Category Archives: High Seas

Grappling with the challenges of minimizing carbon footprints, memoirs of careers spent on the frontlines of conservation and stark warnings about the future inhabitability of our world, the roster of environment-related books published in 2019 covered a wide swath of pressing themes.

Weve included 10 released by mainstream publishing houses that promise to inspire, educate and prepare readers as we head into the third decade of the 21st century. They tackle climate change, altered marine environments and the global loss of species, but of course none of these issues exists in a vacuum. The challenges are all related, and the authors whose books made the list have worked to tease apart that complexity.

Beginning in 2006, Alex Dehgan spearheaded an effort to create the first national park in Afghanistan. Dehgan, an evolutionary biologist who was working for the Wildlife Conservation Society at the time, brings to life the effort that became a beacon of hope in spite of ongoing conflict.

I felt that there was so much more to Afghanistan than the way it is portrayed on the evening news a dusty, depressing landscape of pain, conflict, tribalism, and hopelessness, he told Mongabay in April. I wanted to show for both conservation, and for Afghanistan, that there could be optimism for the future of the country, for its people, and for its wildlife.

Part how-to guide, part entertaining memoir, Karl Coplans new book brings readers along for his journey into trimming his own carbon footprint. The Pace University law professor acknowledges the struggles inherent in minimizing ones own impact in a modern society, but he also demonstrates the fulfillment to be had in meeting those challenges head on and devising creative solutions to address them.

Like many of the authors whose books are on this list, Tony Juniper brings firsthand experience to his subject matter in this case, the worlds rainforests. The outlook for this biome can seem bleak, especially given the recent surge in deforestation in many of the worlds tropical forests, and Junipers decades in the field bear out the hurdles conservationists face. But he also lays out the case for using every strategy at our disposal, from high-level agreements to supporting indigenous management, to protect the forests that, he argues and many agree are so essential to our own existence.

Investigative journalist Ian Urbina spent more than 3 years at sea with fishers all over the world to understand the connection between the epidemic of overfishing across the worlds oceans and the human rights abuses that are all too common in the industry. His reporting, which first appeared as a series in The New York Times, reveals the lawlessness of high seas and that the fates of the people who work it as well as the life that lives beneath are intertwined.

To me, the problem is an out-of-sight, out-of-mind reality that results in an utter lack of governance in a sprawling space that has for too long simply been thought of as a space rarely a workplace, Urbina told Conservation International. There is a long cultural and intellectual history behind thinking of the sea and maritime as another world where things are different.

George Grinnells views on the American West were shaped by the time he spent there, steeped in the landscape and the cultures that precede the United States domination of the region. Along the way, biographer John Taliaferro writes, Grinnell also became an advocate for its protection in the face of progress. In doing so, he helped ignite a passion for conservation that continues to this day.

From the first page of his new book, David Wallace-Wells describes a perilous world that were striding closer to each day in what reviewers call terrifying and riveting prose. Wallace-Wells examines the future for humanity as the impacts of climate change deepen, and in his view, few aspects of our lives will remain untouched. Theres room for optimism in the future, but only if we act, and this book tells us why we must. As the reviewer for The Economist wrote, Some readers will find Mr Wallace-Wellss outline of possible futures alarmist. He is indeed alarmed. You should be, too.

This retrospective looks back to the scientists who first alerted humanity to the dangers of climate change in the late 1970s and the 1980s. Journalist Nathaniel Rich first reported the series for The New York Times Magazine. It details how a handful of researchers initially realized our own role in climate change. There were missed opportunities to stave off the coming storm along the way, to be sure. Still unanswered is the question about whether well learn from those missteps, or blindly barrel toward an uncertain and perilous future.

In yet another volume to explore humanitys relationship with Earths climate, Bill McKibben the first popular author to sound the warning on climate change with The End of Nature in 1989 follows the obstinacy of ideology and how it has precluded meaningful action. The details are frustrating. But McKibben also finds reason to hope, believing that the future of the world and our place depends on how we respond now.

Barry Lopez reflects on decades of travel to remote regions, during which hes see the influence of humanity across the worlds landscapes. In Horizon, he wrestles with our capacity for both cruelty and generosity, and how the destruction and preservation of the earth are related. The depth of his meditations and observations leave few clearcut answers, other than to bring into focus the profound impact that we humans and our environment have on each other.

In the only work of fiction on our list, writer John Lanchester has put together a novel with perhaps the most contemporary of themes. Central to the plot is the wall in the imagined future that projects the United Kingdom from rising sea levels. Seemingly insurmountable political divisiveness conspires to create a world thats suspiciously familiar in prevailing sentiment if not the details of everyday life, in which outsiders are viewed as enemies and our very existence seems under threat.

