Is the weather at sea getting worse?

There is a lot of worry about the weather today. Perhaps caused by global warming or just “climate change”, there seems to be much more violent weather about. At sea, and on the coast, there seems to be more damage being done. In those areas where there are hurricanes, typhoons and other sorts of revolving storms, they seem to be more numerous and do a lot more damage. Perhaps it is a phase we are going through?

Scientists are divided about whether this is really the case. It seems true that there are more giant waves about, and naval architects are becoming concerned whether designing ships or structures for that “100 year wave” is enough, as they chances are that these monsters will appear more often. But some suggest that the frequency of these giant waves is more apparent, as we can record them from space, through satellites, and not have to depend on some poor sailor meeting one for the report.

The incidence of huge storms has, it has alleged, been increasing.

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Mapping a maritime career

Career “mapping”, in which a plan is worked out which indicates where a young person wishes to be at every stage of his or her career, is a fashionable concept. Certainly it is a good deal more structured than matters were in previous generations, when a career tended to develop in an almost random fashion, as luck, opportunity, circumstance and ambition intervened.

It is reckoned to be a good idea, particularly when somebody is contemplating a sea career, but with the seafaring confined to a finite period and as a preliminary to a shore side further career within the maritime industry. For sure, some people will stay at sea for the whole of their working lives, but they will be in a minority, and it is perhaps unfair and certainly unrealistic to lure young people into the sea side of the business against this concept of a whole working life spent at sea.

So it is a good idea to consider the options, and also some rough approximation about when career changes will be made, as early as possible in one's career.

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Tugs and service craft

You will see them in every sizeable port, smart, business like small ships, low in the water and surging out to a large inbound ship. Tugs represent power for pushing and pulling, an engine with just enough hull for adequate buoyancy. Thick fenders for close quarters work, pushing a big ship alongside the quay against the wind, hauling her off at the end of a towing wire.

Tugs might be thought of as essential port services, enabling big unwieldy ships to be handled into small spaces, hauling very large vessels through locks and protecting them against the unexpected wind or tide that could sweep them out of a channel, or bang them against a quay or another ship. Tug skippers are fine ship handlers, who can work with pilots and operate as a team to handle big ships safely.

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Asian Shipowners Forum calls for Asian governmental body

Owners representatives meeting in Hong Kong for the Asian Shipowners Forum (ASF) Ship Insurance and Liability Committee have called for Asian governments tyo forma regional body to consider and respond to regional proposal for regulating shipping.

A statement notes that, in the past, ASF has commented widely on the various EU Draft Directives, but “has not seen an equivalent level of contribution from Asian governments”.

ASF adds: “Taking note of the reports of recent comments made by Mr Shigeru Ito, Director General of the Maritime Bureau of Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), and Mr Oh Konggyun, Chief Executive of the Korea Register and Chairman of the International Association of Classification Societies,

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Celebrating Piracy and Criminalisation of seafarer

For seafarers who turned up for the National Maritime week celebrations seminar at the auditorium of the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), Mumbai on 1st April, 2009 their hope of finding some solution to the heart-wrenching problems of piracy and criminalisation of seafarers turned out to be a hoax. The deliberations did not give the slightest hope of the threat abating nor any promise being extended by the government as if signifying what the day April 01,09 was meant to be. No one could fathom what F or seafarers who turned up for the National Maritime week celebrations seminar at the auditorium of the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), Mumbai on 1st April, 2009 their hope of finding some solution to the heart-wrenching problems of piracy and criminalisation of seafarers turned out to be a hoax. The deliberations did not give the slightest hope of the threat abating nor any promise being extended by the government as if signifying what the day April 01,09 was meant to be. No one could fathom what further relevance these two issues had for the celebration week besides a number of events that had already taken place focusing on the same issues including the one conducted by the Directorate and graced by the union shipping secretary, A. P. V. N. Sarma.

More appalling still was the moderator of the two panels, the Lloyd Lists' correspondent Shirish Nadkarni making a surprise announcement,

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Oil from Ice-bound regions

Russian energy exports are growing fast as that huge country builds up its oil and gas industries and seeks new customers for their products. Proven Russian oil reserves are the seventh largest in the world, while there is an even greater potential in the vast areas of Siberia and the Far East as yet unexplored.

But a quick look at an atlas will demonstrate that while there may be vast quantities of oil and gas available in Russia, getting it to overseas markets is a major challenge. Geography, topography and meteorology have not been kind to the Russian oil exporter, with only routes through Black Sea ports and the Turkish Straits being free of ice all year. In the Baltic, the Russian Arctic and the ports of the Russian Far East tankers have to contend with sub-zero temperatures and ice conditions which can be very severe.

In the Gulf of Finland, the oil port of Primorsk is being rapidly expanded and could become Russia's biggest oil export port in the next few years.

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Trying to get a grip! - Nautical Institute seminar

In the sea of maritime conferences and seminars taking place in Mumbai city the one organised by the Nautical Institute India (West Branch) on March 21, 2009 to focus on the challenges faced by the trade brought together an unexpectedly large gathering of players and veteran - as if expressing solidarity to their committed goal.

The unobtrusive venue of the Mayfair Rooms, Worli, which could hardly contain the enthusiasm and zeal of the delegates, became a practical and well conceived setting for yet another serious deliberation on such contentious issues as the burdensome conventions and unfair treatment being meted out to seafarers by some countries purely because they have been shouldering the responsibility of keeping the international trade alive and kicking. But at the end of the day it was clear that it is the seafarers who will continue to end up getting kicked into subservient submission and become alienated from freedom through the whims and vagaries of regulators and regulations prevailing in various ports bordering the seven seas.

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