Maritime Safety News Archives - Page 73 of 260

Two decades after the devastating Erika and Prestige accidents, the European maritime safety framework has become one of the most robust in the world, according to the European Maritime Safety Report (EMSAFE). Yet, emerging technologies and digitalisation could soon also pose challenges.

EMSAFE is the first ever comprehensive overview of maritime safety in the European Union.

EU Transport Commissioner, Adina Vălean says the report is a ‘testimony to how the EU’s efforts to ensure maritime safety have been effective in preventing accidents and ensuring a high level of harmonised safety rules across the Union. At the same time, a single maritime accident can have catastrophic consequences for human life and the marine environment, so continuous vigilance and improvement remain essential.’

Port State Control and EMSA

One of the key pillars of the EU safety framework is port state control, which results in over 14,000 vessel checks each year by inspectors in EU ports, complemented by legislative initiatives like the specific EU survey regime for sRoPax and high-speed craft, and the obligation for member states to report and monitor accidents centrally for analysis and development of preventive actions.

The EMSAFE report, published by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) also highlights the assistance that the Agency provides to the European Commission to check the implementation of EU legislation. In this regard, EMSA has carried out more than 300 visits to member states on behalf of the Commission over the past two decades, as well as more than 300 inspections of EU recognised organisations, to which member states are increasingly delegating tasks linked to their flag state responsibilities.

In addition, more than seventy inspections of maritime administrations, education, and training institutes in third countries were carried out in the same period, to assist the Commission in assessing compliance with the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW).

SafeSeaNet

In 2020 alone, more than 680,000 calls to EU ports were registered. The exchange of safety information between member states in areas like dangerous cargo transported, vessel positioning data, and the registration of passengers, is therefore vital.

Consequently, EMSA will continue to develop and improve SafeSeaNet, the EU-wide maritime data exchange, to offer facilitation services, simplify the fulfilment of reporting obligations, and support new and revised EU legislation. These developments consolidate the role of SafeSeaNet as the primary platform for maritime safety information in the EU.

Ageing fleet

EMSAFE is released at a time in which the EU member state-flagged fleet is experiencing slower growth than that of world fleet (3.4 per cent growth over the past five years as compared to seven per cent growth for the world fleet). Although the average age of EU member state-flagged vessels is broadly comparable to that of the world fleet, some ship categories are ageing, including passenger vessels, which have an average age of 28 years.

New technologies can increase risk

According to the report, maritime safety will continue to pose challenges in the short and medium term, not only in managing the current fleet, but also in the areas of digitalisation, emerging technologies, and sustainability.

The sector’s efforts to reach emission targets as part of the European Green Deal are also linked to maritime safety, especially given that the use of new fuels (hydrogen, methanol, ammonia, and biofuels) and power technologies (batteries and fuel cells) need to be underpinned by adequate safety standards.

In addition, the number of alternatively fuelled vehicles, including electric cars, increased by 29 per cent between 2019 and 2021 in the EU, meaning that both passenger and cargo ships need to prepare for the safety risks of transporting more of these vehicles.

The report underlines that although autonomous ships offer new opportunities for industry, they also bring challenges in the regulatory and technical fields, including the need to develop a legal framework, standards, surveys, manoeuvres at sea and in port, and the qualifications of those on board, among others.

Just under 402 years ago, in August of 1620, the Mayflower set sail from Southampton, England, bound for America. The 100-foot-long-long, triple-masted wooden vessel with canvas sails took more than two months to cross the Atlantic. It carried 102 passengers, had a max speed of three knots an hour (that’s about 6 kilometers or 3.7 miles an hour) and required a crew of 30 to operate.

Earlier this month, another Mayflower crossed the Atlantic, but it couldn’t have been more different from its namesake in almost every way. The one similarity was that, well, it was also a boat.

The differences? The new Mayflower—logically dubbed the Mayflower 400—is a 50-foot-long trimaran (that’s a boat that has one main hull with a smaller hull attached on either side), can go up to 10 knots or 18.5 kilometers an hour, is powered by electric motors that run on solar energy (with diesel as a backup if needed), and required a crew of… zero.