Banner image of a glacier in Iceland by John C. Cannon/Mongabay.

John Cannon is a staff writer at Mongabay. Find himon Twitter: @johnccannon

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10 noteworthy books on conservation and the environment from 2019 - Mongabay.com

Key Point:Only eight dreadnoughts remain, all in the United States.

The age of the steel line-of-battleship really began in the1880s, with the construction of a series of warships that could carry and independently aim heavy guns external to the hull. In 1905, HMS Dreadnought brought together an array of innovations in shipbuilding, propulsion, and gunnery to create a new kind of warship, one that could dominate all existing battleships.

Although eventually supplanted by the submarine and the aircraft carrier, the battleship took pride of place in the navies of the first half of the twentieth century. The mythology of of the battleship age often understates how active many of the ships were; both World War I and World War II saw numerous battleship engagements. These are the five most important battles of the dreadnought age.

Battle ofJutland:

In the years prior to World War I, Britain and Germany raced tooutbuildeach other, resulting in vast fleets of dreadnought battleships. The British won the race, but not by so far that they could ignore the power of the German High Seas Fleet. When war began, the Royal Navy collected most of its modern battleships into the Grand Fleet, based atScapaFlow.

The High Seas Fleet and the Grand Fleet spared for nearly three years before the main event. In May 1916, AdmiralReinhardScheerand Admiral JohnJellicoelaid dueling traps;Scheerhoped to draw a portion of the Grand Fleet under the guns of the High Seas Fleet, whileJellicoesought to bring the latter into the jaws of the former. Both succeeded, to a point; Britishbattlecruisersand fast battleships engaged the German line of battle, before the arrival of the whole of the Grand Fleet put German survival in jeopardy.

The two sides fought for most of an afternoon. The Germans has sixteen dreadnought battleships, six pre-dreadnoughts, and fivebattlecruisers. Against this, the British fielded twenty-eight dreadnoughts and ninebattlecruisers.Jellicoemanaged to trap the Germans on the wrong side of the Grand Fleet, but in a confused night action most of the German ships passed through the British line, and to safety.

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These Are The 5 Best Battleships To Ever Sail The 7 Seas - Yahoo News

I never thought cruises were for me. But then a friend invited me to join him on an Atlantis cruise for his birthday and I was won over by the thought of disco tea dances by the pool with friends on a ship that had been taken over for a gay and lesbian charter.

Before that first cruise was over wed already booked the next one, and while Ive done many cruises since then theres a lot to be said for setting sail with people who have similar interests. Or tastes in music.

Themed cruises can either take over the whole ship or have a special interest group join a regular itinerary with their own events on the side. While some are based around relatively commonplace interests like food and wine, comedy and sport, others cater for more specific tastes.

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No judgment on which of these cruises floats your boat.

As the name suggests this is a cruise for those who love to let it all hang out. This annual cruise organized by Bare Necessities will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2020 with a sold-out cruise through the warm waters of the Caribbean on Carnival Legend.

Passengers are free to go au naturale around most of the ship, though casual wear is required in the dining rooms and while the ship is in port. Its worth noting that this is a clothing-optional cruise and that fetish wear is not allowed at any time. Even lingerie is too risqu for the dining room. Though at themed parties like Nudapalooza you can wear as much, or as little, as you like.

Captain to the bridge! Next years Star Trek cruise will celebrate the 25th anniversary of Star Trek Voyager with an all-star cast ready to set sail with fans. The actors who brought Captain Janeway, Seven of Nine, the Doctor, Neelix, Tuvok and many more in the Delta Quadrant to life will all be there, and a certain Captain Kirk will also be on board.

As Royal Caribbeans Explorer of The Seas cruises through the Bahamas, therell be celebrity-hosted excursions by day followed by nightly shows where else but in the Stardust Theatre. Youll need to hop on the waitlist and hope for the best to join in this sold-out trekkie fun.

If you identify more as a Whovian, then the Dr. Who-themed Sci-Fi cruise will be more your speed. Dr. Who creature designers join stars of the show as you sail from Miami to the Caribbean.

Other geek fest cruises include Star Wars Day at Sea complete with Chewbacca, R2-D2, 3-3PO and Darth Vader on select Disney cruises from Floridas Port Canaveral, and Marvel Day at Sea bringing super heroes and villains to the Caribbean and Bahamas.

