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China's transport ministry has asked port operators to reduce their fees in a move it says will help spur the development of the country's shipping industry.

The All India Spices Exporters Forum (AISEF), established in the year 1987, works towards protecting the interests of the spice exporters in the country, creating a sustainable, pro-development business environment for the spice industry and its stakeholders. Places In Goa

Hong Kong Nicaragua Canal Development Group (HKND) has hired BMT Asia Pacific and BMT ARGOSS to conduct a series of marine and port assessments for its planned Nicaragua Canal project.

The All India Spices Exporters Forum (AISEF), established in the year 1987, works towards protecting the interests of the spice exporters in the country, creating a sustainable, pro-development business environment for the spice industry and its stakeholders. Black Pepper & Red Chillies

A warming climate is opening up new shipping routes through the Arctic Ocean as summer sea ice shrinks. Developing technologies allow mega-ships unprecedented in size and cargo to take to the seas. North America is increasingly exporting oil, shifting global trade patterns.

Researchers develop an autonomous ship guidance system using probabilistic modeling and AI

Researchers from the Finnish Geospatial Research Institute and Aalto University will team up with Fleetrange Ltd. and Tallink Grupp as part of a research project carried out under a programme of, and funded by, the European Space Agency (ESA). The goal is to develop techniques for autonomous navigation for ships with focus on safety, using a combination of different sensors, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Ship noise and development could disturb nursing humpbacks during a crucial time.

Growth of transported volumes by 21% Revenue of more than 21 billion USD, a sharp increase of +32% Solid core EBIT margin of 7.5%

An EPFL researcher has developed a system based on fuel cells to reduce the carbon footprint and energy consumption of cruise ships, which are increasingly popular among vacation goers around the world.

Abu Dhabi Ports, the master developer, operator and manager of the Emirate's ports and Khalifa Industrial Zone, has today announced a major expansion plan in Khalifa Port.

Bordeaux is a major port for the south west of France located on the estuary of the Gironde River. The port facilities extend over 50 miles of the estuary and the port authority has recently issued a five year plan to develop and expand the facilities to cope with modern demands and requirements.

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.

Strikes between vessels and cetaceans have significantly increased worldwide in the last decades. The Canary Islands archipelago is a geographical area with an important overlap of high cetacean diversity and maritime traffic, including high-speed ferries. Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus), currently listed as a vulnerable species, are severely impacted by ship strikes. Nearly 60% of sperm whales' deaths are due to ship strikes in the Canary Islands. In such cases, subcutaneous, muscular and visceral extensive hemorrhages and hematomas, indicate unequivocal antemortem trauma. However, when carcasses are highly autolyzed, it is challenging to distinguish whether the trauma occurred ante- or post-mortem. The presence of fat emboli within the lung microvasculature is used to determine a severe "in vivo" trauma in other species. We hypothesized fat emboli detection could be a feasible, reliable and accurate forensic tool to determine ante-mortem ship strikes in stranded sperm whales, even in decomposed carcasses. In this study, we evaluated the presence of fat emboli by using an osmium tetroxide (OsO4)-based histochemical technique in lung tissue of 24 sperm whales, 16 of them with evidence of ship strike, stranded and necropsied in the Canaries between 2000 and 2017. About 70% of them presented an advanced autolysis. Histological examination revealed the presence of OsO4-positive fat emboli in 13 out of the 16 sperm whales with signs of ship strike, and two out of eight of the "control" group, with varying degrees of abundance and distribution. A classification and regression tree was developed to assess the cut off of fat emboli area determining the high or low probability for diagnosing ship-strikes, with a sensitivity of 89% and a specificity of 100%. The results demonstrated: (1) the usefulness of fat detection as a diagnostic tool for "in vivo" trauma, even in decomposed tissues kept in formaldehyde for long periods of time; and (2) that, during