That’s because the ship was navigated by an on-board AI. Like a self-driving car, the ship was tricked out with multiple cameras (6 of them) and sensors (45 of them) to feed the AI information about its surroundings and help it make wise navigation decisions, such as re-routing around spots with bad weather. There’s also onboard radar and GPS, as well as altitude and water-depth detectors.

The ship and its voyage were a collaboration between IBM and a marine research non-profit called ProMare. Engineers trained the Mayflower 400’s “AI Captain” on petabytes of data; according to an IBM overview about the ship, its decisions are based on if/then rules and machine learning models for pattern recognition, but also go beyond these standards. The algorithm “learns from the outcomes of its decisions, makes predictions about the future, manages risks, and refines its knowledge through experience.” It’s also able to integrate far more inputs in real time than a human is capable of.

The training included teaching the algorithm to identify objects in its path like cargo ships, fishing vessels, or shipping containers floating in the water.

For all its training and preparation, though, the Mayflower 400 ended up falling a bit short of its goal.

It set sail from Plymouth, England on April 29 and was meant to take three weeks to arrive in Washington, DC—but a mechanical issue ended up derailing it to the Canadian port of Halifax. Details weren’t specified, but it may have been something similar to what happened during the ship’s first attempted voyage in 2021, when a metal component on the backup generator fractured, and solar power alone wasn’t enough for the ship to complete its journey.

The Mayflower 400’s engineers will doubtless press on, though, and are likely already planning another voyage for the high-tech autonomous ship. Despite the snafus, it’s pretty amazing to contemplate how far technology has come since the original Mayflower crossed the Atlantic. Makes you wonder what a similar voyage will look like 400 years from now; from hydrogen-powered airships to civilian submarines to faster, sleeker AI-powered solar vessels, it seems anything is possible.

Maersk Tankers has announced plans to expand its digital team from seven to 23 employees as it tries to keep pace with increasing demand for technology-powered services in the shipping market.

The company’s digital strategy is focused on developing systems and processes to enhance vessel efficiency and cut carbon emissions, including support for charterers in selecting the best suitable vessel for each voyage based on its speed and fuel consumption, as well as calculating the best voyage route while taking future positioning into consideration.

While this has typically been a time-intensive process involving manual calculations, Maersk Tankers’ digital team is working on systems to manage these activities in a matter of seconds, presenting charterers with a range of options to decide from based on their preferences.

“With demand for digitised shipping increasing, we are adding capacity to keep up with the pace. We’re also reorchestrating our team, moving from a generalist digital department to one of expertise in high-demand areas,” said Bjørn Ørving, Head of Digital at Maersk Tankers.

“We’re working towards providing the best possible software that can ensure our brilliant colleagues are able to focus on providing even better services and solutions.”

The digital team plans to hire 16 new employees this year, largely data scientists, data engineers, and back- and front-end developers. Seven of these positions will be reallocated from an agency to the inhouse team at Maersk Tankers.

A third of the technical developers hired will be new graduates or juniors, with the company taking co-responsibility for their further development in the field of digital technology. The team will also be working closely with universities and sharing data with them for research, Maersk Tankers says.

The House Armed Services Committee approved the annual defense policy bill early Thursday that would authorize the Navy to buy a total of 13 ships.

The committee’s version of the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act would also save five Littoral Combat Ships from decommissioning.

During Wednesday’s markup the committee approved an amendment from Reps. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) and Jared Golden (D-Maine) that would authorize a $37 billion increase to the policy bill’s topline.

That same amendment also authorizes funds for five more ships – another Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, a second Constellation-class frigate, another T-AO-205 John Lewis-class oiler and two Expeditionary Medical Ships. This is in addition to the eight battleforce ships – two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, two Virginia-class attack boats, one Constellation-class frigate, one San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock, one T-AO-205 John Lewis-class oiler and one T-ATS 6 Navajo-class towing, salvage and rescue ship – the legislation authorizes to meet the Navy’s original FY 2023 request.