You wanna rock n roll all night and party every day? In 2020, the KISS Kruise will be celebrating its 10th anniversary with concerts by the pool, KISS memorabilia swaps, and karaoke nights. Married KISS fans can even renew their vows in a ceremony led by Gene Simmons. So far theres no word on who next years support acts will be, but previous ones have included Warrant, The Darkness and Skid Row.

If Cheap Trick are more your thing check out the 70s Rock and Romance cruise where theyll be joined by Jefferson Starship, The Eagles Don Felder and more. And you just know theres going to be an 80s cruise too. Next years sold out lineup includes The B52s, Berlin, Grandmaster Flash and Tony Hadley from Spandau Ballet. Wish wed mentioned it sooner? Hop on that waitlist for 2020 and get ready to pounce when the backup to the 80s in 2021 cruise goes on sale.

When wrestling star Chris Jericho played with his band Fozzy on the KISS Kruise it was clear just how much fun a group of fans could have at sea. And in a body slam move, Chris Jerichos Rock N Wrestling Rager was born.

Along with some of the biggest names from AEW (All Elite Wrestling) taking each other on in a ring in the middle of the pool deck, theres rock n roll shows, comedy, live podcasts, and paranormal explorations. This high seas rager has also sold out, so get yourself on the waitlist and see if you can wrestle a ticket off someone. And if youre lucky enough to get on board save a big WOOOOO for wrestling legend Nature Boy, Ric Flair.

With an image of a deep sea creature about to devour a ship, the Gothic Cruise website sets its darker-than-your-average-cruise tone from the start. Break out the black eyeliner: on the Gothic Cruise vampire, industrial and gothic wear is welcome any time. Next years bands include German electronic body music (EBM) act Rottersand and one of the most popular aggrotech bands Combichrist. And for a bit of fun, next years door decorating theme is Lost Spirits.

The only cruise where the welcome pack includes a bag full of yarn, crochet cruises have already sold out in Australia and the Southern Caribbean but still have spaces left for their Alaska and South Pacific trips.

As they put it, their cruises are worth the adventure with a bunch of happy Hookers AKA crocheters and include a real life opportunity to meet the socialite of the crochet world, Mikey. While its unclear if anyone will be crocheting a bikini to wear on the pool deck, groups do work together on an even better goal: to create blankets for charities.

Fans of Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sophia will be in their element as they set sail from the girls home of Miami on a cruise dedicated to the hit 80s sitcom. The Golden Girls Cruise includes a sail away party with lots of cheesecake, a Shady Pines Craft Corner, and panel discussions with Stan Zimmerman, one of the original writers on the show. And therell be not one but two Golden Girls drag shows, with both the original drag parody tribute and the Golden Gays on board.

Hello, kitty. If you think cat videos are the best thing on the Internet and love sharing photos of your own adorable moggy then youve found your captive audience at sea. Sadly, youll need to leave the cat carriers at home as no actual felines can join in the Meow Meow cruise fun, but you can flex your cat knowledge muscles in Meow Meow Trivia and join in the kitty scavenger hunt.

And if none of the above have you making holiday plans, have a little hunt around online for things that do make you happy. You may find your people have a ship just right for you.

Featured photo by Matteo Colombo / Getty Images.

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From KISS to crochet: The worlds most unusual themed cruises - The Points Guy UK

It will be another day of sneaker wave warnings and high seas at the coast. Oregon beaches will also experience morning thunderstorms. Portland will just get regular rain.

The last day of the work week for the metro area will be wet with showers, likely starting during the morning commute. The high will be 49 degrees.

Forecasters with the National Weather Service warn of more sneaker waves and high seas at the Oregon coast. Use caution along beaches and never turn your back to the ocean. Thunderstorms will make it for a wild morning Friday. Seas are expected to calm this weekend.

Snow activity has shifted south with more accumulation expected for the Lane County Cascades. Forecasters predict about 6-10 more inches for elevations above 5,000 feet. A couple of inches are also expected for areas around 4,000 feet along the east slopes of the Cascades.

The northern Oregon and southern Washington mountains will see a few more inches before precipitation tapers off Friday night. Snow levels will continue to drop and could be under 2,000 feet by Sunday. But showers will be spotty, and no winter storm warnings have been issued as of Friday morning.

Use caution driving over the passes Friday. The forecast calls for more snow above 4,000 feet. Oregonian file photo.

Saturday starts with a dry period. Chances for showers start after about 10 a.m. The snow level will be 2,600 feet Saturday, so some foothill locations could see some light flakes falling mixed with rain showers.