The accumulation of aquatic organisms on the wetted surfaces of vessels (i.e., vessel biofouling) negatively impacts world-wide shipping through reductions in vessel performance and fuel efficiency, and increases in emissions. Vessel biofouling is also a potent mechanism for the introduction and spread of marine non-indigenous species. Guidance and regulations from the International Maritime Organization, New Zealand, and California have recently been adopted to address biosecurity risks, primarily through preventive management. However, appropriate reactive management measures may be necessary for some vessels. Vessel in-water cleaning or treatment (VICT) has been identified as an important tool to improve operating efficiency and to reduce biosecurity risks. VICT can be applied proactively [i.e., to prevent the occurrence of, or to remove, microfouling (i.e., slime) or prevent the occurrence of macrofouling organisms - large, distinct multicellular organisms visible to the human eye], or reactively (i.e., to remove macrofouling organisms). However, unmanaged VICT includes its own set of biosecurity and water quality risks. Regulatory policies and technical advice from California and New Zealand have been developed to manage these risks, but there are still knowledge gaps related to the efficacy of available technologies. Research efforts are underway to address these gaps in order to inform the regulatory and non-regulatory application of VICT.

"Sustainable shipping for a sustainable planet" has been selected as the World Maritime theme for 2020. This will provide an opportunity to raise awareness of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and showcase the work that the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and its Member States are undertaking to achieve the targets.

The recurrence of lethal ship-whale collisions ('ship strikes') has prompted management entities across the globe to seek effective ways for reducing collision risk. Here we describe 'active whale avoidance' defined as a mariner making operational decisions to reduce the chance of a collision with a sighted whale. We generated a conceptual model of active whale avoidance and, as a proof of concept, apply data to the model based on observations of humpback whales surfacing in the proximity of large cruise ships, and simulations run in a full-mission bridge simulator and commonly used pilotage software. Application of the model demonstrated that (1) the opportunities for detecting a surfacing whale are often limited and temporary, (2) the cumulative probability of detecting one of the available 'cues' of whale's presence (and direction of travel) decreases with increased ship-to-whale distances, and (3) following detection time delays occur related to avoidance operations. These delays were attributed to the mariner evaluating competing risks (e.g., risk of whale collision vs. risk to human life, the ship, or other aspects of the marine environment), deciding upon an appropriate avoidance action, and achieving a new operational state by the ship once a maneuver is commanded. We thus identify several options for enhancing whale avoidance including training Lookouts to focus search efforts on a 'Cone of Concern,' defined here as the area forward of the ship where whales are at risk of collision based on the whale and ship's transit/swimming speed and direction of travel. Standardizing protocols for rapid communication of relevant sighting information among bridge team members can also increase avoidance by sharing information on the whale that is of sufficient quality to be actionable. We also found that, for marine pilots in Alaska, a slight change in course tends to be preferable to slowing the ship in response to a single sighted whale, owing, in part, to the substan

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.

Spatial risk assessments are an effective management tool used in multiple-use marine parks to balance the needs for conservation of natural properties and to provide for varying socio-economic demands for development. The multiple-use Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP) has recently experienced substantial increases in current and proposed port expansions and subsequent shipping. Globally, large whale populations are recovering from commercial whaling and ship strike is a significant threat to some populations and a potential welfare issue for others. Within the GBRMP, there is spatial conflict between the main breeding ground of the east Australian humpback whale population and the main inner shipping route that services several large natural resource export ports. The east coast humpback whale population is one of the largest humpback whale populations globally, exponentially increasing (11% per annum) close to the maximum potential rate and estimated to reach pre-exploitation population numbers in the next 4-5 years. We quantify the relative risk of ship strike to calving and mating humpback whales, with areas of highest relative risk coinciding with areas offshore of two major natural resource export ports. We found females with a dependent calf had a higher risk of ship strike compared to groups without a calf when standardized for group size and their inshore movement and coastal dependence later in the breeding season increases their overlap with shipping, although their lower relative abundance decreases risk. The formalization of a two-way shipping route has provided little change to risk and projected risk estimates indicate a three- to five-fold increase in risk to humpback whales from ship strike over the next 10 years. Currently, the whale Protection Area in the GBRMP does not cover the main mating and calving areas, whereas provisions within the legislation for establishment of a Special Management Area during the peak breeding season in high-ris

On 30th December 2016 PM Modi launched the BHIM app i.e Bharat Interface for Money which aimed at unifying Indian citizens in terms of online cashless payments. Developed by the National Payments Corporation (NPC), the app saw a significant growth in the number of users which has reached a mark of 125 lakh Indian citizens as of March 2017.