Friday, February 27, 2026
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Offshore vessel being refitted for ammonia propulsion

Execution Phase for Conversion of PSV to Ammonia Set to Begin

Published Feb 26, 2026 8:44 PM by The Maritime Executive

After several years of planning and development, the Apollo project is set to go into execution this spring, starting the conversion of an in-service platform supply vessel to ammonia-fueled propulsion. The vessel’s owners, Eidesvik Offshore, signed the agreement with Halsnøy Dokk, and it will be completed by fall, making the vessel the first offshore vessel in commercial service converted to be ammonia-powered. The ship, Viking Energy, which was built in 2003, is 2,886 dwt / 5,073 gross tons and has...

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Umm Qasr

Iraqi Maritime Claim Unites Gulf Countries in Opposition

Published Feb 26, 2026 8:18 PM by The Maritime Executive

The registration by Iraq of a claim to maritime areas in the northern Gulf has generated an unusually quick and united rejection from the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council. At the heart of the dispute is a stretch of water between Iraq and Kuwait, which leads to Iraq’s main deep sea port at Umm Qasr. Since UN Resolution 833 passed unanimously in 1991, after the first Gulf War, the land borders in the area have been settled, and...

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CCGS Molly Cool

Captain Pretty Molly Kool, Maritime Trailblazer

Published Feb 26, 2026 8:18 PM by Denise Krepp

A Canadian woman was the first North American female ship’s captain. Her name was Myrtle “Molly” Kool. She obtained her Master’s papers in 1939 when she was just 23 years old. The Washington Daily News wrote about her accomplishment on July 4, 1939 in an article entitled “Pretty Molly Kool, 23, Receives Her Papers as Sea Captain.” Kool became a sea captain 37 years before Deborah Doane Dempsey graduated from Maine Maritime Academy in 1976. Dempsey was the first woman...

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NASAMS air deference system

Antwerp Port to Get Air Defense and Anti-Drone System in 2027

Published Feb 26, 2026 7:57 PM by The Maritime Executive

Belgium’s Prime Minister, Bart De Wever, announced during a presentation at the Port of Antwerp that the government has decided to install an air defense system that will protect the Port of Antwerp, one of the busiest ports in Europe. De Wever, who was the mayor of Antwerp before becoming prime minister in February 2025, has long advocated for Belgium to increase its defenses and was spurred on by the multiple sightings of drones across Northern Europe in 2025. Belgian...

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MORE STORIES BY CATEGORY

Offshore

offshore wind instalaltion vessel

U.S. Offshore Wind Projects Report Progress After Resuming Offshore Work

Three of the five offshore wind projects under construction in the northeast U.S. have each signaled this week strong progress. It comes after each project received preliminary injunctions against the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which had imposed stop-work orders in late December. Speaking to investors on February 25, the executives of Iberdrola, one of the partners in Vineyard Wind 1 off the coast of Massachusetts, said as far as they are concerned,...

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Shipbuilding

Greek Foreign Minister

Hanwha and Greece’s Onex Shipyards Partner to Expand U.S. Shipbuilding

A new trilateral agreement was formalized between Onex Shipyards & Technologies, which is working to revitalize Greek shipbuilding, and South Korea’s Hanwha Power Systems, with American officials looking on during the signing event. According to the reports, the effort will support the efforts in Greece but also looks to leverage the emerging opportunities in the United States under the Trump administration’s U.S. Maritime Action Plan. Onex reports that the agreement focuses on the development of newbuildings with LNG capacity as...

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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

The United Launch Alliance (ULA) prepares for takeoff of the Viasat-3 F2 satellite (Viasat)

Case Study: Satcom Giant Inmarsat

The maritime industry is a conservative business. It tends to favor the established option over the innovative solution. Inmarsat – the original name in maritime satcom – has managed to compete in a tough market by combining both, leveraging its reputation for reliability to bring a new concept into the mainstream. In 2024, it debuted a bonded connectivity service, pairing a speedy low-earth-orbit connection with the reliability of its geostationary fleet. This multi-orbit, multi-network service – NexusWave – has revitalized...

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