#navigation-safety

#navigation-safety

"We were never in any real danger. It was not a very difficult journey. It's just a circuitous journey."

When the war broke out, we put a Warlike Operations Area Committee in place to address the protection of seafarers in the region. The organization has identified certain maritime routes in the region, including the Arabian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, and some parts of the Gulf of Oman as high-risk areas, encouraging ship owners to allow seafarers to terminate contracts if they choose not to operate in those zones.

On February 28, ships navigating the Strait of Hormuz started appearing on tracking screens in places they couldn't possibly be. They appeared to be sitting on airport runways, parked on Iranian land, and clustered at nuclear power plants. More than 1,100 commercial vessels had their navigation systems scrambled in a single day following US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran, bringing a waterway that handles a fifth of the world's oil exports to a halt.

The Arctic Metagaz was part of a Russian shadow fleet used to circumvent sanctions imposed on the country's oil and gas after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It was struck in a suspected drone attack close to Maltese waters earlier this month, causing a huge hole.

Recovered CWMs continue to pose worker and food safety risks. Because of ocean drift, storms, and offshore industries, sea-disposed CWMs locations are largely unknown and potentially far from their originally documented dump site. The three incidents exposed at least six crew members to mustard agent, which causes blistering chemical burns on skin and mucous membranes.

In the two weeks since the U.S. and Israel launched attacks against Iran, thousands of vessels have experienced navigation interference in the Persian Gulf. Commercial shipping through the strait, which carries roughly 20 percent of the world's oil, has nearly ground to a halt. Though rocket and drone attacks are also to blame, another major hazard is GPS spoofing—the transmission of counterfeit satellite navigation signals.

Ninety-five percent of intercontinental internet traffic travels through undersea fiber optic cables. Not satellites, not some ethereal "cloud" floating above us. Cables. Physical, tangible lines of glass fiber, thinner than a garden hose, laid across ocean floors by specialized ships. There are roughly 550 active or planned cable systems worldwide, according to TeleGeography's Submarine Cable Map, and they represent the actual, material backbone of the global internet.

Special forces assisted by French helicopters boarded the ship in a clandestine operation in the North Sea on Saturday night, Belgium's defence minister, Theo Francken, said on Sunday. Prosecutors said the tanker, identified as the Ethera, was falsely flying the flag of Guinea and was believed to be on its way back to Russia when it was seized in Belgium's exclusive economic zone.

Maritime traffic through the strait, the narrow channel linking the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman, has effectively been closed since strikes on Iran began. Some vessels have been diverted or delayed and ports and shipping companies are dealing with heightened security concerns and uncertainty.

U.S. defense planning rests on the assumption that wars are fought abroad, by expeditionary forces, against defined adversaries. For decades, those assumptions held. But today, many of the most consequential security challenges facing the United States violate all three. They occur closer to home, below the threshold of armed conflict, and in domains where sovereignty is enforced incrementally. The shift has exposed a chronic mismatch between how the United States defines its defense priorities and how it allocates resources and respect.

About 20% of the world's oil and liquid natural gas pass through the strait, and the sudden traffic halt has sent prices soaring. But that spike also promises a massive payday for any ships willing to make their deliveries. Freight rates have soared to record highs, and a very large crude carrier heading from the strait to China can earn about $500,000 in revenue per day.

From humongous megaships to luxurious yacht-like vessels, cruise travelers all love to grumble about the same thing-taking time out of their first day on board to complete the mandatory safety drill. Despite the efforts cruise lines have made to make them shorter and easier to complete, some guests are tempted to ignore the calls to report to their muster stations-especially in the rare occurrence of a full, in-person drill.

US Coast Guard tactical teams worked closely with its counterparts at the Departments of War, Department of Justice and State and used their specialized expertise to conduct these operations and conduct two safe, effective boardings within hours of each other. One of these tankers, Motor Tanker Bella I, has been trying to evade the Coast Guard for weeks, even changing its flag and painting a new name on the hull while being pursued, in a desperate and failed attempt to escape justice.

The latest bombing brings the total death toll from US boat strikes to 125 since September, raising human rights concerns. The administration of President Donald Trump has announced United States' latest boat strike in international waters, which killed two people in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Friday's attack brings the total number of bombings to at least 36 since Trump began his campaign on September 2. An estimated 125 people have been killed, including the two latest casualties.

(Screengrab via X) Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted dramatic footage of the moment US Coast Guard aided by military assets seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the North Atlantic on Wednesday, ending a two week pursuit after a failed attempt to take the vessel on December 20, when the vessel was apparently bound for Venezuela.

US naval forces have boarded and seized a runaway Russian shadow fleet tanker in the North Atlantic, the latest in a series of moves by Washington against vessels linked to illegal trade in Venezuelan oil. The US European Command said in a statement on social media on January 7 that the tanker, the Marinera, formerly named the Bella 1, was seized in the north Atlantic Ocean between Iceland and the United Kingdom.

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