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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

With the COVID-19 pandemic came what media has deemed the "port congestion pandemic". Intensified by the pandemic, the commonplace anchoring of high-tonnage ships causes a substantial geomorphologial footprint on the seabed outside marine ports globally, but isn't yet quantified. We present the first characterisation of the footprint and extent of anchoring in a low congestion port in New Zealand-Aotearoa, demonstrating that high-tonnage ship anchors excavate the seabed by up to 80 cm, with the impacts preserved for at least 4 years. The calcuated volume of sediment displaced by one high-tonnage ship (> 9000 Gross Tonnage) on anchor can reach 2800 m3. Scaled-up globally, this provides the first estimates of the footprint of anchoring to the coastal seabed, worldwide. Seafloor damage due to anchoring has far-reaching implications for already stressed marine ecosystems and carbon cycling. As seaborne trade is projected to quadruple by 2050, the poorly constrained impacts of anchoring must be considered to avoid irreversible damage to marine habitats.

The Panama Canal Authority has closed fiscal year 2015 with a record tonnage of 340.8m PC/UMS tonnes (Panama Canal Universal System Tonnage), which an increase of 4.3% compared to 326.4m tonnes in fiscal year 2014.

Panama Canal sets new monthly tonnage record.

Marshall Islands flag flies over record tonnage - tops 125 million tons.

Greek fleet reduces in number of ships, increases in tonnage.

Expanded Panama Canal sets record cargo tonnage in FY17.

China COSCO Shipping Co, the country's largest shipping company by fleet size, officially launched COSCO Shipping Energy Transportation Co in Shanghai on Monday, creating the world's largest oil tanker fleet in terms of both ship numbers and deadweight tonnage.

World's biggest automated cargo wharf, the fourth phase of the Yangshan deep-water port started operation on Sunday. The core technology of the robotic port was developed independently by China. The forth phrase of Yangshan port takes up an area of 2.23 million square meters, whose coastline stretches as long as 2,350 meters. It consists of two 70,000 dead-weight tonnage (DWT) berths and five 50,000 DWT berths.

Low-frequency sound from large vessels is a major, global source of ocean noise that can interfere with acoustic communication for a variety of marine animals. Changes in vessel activity provide opportunities to quantify relationships between vessel traffic levels and soundscape conditions in biologically important habitats. Using continuous deep-sea (890 m) recordings acquired ∼20 km (closest point of approach) from offshore shipping lanes, we observed reduction of low-frequency noise within Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (California, United States) associated with changes in vessel traffic during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Acoustic modeling shows that the recording site receives low-frequency vessel noise primarily from the regional shipping lanes rather than via the Sound Fixing and Ranging (SOFAR) channel. Monthly geometric means and percentiles of spectrum levels in the one-third octave band centered at 63 Hz during 2020 were compared with those from the same months of 2018-2019. Spectrum levels were persistently and significantly lower during February through July 2020, although a partial rebound in ambient noise levels was indicated by July. Mean spectrum levels during 2020 were more than 1 dB re 1 μPa2 Hz-1 below those of a previous year during 4 months. The lowest spectrum levels, in June 2020, were as much as 1.9 (mean) and 2.4 (25% exceedance level) dB re 1 μPa2 Hz-1 below levels of previous years. Spectrum levels during 2020 were significantly correlated with large-vessel total gross tonnage derived from economic data, summed across all California ports (r = 0.81, p < 0.05; adjusted r2 = 0.58). They were more highly correlated with regional presence of large vessels, quantified from Automatic Identification System (AIS) vessel tracking data weighted according to vessel speed and modeled acoustic transmission loss (r = 0.92, p < 0.01; adjusted r2 = 0.81). Within the 3-year study period, February-June 2020 exhibited persistentl

In general, a single scalar hydrophone cannot determine the orientation of an underwater acoustic target. However, through a study of sea trial experimental data, the authors found that the sound field interference structures of inbound and outbound ships differ owing to changes in the topography of the shallow continental shelf. Based on this difference, four different convolutional neural networks (CNNs), AlexNet, visual geometry group, residual network (ResNet), and dense convolutional network (DenseNet), are trained to classify inbound and outbound ships using only a single scalar hydrophone. Two datasets, a simulation and a sea trial, are used in the CNNs. Each dataset is divided into a training set and a test set according to the proportion of 40% to 60%. The simulation dataset is generated using underwater acoustic propagation software, with surface ships of different parameters (tonnage, speed, draft) modeled as various acoustic sources. The experimental dataset is obtained using submersible buoys placed near Qingdao Port, including 321 target ships. The ships in the dataset are labeled inbound or outbound using ship automatic identification system data. The results showed that the accuracy of the four CNNs based on the sea trial dataset in judging vessels' inbound and outbound situations is above 90%, among which the accuracy of DenseNet is as high as 99.2%. This study also explains the physical principle of classifying inbound and outbound ships by analyzing the low-frequency analysis and recording diagram of the broadband noise radiated by the ships. This method can monitor ships entering and leaving ports illegally and with abnormal courses in specific sea areas.

For decades, the shipping sector has been incorporated into the global decarbonization process. At present, global shipping - as a whole - aims to reduce its emission levels by 40 % by 2030 in relation to the 2008 level. In reducing greenhouse gas emissions, regulations such as the MARPOL 73/78 Convention and Energy Efficiency Design Index as well as other monitoring and managing schemes already in operation (e.g., Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan and Energy Efficiency Operational Indicator) play a crucial role in measuring fuel consumption and ship engine emission output. Energy Efficiency Existing Ship Index (EEXI) is another measure, projected to be ratified in 2023, in-line with decarbonization targets in which the International Maritime Organization has planned a 70 % reduction in emissions level by 2050 using the same 2008 baseline. For this to happen, ship speed may need to be reduced, a decrease of fleet capacity may also need to be considered, and new ships may need to replace older ones already in service. The costs of implementing these types of reforms are obviously significant to the sector. Such change will augment the overall shipping overhead, effecting subsequent transportation and consumer costs. This paper aims to specify the scale of the expected costs of implementing EEXI globally. The current maritime fleet has been analyzed in terms of energy demand, deadweight tonnage, and expected CO2 emission reduction marginal abatement costs (MAC). Two pathways to achieve the desired EEXI values are presented, including the most common and available technologies to reduce demand. These technologies are subjected to MAC valuation and presented quantitatively for the world fleet. The research also investigates alternative fuel options in regard to lessening the CO2 impact, developing wind support systems, and avoiding conventional advancements to ships (e.g., upgrading the propeller or the propulsion system). At length, the target of the work is t

South Africa hopes tax reform will boost shipping.

Suez Canal sets new record.

World fleet 60% larger than 2008, but emitting 18% less carbon.