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U.S. Launches Maritime Security Initiative for Strait of Hormuz.

Maritime transport plays and will continue to play an essential role in global and European trade and economy. In recent years, the maritime sector has taken significant measures to alleviate its environmental impacts. Ahead of a projected increase in global shipping volumes, a new report reveals for the first time the full extent of the impact of the EU maritime transport sector on the environment and identifies challenges to achieving sustainability.

UNCTAD's Review of Maritime Transport 2022, an annual comprehensive review of global maritime transport, warns that the maritime sector will require greater investment in infrastructure and sustainability to weather future supply chain crises.

Accessing the world's oceans is essential for monitoring and sustainable management of the maritime domain. Difficulty in reaching remote locations has resulted in sparse coverage, undermining our capacity to deter illegal activities and gather data for physical and biological processes. Uncrewed Surface Vessels (USVs) have existed for over two decades and offer the potential to overcome difficulties associated with monitoring and surveillance in remote regions. However, they are not yet an integral component of maritime infrastructure. We analyse 15 years of non-autonomous and semi-autonomous USV-related literature to determine the factors limiting technological diffusion into everyday maritime operations. We systematically categorised over 1,000 USV-related publications to determine how government, academia and industry sectors use USVs and what drives their uptake. We found a striking overlap between these sectors for 11 applications and nine drivers. Low cost was a consistent and central driver for USV uptake across the three sectors. Product 'compatibility' and lack of 'complexity' appear to be major factors limiting USV technological diffusion amongst early adopters. We found that the majority (21 of 27) of commercially available USVs lacked the complexity required for multiple applications in beyond the horizon operations. We argue that the best value for money to advance USV uptake is for designs that offer cross-disciplinary applications and the ability to operate in an unsheltered open ocean without an escort or mothership. The benefits from this technological advancement can excel under existing collaborative governance frameworks and are most significant for remote and developing maritime nations.

Boosting Maritime Security & Trade Around The Indian Ocean.

As part of the efforts exerted by INEGMA's "Counter-Piracy and Somalia Capacity-Building Program" (CPSCB) to spread awareness for the purpose of building expertise and providing recommendations with regards to maritime piracy off the coast of Somalia, the INEGMA team held discussions with Rear Admiral Antoine BEAUSSANT, Commander of the French Joint Force in the Indian Ocean , who deliberated on the latest developments, efforts, recommendations, as well as the upcoming agenda of ALINDIEN* and EUNAVFOR with regards to maritime piracy.

Polar shipping: maritime chiefs work on mandatory code to ensure safety.

South Africa: Are Merchant Shippers Hiring Pirates To Kill Pirates?' - The Regulation Of Private Maritime Security Companies Operating In The Gulf Of Aden.

The world's leading maritime nations and representatives of ship owners and seafarers, are to address the issues of abandonment of seafarers and the rapid settlement of claims for compensation in the case of a seafarer's death or long-term disability at the first meeting of a Special Tripartite Committee established under the ILO's Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC, 2006).

Transport maritime - Piraterie au large du golfe de Guinée : le Nigéria reste la cible principale.

The Review of Maritime Transport 2019, released today, shows a dip in maritime trade growth. Trade policy crosscurrents, geopolitics and sanctions, environmental concerns, fuel economics and tensions involving the Strait of Hormuz - a strategic maritime chokepoint - all contributed to decelerated growth in merchandise trade.

New Study Reveals Maritime Sector's Impact in Pacific Northwest.

Biofouling in the marine environment refers to an unwanted build-up of marine organisms on subsea surfaces including harbor docks, hulls of ships and offshore installations. The first stage of marine fouling occurs as a microbial biofilm which forms via the aggregation of bacterial, algal, and fungal cells. This biofilm provides a favorable substrate for the larval settlement of larger organisms such as mussels, barnacles and hard corals which accumulate to uncontrollable extents, causing issues for the maritime industries. Since the ban of tributyltin (TBT) in 2008 by the International Maritime Organisation, alternative antifouling agents have been used such as algaecides and copper-based coatings. Recent studies are showing that these can accumulate in the marine environment and have toxic effects against non-target species. Marine microbes and invertebrates are known to be prolific producers of bioactive molecules, including antifouling active compounds. These compounds are often produced by marine organisms as a means of chemical defense to deter predators and prevent fouling of their own surfaces, making them a promising source of new antifouling agents. This article discusses the effects of biofouling on the maritime industries, the environmental dangers of currently used antifouling compounds and why natural products from marine organisms could be a source of environmentally friendly antifouling agents.

A new report from the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) International Maritime Bureau (IMB) highlights a continuing trend in South East Asia in the hijacking of small coastal tankers by maritime pirates, averaging one attack every two weeks.

Towards an upswing in international maritime transport.

First meeting of the clean maritime council who will make the plan for a zero emissions UK maritime sector.

NYK Joins "Getting To Zero Coalition" For Accelerating Maritime Shipping's Decarbonization.

To significantly reduce sulfur oxides emissions from fossil fuel-powered ships, reduce air pollution in ports and slow ocean acidification, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has imposed the new 0.50%m/m limit (reduced from 3.50%m/m in the past) on sulphur in ships' fuel oil. This has given rise to a host of issues regarding fuel replenishment operations, safe operation management, maritime regulation, and coordinated governance of air and climate. In response to ocean acidification and climate change, regulations on the use of low-sulfur oil or alternative fuels by ships greatly reduce sulfur oxide emissions, but have no significant impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, the refining process for low-sulfur fuels and the use of the gas cleaning system on ships both increase energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. To ensure the decarbonization process of shipping industry, there is an urgent need for a conceptual change in global ocean governance so as to promote the coordinated governance of air pollution and climate change. China's conception of "a maritime community with a shared future" provides a new model for global ocean governance. The Chinese government has formulated regulations at different levels to promote the coordinated management of atmospheric pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions. Regarding supervision of sulfur oxide emissions from ships, this study proposes to build a multi-department collaborative supervision mechanism from marine fuel life cycle to enhance sulfur oxide monitoring and risk control capabilities. Specific measures of the proposed supervision mechanism include: the joint supervision of compliant fuel supply, the compliant fuel information disclosure platform, a joint law enforcement mechanism for atmospheric pollution, the ability of intelligent ship exhaust monitoring, and the construction of port power infrastructure.

After two years of preparations, the Indonesian government finally enacted a regulation, Peraturan Pemerintah (PP) No. 13/2022 on the Governance of Maritime Security, Safety and Law Enforcement at Indonesia's Territorial Water and Jurisdiction, to designate the Indonesia Maritime Security Board (Bakamla) as coordinating body for all existing maritime institutions that have the authority to establish order at sea.

CSIRO and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore will jointly deliver the initiative, which aims to accelerate the decarbonisation of the maritime sector of both countries.