Study Shows Bottom Trawling Releases As Much Carbon As Air Travel

Posted on by January 30, 2022

Photo: Alex Proimos, CC BY 2.0

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 the entire aviation industry.

The carbon is released from the seabed sediment into the water, and can increase ocean acidification, as well as adversely affecting productivity and biodiversity, the study said. Marine sediments are the largest pool of carbon storage in the world.

The report – Protecting the global ocean for biodiversity, food and climate – is the first study to show the climate impacts of trawling globally. It also provides a blueprint outlining which areas of the ocean should be protected to safeguard marine life, boost seafood production and reduce climate emissions.

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Update: Iceberg A68a, Gone But Not Forgotten

Posted on by January 29, 2022

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 C ice-shelf. The iceberg, which would be designated as A68a, weighed roughly one trillion tons and measured 4,200 sq km, or almost the size of the state of Delaware.

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Researchers Discover Vast Icefish Colony with 60 Million Nests Beneath Antarctica’s Weddell Sea

Posted on by January 28, 2022

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 of nests of icefish of the species Neopagetopsis ionah on the seabed, more than a thousand feet below the surface.

The discovery is described in a paper in the most recent edition of Current Biology.

Scitechdaily reports that the mapping of the area suggests a total extent of 240 square kilometers, which is roughly the size of the island of Malta. Extrapolated to this area size, the total number of fish nests was estimated to be about 60 million. “The idea that such a huge breeding area of icefish in the Weddell Sea was previously undiscovered is totally fascinating,” says Autun Purser, deep-sea biologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and lead author of the current publication.

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Iceboat Vixen, 1886, Still Sailing on Hudson River Ice

Posted on by January 27, 2022

Vixen Under Sail

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 on the ice in iceboats, or ice yachts, as some prefer to call them.

In North America, iceboating as a sport dates back to at least 1790, with the first iceboats sailing on the upper Hudson River. By the mid-19th century, wealthy boat owners sailed large stern-steerer iceboats with up to seven crew members. Boats were as long as 69 feet (21 m) and sailed as fast as 107 miles per hour (172 km/h), a record exceeding any other conveyance in 1885, set by the Icicle.

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Nippon Foundation’s MEGURI 2040 Project Demonstrates Autonomous Car Ferry

Posted on by January 26, 2022

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 from Shinmoji, Kitakyushuu City, on January 17. From their press release:

This demonstration was part of MEGURI 2040, a project promoting the development of fully autonomous vessels supported by The Nippon Foundation. This test demonstrated the world’s first fully autonomous navigation system, on a 222-meter ferry, with autonomous port berthing and unberthing using turning and reversing movements and high-speed navigation of up to 26 knots. Other new technologies included in the advanced fully autonomous operation system include sensors to detect other ships using infrared cameras, a remote engine monitoring system, and a sophisticated cyber security system. These advances in fully autonomous ship navigation are seen as a significant step toward safer and more efficient coastal shipping.

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Kat Cordiner, British Rower With Incurable Cancer, Sets New World Record With Two Teammates in Atlantic Crossing

Posted on by January 25, 2022

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 Antigua on Sunday evening.

The women rowing as the We Are ExtraOARdinary team in their boat named Dolly Parton, completed the 3,000-mile crossing from La Gomera in the Canary Islands to the English Harbour in the Caribbean island in 42 days, seven hours, and 17 minutes, knocking seven days off the previous female trio record.

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Cruise Ship Crystal Symphony Diverted to Bahamas to Avoid Arrest

Posted on by January 24, 2022

Photo: Bahnfrend

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 bills, the ship suddenly changed course and diverted to Bimini, in the Bahamas.  

Crystal Cruises is a subsidiary of Genting Hong Kong Ltd., which filed for insolvency last Wednesday, petitioning the Supreme Court of Bermuda to wind up the company and appoint provisional liquidators. It said its cash was expected to run out around the end of January and it had no access to further funding.

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Jean-Jacques Savin’s “Last Challenge at Sea” Ends in Tragedy

Posted on by January 23, 2022

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 Saturday after he had sent out distress signals in the days before, his team said in a statement. 

The Portuguese coast guard found the boat overturned near the Azores, on Friday and dispatched a diver on Saturday who discovered Savin deceased in the cabin. Savin had activated his distress beacons Thursday night into Friday morning, the statement said. Savin had celebrated his 75th birthday at sea on January 14, two weeks after departing from Portugal on January 1.

