Monday, March 09, 2026
Media Kit
Foreign-flagged tanker Skylight after an Iranian strike earlier this month (Omani social media)

Trump Urges Foreign Ships to Resume Oil Deliveries to Asian Markets

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An SM-3 missile test-launch from a standard VLS cell (USN)

Op-Ed: Conflict With Iran Opens a Missile-Defense Gap for China

Published Mar 8, 2026 9:26 PM by The Strategist

[By David Axe] The US- and Israeli-led war on Iran has been, with a few key caveats, a quick military success for the United States and its allies. That doesn’t mean it’ll be a strategic success. Indeed, the euphoria in Washington and Jerusalem could quickly turn into despair if the successful air campaign leads to lasting regional chaos or, equally worrying, a protracted ground war. In any event, the so-far lopsided conflict offers important lessons for the Asia-Pacific. It has...

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Iranian boxship Barzin (VesselFinder file image)

Two Iranian Boxships Under Way With Suspected Rocket Fuel Cargoes

Published Mar 8, 2026 9:00 PM by The Maritime Executive

The Washington Post has suggested that two vessels owned by Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) have left the port of Gaolan in Zhuhai, China, destined for Bandar Abbas and potentially laden with sodium perchlorate - a chemical used for manufacturing solid fuel for ballistic missiles. Sodium perchlorate is the primary material used to manufacture ammonium perchlorate, which in turn makes up 70% of the standard fuel load of most of Iran’s solid-fueled ballistic missiles. Iran used to have...

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Bangladesh

Managing Conflicts of Interest in Bangladesh’s Ship Recycling Sector

Published Mar 8, 2026 8:40 PM by Prof. Dr. Ishtiaque Ahmed

Bangladesh’s ship recycling industry operates under intense national and international scrutiny. The sector is economically vital, supplying a significant share of the country’s steel and supporting thousands of jobs, yet it also sits at the center of global debates over environmental protection, labor safety, and regulatory credibility. As Bangladesh seeks deeper integration into international maritime markets, the strength and independence of its regulatory institutions have become as important as technical compliance itself. The Ship Recycling Act 2018 established the Bangladesh...

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Oil slicks emanate from the terminal complex at Kharg Island (file image courtesy NASA)

Report: White House Considering a Raid to Seize Kharg Island

Published Mar 8, 2026 7:34 PM by The Maritime Executive

The Trump administration is contemplating a series of special forces operations inside of Iran, potentially including a raid to seize Kharg Island, according to Axios. Kharg is home to the crude loading port at the heart of Iran's oil export industry. Kharg Island is located at the far northern end of the Arabian Gulf, opposite Kuwait and about 20 nautical miles off the coast of mainland Iran. It handles the overwhelming majority of Iran's crude exports, and by nameplate capacity,...

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Offshore

Spill cleanup under way on shore near LOOP (USCG)

Spill Cleanup Under Way at Louisiana Offshore Oil Port

The U.S. Coast Guard is responding to a spill at the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the United States' only VLCC-capable loading terminal. The spill began nine days ago, according to LOOP, and remediation work is still proceeding. On February 26, crude oil was discovered near its offshore loading terminal. The leak was caused by a material failure of a cargo transfer hose, LOOP said. The source of the leak has been secured, the Coast Guard said. Local TV station WWL...

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Shipbuilding

State of Maine training ship

Third US Training Ship State of Maine Delivered to MARAD

The third newly built U.S. training ship for the merchant marine, the State of Maine, was handed over to TOTE Services and delivered to the U.S. Maritime Administration. It will be the fifth training vessel, and the first purpose-built vessel, to be operated by the Maine Maritime Academy, located in Castine, Maine. The handover to the U.S. government took place at the Hanwha Philly Shipyard, and the vessel is scheduled to depart for Maine in the coming days. Once it...

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Environment

Trawlers

Study: Ocean Warming Puts "Constant Negative Pressure" on Fish Populations

A new meta-study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution suggests that ocean warming has an outsize impact on the total amount of fish in the water, enough to have major implications for global fisheries. The study, led by researchers at Spain's Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, looked at hundreds of thousands of studies of fish populations in the Northern Hemisphere over a period of nearly 30 years, spanning 1993-2021. The vast data set covered more than 1,500 fish species and...

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Business

iStock

Building Resilient, Low-Carbon Supply Chains With ITS

Sustainability and resilience in shipping are not the result of a single decision. They come from daily practice, informed choices and the systems that help people make them. Other transport sectors already use connected digital networks to support safe and efficient movement. Maritime has begun to digitalise, but it has not yet built the joined up systems that allow data, infrastructure and operations to work together. Without that connection, the industry struggles to respond to growing pressure. Ports and shipping...

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