in analyzing dynamic communities of living organisms: increasing sample and analysis volumes to lower the MDL will likely accelerate the loss of individuals, as organisms are concentrated to several orders of magnitude above in situ concentrations and held for extended times. Results of direct count assays may be widely disseminated as an indicator of the performance of BWMSs, and when no organisms are detected, concentrations may be shown as "0 organisms per m3 or mL" rather than "-provides context to results and transparency into the sensitivity of the assay.

Brexit to have little direct impact on container sector: Alphaliner.

The recurrence of lethal ship-whale collisions ('ship strikes') has prompted management entities across the globe to seek effective ways for reducing collision risk. Here we describe 'active whale avoidance' defined as a mariner making operational decisions to reduce the chance of a collision with a sighted whale. We generated a conceptual model of active whale avoidance and, as a proof of concept, apply data to the model based on observations of humpback whales surfacing in the proximity of large cruise ships, and simulations run in a full-mission bridge simulator and commonly used pilotage software. Application of the model demonstrated that (1) the opportunities for detecting a surfacing whale are often limited and temporary, (2) the cumulative probability of detecting one of the available 'cues' of whale's presence (and direction of travel) decreases with increased ship-to-whale distances, and (3) following detection time delays occur related to avoidance operations. These delays were attributed to the mariner evaluating competing risks (e.g., risk of whale collision vs. risk to human life, the ship, or other aspects of the marine environment), deciding upon an appropriate avoidance action, and achieving a new operational state by the ship once a maneuver is commanded. We thus identify several options for enhancing whale avoidance including training Lookouts to focus search efforts on a 'Cone of Concern,' defined here as the area forward of the ship where whales are at risk of collision based on the whale and ship's transit/swimming speed and direction of travel. Standardizing protocols for rapid communication of relevant sighting information among bridge team members can also increase avoidance by sharing information on the whale that is of sufficient quality to be actionable. We also found that, for marine pilots in Alaska, a slight change in course tends to be preferable to slowing the ship in response to a single sighted whale, owing, in part, to the substan

With the accelerated melting of the Arctic sea ice, the opening of the Northeast Passage of the Arctic is becoming increasingly accessible. Nevertheless, the constantly changing natural environment of the Arctic and its multiple impacts on vessel navigation performance have resulted in a lack of confidence in the outcomes of polar automated route planning. This paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of two distinct models by examining the advancements in two essential components of e-navigation, namely ship performance methods and ice routing algorithms. We also seek to provide an outlook on the future directions of model development. Furthermore, through comparative experiments, we have examined the existing research on ice path planning and pointed out promising research directions in future Arctic Weather Routing research.

In addressing climate change, the shipping industry, which is regarded as one sector that cannot be ignored in controlling greenhouse gas emissions, has become a key area of concern for the international community to achieve emissions reduction targets. The International Maritime Organization-the body that regulates international shipping-as well as the European Union and other international entities have adopted a series of emissions reduction policies, beginning a new era of shipping emissions reduction. In view of the urgency and complexity of this issue, the future policy direction of shipping emissions reduction and whether or not existing policies can achieve the emissions reduction targets have become the focus of attention in the global shipping industry. In addition, China's dual identity as a shipping magnate and a developing country plays a crucial role in the development of shipping emissions reduction trends, and reducing shipping emissions is necessary for China to achieve the "double carbon" commitment. In view of the above, this study endeavours to compare the current major shipping emission reduction policies from the perspective of international law and the perspective of macro policies, and analyze the future direction of international shipping emissions reduction policy. At the same time, the study identify China as one of the key countries to influence future policy making and proposes the position and path for China's participation in international shipping emissions reduction, which provided valuable contributions for China to participate in accelerating energy transformation, exploring participation in the carbon emission market, and promoting international unified shipping policy.