An upper ridge of high pressure begins building Sunday, and Portland should see longer breaks between showers. The snow level drops to 1,900 feet. Expect a mostly cloudy and cool day with a high temperature of only 45.

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Portland metro Friday weather: Sneaker waves and thunder for coast, rain inland - oregonlive.com

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Cruise ships are currently under criticism as these large, floating cities require several tons of heavy oil each day. Heavy oil contains 3500 times more sulfur than is permitted on Europes roads and CO2 and NOx emissions as well as fine dust pollution produced by this fuel source are also devastating to human health and the environment. Passenger numbers continue to rise for many cruise ship companies, and a long-term solution is needed to curb the detrimental effects of this form of transportation.

Meyer Werft, based in Papenburg, Germany, was founded in 1795 and is one of the first cruise ship companies to test fuel cells as an alternative source of energy on board its ships. The company has made strides by making the AIDAnova the first cruise ship in the world to operate completely with low-emission liquefied natural gas (LNG). Now, their project is now entering its next phase with the aim to investigate and develop a decentralized energy network and a hybrid energy system with a new generation of fuel cells for use on passenger ships.

The fuel cell is powered by hydrogen, which is formed from methanol, which can be generated in the long term with regenerative energies. According to the team, these new fuel cells offer the opportunity to lower emissions even more than is currently possible with LNG, and operate with low emissions, low noise, and low vibration. The cells also display high durability, where initial tests have shown a service life of more than 35,000 operating hours.

In addition to the development of the fuel cells, the entire energy systems and its decentralized integration on board will also be investigated. The development of all energy grids and energy management as well as ecological and economic analyses are also part of the project, said Gerhard Untiedt, Head of Energy and Environment Group at Meyer Werft Research & Development. The current project phase will run until the end of 2021.

After intensive tests on land, the fuel cells are to be tested for the first time in real operation onboard AIDAnova beginning in 2021.

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Fuel Cells to Lower Harmful Emissions on the High Seas - Advanced Science News

CAR junkies Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May are set to return with a brand new series of their show The Grand Tour, but with a twist.

The fourth series of the show will begin with a one-off special, that will see a change in the way the show is presented and fans are eager to see what the petrol heads have in store for them.

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The trio of motor experts will appear in the first of a series of specials called The Grand Tour: Seamen.

They have traded the road for the high seas as they are set to make an astonishing 5oo-mile journey via the Mekong delta from Siem Reap in Cambodia to Vung Tau in Vietnam.

The presenters will be racing each other to the finish line in their respective vehicles fit for taking on the ocean.

Along with some woeful puns, viewers can expect to be entertained by Clarkson driving a revitalised Vietnam war-era PBR (Patrol Boat River).

Clarkson's subordinates Richard Hammond, 49, will be seen enjoying some time on a speedboat and James May takes control of a wooden 1939 river cruiser.

56-year-old May loathed his experienced on the ancient boat saying: "I thought it would be very tranquil and like a lovely boating holiday but it didnt work out like that at all. It was utter misery."

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The Grand Tour: Seamen drops on Amazon Prime was released today so fans can jump on the streaming platform and indulge in this feature-length special.

Amazon have not yet announced when the next episode will be available.

The third series of The Grand Tour began on January 18 right through to the series' last episode which aired on April 12.

The series consisted of 14 episodes, compared to 11 in series two and 13 in series three.

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Filming took place in Cambodia and Vietnam and conditions proved to be very challenging for the three presenters as they were caught in storms and they attempted to navigate the Mekong River system, which has been subject to droughts.

We did talk about the issue, mainly about getting stuck, because the big lake that we thought we would go charging across in our boats", James told the iPaper.

"We sort of limped across it constantly hitting the bottom. It should have been eight times the area it was.

49-year-old Richard Hammond suffered the most out of the three, catching bacterial skin infection cellulitis while filming.

He explained earlier this month: "It bloody hurts."

"I got it from climbing into the water and then I realised my legs were hurting. My feet were very red and it went through my legs, the other two took the p**s non-stop."

Jeremy told the Sunday Times that he believes he encountered a graphic demonstration of global warming that he found genuinely alarming.

Jeremy writes weekly columns for The Sunday Times and The Sun

The former Top Gear presenter has certainly kept himself busy since leaving the show in 2015.

Along with his co-presenters on the show Richard Hammond and James May began to present The Grand Tour in 2016.

Clarkson, 59, became the presenter of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire for its newest series after he replaced Chris Tarrant.

The car expert confirmed that the newest series of the Amazon Prime show would be moving away from the thrills and spills of racing high-speed cars and instead, endeavour to document the significant effects of climate change is having on Cambodia and Vietnam.

