Atlantic Oceans News

The Panama Canal's toll revenues have dipped by about $100 million per month since last October, the canal's administrator said on Wednesday, adding that if the trend continues reduced income from tolls could total some $700 million by around April.The falling revenue stems from drought conditions that have forced the canal's managers to impose shipping restrictions on the more than century-old waterway, a key global trade route linking the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.The canal's fiscal year begins in October, and runs through September.Canal Administrator Ricaurte Vasquez described the contin

The Panama Canal's water levels have not recovered enough as the end of the rainy season approaches and limits on daily transit and vessel draft will stay in place for the rest of the year and throughout 2024, the waterway's authority said on Tuesday.The restrictions, implemented earlier this year to conserve water amid prolonged drought, triggered a backlog of ships waiting to pass the key global waterway, which handles an estimated 5% of world trade, contributing to more expensive…

Before the Ever Max ship carrying lava lamps, sofas, Halloween costumes and artificial Christmas trees could make its inaugural Panama Canal voyage this month, a historic drought forced it to drop weight by offloading hundreds of containers.Weather-related disruptions denied the vessel, owned by Taiwanese shipping company Evergreen Marine, a chance on Aug. 1 to set a record for carrying the most containers through the vital maritime shortcut that connects the Pacific and Atlantic…

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) announced Tuesday that it will postpone increasing canal transit fees following calls from the shipping industry to reconsider the rate hikes amid a spate of global supply chain disruptions.The higher rates for the canal's transit reservation system were scheduled to take effect on Thursday but will now start on June 1, allowing the maritime industry more time to prepare for the adjusted booking fees, ACP said. The proposed changes represent a minimum cost increase per transit reservation of $20…

The Arctic has long proven to be a barometer of the health of our planet. This remote part of the world faces unprecedented environmental assaults, as climate change and industrial chemicals threaten a way of life for Inuit and other Indigenous and northern communities that rely heavily on seafood and marine mammals for food.But who would have imagined that the clothes we wear might add to this onslaught? Evidence increasingly shows that tiny synthetic fibers are permeating the Arctic Ocean and finding their way into zooplankton…

The Trump administration on Thursday proposed to loosen Obama-era safety regulations for the oil industry in the Arctic Ocean off Alaska to ease the way for petroleum extraction in the region, an effort that President-elect Joe Biden will likely throw out once in office.The proposal would revise a suite of Obama-era rules crafted to improve safety in the extreme conditions of the Arctic after a Shell drilling rig ran aground there in 2012. The company later abandoned oil exploration in the region and there are no active drilling operations there.Now, much of the U.S.

Joe Biden could erase much of President Donald Trump’s four-year legacy of energy and climate deregulation with the stroke of his pen, according to regulatory experts, but replacing it with something new and durable may prove trickier.Trump’s rollbacks are on shaky ground because most were done not through Congressional lawmaking but via presidential executive orders that can be easily torn up by a new administration. That means signature measures ranging from the withdrawal of…

The Christian welfare charity serving merchant crews around the world 'The Mission to Seafarers' has signed an agreement with the Panama Maritime Authority for the provision of seafarer welfare services, making us the first seafarer charity to operate in Panama.A press release from the international seafarer welfare charity said that the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Mission and Panama was signed yesterday by the Revd Canon Andrew Wright, Secretary General of The Mission to Seafarers, and Jorge Barakat Pitty, Minister of Maritime Affairs and Administrator of the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP).The signing ceremony took…

India's INSV Tarini entered Cape Town (South Africa) today during it’s maiden voyage to circumnavigate the globe. This is the first-ever Indian circumnavigation of the globe by an all-women crew. The vessel is skippered by Lieutenant Commander Vartika Joshi, and the crew comprises Lieutenant Commanders Pratibha Jamwal, P Swathi, and Lieutenants S Vijaya Devi, B Aishwarya and Payal Gupta. Mrs Nirmala Sitharaman, defence minister had flagged-off INSV Tarini from Goa on 10 September 17. The vessel has covered 17500 Nautical miles from Goa, crossing the Equator on 25 September 17, Cape Leeuwin on 09 November 17 and Cape Horn on 19 January 18.

