Tunisian Government Rejects EU Money & more–10th Oct 2023

Ahoy from Tibidabo! This is Rorshok’s Ocean Update from the 10th of October twenty twenty-three A summary of what's going down in the 70% surface of the Earth covered in saltwater.

On Wednesday, the 4th, the European Union sent sixty million euros (around 64 million dollars) to the Tunisian government, despite the country’s President rejecting the money, calling it “charity”. The money is part of the funds the EU agreed to give to Tunisia through a Memorandum of Understanding signed last month, aiming to strengthen security at the border and prevent migrant vessels in the Mediterranean Sea from reaching Italy and entering the EU. In the agreement, Tunisia and the EU set the total for 127 million euros (around 135 million dollars), so the country should receive a second disbursement. Just the day before the money transfer, the Tunisian President Saied announced they didn’t want the EU funds, but the European Commission has verified that Tunisia received the money and did not give it back.

Still on the Mediterranean Sea. Germany's Foreign Ministry declared on Saturday, the 7th, that it will finance NGOs operating in civilian sea rescue, supporting different projects on land and sea. Despite the announcement, the spokesperson didn’t mention the draft budget for next year. The Ministry made an excuse and said that the omission was a “technical oversight” because they probably knew how much they were going to spend but didn’t share the information. Italy criticized the German decision since Italy is trying to avoid the arrival of migrants by sea. The right-wing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wrote a letter of complaint to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who immediately took distance from the scheme. The Italian PM invited him to discuss the matter.

In other news, on Sunday, the 8th, two cargo ships collided off west of Ikaria Island, in Greece. The crew didn’t suffer any injuries and no damages to the ships were reported. The Port Authority said that one cargo ship was Palau-flagged and had a crew of twenty-one members, while the other was from the Marshall Islands and had twenty-two people on board. The Coast Guard is now investigating the case.

Staying in Greece. The captain of another Palau-flagged cargo ship died on Tuesday, the 3rd, while his ship was in Greek waters, north off Crete. A crew member found the fifty-five-year-old Egyptian Officer unconscious while on duty. The ship Evangelia had just left the port of Rethymno, in Crete, when the crew member found the Captain, so the vessel had to return to the port, where it arrived just after midnight. An ambulance was waiting for the master and brought him immediately to the hospital, where the doctors declared him dead. The Coast Guards didn’t reveal the cause of death, nor in which part of the ship the crew member found the body.

Still on cargo ships. On Thursday, the 5th, a Turkish vessel hit a mine in the Black Sea, at the entrance to the Sulina Canal, off the coast of Romania, reporting minor damages. The vessel was the general cargo ship Kafkametler, and the minor damage concerned a ballast tank. On the same day, UK defense intelligence warned that Russia might use sea mines to target civilian cargo ships that approach Ukrainian ports. On Friday the 6th though, The Republic of Turkey said that there had been an explosion but that it did not damage the vessel.

Japan started the second wastewater discharge. In previous episodes, we talked about the country’s discharge of treated water from the Fukushima plant into the Pacific Ocean. The decision is strongly impacting the ocean-related economy of the country: last month, 151 fishermen in Fukushima filed a lawsuit against the government to immediately stop the discharge, saying it “violates their fishing rights and threatens the rights of consumers to live peacefully”. Despite the International Atomic Energy Agency approving the discharge, this is still sparking many protests and causing tension with bordering countries.

Next up, China's 13th Arctic Ocean expedition made several breakthroughs in the Arctic Sea. The vessel Ice Dragon started the expedition on Wednesday, the 12th of July, and traveled 15,000 nautical miles (or 28,000 kilometers) in seventy-eight days. It got back to Shanghai on Wednesday, the 27th of September. The aim of the expedition was to study the geology and geophysics of the area, as well as the sea ice environmental conditions. It is the first time a Chinese vessel has reached the North Pole. The research team cooperated with Thailand and Russia.

On that note about China, on Sunday, the 8th of September, data showed that the throughput of cargo that passed through the ship lock of the Three Gorges Dam reached 127 million tonnes in only nine months this year. This sets a new record, as it’s the first time in twenty years of operation that the ship lock breaks the 120-million-tonne mark in the first three quarters of a year. The Three Gorges Navigation Authority declared that the ship lock handled 32,000 cargo ships from January until September of twenty twenty-three. The ship lock is a part of the Three Gorges project, which is part of the largest hydropower project in the world.

Moving on to the Pacific Ocean. On Friday, the 6th, a cruise ship heading to New Zealand rescued a twenty-four-year-old Australian man called Tom Robinson who was trying to row across the Pacific Ocean, after his boat capsized. The cruise ship found him one hundred nautical miles (or 185 kilometers) southwest off the coast of Vanuatu, with his clothes off, sitting on top of his homemade boat. He had severe sunburns and suffered from dehydration, but overall, he was in good health. Robinson had set off from Peru in July last year and wanted to arrive in Australia by December. His last stop was Vanuatu, which he left on Monday, the 2nd of October. On Thursday evening, his boat overturned for still unknown reasons, but his emergency distress beacon was activated and alerted the authorities.

And now, a look into the Suez Canal. The Canadian Naval firm Robert Allan Private Limited Company has secured a contract with South Red Sea Shipyard - a luxury yacht builder - in Egypt to design ten Rastar tugs for the Suez Canal Authority. This specific kind of tug is highly performative, and there are only other twenty Rastar tugs currently in use worldwide. When the companies complete the construction of the tugs, the Suez Canal Authority will own and operate a total of twenty Rastar tugs: the twelve new additions will in fact add to the eight Robert Allan Private Limited Company tugs already in operation in Egypt, serving commercial purposes.

In other news, the Atlantic Healthy Oceans Initiative is implementing a project in Bonne Bay, Canada, to assess the local marine ecosystem's health. The project’s goal is to monitor invasive green crab populations that are destroying the ecosystem by outcompeting native species. Furthermore, the project aims to gather data with underwater drones on eelgrass beds, which are vital nurseries for juvenile fish and act as carbon sinks, helping store carbon in the ocean. Eelgrass beds are in danger because of the damage coastal erosion, climate change, and invasive species like green crabs have caused.

Closing with the “Ocean Guardian School”. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gave this title to a Houston private school for its commitment to marine conservation and environmental education. The Yorkshire Academy implemented innovative projects and educational programs for its young students that promote ocean and environmental literacy. Specifically, students worked on projects about algae farms, beach cleanup, and sampling water for contamination. The Yorkshire Academy is the first school in Houston to become an Ocean Guardian School.

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

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