Luria’s and Golden’s amendment also authorizes funds to save five Littoral Combat Ships from decommissioning. The Navy’s FY 2023 budget proposal sought to decommission a total of 24 ships, including nine Freedom-class LCSs.

Despite some opposition to the amendment, specifically the effort to save the five LCSs, the panel approved the measure.

“As proposed by the Biden administration, building eight ships and retiring 24 ships does not pace with China’s expansionist policies and places our national security at risk,” HASC seapower and project forces subcommittee ranking member Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) said in a statement. “This markup reverses a dangerous divest to invest strategy and expands the overall fleet by authorizing 13 ships and allowing 12 vessels to retire.”

The panel approved another amendment offered by Luria that calls for a “National Commission” to assess the entire Navy.

“Rep. Luria’s amendment would establish a commission comprised of Members of Congress and individuals with expertise in Navy policy and strategy, force structure, organization, and design to study the present conditions of the service,” Luria’s office said in a news release about the amendment. “The commission will review the force structure of the Navy, with an emphasis on readiness, training, ship maintenance, ship building, manning, and personnel.”

The amendment stipulates that the commission would have eight members and that the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate armed services committees must choose them within three months of the NDAA becoming law, according to text of the amendment. The measure would also require an evaluation of the funds needed for the Pentagon to recapitalize the nuclear triad and how doing so impacts the Navy’s budget.

Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) offered an amendment that would “[clarify] Navy peacetime responsibilities as detailed in Title 10,” according to a description of the measure. The HASC approved the amendment.

The legislation will now head to the House floor.

Software solutions company, Intellicore has been appointed as technical partner of global maritime industry firm, du Pré Marine.

The contract which has an initial three-year term and is anticipated to be worth £250K over the first 12 months alone, will see Intellicore build an initial six solutions for du Pré Marine to enable more sophisticated remote control of navigation systems, data and media.

The solutions which will be taken to market in 2022 include a suite of tools to automate simple manual tasks such as rotating searchlights to follow thermal cameras and provide reference points using GNSS or AIS markers, developing enhanced video overlay and analytical capability and solving configuration and routing of NMEA sensor data and logging so it can be used across multiple applications and cross-referenced for evidential purposes.

Barry Booth, managing director of Intellicore said: “This is an exciting time for Intellicore, not least with this contract win which we’re delighted to have been awarded. With Intellicore’s expertise in building and productising technical solutions coupled with our track record in maritime through our sister company Seall ECDIS, we believe we are ideally placed to be du Pré Marine’s technical partner.”

Tobias du Pré, managing director of du Pré Marine said: “We already had several years’ successful experience working with Barry and his team on Seall ECDIS products and so it was a natural choice for us to partner with Intellicore to create these valuable new solutions. Combined with our deep knowledge of thermal imaging, searchlights, video and computing applications in the most testing of applications, this partnership will keep us at the forefront of ASV and USV requirements, as well as enhance our abilities in serving the increasing demand for onshore control of navigation, safety and security resources on manned vessels.”

Maritime Minister Robert Courts has announced government funding for 3 organizations to support projects developing seafarers’ wellbeing and maritime skills, diversity and careers.

Announcing the news at the Mersey Maritime Exchange in Liverpool, the minister also outlined how the funding will support a review of ‘ratings’ training. This will include roles such as deck, engine room, hospitality and catering in the maritime industry. It will be carried out by the Maritime Skills Commission.

£2.4 million will help to support green skills, alleviate seafarer mental health issues and work towards the maritime 2050 ambition to widen the diversity of the sector.

The funding aims to support the maritime sector to create a highly-skilled, well-supported workforce that people from all backgrounds want to join.

As recognized in the government’s Maritime 2050 report and brought into sharp focus during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, seafarers’ welfare and mental health remains a serious issue. These challenges have exposed a need to better understand welfare issues for seafarers and the paucity of facilities and other support available when needed.