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Richard Hammond co-presented Top Gear from its inception to 2015 when he left along with Richard Hammond and James May.

He co-owns a production company W. Chump and Sons, who produce The Grand Tour.

The 49-year-old was involved in a car accident in 2006, suffering a serious brain injury.

According to The Mirror, at one point he did not even recognise his own wife, but thankfully he made a full recovery.

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James co-presented Top gear with Jeremy and Richard from 2003.

He once wrote a weekly column in the motoring section of The Telegraph from 2003 to 2011.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain this week ahead of the start of The Grand Tour's newest series, May spoke of how he narrowly escaped death in plane crash.

"I was being overconfident in strong crosswinds in a light aircraft and I thought I can sort this out and get it back but I was wrong, so it ended upside down."

After slightly injuring his knees, May managed to escape further harm.

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The Grand Tour is back on Amazon Prime Clarkson, Hammond and May return with one-off special Seamen - The Sun

Over a short period of time, High Seas have become quickly Netflixs best Spanish period dramas. Alta Mar, as it is known in Spain or otherwise High Seas by others, released last month in November and if you have finished it, I know you are probably wondering when season 3 is due out on Netflix.

Spanish content on Netflix has been taking the top positions as of late with titles like Elite and Money Heist have taken the whole wide world with a storm but High Seas is certainly one of the best among all. This show is set up on a cruise liner, the murder and mystery series sees the ship headed for Rio De Janeiro. Season two of this show was released on Netflix on November 22.

We saw at the conclusion of season 2 that the ship arrived in Rio De Janeiro with few of the secrets coming into fruition over the past few seasons. Well, it is yet not clear if the third season will happen on the boat or not.

If you have watched season 2 of this show, you must be knowing how much of a paranormal course was opted by the plot and thus it will be very interesting to see where the story will sail next.

Guys, guys! Time for some good news. Elespanols Bluper section has disclosed that this series has not only to be renewed for a third season but also for a fourth season is in line for development too!

The Spanish site was reportedly told by Bambu Productions behind the series that production on the next set of episodes in November with another 16 episodes. These episodes are split equally into 8 episodes per season.

As the filming for season 3 has just started in the previous month of November, it can be suggested that this series will drop a new installment maybe next year in November 2020. It is also agreed by La Prensa that the show will renew itself towards the latter end of 2020.

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Everything You Should Know About 'High Seas' Season 3 On Netflix. - The Digital Wise

With these major issues to grapple with, much remains to be done to determine whether this Treaty will truly represent a sea-change in our relationship to the global oceans. Since the last round of UN negotiations in August, political commitment for ocean protection has grown, with 11 nations coming together in a Global Ocean Alliance to advocate for the 3030 target and highlighting the Global Ocean Treaty as a crucial tool in delivering this vision for the next decade. This kind of leadership at a political level will be essential to inject momentum and ambition into what has largely remained technical negotiations.

No one is going to want a legacy of a weak treaty that simply creates paper parks, failing to halt and turn the tide on biodiversity loss. But governments will need to step up their political engagement, and give this treaty the diplomatic attention it requires, to achieve a robust framework that can help our oceans recover.

Amid a rising wave of public mobilisation on the climate and nature emergencies, its welcome to see the text refer to ocean stewardship on behalf of present and future generations. Intergenerational justice is a vital principle in prioritising long-term ocean health over short-term exploitation, and a sign of the impact that youth strikers have had on political discussions on the environment. The draft also allows for the precautionary principle to be included to guide the implementation of the Treaty, which is particularly important given that the high seas are the least explored and understood by scientists. The deep sea epitomises this: a tiny 0.0001% of its seafloor has been subject to biological investigation by scientists, yet the nascent deep-sea mining industry is keen to plunder the depths, risking irreversible biodiversity loss, potential extinctions, and disturbance to vital carbon storage processes in the deep sea.

There is growing public pressure and scrutiny on the political efforts to comprehensively tackle the nature crisis and climate emergency. The eyes of the world will be watching a series of international summits on nature and climate in 2020 to assess how governments respond and the Global Ocean Treaty negotiations, defining the future of more space than all the continents combined, will be a first major test.

Photographs by Paul Hilton, Dean Miller, Christian slund, Bernd Remmelt, Jonas Scheu, Nick Cobbing and Daniel Beltr, courtesy of Greenpeace UK.

