Wendy Laursen
Contributing Writer-
22 May 2025
Harvest Now Decrypt Later
The threat that AI and quantum computing pose to cyber security is already here, even before these technologies are mature enough to crack today’s encryption methods. Bad actors are taking a “harvest now decrypt later” approach to cyberattacks.Classical encryption methods like Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA) and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) rely on the difficulty of factoring large numbers or solving discrete logarithm problems.“Breaking these public…
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21 May 2025
Send in the Robots for High-Frequency Biofouling Control
The currents in Singapore can be so strong that divers cleaning fouling from a ship’s hull can feel like they are swimming in a river. There’s times when it’s just not safe for them to be there.The currents can be a problem for robotic cleaners as well, but for ship operators, the bigger problem is having to wait long after cargo operations have concluded while the hull is cleaned by either method.And yet…
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15 May 2025
Naturally Quiet
The Arctic’s bowhead whales can live for over 200 years. Imagine what they might hear in that time: screw propellers were only just being used to power ships 200 years ago, and diesel engines appeared some hundred years after that.The underwater radiated noise of shipping has grown globally, but the Arctic is a special place. It has been partially shielded from shipping noise. Sea ice shields and diffuses underwater sound…
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08 May 2025
Quantum Sensing Beats GPS-Denied Navigational Challenges
The same error-prone sensitivity that has slowed down the development of quantum computers is being turned into an advantage for GPS-denied navigation.A new quantum sensing technology from Australia-based Q-CTRL has most recently caught the interest of Lockheed Martin and the US Defense Innovation Unit, but the company is already working with the Australian Department of Defence, the UK Royal Navy…
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08 May 2025
Geographical Gaps Limit Ballast Water Research
The US Coast Guard’s Office of Commercial Vessel Compliance recently released its U.S. Port State Control Annual Report for 2024 highlighting a 200% increase in untreated ballast water discharges compared to 2023.With this result, there’s still a risk of invasive species arriving in ballast water. And a review of research into the organisms found in ballast water published in March highlights just…
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01 May 2025
The Biggest Conservation Commitment in the World
At COP 15 in December 2022, over 190 countries adopted a framework for action in support of the Convention on Biological Diversity.The framework includes 23 targets aimed at reversing habitat and species loss. Target 3, known as “30x30”, calls for the effective protection and management of 30% of the world’s terrestrial, inland water and coastal and marine areas by the year 2030.Put simply, says the Nature Conservancy…
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24 Apr 2025
Just-In-Time Arrival: A Triple Win
There were 57 ships in the queue at the Port of Newcastle in Australia when the Pasha Bulker ran aground there in 2007.The coal ship was grounded for about three weeks before it was able to be towed away for repairs.The Pasha Bulker wasn’t the only vessel that had attempted to ride out the gale at anchor, and the majority of other vessels that did so also dragged their anchors.The port subsequently…
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24 Apr 2025
In Maritime Propulsion, there is no 'one-size-fits-all' DPS for Vessels
If the dynamic positioning (DP) system went down on an offshore supply vessel, it could result in a collision. On a dive support vessel, it could result in injury or death for a diver. On a drilling rig, it could result in a blowout with loss of life, pollution and fire.Built-in redundancy is key to avoiding failures, and this in turn determines the thruster, electrical and engine configurations that are designed to enable DP systems.“There is no single…
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16 Apr 2025
Op/Ed: Public Opinion on Nuclear Power has Deep Roots
Australia does not have nuclear power stations, and it does not have nuclear weapons.I remember having lessons and debates on it in high school, many years ago. My favorite science teacher was dead against either use of nuclear technology.One of the most interesting arguments I remember hearing was that the technology developments that make nuclear power more efficient would also help make nuclear bombs more efficient.Fiji is much the same as Australia…
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10 Apr 2025
Scaling Up Hydrogen Fuel Cell Demand
This past month Maritime Reporter TV has taken a close look at two hydrogen fuel cell projects: the new research vessel planned for Scripps Institution of Oceanography and e1 Marine’s methanol-to-hydrogen technology which is being adopted by STAX Engineering for its emissions capture barges.The Scripps California Coastal Research Vessel will feature a hydrogen fuel cell propulsion system that will…
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03 Apr 2025
The LNG Pathway
Aussies are reputed to be a nation of gamblers who would bet on two flies crawling up a wall. That might be anyone’s race, but when predicting what the most popular alternative fuel will be, the odds seem to be increasingly in favor of LNG.It seems there is now a clear pathway where previously LNG was considered more of a transition fuel that didn’t have a strong presence in 2050 shipping fuels. New…
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27 Mar 2025
Ammonia Beckons
The popularity of ammonia as a fuel for shipping is likely to benefit from a growing number of green ammonia production projects. Shipowner confidence in the availability of ammonia was displayed this week by Belgian oil tanker group CMB.TECH and charterers Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and MOL Chemical Tankers as they signed deals for nine ammonia-powered bulk carriers and chemical tankers.Green hydrogen and ammonia projects around the world have advanced over the last few weeks.
