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Shipping Directly Employs Over 640,000 At Sea.

Globally, movements of commercial vessels can facilitate the spread of marine non-indigenous species (NIS) beyond their current biogeographic ranges. Authorities at potential destination locations employ a number of biosecurity risk assessment strategies to estimate threat levels from potential origin locations, vulnerability levels of specific destination regions, or the consequences of successful establishment of particular NIS species. Among the many factors and processes that have an influence on the probability that NIS will survive transport and establish successfully at new locations, vessel type has been identified as an important risk factor. Different vessel types have different structural and operational characteristics that affect their overall level of marine biosecurity risk. Several recent studies have examined subsets of vessel types or vessel characteristics for their ability to spread NIS. While high-quality information is available via these endeavors, it is fragmented and not readily available as an integrated resource to support biosecurity regulators or other end-users. In this study, we synthesize available empirical data on a wide range of vessel types and characteristics to develop a framework that allows systematic quantification of the relative risk of NIS transfer by common commercial vessel types. We explain our approach for constructing the framework, from selection of key risk factors for inclusion, to selection of which datasets to use for those risk factors. The framework output is a set of risk scores which denote the relative biosecurity risk of common commercial vessel types. To demonstrate a potential application of our framework, we applied the risk scores to vessel visit data for commercial ports around New Zealand and assigned a relative risk level per port based on the arrival frequencies of different vessel types. The resulting per-port risk levels matched closely with the results of a prior benchmark study that employed sta

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Vessel traffic management systems can be employed for environmental management where vessel activity may be of concern. One such location is in San Francisco Bay where a variety of vessel types transit a highly developed urban estuary. We analyzed vessel presence and speed across space and time using vessel data from the Marine Monitor, a vessel tracking system that integrates data from the Automatic Identification System and a marine-radar sensor linked to a high-definition camera. In doing so, we provide data that can inform collision risk to cetaceans who show an increased presence in the Bay and evaluation of the value in incorporating data from multiple sources when observing vessel traffic. We found that ferries traveled the greatest distance of any vessel type. Ferries and other commercial vessels (e.g., cargo and tanker ships and tug boats) traveled consistently in distinct paths while recreational traffic (e.g., motorized recreational craft and sailing vessels) was more dispersed. Large shipping vessels often traveled at speeds greater than 10 kn when transiting the study area, and ferries traveled at speeds greater than 30 kn. We found that distance traveled and speed varied by season for tugs, motorized recreational and sailing vessels. Distance traveled varied across day and night for cargo ships, tugs, and ferries while speed varied between day and night only for ferries. Between weekdays and weekends, distance traveled varied for cargo ships, ferries, and sailing vessels, while speed varied for ferries, motorized recreational craft, and sailing vessels. Radar-detected vessel traffic accounted for 33.9% of the total track distance observed, highlighting the need to include data from multiple vessel tracking systems to fully assess and manage vessel traffic in a densely populated urban estuary.

Vessel strikes have been documented around the world and frequently figure as a top human cause of large whale mortality. The shipping lanes in the Santa Barbara Channel, California and nearby waters have some of the highest predicted whale mortality from vessel strikes in the United States waters of the eastern Pacific. Beginning in 2007, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration requested voluntary vessel speed reductions (VSRs) for vessels greater than 300 GT traveling in the Santa Barbara Channel shipping routes to decrease whale mortality from ship strikes. We employed a ship strike model using whale density data and automatic identification system (AIS) vessel data to estimate mortality under several management scenarios. To assess the effect of the VSR on strike mortality, we bootstrapped speeds from vessels greater than 19 m long that transited when no VSR was in place. Finally, we calculated the predicted mortality for hypothetical cooperation scenarios by artificially adding speed caps post-hoc to real vessel transits. For 2012-2018, we estimated that in our study area on average during summer/fall (June-November) 8.9 blue, 4.6 humpback, and 9.7 fin whales were killed from ship strikes each year (13-26% greater than previously estimated). We evaluated winter/spring (January-April) humpback mortality for the first time, resulting in an estimate of 5.7 deaths on average per year. Poor cooperation with the VSR led to low (5% maximum) to no reductions in the estimated number of strike mortalities. Evaluating potential scenarios showed that if 95% cooperation occurred in the lanes, whale deaths there would decrease by 22-26%. Adding VSRs with similar cooperation levels at the northern end of the Santa Barbara Channel and south of Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary could decrease estimated strike mortalities in those areas by 30%. If VSRs were added and cooperation reached 95% there and in the lanes, we estimate a 21-29% decrease i