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No Joke — SNL Comedians Buy Staten Island Ferry

Posted on by January 22, 2022

Pete Davidson & the ferry MV John F. Kennedy Photo: Robert Miller for the NY Post

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. The group purchased the retired John F. Kennedy ferry for $280,100 through an online public auction. They plan on converting the 57-year-old, 277′ long iconic orange ferry into a live entertainment venue. Davidson and Jost are both Staten Island natives.

“The idea is to turn the space into a live entertainment event space, with comedy, music, art, et cetera,” Italia told the New York Post. “We’re in the early stages, but everybody involved had the same ambition — not to see this thing go to the scrapyard.”

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100 Female Admirals in the US Navy in 50 Years

Posted on by January 21, 2022

Admiral Michelle Howard Highest-Ranking Female Officer in U.S. Navy History

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 – simply “someone has to be first” and she most definitely will not be the last.

Admiral Terry’s appointment also seems like a good time to acknowledge the progress toward gender equality in the US Navy in the last half-century. This is not meant as a criticism of Great Britain, which saw its first female head of state in Mary Tudor, almost 500 years ago, a milestone that the United States has yet to reach. 

Nevertheless, the US Navy appointed its first female admiral 50 years ago when Alene Duerk, director of the Navy Nurse Corps, was made Rear Admiral in 1972. Since then, by my count, 100 female officers have served or continue to serve in the rank of Admiral in the US Navy.

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Pristine Coral Reef Discovered in “Twilight Zone” Off Tahiti

Posted on by January 20, 2022

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 coral reef so large and so beautiful had yet to be discovered emphasizes how little we still know about the world’s oceans, scientists say. And its impeccable condition — with no evidence that the reef has yet been harmed by the climate crisis — suggests the need for urgent action to protect the ocean’s remaining healthy reefs.

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In Aftermath of Volcanic Eruption, Tonga Plunged Into Digital Darkness

Posted on by January 19, 2022

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 underway to clear ash from blocked airports and repair port damage to allow the transport of much-needed supplies to be delivered.

This work is being complicated by the severing of a 2″ diameter fiber-optic underwater cable that has cut Tonga off from most digital communications with the outside world, plunging the nation of 105,000 people into “digital darkness.” 

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Record Cargo Shipped Through Suez Canal in 2021

Posted on by January 18, 2022


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 Suez Canal in 2021 than in any other time in history.

In 2021, some 1.27 billion tons of cargo were shipped through the canal, earning $6.3 billion dollars (5.5 billion euros) in transit fees, 13 percent more than the previous year and the highest figures ever recorded, Suez Canal Authority (SCA) chief Osama Rabie said.

Congratulations to Admiral Jude Terry, First Female Royal Navy Admiral

Posted on by January 17, 2022

Congratulations to ex-Commodore Judith Helen “Jude” Terry, who was appointed today the first female admiral in the history of the British Royal Navy.  Rear Admiral Terry, 48, with 25 years’ service around the globe and at home in the UK, will serve as Director of People and Training and Naval Secretary. 

From the RN announcement:

That makes the rear admiral responsible not only for more than 40,000 regular and reservist sailors and Royal Marines, but also the Royal Fleet Auxiliary – who operate the Navy’s crucial support ships – plus civil servants and contractors, all part of the gigantic jigsaw which allows the Royal Navy to operate around the globe 24/7/365.

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Flight 1549, NY Harbor Ferries, & the Two “Miracles on the Hudson”

Posted on by January 16, 2022

An updated repost — a look back at the twin miracles on the Hudson from thirteen years ago yesterday. On January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 made an emergency water landing in the Hudson River. If the plane’s pilots, Captain Chesley “Sulley” Sullenberger and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles had not glided the plane in at exactly the right angle and airspeed, it is likely that the plane would have broken apart and that all the 155 passengers and crew aboard could have died.

The landing is often called the “Miracle on the Hudson.” There was, however, a second miracle on the Hudson that day. Remarkably, New York harbor commuter ferries began arriving at the flooding plane less than four minutes after the crash.  Had it not been for the ferries’ rapid rescue of the passengers from the icy waters, the “miracle” might have ended as a tragedy.

