Environmental Campaigners Call for End to Antarctic Krill Fishing
Environmental campaigners and scientists are renewing their push for a ban on industrial krill fishing in order to protect the ecosystem of the Antarctica Ocean. New evidence suggests that the emperor penguin populations in the Southern Ocean are declining faster than thought, and the decline could be linked to krill.
At the UN Ocean Conference (UNOC 3) in Nice, France, the campaigners – led by National Geographic ocean explorer and conservationist Sylvia Earle, actor Benedict Cumberbatch, Captain Paul Watson, filmmaker Andy Mann, and the Bob Brown Foundation (BBF) put out a call for a total ban on krill fishing. They argue that allowing krill fishing to continue is threatening the survival of whales, seals and penguins that depend on krill for food.
Krill, the tiny shrimp-like crustacean, is the lifeline of the Antarctic Ocea. These tiny creatures are the main source of food for whales, seals and penguins. A humpback whale needs around 1.5 to 2 tons of krill per day for survival.
Port Settles Stormwater Pollution Lawsuit
The Port of Los Angeles has agreed to stop the discharge of effluent and restore the city’s harbor as part of settling a lawsuit in which the port was accused of violating the federal Clean Water Act. A U.S. District Court judge has approved the settlement, which resolves a suit brought by Environment California last year.
In the lawsuit, the group had alleged that the port had repeatedly discharged untreated wastewater with illegal levels of toxic copper and fecal bacteria into the harbor since 2019. During the period, the port is alleged to have conducted over 2,000 illegal discharges. The group had also alleged that the port’s stormwater treatment system was undersized and that, as a result, untreated wastewater frequently bypassed the system entirely, ending up in the harbor.
Environment California had filed the suit under the Clean Water Act’s “citizen suit” provision, which allows private citizens affected by violations to sue. The Act requires permitted facilities, including ports, to monitor their discharges and to submit publicly available reports to the government with the results of the monitoring. Environment California carried out an analysis of the publicly available records and found that the Port of Los Angeles violated the Act over 2,000 times since 2019, all at a single stormwater outfall.
Australian Border Agency Destroys 2.0 Indonesian Fishing Vessels
Australia’s border agency continues its campaign to seize and destroy the Indonesian fishing vessels that operate illegally off the country’s far-flung Northern Territory, a remote area where long distances and limited infrastructure make law enforcement challenging. Last week, 16 Indonesian fishermen pleaded guilty to offenses stemming from two separate interdictions in May – both of which ended in the destruction of the suspects’ vessels.
The first case involved an Indonesian boat that Australian authorities identified and intercepted on May 21, near the Cobourg Peninsula, a priority enforcement area in the Northern Territory. On board, the authorities found and seized 600 kilos of sea cucumber worth AUD$60,000, 330 kilos of salt used to process and preserve catch, and a range of fishing equipment.
Carrier USS Enterprise Will Be Delayed for Years: GAO
First-in-class carrier USS Gerald R. Ford has completed her first full deployment and is gearing up for another, but problems with the Ford program remain, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
The Ford program encountered years-long delays during the construction of the first hull. The complexities added by Ford’s all-electric launch and recovery gear, as well as her electromagnetically-actuated weapons elevators, caused difficulty at the yard and long after delivery. The keel laying was held in 2009 for a 2015 delivery date, but construction cost increased by $2.8 billion and the schedule for her commissioning slipped to 2017. She was delivered incomplete, without operable weapons elevators, and did not achieve initial operational capability until December 2021. Since then she has successfully deployed overseas, and she was recognized as the best all-around ship in the Atlantic Fleet last year.
Stricken Laker Self-Unloads its Cargo Onto Another Ship
The laker that grounded downriver of the Soo Locks last weekend is now transferring its bulk cargo onto another vessel in the operator’s fleet, according to local media – demonstrating the less-used ship-to-ship transfer capability of a classic self-unloading laker.
At about 1550 hours on June 8, the laker Hon. James L. Oberstar experienced unusual vibration after making the turn at Johnson’s Point on the St. Mary’s River. The crew notified the Coast Guard and went to anchor on nearby Hay Lake to conduct a damage assessment. Photos from the scene appear to show that she had taken on a starboard list, and the crew had swung her unloading boom out over the port side, shifting weight to port.
U.S. Coast Guard helps yachtsman
On Tuesday, the U.S. Coast Guard helped Dutch and British partners rescue a yachtsman whose vessel was disabled off the British Virgin Islands.
The skipper, 58-year-old French national Frank Rouvray, was operating single-handed on a voyage to Saint Martin. As he neared the island of Anegada in the British Virgin Islands, his yacht was dismasted, then lost propulsion due to lack of fuel. He activated his EPIRB and U.S. Coast Guard Sector San Juan received the distress signal. The command center dispatched a Jayhawk SAR helicopter out of Air Station Borinquen, Puerto Rico to search the scene, and it also broadcast a request for assistance to nearby merchant shipping.
Israel-Iran Conflict Affect the Tanker Market?
In the early hours of Friday, June 13, Israel launched several waves of airstrikes on Iran, targeting command-and-control centers, ballistic-missile bases and air-defense batteries as well as nuclear installations. The attacks also killed several Iranian military commanders and nuclear scientists. Israel indicated that this is only the beginning of a campaign that can last for days or even weeks. The question is, what will happen next? How will Iran respond? Will the United States get involved? What will be the impact on the oil and tanker markets? We don’t have any answers, but we can discuss a few scenarios and look back at what happened during previous conflicts in the region.
Naval Dimensions of a Future India-Pakistan Conflict
The Line of Control still dominates the nightly news, yet war between India and Pakistan could spill seaward. In early? May? 2025, the two nuclear? armed neighbors again traded strikes, suspended bilateral trade concessions, and placed elements of their fleets on alert. Nearly one?third of Pakistan’s import bill, and, critically, 16? percent of its food supply, arrives by sea. With roughly 60 percent of that traffic funneling through the single port complex of Karachi, the question is no longer whether the coast matters, but how maritime leverage could shape the next crisis.