Mimic News

Any commentator on the maritime business decarbonization voyage will offer something along the lines of "There will be multiple fuels…" With the International Maritime Organization (IMO) meetings of its Maritime Environmental Protection Committee (MEPC) set for early July, it is likely that targets for emissions will be tightened. Whatever mileposts that the IMO actually establishes, there will be no prescriptions handed down on how to get there. By mid-2023, nearly two years after the late 2021 alternative fuels crescendo in the aftermath of the COP26 meetings in Glasgow…

For decades, the only way to bring global satellite communications onboard a commercial vessel was with a CAPEX-intensive equipment purchase or a long-term lease, inhibiting fleet managers’ ability to adapt to varied operational needs. That changed five years ago when KVH introduced AgilePlans Connectivity as a Service, an innovative, all-inclusive communications subscription service.“We set out to remove the CAPEX barrier and enable accelerated deployment of communications systems aboard vessels around the world,” says Mark Woodhead, KVH executive vice president of mobile connectivity.

Highlighted in Marine Technology Reporter's MTR100 is the work and technology ongoing in the halls of academia. The most recent report released by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change emphasized our warming planet, an expected announcement for many in the scientific community. Faced with the confirmation that human activities have caused an increase in global temperatures, research has turned to seeking answers in the planet’s natural systems. How does each part of the global carbon cycle work and how may it be impacted by the changing climate?

In 2001, George Burkley, a maritime educator, wrote a look-ahead article for Maritime Reporter and Engineering News, presenting the benefits and real-world payoffs from using simulators in maritime education. In the late 1990s, new tech and software advances were creating scenario programs that moved a student closer and closer to the realities demanded by, well, reality. “The future is here, and we are ready to simulate it,” Burkley concluded.Burkley is now executive director at the Maritime Pilots Institute in Covington, La.

A great deal of research related to student learning styles has emerged in recent years. Through that research strong arguments have been made that more kinesthetic learning methods, such as hands-on or experiential learning, are more effective than more traditional methods like the lecture. In the maritime field, technology such as simulation, has provided us with tools to harness the power of experiential learning; however, those tools alone cannot ensure students are learning…

Australia ordered two cruise ships to leave its waters on Thursday, after a liner that docked in Sydney Harbor last week became the primary source of infection in the country's coronavirus outbreak.Although well below levels elsewhere in the world, the pace of Australia's infections is starting to pick up speed, reaching nearly 2,800 cases and 13 deaths.The government of West Australia state said nobody would be permitted to disembark from the German-operated MV Artania after seven of 800 foreign passengers on board tested positive for the virus…

Taking technology from academia to market is a well-worn tradition across the maritime and subsea sectors. In this case the ‘innovative’ adhesive technology is actually born from the sea. There is a new underwater adhesive technology based on a glue used naturally by marine creatures. Mussel Polymers Inc. (MPI) – a startup created by Wardenclyffe Chemicals Inc., a technology development company – licensed this patented adhesive technology from the Purdue Research Foundation. The technology was created by Jonathan Wilker…

It was Canadian whalers, the Norwegians tell us, who first noticed that a dead whale does not bob in the waves. The carcass didn’t pitch or roll, either, and it was somehow “self-propelled” — its fins giving it forward motion and acting as stabilizers, or foils. The story still inspires Trondheim company Wavefoil, maker of scalable, retractable foils that offer ship owners and designers fuel savings and passenger comfort. In Norway, high-speed ferries, cruise ships and fishing vessels are the first customers for retrofits and newbuilds.

The custom built hull for NOBISKRUG’s 77-meter Project Black Shark has arrived the at the shipyard’s Rendsburg facility. The towing of the hull from Kiel to Rendsburg marks a significant milestone in the new build project.It took the power of two tugs to haul the hull from the Kiel facility on the shores of the Baltic Sea, setting off at 10am in the direction of Rendsburg. Black Shark’s hull passed through locks before entering the Kiel Canal where it spent three hours travelling at the maximum speed of 8 knots.

The 12.5m x 4.2m NAIAD RHIB Kibou recently commenced daily tours in Hawaii. The vessel was built by Armstrong Marine USA for Hawaii Experiences, which also operates the 40’ catamaran Mirai, built by Armstrong in 2017. Pacific Boats & Yachts, Armstrong Marine’s Hawaii agent, collaborated on both projects.The 40-passenger + 2 crew USCG Subchapter T vessel features NAIAD’s fender system with rub strip, and a generous shade canopy. At the center console, a ballistic nylon seat/leaning bolster accommodates the captain…

Profiled in the March 2019 cruise edition of Maritime Reporter & Engineering News is Sven Lindblad, intrepid explorer and wildlife photographer Sven Lindblad blazed the trail for environmentally sensitive travelers to Antarctica on Lindblad Expedition’s fleet of cruise ships with National Geographic.You can tell a lot about a man by whom his heroes are, whether famous athletes, virtuoso musicians, brave warriors or movie stars. As we age, we choose our heroes by their moral compass…

