During winter months, humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) frequent the coastal waters of Virginia near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Located within the Bay is Naval Station Norfolk, the world's largest naval military installation, and the Port of Virginia, the sixth busiest container port in the United States. These large seaports, combined with the presence of recreational boaters, commercial fishing vessels, and sport-fishing boats, result in a constant heavy flow of vessel traffic through the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and adjacent areas. From December 2015 to February 2017, 35 satellite tags were deployed on humpback whales to gain a better understanding on the occurrence, movements, site-fidelity, and overall behavior of this species within this high-traffic region. The tags transmitted data for an average of 13.7 days (range 2.7-43.8 days). Location data showed that at some point during tag deployment, nearly all whales occurred within, or in close proximity to, the shipping channels located in the study area. Approximately one quarter of all filtered and modeled locations occurred within the shipping channels. Hierarchical state-space modeling results suggest that humpback whales spend considerable time (82.0%) engaged in foraging behavior at or near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Of the 106 humpback whales photo-identified during this research, nine individuals (8.5%) had evidence of propeller strikes. One whale that had previously been tagged and tracked within shipping channels, was found dead on a local beach; a fatality resulting from a vessel strike. The findings from this study demonstrate that a substantial number of humpback whales frequent high-traffic areas near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, increasing the likelihood of injurious vessel interactions that can result in mortalities.
Double-digit growth in imports at the nation's largest retail container ports is slipping to single digits as pandemic-related supply chain disruptions around the world continue, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released today by the National Retail Federation and HACKETT Associates.
Throughput in the port of Rotterdam in 2021 matched the pre-pandemic level of 2019. Almost all goods types were up on last year; one of the sharpest rises was the increase in the throughput number of containers. An increase in revenue and lower costs led to an operating result before interest, depreciation and taxes of € 512.2 million (2020: € 477.5 million).
South Korea said Hanjin Shipping will try to steer vessels to ports to unload cargo as the government tries to contain global supply-chain disruptions stemming from the container line's filing for court receivership.
After more than a month of war in Ukraine, the negative consequences for global trade are now becoming clear. According to the latest data update of the Kiel Trade Indicator, the conflict is weighing on the trade data of almost all economies and also clearly on global trade overall (month-on-month, price and seasonally adjusted). Russia's increasing isolation is reflected in an abrupt decline in the number of container ships arriving and departing from its ports. Globally, the number of shipping containers in congestion is increasing again.