The in-band full-duplex underwater acoustic communication (IBFD-UWAC) mode has twice the information throughput of the traditional half-duplex communication mode, significantly increasing the communication efficiency. Extracting the weak desired signal from the high-power self-interference signal without distortion remains a challenging problem in implementing IBFD-UWAC systems. This paper proposes a spatial-digital joint self-interference cancellation (SDSIC) method for IBFD-UWAC. We first perform spatial self-interference cancellation (SSIC) and propose an improved wideband constant-beamwidth beamformer to overcome the problem of direction- and array-dependent interference in IBFD-UWAC systems. Convex optimization is used to maintain a constant beam response in the main flap and cancel the self-interference signal from a fixed direction, thus increasing the signal-to-interference ratio of the desired signal. Subsequently, we perform digital self-interference cancellation (DSIC) on the residual self-interference signal, and propose a variable-step-size least-mean-squares algorithm based on the spatial noise threshold. This algorithm modifies the least-mean-squares step-size adjustment criterion according to the noise level after SSIC and the desired signal, resulting in better DSIC. A series of simulations are implemented in a hardware-in-the-loop platform to verify the practicality and real-time performance of the proposed SDSIC method. The results show that the self-interference signal power can be reduced by 41.5 dB using the proposed method, an improvement of 13.5 dB over the conventional SIC method.

Under the low-carbon background, 37 ports of countries along the South China Sea with capacity ranking in the world's top 100 container ports are selected as the research object to establish a shipping network, construct a directed dichotomous shipping network, and divide the port tiers after finding the kernel number by using kernel analysis method, respectively, to explore the relationship between tiers and the relationship between ports at the higher level, and then make clear the direction of the improvement for the reduction of carbon emissions. The results show that: the routes sent between container ports in countries along the South China Sea have formed a more stable connection, but the receiving routes are still in a passive position, and the port call relationship is affected by the port hierarchy. High-level ports such as Shanghai Port and Singapore Port undertake the transshipment function of cargo concentration and redistribution within the network. The small-world characteristics among ports such as Singapore Port, Ningbo Port, Haiphong Port, Shenzhen Port, Guangzhou Port, and Linchaban Port are obvious. Based on the results of the empirical analysis, corresponding suggestions are put forward to optimize the structure of the container port system in the countries along the South China Sea and promote the low-carbon development of the sea.

A proposal to include seafarers within the scope of five EU labour law Directives has been presented by the European Commission. The proposal would give them the same information and consultation rights in all 28 EU Member States as on-shore workers in cases of collective redundancies and transfers of undertakings. They would also have the right to participate in European Works Councils. The proposal will now go to EU's Council of Ministers and the European Parliament for approval.

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The European Commission is taking action against Spain before the Court of Justice of the European Union, because 20 Spanish ports have yet to adopt and implement the port security plan.

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Vessels have cut fuel costs by slowing down and taking a more direct route closer to the Somali coast, shows study.

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.

We examine the dive and movement behavior of blue, fin, and humpback whales along the US West Coast in regions with high ship traffic where ship strikes have been identified as a major concern. All three species are known to feed in coastal waters near areas of high ship traffic. We analyzed data from 33 archival tag deployments representing over 3,000 h of data that were attached with suction-cups or short darts for periods >20 h and recorded depth (≥ 1 Hz), fast-lock GPS positions and other sensors. There were clear differences among the three species but all showed a distinct diurnal difference in diving behavior. While dive depth varied among animals based on where prey was located, whales spent a high proportion of their time closer to the surface where they would be more vulnerable to ship strikes at night than in the day. This was most pronounced for blue whales where vulnerability was twice as high at night compared to the day. We also found differences in movement patterns of whales between day and night. Movements were more localized to specific areas in the day near prey resources while at night these movements often involved directional movements (though sometimes returning to the same area). We show how in several specific areas like the Santa Barbara Channel, these differences in movements and locations translate to a very different overlap with shipping lanes at night compared to the daytime locations, which is the basis for most sighting data.