US President Barack Obama has permanently banned offshore oil and gas drilling in the "vast majority" of US-owned northern waters. Vowing that his successor won’t be able to reverse his actions, President Obama on Tuesday used executive authority to permanently ban new offshore drilling in federally owned waters off the Atlantic coast and in the Arctic Ocean. The majority of the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas and the entirety of the Canadian Arctic are now off limits for future offshore oil and gas leasing. According to ADN, President Obama's Dec. Much of the policy and planning the U.S. and Alaska have been working toward in the Arctic was unwoven with this action. Obama designated areas in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans as "indefinitely off limits" to future leasing.

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with major UK ports operator, Peel Ports, who own the Port of Liverpool, as the latter gears up for the formal opening of its Liverpool2 container terminal in early November. The formal agreement creates a strategic alliance aimed at facilitating international trade and generating new business by promoting trade routes between Liverpool and the west coast of South America via the Panama Canal. The agreement was signed October 24 by Jorge L.

Tonnage list grows in Pacific, Atlantic oceans; lack of coal cargoes weigh on freight rates. Freight rates for capesize bulk carriers are set to slide further next week, after falling to their lowest level in five weeks, due to a mounting supply of tonnage and uncertain cargo demand, ship brokers said on Thursday. "There's too many ships in the Pacific. There's a lot of ballasters (empty ships) sailing to Brazil," a Singapore-based ship broker said. Capesize freight rates from Australia to China could fall to around $5-$5.20 a tonne next week on this overcapacity, with rates from Brazil to China at $12.50 to $12.75 a tonne, a Shanghai-based capesize broker said on Thursday.

The Turkish shipyard SEDEF has signed a contract with the Turkey's procurement agency, the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM) for the design and construction of Landing Platform Dock (LPD) for the Turkish Navy. The 231-meter landing platform dock that is capable of carrying 1,000 personnel. Mujdat Uludag, a senior official at SSM, said the project is expected to end in 2021. Uludağ noted the capabilities of the Turkish Naval Forces will be advanced with this LPD, adding the warship would be able to sail in the Aegean, Mediterranean and Black Seas. “If needed, the warship can also sail in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans,” he said. The contract covers design and construction of an LPD ship based on the Spanish Navy's Navantia designed and built LHD Juan Carlos I.

The widened Panama Canal is expected to finally be up and running in April 2016, after months of delays and cost overruns, AFP reports. The expansion project area will allow bigger ships to transit, with two new sets of locks, one on the Pacific side and one on the Atlantic side. Grupo Unidos Por el Canal (GUPC) is carrying out the extensive upgrade to the canal's system of locks, to allow the waterway to accommodate ships carrying up to 14,000 containers of freight - triple the current size. The new shipping lane will be much wider, allowing larger vessels, including liquefied natural gas carriers, to pass through. For the last 100 years…

The natural oscillations in the climate, which resulted in cooler Pacific Ocean waters, were partially behind the controversial global warming "pause", say researchers. However, this in no way suggests that the planet is now cooling, nor that there is any slowdown in human-caused global warming. After a period of rapid global warming throughout most of the 20th century, the pace of global temperature rise has slowed greatly over the last 10 to 15 years. This unexpected slowdown has raised questions about the accuracy of climate change forecasts, and sent scientists searching for an explanation. In a paper published in the journal Science…

The Department of International Relations and Cooperation, in collaboration with the Institute for Global Dialogue associated with UNISA, the Open Society Foundation South Africa, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and the South African Defense and Security Management Network, will host a symposium on “The Blue Economy and Maritime Security Challenges for South and Southern Africa: Leadership Dilemmas in Promoting a Global South Dialogue on Governance in the Indian and South Atlantic Oceans”. This Symposium intends to explore maritime economic, strategic and security dimensions highlighting convergences in defense, foreign policy and economic diplomacy.