As a part of the NYK Group’s medium-term management plan “Staying Ahead 2022 with Digitalization and Green,” a new future concept ship has been designed by incorporating innovative technologies that will result in an emission-free vessel — the “NYK Super Eco Ship 2050.”BackgroundThe NYK Group’s mission of “Bringing value to life” and the company’s basic philosophy of “contributing to the betterment of societies” has inspired the group to positively address the tough issues that challenge our society.In fact…

Underneath the glistening patchwork of blues and greens lurks an intricate world of unique animal communities, diverse landscapes, and changeable conditions. The ocean is also one of the most extraordinary and fascinating ecosystems on the planet - a place that can host both the source of a problem and the solution. In the maritime sector, an estimated $56 million a year is associated with biofouling for the US Navy alone. Anti-fouling coatings have the potential to reduce millions of tonnes of greenhouse emissions each year, but the industry is yet to find an effective method that is also environmentally friendly. Dr. Maria Salta, an…

Serious questions have been raised regarding the testing of ballast water management systems (BWMSs). In order for a BWMS manufacturer to sell its equipment for use on commercial vessels operating in U.S. waters, the equipment must be tested in accordance with U.S. Coast Guard and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requirements and the equipment must then obtain a type approval certificate from the Coast Guard. To date, type approval certificates have been issued to six manufacturers and others are in the pipeline.

Technology that could avoid the equivalent of 100 garbage bags of plastic waste being created per second received a funding boost at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday. The five winners of the "Circular Materials Challenge", which focuses on the 30 percent of plastic packaging that is too small or complex to be recycled and often ends up in the ocean, will share the $1 million prize to develop their solutions, said the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and innovation network NineSigma.

The maritime industry's exhaustive push toward autonomy just received a boost in the form of a deal signed between Rolls-Royce and Google to develop further its intelligent awareness systems. The agreement was signed at the Google Cloud Summit in Sweden, and it allows Rolls-Royce to use Google’s Cloud Machine Learning Engine to further train the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) based object classification system for detecting, identifying and tracking the objects a vessel can encounter at sea.

A three-year, €6.5 million ($7.7  million) research project has been launched to address safety and efficiency in Arctic ship operations. Funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 program, SEDNA sets out to develop a risk-based approach to Arctic navigation, ship design and maritime operations. Recent years have seen a rapid increase in shipping operations in Arctic regions, as ice cover has reduced due to global warming. While this offers the potential to save significantly on voyage times…

JF Mimic, part of James Fisher and Sons plc, said it has signed an agreement to supply its specialist Mimic condition monitoring software to Stolt Tankers B.V (Stolt) to enhance operational safety and improve the technical reliability of its assets. The Mimic software will be installed on Stolt’s fleet of 75 vessels, as well as onshore at its head office, to provide instant condition status alerts along with detailed efficiency monitoring, as management and control of a 21st century maritime business demands unique solutions…

Recovering someone who has fallen into the water is no easy task, especially if the victim is unconscious or lethargic due to cold temperatures. Training is essential to prepare potential rescuers for how difficult it can actually be. The OSCAR Water-Rescue Training Dummy from Emerald Marine Products is used by safety instructors across North America for teaching people what it's like to retrieve a lifeless, 180 lb. adult. "It's definitely eye-opening," says Alaska Marine Safety…

Model testing ship-ice interactions in the St. In a cavernous room in the heart of a research center in St. John’s, Newfoundland at 8 am, the air temperature is -20 C while the water temperature is hovering at zero. National Research Council of Canada (NRC) staff are preparing the Ice Tank to test the integrity of a newly designed ship’s hull and propulsion system by subjecting a model to a battery of maneuvers and encounters with ice. One of the largest in the world, the Ice Tank is 90m long, 12m wide, and 3m deep.

Ellicott Dredge Technologies (EDT) announced the successful start up and installation of a state-of-the-art Mud Cat brand remotely operated vehicle (ROV) at the Gardens by the Bay nature park in central Singapore. ML Trading International purchased a Mud Cat Model SRD-6EHV ROV System to fulfill a contract to clean approximately 3,000m3 of sludge in 2km of the Marina Gardens outlet drain tunnel which runs parallel to Marina Gardens Drive, the main access road to Gardens by the Bay.

The Commonwealth of Australia (CoA), Department of Defence has contracted Kongsberg Maritime to develop and deliver a new K-Sim Engine simulator model to the Royal Australian Navy’s HMAS Cerberus training facility located south of Melbourne, Australia. The new model will run on the existing KONGSBERG K-Sim Engine desktop simulator delivered to HMAS Cerberus in 2013, which is maintained under a Long Term System Support Program (LTSSP) agreement signed in 2015. The customized simulator…

Sea Machines Robotics of Cambridge, Mass. announced the release of its Autonomous Control System (ACS), an advanced vessel control system which converts manually piloted hulls to self-piloted Unmanned Surface Vessels (USVs). It is designed to be integrated into company-developed Sea Machine USVs or other commercial production hulls. The ACS allows for seamless transition between unmanned and manned operations and can be integrated into most OEM vessels, including workboats, pleasure craft, launches, fishing vessels, survey boats, tugs and more.