AMVER Vessel Saves Fishermen Adrift in Western Pacific
On August 14, the Wallem-managed bulker ISL Star rescued eight Indonesian fishermen who had lost power in the Western Pacific. When the ISL Star arrived on scene, the 60-foot, wooden-hulled Hallelujar (or Aleluya) had been adrift for 10 days north of Palau, and she had run out of food and water. After the Hallelujar found herself adrift, one member of her crew left the vessel in a motorboat to try to reach a passing fishing vessel, the Kensei Maru 3. The Kensei Maru rescued him but was unable to...
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Equinor Strikes Oil in the Barents Sea
Equinor has struck oil in its latest summer drilling campaign in the Barents Sea. The firm sees this Arctic region as key to the future of Norway's offshore oil and gas industry, and it has acquired extensive E&P lease acreage in the area. Equinor, along with its partners OMV and Petoro, says that it believes it has found 20-65 million barrels of recoverable oil at its Sputnik exploration well in the Barents. The commercial potential of the site will be...
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Maersk Enters India's Digital Trucking Market
Maersk is partnering with BlackBuck, India’s largest online marketplace for trucking, to provide an online marketplace for containerized trucking in export/import logistics in India. The Indian government has set ambitions to reduce logistics costs from 14 percent of the GDP to less than nine percent by 2022, and the new platform will be owned and operated by BlackBuck with Maersk supporting BlackBuck to develop solutions that help to meet the target. The neutral platform will be open to the whole industry...
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The Chinese Incursion into Vietnam's EEZ and Lessons from the Past
[By Huong Le Thu] The Haiyang Dizhi 8, a survey vessel belonging to a Chinese government-run corporation, began surveying a large swath of seabed on July 3 northeast of Vanguard Bank, which falls within Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone. The ship has been escorted by other vessels, including from the China Coast Guard and maritime militia. At the same time, China Coast Guard ships have been harassing Vietnamese drilling operations to the south. Chinese incursions into Vietnam’s EEZ are by no means a...
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U.S. Warns Against Assisting Iranian Tanker Grace 1
As the recently-released Iranian tanker Grace 1 makes her way eastward across the Mediterranean, the U.S. State Department is making clear that it does not want to see any nation or entity providing her with assistance. The Grace 1, recently renamed the Adrian Darya 1 and reflagged to Iran, departed Gibraltar Sunday after the territory's supreme court ordered her release. As of Monday, her AIS signal showed her off the coast of Algeria, headed for Kalamata, Greece at about seven...
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Counter Smuggling and Piracy Exercise Underway
The U.S. Navy and maritime forces from 10 Indo-Pacific partner nations began the 18th Southeast Asia Cooperation and Training (SEACAT) exercise in Singapore on August 19. The goal of the SEACAT exercise is to bring together regional partner nations to engage in "real world, real time" training designed to enhance partner nation ability to communicate, coordinate and counter illegal fishing, smuggling and piracy. Participating nations include Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand,...
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Stone Age Boat Building Site Discovered Underwater
The U.K. Maritime Archaeological Trust has discovered an 8,000 year old structure next to what is believed to be the oldest boat building site in the world. The Isle of Wight site lies east of Yarmouth, and the newly-discovered platform is the most cohesive, wooden Stone Age, Late Mesolithic (c. 8,400 to 4,000 BC) structure ever found in the U.K. The site is now 11 meters below sea level, but during the period there was human activity on the site,...
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Singapore Commissions "World's Most Powerful" Firefighting Boat
On Tuesday, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) formally commissioned three new firefighting vessels for its marine division, including what the department claims to be the "world's most powerful firefighting vessel." This ship, categorized as a "Heavy Fire Vessel (HFV)" and named Red Sailfish, has 12 remote-controlled monitors providing full 360 degree coverage. Its pumps can put out more than 60,000 gallons per minute of foam and water. In addition, it is DP-enabled, making it possibly the only purpose-built vessel...
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Battery-Free System Could Power Underwater Internet of Things
An underwater “internet of things” is being developed to help scientists investigate the marine environment, and researchers from MIT have developed a battery-free underwater communication system that uses near-zero power to transmit sensor data. The system could be used to monitor sea temperatures and track marine life over long periods, or even to sample waters on distant planets. The system makes use of two key phenomena. One, called the “piezoelectric effect,” occurs when vibrations in certain materials generate an electrical...
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