The Dutch-owned Margiris supertrawler, the second largest fishing vessel in the world, dumped more than 100,000 dead blue whiting in the Bay of Biscay off France’s Atlantic coast near La Rochelle, last Thursday. The Pelagic Freeze-Trawler Association (PFA) — which … Continue reading
Rick Spilman
Last Wednesday, it was widely reported that Rotterdam would dismantle the center span of a historic railroad bridge to allow the 417-foot-long, three-masted sailing yacht built for billionaire Jeff Bezos to access the sea. The fully rigged superyacht apparently has … Continue reading
In early January, we posted about two memorial Antarctic expeditions on the 100th anniversary of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s death. One of the expeditions, Endurance22, organized by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, hopes to locate, survey, and film the wreck of … Continue reading
Congratulations to rowers Jessica Oliver and Charlotte Harris who finished five days ahead of their nearest rivals in the pairs category of the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge when they rowed into Antigua on January 26 after starting from La Gomera … Continue reading
Here is a story well worth retelling; an updated repost in honor of Black History Month; the remarkable story of Robert Smalls. On May 13, 1862, Robert Smalls, a 23-year-old slave, who served as the pilot of the Confederate armed transport, CSS Planter, … Continue reading
On Sunday, 30 seconds before the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was due to take off from Florida, the launch was scrubbed when a cruise ship sailed into the launch hazard area. Royal Caribbean’s Harmony of the Seas ventured into the … Continue reading
Russia planned on holding naval exercises off the coast of Ireland. Fishermen from County Cork on Ireland’s southern coast saw the exercises as a threat to their livelihood and threatened to continue fishing as usual, despite the threatened use of … Continue reading
A ground-breaking study suggests that bottom trawling, a fishing practice in which heavy nets are dragged along the seabed, may be releasing more than a billion metric tons of carbon every year, which is comparable to carbon dioxide produced by … Continue reading
Iceberg A68a, once the world’s largest iceberg, is now gone, broken up into chunks too small to track. While the iceberg is recent history, scientists are still studying its impact. In 2017, a massive iceberg broke off from Antarctica’s Larsen … Continue reading
In February 2021, researchers on the German research vessel Polarstern discovered, quite by accident, the largest fish breeding area ever found near the Filchner Ice Shelf in the south of the Antarctic Weddell Sea. A towed camera system filmed thousands … Continue reading
It is cold here on the west bank of the Hudson River. Really cold. For most sailors that means bundling up and waiting for spring. For a special breed of hearty yachtsmen and women, the weather is perfect for sailing … Continue reading
The Nippon Foundation in partnership with Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., and Shin Nihonkai Ferry Co., Ltd., successfully completed a demonstration test of the world’s first fully autonomous ship navigation systems on a large car ferry, conducted on the Iyonada Sea … Continue reading
SkyNews reports that three British women, one of whom has incurable cervical cancer, have shattered the world record for rowing across the Atlantic in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. Kat Cordiner and teammates Abby Johnston and Charlotte Irving arrived in … Continue reading
The Crystal Symphony left from Miami on January 8 on a two-week cruise and was supposed to return to the same port on Saturday. After a United States federal judge ordered the ship seized over a lawsuit regarding unpaid fuel … Continue reading
Jean-Jacques Savin, a 75-year-old French adventurer, described his attempt to row across the Atlantic Ocean solo from Portugal to the Caribbean, as his “last challenge at sea.” Sadly, that challenge ended in tragedy. Savin was found dead inside his boat … Continue reading
It sounds like the setup to a joke or a late-night skit — two comedians from NBC’s Saturday Night Live, Pete Davidson and Colin Jost, along with comedy club owner Paul Italia, just bought a decommissioned Staten Island Ferry boat. … Continue reading
We recently posted about Jude Terry, the first woman admiral in the history of the British Royal Navy. On her appointment, Admiral Terry commented that the fact that she is a woman is irrelevant to her post and rank – … Continue reading
CNN reports that deep in the ocean off the coast of Tahiti, scientists made an incredible discovery in November: acres of giant, pristine, rose-shaped corals blossoming from the sea floor in what’s known as the ocean’s “twilight zone.” That a … Continue reading
The underwater volcano that erupted off Tonga on Saturday with the force of 500 Hiroshima nuclear bombs covered the island nation with ash and sent tsunami waves of up 50 feet (15 meters) striking some islands, killing at least three. Efforts are … Continue reading
Despite challenges created by the pandemic, the ongoing chaos in the supply chain, and the six-day closure of the canal by the grounding of the ultra-large container ship Ever Given last March, larger volumes of cargo were shipped through the … Continue reading