One of the last pristine marine soundscapes, the Arctic, is exposed to increasing anthropogenic activities due to climate-induced decrease in sea ice coverage. In this study, we combined movement and behavioral data from animal-borne tags in a controlled sound exposure study to describe the reactions of narwhals, Monodon monoceros, to airgun pulses and ship noise. Sixteen narwhals were live captured and instrumented with satellite tags and Acousonde acoustic-behavioral recorders, and 11 of them were exposed to airgun pulses and vessel sounds. The sound exposure levels (SELs) of pulses from a small airgun (3.4 L) used in 2017 and a larger one (17.0 L) used in 2018 were measured using drifting recorders. The experiment was divided into trials with airgun and ship-noise exposure, intertrials with only ship-noise, and pre- and postexposure periods. Both trials and intertrials lasted ∼4 h on average per individual. Depending on the location of the whales, the number of separate exposures ranged between one and eight trials or intertrials. Received pulse SELs dropped below 130 dB re 1 μPa2 s by 2.5 km for the small airgun and 4-9 km for the larger airgun, and background noise levels were reached at distances of ∼3 and 8-10.5 km, respectively, for the small and big airguns. Avoidance reactions of the whales could be detected at distances >5 km in 2017 and >11 km in 2018 when in line of sight of the seismic vessel. Meanwhile, a ∼30% increase in horizontal travel speed could be detected up to 2 h before the seismic vessel was in line of sight. Applying line of sight as the criterion for exposure thus excludes some potential pre-response effects, and our estimates of effects must therefore be considered conservative. The whales reacted by changing their swimming speed and direction at distances between 5 and 24 km depending on topographical surroundings where the exposure occurred. The propensity of the whales to move towards the shore increased with increasing exp

The global COVID-19 pandemic caused a sharp decline in vessel traffic in many areas around the world, including vessel-based tourism throughout Alaska, USA in 2020. Marine vessel traffic has long been known to affect the underwater acoustic environment with direct and indirect effects on marine ecological processes. Glacier Bay National Park in southeastern Alaska has monitored underwater sound since 2000. We used continuous, calibrated hydrophone recordings to examine 2020 ambient sound levels compared with previous years: 2018, the most recent year with data available, and 2016 for historical perspective. Park tourism occurs mainly in May-September. Overall, the number of vessel entries in Glacier Bay was 44-49% lower in 2020 (2020: n = 1,831; 2018: n = 3,599; 2016: n = 3,212) affecting all vessel classes, including the complete absence of cruise ships and only three tour vessel trips. In all years, we found clear seasonal and diurnal patterns in vessel generated noise, focused from 06:00 to 20:00 local time (LT) in the summer months. Broadband (17.8-8,910 Hz) sound levels in the 2020 Visitor Season were 2.7 dB lower than 2018 and 2.5 dB lower than 2016. Focusing on morning (06:00-09:00 LT) and afternoon (15:00-18:00 LT) time-blocks when tour vessels and cruise ships enter and exit Glacier Bay, median broadband sound levels were 3.3-5.1 dB lower in 2020 than prior years. At the 95th percentile levels, morning and afternoon peak times in 2020 were 6.3-9.0 dB quieter than previous years. A 3 dB decline in median sound level in the 125 Hz one-third octave band in 2020 reflects a change in medium and large vessel noise energy and/or harbor seal vocalizations. Our results suggest that all types of vessels had a role in the quieter underwater sound environment in 2020, with the combined acoustic footprint of tour vessels and cruise ships most evident in the decrease in the 95th percentile loudest sounds. This and other descriptions of the pandemic-induced

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

Despite efforts to aid recovery, Eastern North Pacific blue whales faces numerous anthropogenic threats. These include behavioral disturbances and noise interference with communication, but also direct physical harm - notably injury and mortality from ship strikes. Factors leading to ship strikes are poorly understood, with virtually nothing known about the cues available to blue whales from nearby vessels, behavioral responses during close encounters, or how these events may contribute to subsequent responses. At what distance and received levels (RLs) of noise whales respond to potential collisions is difficult to observe. A unique case study of a close passage between a commercial vessel and a blue whale off Southern California is presented here. This whale was being closely monitored as part of another experiment after two suction-cup archival tags providing acoustic, depth, kinematic, and location data were attached to the whale. The calibrated, high-resolution data provided an opportunity to examine the sensory information available to the whale and its response during the close encounter. Complementary data streams from the whale and ship enabled a precise calculation of the distance and acoustic cues recorded on the tag when the whale initiated a behavioral response and shortly after at the closest point of approach (CPA). Immediately before the CPA, the whale aborted its ascent and remained at a depth sufficient to avoid being struck for ∼3 min until the ship passed. In this encounter, the whale may have responded to a combination of cues associated with the close proximity of the vessel to avoid a collision. Long-term photo-identification records indicate that this whale has a long sighting history in the region, with evidence of previous ship encounters. Therefore, experiential factors may have facilitated the avoidance of a collision. In some instances these factors may not be available, which may make some blue whales particularly susceptible to dea