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20 Mar 2025
Acting on Instinct
This week, the UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) issued its report on the deaths of three stevedores in a cargo hold access space on board a bulk carrier.Berge Mawson was in Indonesia, loading coal from barges using a floating crane. During a pause in loading due to heavy rain, all hatches were closed. After the rain stopped, a stevedore mistakenly entered the access space of a cargo hold and was overcome.
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13 Mar 2025
Hybrid Warfare
This week, ABS issued type approval for IACS UR E27 cyber resilience requirements to Hanwha Systems for its cybersecurity solution SecuAider®.IACS requirements UR E26 “Cyber Resilience of Ships” and UR E27 “Cyber Resilience of On-Board Systems and Equipment” now apply to new ships, and they aim to help the industry protect itself from cyberattacks.Hybrid warfare tactics, where cyber campaigns precede or accompany physical confrontations…
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06 Mar 2025
More Shipowners Take the LNG Path to 2050
The outcome of MEPC 83 in April could establish the IMO’s mid-term GHG and carbon pricing strategy for achieving net-zero by around 2050. Not everyone is waiting; they have enough confidence in the LNG pathway to order new ships.According to the latest figures from DNV’s Alternative Fuels Insight (AFI) platform, 34 new orders for alternative-fueled vessels were placed in February 2025, 33 of them for…
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27 Feb 2025
A New Thriller About an Amazing Rescue
In the early days of dynamic positioning, the 1960s and 70s, commercial deepsea divers soon learned how good their support vessel’s DP footprint was. Their lives depended on it. If a vessel slowly, or worse still, rapidly, moved off position, they would be pulled along with it.Diver safety was an early motivator for developments in DP systems, but risks remained. Chris Lemons survived a worst-case scenario in the North Sea in 2012: “First, the communications cable snapped.
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27 Feb 2025
Dealing with Hydrogen
This week, the European Commission presented its Clean Industrial Deal which aims to accelerate decarbonization while securing the future of manufacturing in Europe.It was generally well received by European shipowners and ports, and it was generally good news for the hydrogen industry.Blackridge Research & Consulting recently listed the top seven green hydrogen projects globally, noting that the EU…
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27 Feb 2025
IMO Getting Ready to Seal the Deal on a GHG Emissions Pricing Mechanism
There were no major breakthroughs in the on-going discussions about a universal levy at the IMO's Intersessional Working Group on Reduction of GHG Emissions from Ships (ISWG-GHG 18) last week. Any GHG emissions pricing mechanism is going to mean big change for the industry, and a lot of different sectors within shipping will be impacted.InterManager has pointed out, in a paper submitted to the next meeting of the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC83 in April)…
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20 Feb 2025
Ice Navigation: Every Voyage is Different
It’s late in the season so Captain Duke Snider, sailing on a resupply voyage from New Zealand to Antarctica, is expecting virtually no sea, just glacial ice.Snider has been an ice navigator for decades, and he has seen the ocean change, not just here in the polar south, but in Arctic waters as well.“Variability is much greater than in the past when we could expect an ice breakup to occur within a calendar week, year after year, whether it was the Arctic or the Antarctic,” he says.
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20 Feb 2025
Marine Coatings and Breaking with Tradition
There’s a tendency for owners to stick with the coatings they are familiar with, but environmental concerns, particularly regarding marine biodiversity, are providing fresh opportunities for them to reconsider.Measuring hull coating performance from noon reports yields around 350 data points over a five-year docking cycle after including full loaded sailing days and excluding adverse weather days etc.But…
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