Four Men Survive Trip on Ship’s Rudder & more– 8th Aug 2023

Ahoy from Tibidabo! This is Rorshok’s Ocean Update from the 8th of August twenty twenty-three A summary of what's going down in the 70% surface of the Earth covered in salt water

Four men have survived an incredibly risky, fourteen days’ journey hidden on the ship’s rudder. Their trip covered five thousand six hundred kilometers (or three thousand five hundred miles) in the Atlantic Ocean. Despite running out of food and water on the tenth day, all of them survived by drinking seawater. Finally, the ship docked in Brazil, where they were rescued by the federal police. The four men are all from Nigeria, and they were actually trying to reach Europe. They didn’t know the ship was headed to Brazil, and they were shocked to learn they had crossed the whole Atlantic ocean. Two men have been repatriated to Nigeria upon their request, while the other two have applied for asylum in Brazil. One of the latter declared that his trip began on Tuesday, the 27th of June, when a fisherman brought him by the rudder and there he found the other three men. They all tied themselves so as not to fall from the ship, and for the whole trip they tried to not make any noise as they were scared to be discovered and thrown in the sea to die.

Moving on to environmental issues. On Sunday, the 30th of July, ecologists from the Verdemar Ecologistas en Acción organization said that the ships in the Strait of Gibraltar created a “toxic cloud”. The Spanish Ministry of Transport, together with the European Maritime Safety Agency and the merchant navy are monitoring the pollution in the atmosphere through drones, and, unfortunately, the emissions from ships are still rising. The environmental organization stated that ships in the bay of Algeciras exceed the daily pollution limit the Marpol Convention has set. Verdemar also said that the pollutants coming from the ships “damage human health, the environment, and the climate”.

Talking about damaging human health. At least fifty-seven swimmers became ill after swimming in sewage-fouled ocean waters on Sunday, the 30th of July. They were competing in the World Triathlon Championship Series, the qualification stage for the Paris twenty twenty-four Olympic Games. Around two thousand athletes participated in the event held in Sunderland, on the coast of England. The Guardian reported that this coastline was the object of different issues because of over-sewage discharges into the ocean.

The UK Health Security Agency will test samples to identify common pathogens and the cause of sickness. Britain's Environmental Agency also tested the waters three days before the event and found bacteria levels forty times higher than usual. This specific bacteria causes the symptoms that the ill swimmers have been experiencing. The British Triathlon, the responsible body for triathlons in Great Britain, released a statement saying that the sample results were outside the water area where the swimmers competed.

From England to Peru. Scientists discovered an ancient whale that might have been the heaviest animal ever existed. The Perucetus colossus is now extinct, but the animal that lived forty million years ago was about twenty meters (or sixty-six feet) long and it weighed up to 340 metric tonnes (or 750,000 pounds).

Moving on to technology. Six robots have been designed to protect the oceans. The first one is a robotic “underwater satellite” created by the German company Planblue, that will map the oceans’ floor, identifying the impact of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. The second one is an acoustic buoy from Whale Safe that detects the presence of whales in California and warns ships in the surroundings to slow down. The third one, called “Hydrus”, is an underwater drone that monitors the health of corals and other marine life. Meanwhile, the Ocean Census is using remote underwater robots to search for new marine species. The Italian firm WSense is also playing its part, providing internet underwater to the submerged devices to receive the data faster. Finally, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California is collecting environmental DNA using long-range autonomous robot submarines.

Robots are not the only ones protecting our oceans. The Ocean 14 Capital Fund, a leading firm in the blue economy based in London, aims to clean up and revitalize the oceans. On Tuesday, the 1st of August, they announced that Convex Group Limited, an international insurer, and reinsurer, financed them with twenty million euros. Ocean 14 Capital said that this funding will help them make a positive impact on marine ecosystems and sustainability. The Ocean 14 Capital Fund has now raised a total of 160 million euros from various investors and aims to reach 200 million euros in grants by the end of the year.

From a European company to a company on the other side of the world. Ngāi Tahu Seafood applied for developing and operating an open ocean salmon farm of two thousand five hundred hectares off the northeastern coast of Stewart Island, in New Zealand. A panel of experts denied the proposal. In the final report, the board recognized that the project was going to benefit the Maori tribe of Ngāi Tahu and its economy, but these benefits didn’t outweigh the risks of damaging the threatened species living in the area. Human activities haven’t touched the zone, and creating a large-scale salmon farm will cause considerable changes in the environment that the panel is not willing to accept.

Moving on to fishing. Fishery Officers from the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (or AFMA) have warned 180 Indonesian fishermen of the risks of illegal fishing in the Australian fishing zone. AFMA organized some educational workshops to teach fishermen the maritime boundaries and the legal consequences of illegal fishing. The workshops were held in three major fishing ports in Kupang in the East Nusa Tenggara region of Indonesia. AFMA said that the increase in illegal fishing in the area is due to social and economic pressures on Indonesian fishers caused by the pandemic.

From Australia to the Philippines. On Tuesday, the 1st of August, the Philippine Senate condemned China for its incursions in the Philippines-claimed waters in the South China Sea and its "continued harassment” toward Filipino fishermen. The Senate’s resolution comes after China’s claim of large territories in the South China Sea, cutting off the Philippines from its claimed waters. If China won’t back off after the resolution, the Philippines will collect multilateral support for the ruling and file “a resolution at the United National General Assembly calling out the Chinese aggression”

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Still on fisheries. SM Rezaul Karim, The Minister of Fisheries and Livestock of Bangladesh, said on Tuesday, the 1st of August, that the government plans to set up a separate economic zone for the fisheries sector. The aim is to increase the growth of this industry. However, he said that the success of the zone will depend on the investments of private entrepreneurs. He said this on The Support to Sustainable Graduation Project of the Economic Relations Division workshop called Fisheries Subsidies in the Context of LDC Graduation and Way Forward.

Closing with the ocean heatwave. According to the European Union’s climate observatory data, on Sunday, the 30th of July, the temperatures of the ocean's surface broke the record, hitting twenty-one degrees Celsius (or seventy degrees Fahrenheit). Scientists are concerned about the trend of high temperatures the ocean is facing and are warning to address climate change as soon as possible to prevent huge damage to the ecosystem. Piers Forster, from the International Center for Climate at the University of Leeds, stated that the ocean heatwave is already endangering marine life, and further repercussions are about to come.

Aaaaand that’s it for this week! Thanks for joining us!

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