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Underwater Volcanic Eruption Near Tonga Triggers Tsunami

Posted on by January 15, 2022

Tsunami waves caused by a major underwater eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcano have hit the Pacific country of Tonga. A tsunami warning sent residents scrambling to higher ground. Tonga’s capital lies just 65km north of the volcano, on the country’s main island of Tongatapu.

The eruption was heard across the South Pacific, reportedly as far as New Zealand and Australia. The plumes of gas, smoke and ash pouring from the volcano reached 20km into the sky, Tonga Geological Services said.

Prof Shane Cronin, a volcanologist at the University of Auckland, said the eruption was one of the biggest in Tonga in the past 30 years. “This is a pretty big event – it’s one of the more significant eruptions of the last decade at least,” he told the BBC. Continue reading →

HMS Victory & the Ship of Theseus, Thoughts on Varied Lives of A Ship

Posted on by January 14, 2022

We recently posted about an announcement that an additional £35m is being committed for continued repairs to the HMS Victory, specifically to replace rotting planking and frames and to complete the rerigging of the ship. As it has been 256 years since the ship was launched and 244 years since the ship was commissioned, how much of the original ship remains after over two centuries of active service, repairs, and rebuilding? Depending on which source one uses, estimates range from 17% to 20%. The new funds for restoring the ship will no doubt reduce the percentage.

Is there a point at which HMS Victory is no longer the same ship whose decks were trod by Nelson at Trafalgar? Or will HMS Victory always be the same historic ship no matter how often she is restored and repaired?

These are not new questions. They were discussed by the Greek philosophers Heraclitus and Plato by c. 500–400 BC in a thought experiment called the Ship of Theseus.

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EcoClipper Raising Capital to Fund Sailing Cargo Fleet

Posted on by January 13, 2022

The Dutch firm EcoClipper has plans to launch retrofitted and purpose-built sailing vessels to carry cargo and passengers on a variety of international routes. Today, they announced that they have started to raise capital in cooperation with blockchain partner Bondex, to fund a fleet of sailing cargo ships, one vessel at a time. From their press release:

It takes substantial investments to build a global sustainable sailing ship fleet. However the strategy of EcoClipper is based on investing in one ship at a time. As such, a series of investment tranches are offered through certificates in the EcoClipper Coöperatie U.A. The first tranche is aiming for €140,000, to purchase the first retrofit vessel. The second and third tranche will bring the financing to almost one million Euros. Follow-up rounds will become larger as the community of the company grows.  Investments for the first tranche start at 50 certificates for a total price of €350. Investors in the early rounds purchase certificates for a discount, while also investing in the future growth of the company. Continue reading →

On 100th Year Anniversary of Drydocking: £35m Committed to Ongoing Restoration of HMS Victory

Posted on by January 11, 2022

HMS Victory in dry dock c1926 or 1927 (National Museum of the Royal Navy/PA)

One hundred years ago today, on January 12, 1922, Nelson’s flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar, HMS Victory was moved to Drydock No. 2 in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard for restoration and preservation. In honor of the anniversary, it was announced that an additional £35m is being committed for continued repairs to the historic ship. 

A dockyard spokeswoman said: “Rotting planking will be removed from the hull and replaced with new oak, repairs made to the ship’s structural framework, and she will be fully re-rigged, in a process lasting 10 to 15 years and costing £35 million.

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Skeletal Remains Of At Least 6 Pirates Found At 1717 Whydah Shipwreck Off Cape Cod

Posted on by January 11, 2022

Model of the Whydah

Last February, archaeologists in Cape Cod recovered six skeletons from the ruins of the Whydah, a British pirate ship that sank during a 1717 storm with 146 men—and a trove of treasure—on board.

A team led by Barry Clifford, who discovered the wreck in 1984, found the remains inside huge concretions, or rigid masses that form around underwater objects. Experts at the Whydah Pirate Museum in West Yarmouth, Massachusetts, now plan to examine the skeletons in further detail.

These are not the first human remains revered from the wreck site. In 2017,  human bone fragments were found near the wreck of the ship.  The bones were located close to where a pistol, which possibly belonged to the ship’s captain, “Black Sam” Bellamy, had been recovered.  Forensic scientists from the University of New Haven in Connecticut compared the DNA from the bones to a DNA sample given by one of Bellamy’s living descendants in the United Kingdom and determined that the fragments were not from the pirate captain.

Now the team hopes that modern technology will allow them to identify these pirates and reunite them with any surviving descendants. Continue reading →