Maritime Minister Robert Courts said:

Seafarer wellbeing is at the heart of our Maritime 2050 agenda and we know that mental health difficulties at sea affect thousands of seafarers. We are committed to tackling this and building a diverse, highly skilled and exciting sector across the board – from shipbuilders to bosuns.

This funding will help us tackle this problem by supporting the excellent work being done by charities and social organisations and fostering new programmes.

I am also pleased to be launching our recovery route map, which will help to build a resilient, innovative and future-facing maritime sector for generations to come.”

A package of 9 seafarer protection measures, announced in March, has already set out plans to establish a new framework to improve the long-term working conditions of seafarers, developed in consultation with industry and unions.

The UK has continued to be a leading voice in recognizing existing rights and working with industry and seafarer welfare organizations. In addition, the industry has developed mental health awareness training which is delivered to every new seafarer as part of their mandatory training. This funding aims to raise the profile and enhance delivery of successful programs – small, large, new and existing – to champion seafarer rights.

Also launched today (23 June 2022) is the government’s Maritime recovery route map. This brings together the government’s plans to help the sector recover from the impact of the pandemic while supercharging delivery of Maritime 2050. The report was developed jointly with industry. It follows the key Maritime 2050 themes including how we will support our outstanding workforce, stay competitive and drive green growth by delivering innovation and new technology.

Stuart Rivers, Chief Executive Officer of the Merchant Navy Welfare Board, said:

This significant investment in the maritime charity sector is both timely and extremely welcome. The maritime charities sector has been supporting seafarers through multiple crises over the past 2 years, despite the difficult fundraising conditions. Department for Transport’s funding will provide a real boost to seafarers’ welfare and enable improvements in skills and diversity for the wider sector.

The funding will support maritime skills, diversity, careers and seafarer wellbeing, with £230,000 of the funding allotted to Maritime UK to support green skills, a ratings review and drive forward careers and diversity plans and a further £140,000 to Ormiston Maritime Academy to promote maritime in schools in key target areas for regional growth.”

Ben Murray, Chief Executive Officer of Maritime UK, said:

To realize the vision that we have for the UK maritime sector in 2050, we need the best people from all backgrounds to offer new thinking on the big issues of our age. That means being an inclusive sector, one that invests in its people and prepares for the future.

Maritime UK is delighted that people and skills are at the heart of the government’s maritime recovery route map and the industry is determined to accelerate its work on priorities like diversity and green skills.”

Rachel Kitley, Principal of Cowes Enterprise College, which is part of Ormiston Academies Trust (OAT), said:

Our Maritime Futures initiative fulfils the educational aspirations of the government’s Maritime 2050 strategy. It seamlessly integrates robust disciplinary knowledge with hands-on maritime projects, raises awareness of the maritime sector and provides students with meaningful encounters with maritime employers.

We are thrilled that funding from Department for Transport will enable us to disseminate this model at pace, particularly in coastal communities. Simultaneously, Maritime Futures will contribute to raising attainment for students in disadvantaged areas and raise the profile of the maritime industry.”

Source:

GOV.UK

With the rest of the world returning to the pre-pandemic levels of normality, China has maintained a strict zero-COVID policy. Lockdowns and rapid mass testing are still commonplace in Chinese cities. Unfortunately, for foreign businesses that depend on China to boost their global revenues, the cost of operation is becoming burdensome.

The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China was the first to sound the alarm based on findings of a flash survey it conducted in April. It involved 372 European companies primarily based in Shanghai. For nuance, the results were contrasted with an earlier Business Confidence Survey (BCS) that the European Chamber in partnership with Roland Berger conducted in mid- February.

Overall, China’s current COVID-19 containment policy is creating an uncertain business environment. 75 percent of the respondents reported a negative impact on overall operations, with businesses not knowing if their premises will be suddenly shut down or get enough staff to maintain operations.

The main impacts have been felt in logistics and warehousing, where 94 percent of the respondents said that they are negatively affected.

Supply chains have also taken a pounding, both upstream and downstream, affecting 92 percent of the respondents. The main challenges include access to raw materials or components needed for production, struggling to transport raw materials or delivery of finished products within China, and to the rest of the world.