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For the global oceans: How does the UN's latest Global Ocean Treaty draft text shape up? Greenpeace UK examines - Oceanographic Magazine

I could not keep my eyes off the graves, could not stop staring at them even as I walked away, turning repeatedly to look over my shoulder at them as I slogged my way across the gravel-strewn shore of Beechey Island until they disappeared from view.

It was profoundly saddening to contemplate their presence on a low-lying, windswept outpost of the Canadian Arctic, to imagine the fear and loneliness those buried here must have felt as they faced death in the harshest of conditions, thousands of miles and a world removed from their homes. And yet, they were the lucky ones, the first casualties of an expedition that vanished 173 years ago while searching for the fabled Northwest Passage between Atlantic and Pacific, whose remaining members met their doom after their ships became frozen in never-yielding sea ice, who perished one by one waiting for a summer that never came.

Not until 1906 was the Northwest Passage eventually transited by ship; the feat would not be repeated for nearly 40 years. Since then, as Arctic sea ice has rapidly dwindled, almost 300 transits have been made of the Passage, the bulk of them since 2007; 24 took place in 2019. On this day, I arrived courtesy of that most modern of intrusions into remote areas: a passenger ship called the Ocean Endeavour, chartered by a company called Adventure Canada. What was once the graveyard of Victorian explorers is now a destination for any sufficiently adventurous and well-financed tourist.

The Arctic is warming, and its sea ice is melting, prompting fevered dreams of ever-easier access, and a renewed jockeying among Arctic nations for status, profit and ownership.

Journeying through the Passage over the best part of three weeks in September yielded the expected fruits of an Arctic journey. A passing ice floe hosted a polar bear seemingly just minutes removed from killing a seal, the victims blood leaving a crimson trail on the ice. A diversion into a bay revealed first a polar bear feasting on a beached beluga carcass, then another bear on an opposite cliff and then two more, and finally an abundance of harp seals and seabirds thrashing through the water as they feasted on a banquet of Arctic cod. We stepped on the low-lying beach of the tiny Jenny Lind Island, randomly named after a Swedish opera singer, and squinted through binoculars at musk oxen in the distance. We passed through the narrow confines of the Bellot Strait, its eponymous co-discoverer a French explorer who was blown off the ice and to his death in the freezing water below, the cliffs on its southern side marking the northernmost point of mainland North America.

We encountered less than a handful of other ships: a Canadian coastguard icebreaker which, a few weeks earlier, had deployed to help the Ocean Endeavour through some stubborn summer ice and a pair of other passenger vessels. There was nothing, at any point in the journey, to suggest that this barely trafficked waterway might be at the heart of an international dispute, let alone the subject of multiple studies into its viability as a commercial shipping route.

But covetous eyes gaze upon the Northwest Passage, more so as Arctic ice retreats; establishing authority over the Passage proffers the prospect of establishing control over access, and there is no consensus as to where that authority lies.

As far as Canada is concerned, there is no controversy over the matter. Citing among other things legal precedent and historic use particularly a millennium or so of use by Inuit Ottawa considers the Northwest Passage to be its internal waters. The United States, brandishing a different legal case and echoing its longstanding position on such matters elsewhere, counters that it is an international strait, an area of high seas that connects two bodies of water which is open for peaceful use by a vessel from any state.

The dispute did not really flare up until the SS Manhattan, a US-flagged oil tanker, transited the Passage (with some difficulty) from east to west and back again in 1969, carrying a symbolic barrel of Prudhoe Bay oil on the return trip, accompanied by a US Coast Guard icebreaker, without seeking authorization. Ultimately, the two countries negotiated an Agreement on Arctic Cooperation, in which they effectively agreed to disagree on the matter. But as Arctic ice melts, so too does the veneer of friendly differences.

The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, argued in a fiery speech to the Arctic Council in May that Arctic sea lanes could become the 21st-century Suez and Panama Canals, and dismissed Canadas claims to the passage as illegitimate. Of late, China increasingly interested in the possibilities of Arctic shipping lanes and a relatively recently minted observer to the Arctic Council has weighed in, last year publishing an official Arctic policy that, among other positions, gently echoed the American stance on the matter of access to polar passageways.

That such disagreements are articulated at all is testament to the promise that the Northwest Passage is perceived to offer. That promise is perhaps best encapsulated in numbers: numbers such as 15,700 (the distance in kilometers from Yokohama to Rotterdam via the Passage) and 7,600 (the number of kilometers shorter that route would be relative to the Panama Canal), numbers that to some conjure a vision of the Northwest Passage providing a bustling corridor between Pacific and Atlantic and finally fulfilling a destiny centuries in the making.

