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Posted December 02, 2018 09:07:33 Photo: High temperatures are forecast for Sunday. (ABC News: Shelley Lloyd) Residents in bushfire-affected areas of Queensland are being reminded to stay alert, with temperatures in parts of the state set to soar into the mid-40s today. Key points: Fire crews bracing for a testing 24-48 hours, with no rain…

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Mexico’s major cargo ports have reopened after surreptitiously dodging the full extremity of Hurricane Patricia, which recently slammed into the country's Pacific coast.

The Protocol on Environmental Protection of the Antarctic Treaty stipulates that the protection of the Antarctic environment and associated ecosystems be fundamentally considered in the planning and conducting of all activities in the Antarctic Treaty area. One of the key pollutants created by human activities in the Antarctic is noise, which is primarily caused by ship traffic (from tourism, fisheries, and research), but also by geophysical research (e.g., seismic surveys) and by research station support activities (including construction). Arguably, amongst the species most vulnerable to noise are marine mammals since they specialize in using sound for communication, navigation and foraging, and therefore have evolved the highest auditory sensitivity among marine organisms. Reported effects of noise on marine mammals in lower-latitude oceans include stress, behavioral changes such as avoidance, auditory masking, hearing threshold shifts, and-in extreme cases-death. Eight mysticete species, 10 odontocete species, and six pinniped species occur south of 60°S (i.e., in the Southern or Antarctic Ocean). For many of these, the Southern Ocean is a key area for foraging and reproduction. Yet, little is known about how these species are affected by noise. We review the current prevalence of anthropogenic noise and the distribution of marine mammals in the Southern Ocean, and the current research gaps that prevent us from accurately assessing noise impacts on Antarctic marine mammals. A questionnaire given to 29 international experts on marine mammals revealed a variety of research needs. Those that received the highest rankings were (1) improved data on abundance and distribution of Antarctic marine mammals, (2) hearing data for Antarctic marine mammals, in particular a mysticete audiogram, and (3) an assessment of the effectiveness of various noise mitigation options. The management need with the highest score was a refinement of noise exposure criteria. Environment

Cruise ships are getting larger and the activities on board more extreme. WSJ's Scott McCARTNEY visits a shipyard in Finland to see how the cruise operator Carnival is able to pack so much on a ship - including a rollercoaster - and still have it float.

- International trade will be hit by impacts of climate catastrophes on ports - Impacts spread through supply chains and economies globally - Act now, say researchers, to protect and diversify essential supplies

Monitoring marine use is essential to effective management but is extremely challenging, particularly where capacity and resources are limited. To overcome these limitations, satellite imagery has emerged as a promising tool for monitoring marine vessel activities that are difficult to observe through publicly available vessel-tracking data. However, the broader use of satellite imagery is hindered by the lack of a clear understanding of where and when it would bring novel information to existing vessel-tracking data. Here, we outline an analytical framework to (1) automatically detect marine vessels in optical satellite imagery using deep learning and (2) statistically contrast geospatial distributions of vessels with the vessel-tracking data. As a proof of concept, we applied our framework to the coastal regions of Peru, where vessels without the Automatic Information System (AIS) are prevalent. Quantifying differences in spatial information between disparate datasets-satellite imagery and vessel-tracking data-offers insight into the biases of each dataset and the potential for additional knowledge through data integration. Our study lays the foundation for understanding how satellite imagery can complement existing vessel-tracking data to improve marine oversight and due diligence.

SART or Search and Rescue Transponder is extremely vital equipment on the ship as it acts as ship SOS call in an emergency situation. It is a vital machine during distress for it helps in locating the position of the vessel in case it goes off-track and to perform search and rescue at sea. It is portable equipment which can either be carried along by the crew when abandoning a ship on a lifeboat or liferaft and it can remain float in water as it is made of waterproof material. Search and Rescue Radar Transponder is incorporated with a transmitter and a receiver which reacts to the search signal sent from an X-band radar of a ship in the vicinity, typically of 9 GHz. The response is usually displayed on radar screens as a sequence of dots on a X band-radar, which helps rescuers reach the vessels in time.

Arctic shipping traffic is on the increase. One day, these ships will be autonomous. New technology that can remove rain, snow and fog from the images produced by the ship's cameras and sensors will increase safety in extreme conditions.