However, in the face of these problems, it begs the question whether the companies are pondering to exit China. The survey found that the majority plan to stay, with only 11 percent of the businesses reporting plans to downsize their operations in China. This demonstrates that most European companies are committed to China in the long-term and prepared to weather any storm for now.

“The rewards of staying the course and navigating the storm are plain to see. With a market of 1.4 billion consumers, some of the world’s best manufacturing clusters and, in more recent years, a vibrant innovation ecosystem, European companies view it as imperative to be part of China’s growth story,” said Joerg Wuttke, the President of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China.

However, the Chinese market has lost a considerable amount of allure for many companies, with 78 percent indicating that China’s COVID-19 measures have made it less attractive destination for investment.

Some of the hard-hit sectors – fashion and textiles – are important to container shipping, an early indicator of a possible supply-chain shift in Asia.

“The main impact currently is the disruption of logistics to and from Europe, with 65 percent of the companies affected. Businesses have to adapt to new conditions, with rail freight between China and Europe no longer an option. Ships and trucks are also paying more for gas and oil due to rising material and energy costs,” notes the EU Chamber report.

Meanwhile, although the war in Ukraine is not an immediate concern for European businesses in China, a third of companies revealed the war is also a factor affecting China’s attractiveness as an investment destination. With China increasingly trading with Russia, and seemingly appearing as an ally, companies are concerned by geopolitical tensions, in particular the prospect of a deterioration in EU- China relations.

The Ukrainian military has launched a series of strikes on Snake Island, a small but strategic rocky outpost off Ukraine’s southern coast. It has been in Russian hands since the opening days of the war, and it is essential to the control of the sea lanes leading to and from Odesa. The Black Sea port is key to Ukraine’s grain export sector, and it is under Russian blockade.

Russia has fortified Snake Island with advanced air-defense systems and coastal defense anti-ship missile batteries, and this equipment has been targeted in a series of ongoing attacks. Satellite imaging provided by an American commercial operator shows at least three areas of the island that have been newly blackened by explosions and fires.

Ukraine has not confirmed the method of attack, and its Operational Command South has said only that “Snake Island was dealt a concentrated blow with the use of various forces and methods of destruction.”

Ukrainian forces also struck three offshore rigs located to the west of the Crimean Peninsula, claiming that Russian forces had installed surveillance and communications equipment on the structures. Gov. Sergey Aksyonov, head of the Moscow-controlled government of Crimea, said in a social media post that three were injured and seven were missing after the attack. State Duma deputy Mikhail Sheremet, a Russian elected official from Crimea, said that it was possible that “foreign long-range missiles” were used in the strike.

Previously, on June 17, Ukraine also claimed to have attacked and sunk a Russian supply tug, which was delivering military supplies to Snake Island. UK intelligence has confirmed the striek, which relied on two NATO-supplied Harpoon anti-ship missiles. It was Ukraine’s first claimed strike using Harpoon, a 1970s-era missile system which has been employed by more than 30 nations. Ukraine’s navy claimed that the supply tug had a Tor surface-to-air missile system on board – a practice that has become increasingly common for small Russian Navy vessels in the Black Sea.

“Ukrainian coastal defense capability has largely neutralized Russia’s ability to establish sea control and project maritime force in the northwestern Black Sea,” assessed the UK Ministry of Defence in a daily briefing Tuesday. “This has undermined the viability of Russia’s original operational design for the invasion, which involved holding the Odesa region at risk from the sea.”

During sea trials near Weymouth, UK, the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Duncan took on a search-and-rescue role at the request of HM Coastguard, saving a motor yacht that had drifted out to sea with a stalled engine.

At about 1730 hours Saturday, the Type 45 destroyer was at anchor in Weymouth Bay when her crew received a call from the coast guard about a nearby boat in distress. The yacht was adrift near Portland Bill and was being pulled out into the English Channel by the wind and the tide. It had no flares or radio gear on board.