Under strict resource and environmental constraints, improving the overall green efficiency of the industrial chain is crucial to the sustainable development of the marine ship industry. Based on the data of 40 listed companies in the industry chain from 2015 to 2019, the meta-frontier framework and three-stage epsilon based measure (EBM) model are employed to study the green technical efficiency (GTE) in each link of the industry chain and the technical gap between each link. The impact of the external environment on GTE, the main reasons hindering the development of GTE, and the ways to improve GTE are also discussed for policy reference. The results show that: (1) under the meta-frontier, the GTEs of the whole industry chain and the composed links are all high and rising year by year. (2) There are obvious green technological development gaps among the links of the industry chain. The GTEs are ranked as the upstream>the downstream>the midstream. (3) The inefficiencies of green technology (GTEI) in the upstream and downstream of the industry chain come from endogenous hindrance, while the GTEI of the midstream is due to exogenous hindrance. (4) The external environment has a significant influence on the development of GTE in the industrial chain. Highly open and innovative external environment can effectively reduce the input redundancy. (5) After eliminating the external influencing factors and random interferences, the actual GTE of the industrial chain is only 0.4 or so, with more serious imbalance among the three links. Therefore, it is important for the marine ship industry chain to optimize the allocation of innovation resources and cultivate an open and shared innovation environment.

As the current COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting crew change crisis exacerbates the mental health problem faced by seafarers, various maritime stakeholders have mobilised their resources and strengths to provide a variety of supportive measures to address the issue. This paper aims to find out what measures have been adopted in the industry and how widely they have been experienced/received by seafarers and evaluate their effectiveness. To achieve this aim, this research employed a mixed methods design involving qualitative interviews with 26 stakeholders and a quantitative questionnaire survey of 817 seafarers. The research identified a total number of 22 mental health support measures, all of which were perceived to have contributed positively to seafarers' mental health. However, not all of them were widely available to or utilised by seafarers. The findings also highlighted the importance of family, colleagues, shipping companies, and government agencies, as they are associated with the most effective support measures, namely communication with family, timely crew changes, being prioritised for vaccination, being vaccinated, and a positive and collegial atmosphere on-board. Based on the findings, recommendations are provided.

Although the number of vessels with exhaust gas cleaning systems (EGCSs or scrubbers) has sharply increased to comply with strengthened regulations for marine environment, secondary pollutions are caused by discharged polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from scrubber effluent. Here, liquid-phase plasma (LPP) is employed to remediate water contaminated with PAHs. The increased frequency and pulse width enhanced the degradation efficiency, and 93.3, 90.7, 86.0, and 85.4% for naphthalene (Nap), acenaphthene (Ace), fluorene (Flu), and phenanthrene (Phe), respectively, are degraded at a frequency of 30 kHz and pulse width of 3 μs in 10 min. Considering physical condition of the plasma, long pulse width accelerated electrons, leading to increased generation of active species from intensified collision between electrons and surrounding molecules. Conversely, high frequency decelerated electrons due to the excessive changes in the polarity. However, the increased number of plasma discharges results in the generation of numerous active species. Generations of *OH and O radicals are confirmed by optical emission spectrometry and electron paramagnetic resonance. In addition, changes in functional groups which are corresponding to hydroxyl and oxygen groups are identified by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Total PAHs in real scrubber are reduced from 1.1 to 0.4 μgL-1 with degradation efficiency of 63.6% after 10 min of LPP treatment. This study suggests LPP can be a promising method to protect diverse aqueous environments and provides optimal electrical discharge condition for degradation of organic pollutants.

Marine traffic has been identified as a serious threat to Mediterranean cetaceans with few mitigation strategies in place. With only limited research effort within the Eastern Basin, neither baseline species knowledge nor the magnitude of threats have been comprehensively assessed. Delineating the extent of overlap between marine traffic and cetaceans provides decision makers with important information to facilitate management. The current study employed the first seasonal boat surveys within the Eastern Mediterranean Sea of Turkey, incorporating visual and acoustic survey techniques between 2018 and 2020 to understand the spatial distribution of cetacean species. Additionally, marine traffic density data were retrieved to assess the overlap with marine traffic. Encounter rates of cetaceans and marine traffic density were recorded for each 100 km2 cell within a grid. Subsequently, encounter and marine traffic density data were used to create a potential risk index to establish where the potential for marine traffic and cetacean overlap was high. Overall, eight surveys were undertaken with a survey coverage of 21,899 km2 between the Rhodes and Antalya Basins. Deep diving cetaceans (sperm and beaked whales) were detected on 28 occasions, with 166 encounters of delphinids of which bottlenose, striped and common dolphins were visually confirmed. Spatially, delphinids were distributed throughout the survey area but encounter rates for both deep diving cetaceans and delphinids were highest between the Rhodes and Finike Basins. While sperm whales were generally detected around the 1000m contour, delphinids were encountered at varying depths. Overall, two years of monthly marine traffic density were retrieved with an average density of 0.37 hours of monthly vessel activity per square kilometer during the study period. The mean density of vessels was 0.32 and 1.03 hours of monthly vessel activity per square kilometer in non-coastal and coastal waters respectively. The Easter