Queen Elizabeth is said to have waved from her palace window as Martin Frobisher set out on his first expedition to find the Passage in 1576, such was the import attached to establishing a trade route to the Pacific. But the history of the search for the Northwest Passage is a catalogue of incremental successes interspersed with misery and misfortune.

In 1611, having mapped the river and the bay that are now named after him, Henry Hudsons attempts to probe farther west into the ice and the unknown ended with his crew mutinying and sending him overboard in a lifeboat, never to be seen again. Eight years later, Jens Munk and his band of 65 men made it as far as Hudson Bay, and spent the winter near the mouth of Churchill River; racked by cold, scurvy and probably trichinosis from eating insufficiently cooked polar bear meat, none bar Munk and two others survived to see the following spring.

It was in such inauspicious footsteps that Sir John Franklin, and the 128 officers and men of HMS Erebus and Terror, followed as they sailed out of the River Thames on 19 May 1845 on the most ambitious and extensively equipped expedition to the Passage yet. Whaling ships spied them in upper Baffin Bay, just east of the entrance to the Passage, on 26 July; and shortly thereafter the expedition vanished without trace.

Subsequent searches turned up clues: the graves on Beechey Island, where the ships spent the winter of 1845-86; a note indicating that by 22 April 1848, the ships had been trapped in ice for over 18 months, Franklin and 23 others had died, and the remaining crew was setting out south across land in search of safety; Inuit stories of starving white men who had died, one by one, in the snow.

In 2008, the then Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, launched a major effort to find the wrecks of the Erebus and Terror. The goal of the search was not, wrote author Paul Watson in his book Ice Ghosts: The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition, purely historical or archeological; rather it was part of his strategy to mold public opinion, with the Northwest Passage a powerful tool for stirring Canadian nationalism in the twenty-first century. Harpers intent, Watson asserted, was to shore up support for a muscular assertion of Arctic sovereignty, laying claim over a vast stretch of the Arctic seabed, straight up to the North Pole.

As the ice retreats, revealing a potentially resource-rich seabed below, Canada is not alone in its designs on the broader Arctic. In 2007, a Russian submarine planted a rust-proof titanium flag on the seabed at the North Pole, and in October of this year, Russias ministry of defense proclaimed that it had collected enough evidence to support its claims to much of the Arctic Ocean.

Meanwhile, Denmark has laid down its own metaphorical marker, based on a claim that a large area up to and beyond the North Pole is connected to the continental shelf of Greenland which, of course, the Trump administration earlier this year expressed a desire to buy. (That US interest recently prompted the Danish defense intelligence service to declare the island the countrys number one national security priority, ahead of terrorism and cybercrime).

Russia actually supports Canadas position on the Northwest Passage because it considers itself to have similar dominion over the Northeast Passage, which the country refers to as the Northern Sea Route and which stretches above Russias northern coast, from the Bering Strait to the Barents Sea. With a strong assist from Russian investment in ports and infrastructure, the Northern Sea Route is already proving commercially viable: it is estimated that 29m tons of shipments will pass through its waters this year, a 40% increase on 2018; Vladimir Putin has set a target of 80m tons of goods a year by 2024.

And while the 800 or so vessels that transit all or part of the NSR annually is hardly enough to threaten the approximately 15,000 that transit the Panama Canal each year, it is far ahead of the Northwest Passage.

The Northwest Passage remains relatively narrow and relatively shallow, and even in a warming world its twisting straits remain vulnerable to blockage from the sea ice that breaks up and sweeps down from the Arctic Ocean. The Northern Sea Route, in contrast, has no winding narrows with which to contend; there is essentially only the Russian coast to the south and the Arctic Ocean and its retreating sea ice to the north, and its waters are considerably deeper.

For all the hype about its potential, for all the lives that have been lost and the ships that have been wrecked attempting to map its contours, for all the butting of diplomatic heads, it may well be not the Northwest Passage, but the Northern Sea Route that ultimately provides the Arctic pathway which so many have for so long desired.

Harpers Northwest Passage initiative did have some success. In 2014, searchers found the wreck of HMS Erebus; three years later, they also found the almost perfectly preserved wreck of HMS Terror.

Two years after that, I and others from the Ocean Endeavour stood on a barge and watched as underwater archeologists explored the nooks and crannies of, and retrieved artifacts from, the Erebus wreck below us. We were the first visitors to the wreck site, and the personal nature of some freshly retrieved artifacts was jarring. I looked at the shoe that one archeologist tenderly tended to and wondered who might have worn it, and how and when he died. What would he have thought of the notion that, almost 200 years after he set sail, the Northwest Passage would still exercise the thoughts of so many? Would he even recognize it? Certainly, on this day, with ice nowhere to be seen, it would have seemed very different from the horrible place in which he had been trapped, and in which his ship had sunk.