Sea conditions were rough and worsening, with winds of up to 35 knots and low visibility, but the warship launched a 24-meter boat with an engineer and a medic aboard to find the yacht. The search was rough going in the surface conditions on scene, and the team was about to call off the effort when a member of the crew spotted the yacht’s mast.

Despite heavy seas, the boat crew maneuvered safely alongside and transferred over the engineer. He reassured the sole sailor aboard the yacht and made the necessary repairs to the engine. The team then handed off the response to the Weymouth RNLI lifeboat crew and returned to their ship.

“It took real skill to put us alongside in the heavy sea without hitting the other vessel, with waves crashing over the front of the boat,” said Petty Officer Tom Austin, the medical assistant on the launch. “The individual onboard was in the later stages of shock and clearly in a dire condition. I’m glad that we were able to make a difference.”

HMS Duncan is a Type 45 air defense destroyer commissioned in 2013, and she is the last in a series of six. Among other career highlights, she has played a role in strikes against the Islamic State in Iraq, served as flagship of NATO Standing Maritime Naval Group 2, and deployed to the Persian Gulf to protect shipping interests from Iranian interference.

The Navy will move to monthly reporting of COVID-19 vaccine separations, the sea service announced in its now formerly weekly update.

The move comes after two weeks of active-duty separations in the single digits. Over the past two weeks, the Navy separated two active-duty sailors and 25 reservists, according to the update.

The latest separations bring the total to 998 active-duty and 209 reservists.

There are 3,371 active-duty sailors and 3,448 reservists who are not fully vaccinated, as mandated by the Department of Defense. This includes sailors with granted or pending exemptions as well as those who have submitted a religious accommodation request.

The Navy cannot currently separate anyone who submitted a religious exemption against the COVID-19 vaccine due to a legal ruling in the Fifth Circuit.

The lack of approved religious exemptions was debated in the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday as congressional members went through the proposed National Defense Authorization Act.

The Navy has approved 45 active-duty requests for religious exemptions, although it is unclear how many of the exemptions were for people who planned to retire or leave the service instead of getting vaccinated.

Among the amendments proposed before HASC was one extending the honorable or general discharge characterization for separations. HASC approved the amendment.

Natural immunity as an alternative has been used in multiple lawsuits against the military branches, including the Navy. It was cited in the case brought against the Navy by Navy SEALs and by a commanding officer who is unvaccinated.

Recently, lawsuits have begun mentioning the idea that the FDA-approved Pfizer vaccine, which is marked under brand name Comirnaty, is a different formula than the version of the Pfizer vaccine, which received emergency use authorization.

This was also the reasoning given in a recent board case for Lt. Bill Moseley, whose lawyer wrote in a statement that the Navy found that the two versions were different and that Moseley was only offered the EUA version.

The Navy could not comment on the specifics of the board, but did confirm that Moseley was retained by the Navy.

According to the FDA, Comirnaty and the EUA-version of Pfizer given to those older than 16 are the same. The formula is different for the EUA-version given to those under 16.

“The FDA-approved Comirnaty (COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA) and the two EUA-authorized formulations of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine for individuals 12 years of age and older, when prepared according to their respective instructions for use, can be used interchangeably,” according to the FDA.

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Maritime Safety News Archives - Page 73 of 260 - SHIP IP LTD

European Maritime Safety Report: New technologies pose safety risks

Port State Control and EMSA

SafeSeaNet

Ageing fleet

New technologies can increase risk

An Autonomous Ship Used AI to Cross the Atlantic Without a Human Crew

Maersk Tankers to triple digital team headcount

HASC’s FY 23 NDAA Authorizes 13 Ships, Establishes Naval Review Committee

Intellicore secures solutions contract with global maritime firm

£2.4 million government funding to alleviate seafarers’ mental health issues

The Cost of Shanghai’s Lockdowns for European Companies

Ukraine Contests Sea Control Off Odesa With Attack on Snake Island

Destroyer HMS Duncan Saves a Yacht in Foul Weather

Navy to Move to Monthly COVID-19 Vaccine Separation Reporting

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