Romania to Buy Military Equiptment Amid Russian Attacks & more–3rd Oct 2023

Ahoy from Tibidabo! This is Rorshok’s Ocean Update from the 3rd of October twenty twenty-three A summary of what's going down in the 70% surface of the Earth covered in saltwater

On Thursday, the 28th of September, the UK Government’s Defence Equipment & Support body announced that Romania will buy two mine-hunters from the Royal Navy. The decision will support NATO's effort to reinforce its counter-offensive to Russia's attacks in the Black Sea and the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Drifting mines is now an urgent issue in the Black Sea, as they threaten directly the countries bordering the water. With this move, Romania stepped up the maritime security of the region to safeguard the Sea. Specifically, Romania will buy two Sandown-class Mine Counter Measure Vessels, the HMS Blyth and HMS Pembroke. With these two vessels, diver teams will detect the mines and neutralize them. The vessels also support the security of the maritime lines of communication, improving the safety of international shipping and the global economy.

Moving on, on Wednesday, the 27th of September, the first conference of the United Nations Decade Collaborative Center on Ocean-Climate Nexus and Coordination Among Decade Implementing Partners in China (or DCC-OCC) took place in Qingdao, in the Shandong province. The aim of the five-day event was to strengthen the center’s network and promote cooperation. More than 300 researchers from one hundred organizations in the UN and thirty different countries attended the conference.

Next up, exciting news for the new generations in Asia! UNESCO is partnering with the company UNIQLO on a project that will implement educational initiatives regarding the oceans. The new project will be launched at the beginning of next year, and it aims to create healthy and sustainable relations between the oceans and youth (children, teenagers, and young adults). The youth will become active in environmental conservation and will gain important skills to become future innovators of sustainable development. UNIQLO will launch a campaign for a new sustainable collection, to support UNESCO’s activities in reducing marine debris. For every purchase of designated products, UNIQLO will donate one US dollar to UNESCO, until they reach the 1.5 million dollar target.

In other news, the Panama Canal is reducing the maximum number of daily ships that sail across the canal - again. In previous episodes, we talked about the intense drought that impacted the region and that forced the Canal Authorities to reduce the number of daily ships that travel the canal from thirty-six to thirty-two in an attempt to save the water necessary to operate. Well, the Authorities had to impose stricter measures, reducing the number of daily travels from thirty-two to thirty-one. Nine vessels per day will pass through the new locks, while the rest will go through the old one. The drought in Panama and the reduced daily travels in the Canal are affecting the global economy, and the hope is that rain will fall soon and that the canal will be able to operate at the best of its capacities as soon as possible.

Still on cargo ships. On Tuesday, the 26th, Ireland’s army ranger wing seized more than 165 million US dollars worth of cocaine on the MV Matthew vessel off the Cork coast. The military intelligence suspects that the ship was supplying cocaine to smaller vessels that international security forces had already seized. In fact, authorities from Spain and France seized more than three thousand kilos of cocaine in smaller ships, which probably got their load from the MV Matthew. The European and British military are now investigating if the MV Matthew was the central supply point of cocaine that went from Colombia to several European drug gangs. Authorities believe that a collaboration of several European crime gangs was financing the ship’s trip.

The cargo ship industry is finally moving towards greener solutions. On Friday, the 29th, the world’s first container ship powered by methanol docked at the Port of Felixstowe. The Danish vessel called Laura Maersk has already been described as a “historical milestone” for global shipping because methanol is a non-persistent chemical that is broken down in the environment. The logistics company Maersk, owner of the vessel, aims to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions seven years from now. Maersk also announced to source the methanol from a US-based facility that captures biogas from decomposing organic waste.

Talking about environmental issues. On Thursday, the 28th, Sunil Kumar Singh, Director of the National Institute of Oceanography (or NIO), warned that the ocean temperatures are warming faster than expected, especially in the Indian Ocean. Because of its geographical location, the temperatures increased by 1.1 degrees Celsius (or fifty-two Fahrenheit), more than the rest of the world, which rose 0.7 Celsius (or forty-five Fahrenheit) on average. He also added that the consequences of this climate phenomenon will have a big impact on the Indian subcontinent.

From water warming to plastics in the ocean. The Research Council of Norway is funding the PlastiSpread project with more than 1 million US dollars. The twenty twenty-three- twenty twenty-seven project aims to investigate if marine plastic waste will increase the antimicrobial resistance of shellfish and humans. The SINTEF Research Foundation will collaborate in the framework of the project with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and the University of Thessaly in Greece.

From Europe to the United States. The Department of Commerce and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (or NOAA) will invest almost four million dollars in the Marine Technology Society for Ocean Enterprise engagement. Public, private, non-profit, and academic entities are part of the Ocean Enterprise, which aims at ensuring ocean conservation and collection of data and information. The US Government will fund the project through the Inflation Reduction Act, to support NOAA in creating new market opportunities and partnerships, as well as coastal and ocean climate resilience.

Moving on to Australia. On Saturday, the 30th, a whale collided with a boat during a fishing expedition off the coast of Sydney, causing the death of one person and another one was sent to the hospital. The collision was so strong that the boat flipped upside down, and the two men were ejected from the vessel. Police declared that the collision with the whale pulled one man unconscious from Botany Bay and that he later died, while the ambulance quickly brought the second man to the hospital where is now in stable condition.

In other news, according to a study published in the journal Tectonics, a team of international scientists has recently refined the map of Zealandia, the submerged continent in the Pacific Ocean. The crew of scientists used data from dredged rock samples taken from the ocean bed and analyzed seismic data of the region. Zealandia is a continent of two million square miles, originally classified as a microcontinent, but the largest of all: it measures six times the size of Madagascar. After geological considerations, scientists classified it as a proper continent.

Closing with the appearance of Synodus Randalli, a native fish from the Red Sea, in Mediterranean waters, specifically in Turkey. It’s the first time this fish has appeared in the Mediterranean Sea. Professor Cemal Turan, the dean of the Faculty of Marine Sciences and Technology at Iskendurun Technical University, examined the fish with his team. The team nicknamed the marine creature "Red Turkish Delight" for its origin. The presence of this fish in the Mediterranean water is proof of the alteration of the region’s ecosystem. It’s most likely that the marine animal reached Turkish waters through the Suez Canal, as many other invasive species of fish did, because of global warming. Professor Turan remarked that the Synodus Randalli is predatory and aggressive, and scientists are worried about its presence in the region due to the ecological impact it might have on native species.

That’s it for this week! Thanks for joining us!

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