I tried to imagine his hopes and aspirations, and the life he had lived on board, as I peered over the side of the barge and pictured the Erebus in its final resting place, in the dark, turbid waters beneath my feet.

Excerpt from:

The race to lay claim on the Bering Strait as Arctic ice retreats - The Guardian

Credit: Greenpeace Southeast Asia

By The Maritime Executive 2019-12-09 16:47:24

Human Rights Day is observed every year on December 10, the day the United Nations General Assembly adopted, in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: a milestone document proclaiming the inalienable rights which everyone is inherently entitled to as a human being regardless of race, color, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Available in more than 500 languages, it is the most translated document in the world.

Article 1 states: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Coinciding with the day, Greenpeace Southeast Asia has released a report in which 13 foreign distant water fishing vessels have been accused of forced labor and other human rights abuses against migrant fishers from Southeast Asia. Seabound: The Journey to Modern Slavery on the High Seas presents a snapshot of the living and working conditions of migrant fishers - mainly from Indonesia and the Philippines - who end up working onboard foreign owned distant water fleets.

Four main complaints wereidentified: deception involving 11 foreign fishing vessels; withholding of wages involving nineforeign fishing vessels; excessive overtime involving eightforeign fishing vessels; physical and sexual abuse involving sevenforeign fishing vessels.

The report also reveals a system of recruitment that traps many Indonesian migrant fishers in conditions of forced labor. One Indonesian migrant fisher onboard Taiwan owned fishing vessel Chin Chun 12 claimed to have not received any salary for the first six months; while another Indonesian migrant fisher onboard Taiwan fishing vessel Lien Yi Hsing 12 reportedly received only $50 in the first four months.

According to the Taiwan Fisheries Agency, as of June 2019, some 21,994 migrant fishers from Indonesia and 7,730 from the Philippines are reportedly working on Taiwanese distant water fishing vessels. These two countries combined represent the majority of migrant fishers on Taiwans distant water fleets a $2 billion industry and one of the top five distant water fishing fleets on the high seas.

The report is available here.

Taiwanese Power Imbalance

Human Rights at Sea has released a new case study on the working conditions for fishers in the Taiwanese fishing industry. It highlighting the power imbalance between migrant fishers, vessel owner, and the recruitment and manning agencies resulting in inappropriate arbitrary termination of the work contract by employer and the denial of workers rights for sick leave. The case study also highlights the need to align national polices and standards with international convention.

Taiwan is in the process of adopting the ILO C188 Work in Fishing Convention with the associated safety, labor and social welfare standards. Yet, evidence continues to be made available that recruitment and manning agency actions are often sub-standard.

The new report Labour Disputes Reveal a Worrying Power Imbalance and Vulnerability of Migrant Fishermen in Taiwans Fishing Industry highlights ongoing incidents which demonstrate gaps in fair management practices for the protection of fishers. It compares the study material with established ILO 188 standards, as well as standards within Taiwanese domestic law for the protection of workers.

The report is available here.

Geneva Declaration on Human Rights at Sea

Also on World Human Rights Day 2019, from within the shipping industry, a merchant crew of 11 seafarers in eight languages show their solidarity and support in a video message to Human Rights at Sea and its work developing the Geneva Declaration on Human Rights at Sea, the online platform which is formally launched today.

I am a sailor, and I stand up for human rights at sea, was the message.

Blood Phosphate

New Zealand's Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU), representing port workers at Lyttelton port, handed a letter of protest to the captain of a ship carrying Blood Phosphate mined in the Western Sahara. The Federal Crimsonarrived at the port just before midnight on December 8. Shewas chartered by agrochemical company Ravensdown and is carrying 50,000 tons of phosphate. She was also met by a peace flotilla of 15 kayaks, a yacht, and a ferry filled with more than 100 school children. A further 80 human rights activists sang Sahrawi songs of freedom from land, reports Stuff.

Morocco has occupied Western Sahara since 1975. Over 173,000 Sahrawis have been living in refugee camps in Algeria for the past 43 years. In April, Amnesty International reported continued human rights violations in Western Sahara, including arbitrary restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, particularly of people supporting self-determination for Western Sahara. The indigenous Sahrawi people accuse New Zealand fertilizer companies of helping to support their oppression.

The rest is here:

Human Rights Day: Free and Equal - The Maritime Executive