The escalating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from maritime trade present a serious environmental and biological threat. With increasing emission reduction initiatives, such as the European Union's incorporation of the maritime sector into the emissions trading system, both challenges and opportunities emerge for maritime transport and associated industries. To address these concerns, this study presents a model specifically designed for estimating and projecting the spatiotemporal GHG emission inventory of ships, particularly when dealing with incomplete automatic identification system datasets. In the computational aspect of the model, various data processing techniques are employed to rectify inaccuracies arising from incomplete or erroneous AIS data, including big data cleaning, ship trajectory aggregation, multi-source spatiotemporal data fusion and missing data complementation. Utilizing a bottom-up ship dynamic approach, the model generates a high-resolution GHG emission inventory. This inventory contains key attributes such as the types of ships emitting GHGs, the locations of these emissions, the time periods during which emissions occur, and emissions. For predictive analytics, the model utilizes temporal fusion transformers equipped with the attention mechanism to accurately forecast the critical emission parameters, including emission locations, time frames, and quantities. Focusing on the sea area around Tianjin port-a region characterized by high shipping activity-this study achieves fine-grained emission source tracking via detailed emission inventory calculations. Moreover, the prediction model achieves a promising loss function of approximately 0.15 under the optimal parameter configuration, obtaining a better result than recurrent neural network (RNN) and long short-term memory network (LSTM) in the comparative experiments. The proposed method allows for a comprehensive understanding of emission patterns across diverse vessel types under vari

This paper presents a geometric stochastic channel model designed for analyzing maritime communication and navigation services between moving ships using the C-band or sub-6 GHz spectrum, which aligns with the focus of emerging 5G networks on land. The channel model is validated through channel measurements conducted both on the sea and land. A software tool has been developed to integrate and analyze these measurements, which is included with this publication. The main challenge in developing the channel model for maritime services lies in the dynamic nature of the sea surface, leading to constantly changing reflection conditions due to varying reflectors and scatterers on the water. Additionally, the motion conditions of the transmitter and receiver on ships change in all three dimensions, depending on the sea state. To address these complexities, data from several measurement campaigns in diverse areas were collected. The analysis involved examining the propagation conditions over the sea with variations in sea surface roughness, antenna heights, and used bandwidths. Moreover, additional propagation conditions over nearby land were also taken into account. The study demonstrates that the changing antenna height on the ship, influenced by sea conditions, significantly affects the reflection and scattering conditions. The research aims to develop reliable, high-data rate, and broadband marine communication systems. Therefore, a measurement bandwidth of 120MHz was employed to derive the propagation model. This model not only offers absolute timing information but can also be used for time-based ranging or positioning systems. The proposed geometric stochastic channel model provides valuable insights into the complex maritime communication and navigation environment. By accounting for the continuously evolving sea surface and its impact on antenna height, the model offers a robust framework for studying and optimizing marine communication systems. The availability of

The propagation of electromagnetic waves on land and sea is significantly different. Although the Los scenario is significant in marine wireless communication, the marine wireless channel exists an obvious two-ray phenomenon due to the strong reflection path reflected through the sea surface. By modeling the measured data of marine wireless channels, this paper calculates the radio propagation characteristics of the Pearl River estuary. In addition, the wave fluctuations and high humidity environment will also impact the properties of the marine wireless channel. Therefore, sea surface morphology models under multiple wind speeds are built. To estimate the path loss in the same area under different conditions, the Monte Carlo method is employed to quantify the results. The simulation results show that the electric wave propagation gradually degenerated from the round earth loss (REL) model to the free space model with increasing wind speed. Moreover, the distribution of the shadow fading varies with distance. The findings provide references for the network planning of marine communication