Despite high hopes for Arctic business from mining to shipping as the ice melts rapidly and temperatures rise twice as fast as the global average, few firms say the sums still make sense. An oil price slump and cheaper commodities, including iron ore, together with tensions between the West and Russia over Ukraine, are adding new disincentives. Examples of extra outlay abound. Ice-breaking tankers able to carry gas from Siberia cost $100 million, or 50 percent, more than normal vessels and hundreds of millions of dollars are needed to upgrade railways serving Arctic ports. Added to that, for many companies, winter darkness, ice and vast distances mean that Arctic investments are a non-starter.

Rates for capesize bulk carriers on key Asian routes could continue to fall next week in the absence of major charterers although lower freight rates could tempt top iron ore miners back into the market and potentially buoy rates, brokers said. Charterers, including Vale, BHP Billiton and Fortescue Metals, kept out of the market on Thursday, shipbrokers said. "Without the likes of Vale and Rio Tinto in the market, rates are not going to rise. There are still plenty of ships available for October loading," said a Singapore-based capesize broker.

For the first time in roughly 2 million years, melting Arctic sea ice is connecting the north Pacific and north Atlantic oceans. The newly opened passages leave both coasts and Arctic waters vulnerable to a large wave of invasive species, biologists from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center assert in a commentary published in 'Nature Climate Change' and excerpted here. Two new shipping routes have opened in the Arctic: the Northwest Passage through Canada, and the Northern Sea Route, a 3000-mile stretch along the coasts of Russia and Norway connecting the Barents and Bering seas. While new opportunities for tapping Arctic natural resources and interoceanic trade are high, commercial ships often inadvertently carry invasive species.

Leaders of the maritime component of PANAMAX 2014 have paused about halfway through the exercise, to assess its benefits so far, informs U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet Public Affairs. Rear Adm. Benjamin Calle of Colombia is the Combined Forces Maritime Component Commander (CFMCC) and U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Jon Matheson, the deputy commander of U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet, is deputy CFMCC for the exercise, which began Aug. 4 and is scheduled to continue through Aug. 15. "This PANAMAX exercise is a huge event," said Calle. Sources say that 38 to 40 ships transit the canal daily between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, carrying some five percent of world maritime trade.

Today in U.S. 1918 - SECNAV approves acceptance of women as yeoman in U.S. 1942 - USS Cleveland (CL-55) demonstrates effectiveness of radio-proximity fuze (VT-fuze) against aircraft by successfully destroying three drones with proximity bursts fired by her five-inch guns. 1944 - LT Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., USNR, the older brother of John F. Kennedy, was killed with his copilot in a midair explosion after taking off from England in a PB4Y from Special Attack Unit One (SAU-1). Following manual takeoff…

Climate change is aiding shipping, fisheries and tourism in the Arctic but the economic gains fall short of a "cold rush" for an icy region where temperatures are rising twice as fast as the world average. A first cruise ship will travel the icy Northwest Passage north of Canada in 2016, Iceland has unilaterally set itself mackerel quotas as stocks shift north and Greenland is experimenting with crops such as tomatoes. Yet businesses, including oil and gas companies or mining firms looking north, face risks including that permafrost will thaw and ruin ice roads, buildings and pipelines.

These heater kits will enable Marine Navigation Radar Turning Units to be operated in temperatures down below -55 degrees Celsius, in addition to keeping the S-Band and X-Band sensors in the turning units free from ice. Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine has designed them to be attached in the field at or after installation, and they are compatible with all VisionMaster FT (VMFT) radar sensors. "Ships operating in the Arctic environments are exposed to a number of unique risks and we recognize the need to ensure that our equipment is capable of functioning effectively under the challenges of polar operations," said Jeanne Usher, managing director, Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine.