Category Archives: High Seas

Captain of coast guard ship that intercepted Pakistani boat with Heroin in 2015 testifies | PTI/Representative

The captain of an Indian Coast Guard ship that had intercepted a Pakistani boat, "Al-Yasir", found with 232 kg of heroin in the high seas in 2015, recently testified before a special court and identified the eight Pakistani nationals whom the coast guard had apprehended.

He also identified the 11 drums that contained 232 packets of the contraband. The drums, being bulky, had been brought to the court premises at a tempo. The witnesses could not be carried to the courtroom, and the witness identified them as the same he had sealed in 2015.

The 56-year-old witness, currently serving as Chief Staff Officer, Aviation Coast Guard, Western Sea Board, was examined by prosecutor Sumesh Panjwani. The officer told the court in his deposition that the coast guard ship Sangram was based in 2015 in Mumbai. The ship sailed on April 16, 2015, from the city to the International Maritime Boundary for patrolling and on April 18 started receiving messages on suspicious activity of infiltration or contraband arriving from neighbouring states. He said on the night of April 28 at 3 am, they detected a small boat on the radar and, finding it suspicious, they followed it in the dark. He said the direction of the boat was towards India and they decided to board it at the first light of the day, an instruction given by him.

The officer said that with the break of daylight, he instructed an assistant commander to board the ship along with the boarding party. On boarding and conducting a search, he said they found suspicious packets in 11 drums. There was no flag or registration number on the boat, he recalled. The boat was later found to be registered with the name "Al Yasir" in Pakistan. While the crew members, all Pakistani, claimed that they were fishermen, he said they got suspicious as there was no fish catch in it.

The officer also identified the eight Pakistani accused as the same people he had apprehended. He also identified sophisticated communication equipment found on the boat.

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Captain of Coast Guard ship that intercepted Pakistani boat with Heroin in 2015 testifies in court - Free Press Journal

US Coast Guard interdiction of fishing boat smuggling illegal drugs (USCG photos)

PublishedSep 2, 2022 12:57 PM by The Maritime Executive

Continuing its mission in law enforcement and support of the Combined Maritime Forces operating in the Gulf of Oman and the surrounding region, the U.S. Coast Guard made another significant seizure of illegal narcotics. The later interdiction on August 30, marks the third major seizure announced by the forces by the same U.S. Coast Guard fast response cutter, the USCGC Glen Harris, since the vessel arrived in the region eight months ago.

According to Combined Task Force (CTF) 150, one of four task forces under the command of the Combined Maritime Forces, the Glen Harris came on a fishing vessel while patrolling the Gulf of Oman. During a search of the vessel, the Coast Guard discovered that the fishing vessel was smuggling illegal drugs.

Bags of illegal drugs found aboard the fishing boat (US Coast Guard photo)

The seizure was given an estimated street value of more than $20 million. They reported finding 2,980 kilograms of hashish and 320 kilograms of amphetamine tablets during the operation.

Before this weeks interdiction, the Glen Harris is credited with two other significant seizures. Also, while on patrol in the Gulf of Oman, the Glen Harris came on another fishing vessel on May 31. After determining that it was a stateless vessel, the Coast Guard crew searched the vessel and seized 310 kilograms of heroin worth an estimated street value of $11 million. Two weeks earlier on May 15, they had conducted another search that led to the seizure of heroin, methamphetamine, and amphetamine pills worth $17 million, also found aboard a vessel in the Gulf of Oman.

The results of Glen Harriss success are a testament to the crews professionalism and determination, said Lt. Cmdr. Reginald Reynolds, commanding officer of Glen Harris. Im proud of our teams commitment to countering illicit activity on the high seas and promoting security and stability across the region.

This was the third reported seizure by the Glen Harris since she arrived in the region in January (US Coast Guard photo)

The fast response cutter arrived in the Middle East in January and operates from the U.S. Navy base in Bahrain where Combined Maritime Forces is headquartered with U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and U.S. 5th Fleet. She is assigned to support CTF 150, part of the largest multinational naval partnership in the world, which is being led by the Royal Saudi Navy. Combined Maritime Forces include 34 member nations that operate across the Middle East. CTF 150 as one of the four task forces conducts maritime security operations in the Gulf of Oman and North Arabian Sea to help ensure the free flow of commerce.

The combined forces have increased their presence in the region, including expanding their law enforcement efforts. In 2021, they reported seizures of illegal drugs valued at more than $193 million. So far this year, they have reported seizures valued at approximately $150 million as part of the ongoing operations in the region.

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USCG Cutter Glen Harris Makes Third Drug Seizure in Gulf of Oman - The Maritime Executive

Disney Cruise Line is known for its acclaimed family-friendly cruises, where casino slot machines arent blaring, drink packages arent marketed to the masses and late-night dance parties don't really rage that late. But one thing that does set a Disney Cruise apart from its competitors is its themed cruises that set sail throughout the year, allowing travelers to be immersed in the worlds of Pixar or Marvel, or make holidays like Halloween and Christmas the focus of their voyage.

So how do you book a Disney themed cruise? Are they really worth the cost? And how do you pick the right one for your family? Were answering all of your questions, so keep reading.

Booking a themed Disney Cruise vacation is as easy as booking a regular Disney Cruise. You can do it online on the Disney Cruise Line website, or talk to a travel agent about what you want from your trip. If you choose to book online, you can pick the type of themed cruise you want to sail and see dates and prices from there.

Alternatively, you can use Disneys Find A Cruise feature to filter your cruises by month, departure port and sailing destination, then see all of the cruises that match your preferences. Cruises with themes will have a banner across them saying what the theme is.

Minnie Mouse poses in her cruise gear in front of Disney Cruise Line's Disney Wish ship. Seeing characters in themed garb is part of the fun of a Disney Cruise.

There are currently four different themed Disney Cruises that travelers can choose from.

Every September and October, all five Disney ships get decked out with spooky decorations and Mickey and his pals put on their best costumes for Halloween on the High Seas. Cruises with this theme range from three- to eight-night sailings and include an abundance of frightfully fun activities, including a costume party, movie nights and trick-or-treating on the ship. The best part? Guests are encouraged to dress up in their favorite costumes yes, even the grown-ups.

Disney Cruise Line adds sparkle to each ship during Very Merrytime Cruises, with Disney characters dressed in festive attire, special stem-to-stern holiday events, traditional "turkey day" fanfare, Christmas feasts, "snow flurries" and New Year's Eve galas. (Matt Stroshane, photographer)

Seasonal delights can be found fleet-wide on the Very Merrytime Cruise in November and December. Each ship has a towering Christmas tree and other festive decorations in the atrium, which make for beautiful family photos. Around the ship, youll spot Disney characters in their finest holiday outfits, and may even see Santa Claus himself greeting guests. No Disney Cruise is complete without fireworks at sea and, during holiday sailings, there is a deck party with special holiday-themed fireworks that glitter and sparkle over the dark ocean.

Disney Cruise Line's Pixar Day at Sea is a themed cruise that sees the ship filled with characters from beloved Pixar movies like "Monsters Inc.," "Toy Story," "The Incredibles" and "Inside Out."

Starting in 2023, guests can sail away on a brand-new Pixar adventure. Disney Cruise Lines newest themed voyage, Pixar Day at Sea, will start its first sailings January through March. The 7-night sailings will take place aboard the Disney Fantasy from Port Canaveral. During the week-long cruise, there will be one dedicated day where the entire ship will be taken over by characters from beloved Pixar movies like "Toy Story," "Monsters, Inc." and "The Incredibles." The day will include character dance parties, a "Toy Story"-themed breakfast, a dinner where dishes are inspired by the commissary at Pixar Animation Studios and a nighttime fireworks display where you may need to assist the superpowered Parr family.

On the Disney Magic, kids get a special visit from Captain America. Marvel Day at Sea is one of several themed cruises Disney Cruise Line offers.

Heroes from around the multiverse can gather together on the Disney Dream for Marvel Day at Sea. Sailings with this superhero theme also run from January through March 2023. The 5-night cruises allow guests to interact with their favorite Marvel characters like Captain America, Black Panther and Captain Marvel while on the ship, along with Mickey Mouse and the gang dressed as their favorite Marvel characters. Marvel Day at Sea has a plethora of activities, toofrom movie screenings and trivia, to costume contests and shows. The Marvel-themed cruise also includes one of Disney Cruise Lines most exciting nighttime spectaculars where stunts, more than a dozen characters and, of course, fireworks, are all combined into one epic show at sea.

The cost of a themed Disney Cruise is generally the same as a normal Disney Cruise, so if you want to sail on a themed cruise you can rest assured that you wont be facing a huge upcharge just to see your favorite characters. The cost of themed cruises includes all taxes, fees and port expenses, plus dining, entertainment and your stateroom.

If your family really connects with the special theme of a cruise being offered, it would absolutely be worth the cost. Also, if you're a seasoned sailor with Disney Cruise Line, these themed sailings can let you experience something totally new as you travel with the company again.

Sadness and Joy from Pixar's "Inside Out" are shown aboard a Disney Cruise Line ship. The characters can be found on the themed Pixar Days at Sea voyage.

Picking the right themed Disney Cruise for your family is fairly simple, especially if you already know when you want to travel, because all of the themed cruises run during dedicated seasons. You can also pick your cruise based on which of the five Disney Cruise Line ships you want to board, with the Disney Wish being the newest in the growing fleet. If you dont care about timing or which ship you set sail on then just go with whatever theme you think sounds like the most fun. If your family loves Pixar movies or Marvel superheroes, obviously go with one of those, but if your crew is nuts about Halloween or Christmas, celebrate your favorite holiday on the high seas with those themes.

No matter what ship, sailing date or themed cruise you choose, a Disney Cruise Line vacation is a one-of-a-kind experience where youll most likely be ready to book your next voyage as soon as you stepoff the ship.

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How to pick the best themed Disney Cruise for your family - Chron

Its a Faustian bargain for the Anthropocene: The greatest source of rare-earth metals are to be found at the bottom of the seaand so are Earths most fragile ecosystems, an undisturbed and largely unexplored world of marvels.

The metals are required for the batteries that could power the clean energy revolution so desperately needed to avert the worst consequences of fossil fuel pollution-induced climate change, not to mention meet consumer demand for electronics. Yet mining them will have devastating consequences.

In an ideal world, mining would proceed slowly, with great caution, attentive to the creatures sacrificed for our appetites and to as-yet-unstudied consequences for Earths biogeochemical cycles. But the world is not ideal, and plans for deep-sea mining have proceeded at breakneck pace, with nearly 600,000 square miles of exploration permits granted by the International Seabed Authority and commercial mining expected to begin within the next several years.

We have a responsibility to life on the planet and to the diversity of the planet.

Humanitys demand for metalsand the profits that will accrue from mining themis on a collision course with deep-sea life. It appears that devastation is imminentunless, argues Lewis Pinault, we mine the moon instead. We have this gift of our geological twin, the moon, to provide us with mineral and energy wealth, says Pinault. The trick is figuring out how.

Trained as an MIT engineer and NASA geophysicist, with an international law degree to boot, Pinault is a partner at Airbus Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on planetary challenges. Though moon mining may seem impossibly difficult at first glance, Pinault sees it as an engineering challenge no more daunting than mining the ocean floor, and certainly far less destructive. Once weve done the hard work of knowing where to mine, he says, the next steps are solvable.

Nautilus talked to Pinault about his extraordinary vision.

In an op-ed published earlier this year you described the International Seabed Authority (ISA) as successful. Ive encountered many people who have a different opinion of the ISA. To them, its like a faulty brake on a runaway train.

The fact that it exists is, to me, kind of a success story in its own right. The Law of the Sea treaty that gave birth to the ISA has a very long and contentious history, and I love that it is what it is: a piece of commons law embodying the belief that there are areas of the planet beyond any notion of national boundary, a treaty created to protect shared and common resources that are both precious and subject to harm, a recognition that we need some way to figure out our relationship with them.

If we go back to President Johnsons administration, during the height of Great Society thinking, he was genuinely bothered by growing inequities in the world. He thought that the developing world needed a better deal out of capitalism, because the end game of capitalism didnt seem like it was going to be able to distribute any wealth to them.

With the discovery of abundant, widespread deep-sea manganese nodules 5,000 meters down, there was a sense of immense wealth that could be shared with everyone. And so a lot of the Law of the Sea development in the 1960s and into the 1970s was around a regime for profit-sharing from this kind of windfall. At its height, when the ISA was established, it was modeled on the oil and gas industrys licenses for explorationexcept the license fees would immediately start being distributed to different countries, and the profits would almost entirely be redistributed around the world. So the International Seabed Authority was constructed with generous and amazing intentions.

Much of the wealth distribution elements have been effectively torn out of it, but the United Nations and its authority is remarkably the go-to place for would-be explorers today. They still have the power to grant the licenses. They still have the power to do environmental impact studies and they are required to finance environmental researchers in those countries. Thats a pale trace of what the ISA was meant to bebut its still something that can be worked with.

Scientists and conservationists say that deep-sea mining needs to proceed slowly, with great caution, because we know so little about the ecosystems that would be impactedthat is, destroyedand how those changes would ripple out into Earths systems. Mining companies, along with their investors and the nations they partner with, want to go fast. And it seems like theyre winning.

The already-enormous demand for minerals will only grow; the ISA has granted exploration licenses to vast areas of the ocean floor, and companies are pushing to start commercial operations immediately. In fact The New York Times just published an investigation into how the ISA appears to have given unfairly preferential access to a company that intends to start industrial-scale seabed mining by 2024. What do you see happening in the next few years?

Its happening fast. There was supposed to have been a cycle of exploration licenses, which are paid for and generate monies that go into environmental impact studies, which are then actually professionally conducted and assessed by multidisciplinary teams and subject to public review. Its not supposed to be a path toward payment of corrupt dollars to a vulnerable nation-state saying, By the way, heres your money. And we trust you to fully use it on environmental impact assessmentbut with the substantial risk it more likely goes into somebodys pocket.

Theyre supposed to actually present the environmental study before the exploration license is turned into permission to harvest. So per the New York Times investigation, it seems something is broken, potentially tragically. Not just for the oceans, but because we may be missing an important analogue and opportunity to design a properly working system for mining the moon.

Even if the process is run properly, though, it just feels likebarring some unforeseen surge in concern for ecosystems that almost nobody will ever see, that were connected to through only by screens and consisting mostly of funny-looking invertebratesthat seabed mining is going to happen sooner or later.

And I say that as someone who loves funny-looking invertebrates, but people already accept the destruction every day of terrestrial ecosystems that are teeming with charismatic animals and more immediately connected to human well-being than the deep ocean seems to be.

Maybe this has the makings of an unlikely alliancealthough, at least in my head, not so unlikelybetween people who are ready to protect new species, unseen and uncatalogued and unknown, through the right application of precautionary principle, and people who like extractive industries. Its in the interest of people who like the idea of moon mininglike I do, mining in space that is ultimately to the benefit of Earth and its biosphereto put a hold on ocean mining. Because that will change the economics.

The moon is a particular puzzle because its fractal. You just get craters and more craters.

I think there is room for a movement, if you will, to say, Look, we have a responsibility to life on the planet and to the diversity of the planet. And we have this gift of our geological twin, the moon, to provide us with mineral and energy wealth. Its going to be hard, expensive work; you have to get there, you have to warm the lunar soil, you have to extract and beneficiate the minerals, you have to do a lot of remote or highly-automated operations. But the technology is heading in that direction.

Fast-advancing artificial intelligence and guidance systems give us confidence that a not-too-human-intensive mining operation can practically return lots of mineral materialand potentially an abundance of clean energyto Earth.

But if seabed mining is established on a meaningful scale in the near future, wouldnt that preclude the development of a more-expensive, more-technically-challenging moon mining industry?

I think there can still be a path forward. I would grab whatever seabed mining is happening as an opportunity for analysis. How well is it working? What are the difficulties? Where are you smelting? Where are you refining the minerals that you get? What does that cost? In projects I was involved in, in the 1980s, this actually stopped much of any idea of mining offshore Hawai`ian waters, because you had to put a smelter nearby and do the environmental impact study and no island in Hawai`i was ready to accept one.

I would say, Look, heres the data. You want to get this much cobalt. You want to get these rare earth metals. This is what it takes. This is what it costs. I would underscore the unaccounted-for impacts and say, Well, getting the same things from the moon is not 1,000 times more expensive. Its (say) 10 times. Then, to me, it becomes a debate.

How sustainable is seabed mining? Are you going to do this all over? If you start changing life patterns in ecosystems, those impacts are going to propagate in ways that we dont understand. So I think if were in the zone of it being 10 times more expensive to go to the moon, maybe we could leverage data about seabed mining.

Lets say the future rolls out like that. Seabed mining is too destructive, people want an alternative, and mining the moon is an alluring possibility. What are the challenges to making it a reality?

Ill start with the technical. To develop scalable mining on the moons surface, you want to start as close as possible to exactly the right place so that youre not mining someplace with poor concentrations of a particular mineral. This is the same thing we would do on Earth. We would do a mineral assay to estimate the potential quality and lifetime of a mine. But its not very practical to do what we would do here, which is to send field geologists and drilling equipment and drive around in well-instrumented trucks.

That means, to the extent possible, doing remote sensing, and by remote sensing I mean orbital data-gathering. But even in my own workI work with Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter images, from an onboard stereo camera thats been continually photographing the moon since 2009its hard to know what its looking at at any given time. There is no standard coordinate system. And the moon is a particular puzzle because its fractal. If you showed me a picture taken 50 meters from the surface and 5 meters from the surface and 5,000 meters from the surface, I would have trouble telling youunless I recognized a featurewhat is what. You just get craters and craters and more craters. Theres micrometeorite impacts that the human eye cant see, up to vast craters that we can see with our eyes from Earth. It all looks the same.

We have this gift of our geological twin, the moon, to provide us with mineral and energy wealth.

And we dont have a fleet of communication satellites orbiting the moon, much less GPS systems, so even if you have the data, you dont have a way to bring it to any other place. So firstly you need some kind of a reliable communications system. At Airbus Ventures weve invested in companies like ispace, which has won a contract with NASA to help deploy and run two communications satellites in conjunction with a lander on the moons far side.

Then we need a much more detailed mineral map of the moon. That might come through refinements of work that began 20 years ago, but that might be better achieved using quantum sensing. We invested in Q-CTRL in Australia partly because their quantum sensors are good for Earth, measuring ocean wave heights and movements and underground aquifer surfacesbut you can also use them to learn a lot about which minerals might be where, at high resolution. So orbiting quantum sensors is a great start, and then theres nothing like taking samples. The Chinese space program recently achieved just that, from a mineralogically promising high-latitude area on the lunar near side, the first such mission in nearly 50 years. They got a rover, disturbed the surface, dug a hole, then stuck it in a canister and blew it back to Earth and are analyzing it. Thats the kind of thing I expect we can be doing a lot more of, and with the right equipment, in situ.

Compare this with the oceans, where we have a pretty good idea of where the seabed minerals are, but the next stepthe extraction, the smelting, the processingis where it gets hard. What excites me about the moon is that once weve done the hard work of knowing where to mine, the next steps are more readily soluable. We have startup companies were looking at now that have designed mineral processing machines specifically for lunar environments.

We have also invested in other companies that produce solar panels so efficient and lightweight that blanketing part of the moons surface for solar energy collection begins to look practicable. We see other companies tackling autonomous production of solar panels directly from lunar materials. These panels are needed to supply energy and heat; even during lunar daytime, its very cold just under the moons surface, and you need heat for efficient extraction. And its then you can start using mining skills from Earth.

The next step is running the prototypes of these machines. Then we need to start thinking about how to return these minerals to Earth.

That was my next question.

Theres been a lot of thinking over the years about mass drivers, railguns, things that would fling loads from the moon to Earth or to Earth orbit. Already in our portfolio we have what we think is one great idea of using solar power to slowly spin up a launcher or a mass at the end of a tether. On Earth, this company, SpinLaunch, uses an artificial vacuum in a gigantic chamber to achieve the speeds they need to reach suborbital velocities. On the moon, theres no interfering atmosphere. The gravity is much lower and the vacuum is free. Its not hard to conceive of taking one of their designs and deploying it as a mass driver on the moon quite cheaply.

All these pieces, I think, can be put together and proven as a system to identify the right area for extraction; begin the extraction process; land the equipment that can do the purification; automate it to the extent possible; and to provide the power needed to start returning minerals to Earth. The timelines, compared to ocean mining, dont look that differentparticularly if the ISA has any teeth left to enforce its own environmental regimes.

As soon as we know where minerals on the moon are, I think we can proceed very quickly.

The environmental impacts of seabed mining do have to be assessed. Then they have to be digested and incorporated into any mining protocol. It should take time to do that properly. And I would like to think that the worlds citizens would want to weigh in on that process and think hard about whether this is something we really want to scale. In the meantime, as soon as we know where minerals on the moon are, I think we can proceed very quickly with the technological requirements to pull things into place. There may be other scientific, even profound benefits in processing lunar materialsas part of my own research I focus on whether dust-sized traces of other technological civilizations might be mixed in these very materials, and offer direct constraints on how uniquely precious our lives and futures may bebut perhaps we can pick up that topic in your newsletter.

You are passionate about the moral principle of sharing the wealth produced by ocean mining. One thing to come out of the New York Times investigation was a sense that people in countries partnering with mining companies would receive only the crumbs that fell from their leaders tables, so to speakand if youre a speculative fiction fan, then youre probably familiar with the trope of extraterrestrial mining magnates presiding over dystopian space colonies. How do you ensure that the profits of moon mining are actually shared?

This is worth a lot of attention and thought. There may be different and much more fair ownership systems, if ownership is the direction we want to go in. I believe that the International Seabed Authority, as it was originally conceived, was a great start. It embraced the idea that not everybody was an ocean state with the infrastructure to use its own offshore areas, much less exploit the high seas. Space is very similar. Not everyone has access. There is a rush to be a stakeholder.

I think we desperately need to look at the adoption of an International Space Authority. This means that you probably need a United Nations-affiliated source that is able to back such an authority with teeth and then staff it without so many avenues to corruption. And then they can open the gate to letting venture capitalists and corporations do what they dobut under a regime of enforcement and regulation that has guardrails in place so thatsocial justice is actually delivered alongside planet-saving benefits and any ethically enabling corporate gains.

And to me, that social justice is very much for the people alive today, and all the beings we share this planet with, but also for the possible trillions of people post-humanity and beings were responsible for in the future. That also raises questions about other life on this planet; were not in a position to ask, and theyre not in a position to answer, what kind of future they want. So I think what we probably need is an integrated approach of international, environmental, and living-being ethicists, together with people who work for a living on social justice and wealth distribution issues, and the companies and technologies and countries who have all their own self-interests. And if this is something that is forcing us to think hard about those kinds of issues, that can only be a good thing.

Lead image: Pavel Chagochkin / Shutterstock and Kstudija / Shutterstock

Posted on August 31, 2022

Brandon Keim (Twitter / Instagram) is a science and nature journalist. He is presently working on Meet the Neighbors, a book about what understanding animals as fellow persons means for human relations to wild animals and to nature.

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To Save the Deep Ocean, We Should Mine the Moon - Nautilus Magazine

Negotiators have been trying for 15 years to agree on a legally binding text to address the multitude of issues facing international waters.

Two weeks of negotiations to finally agree a treaty to protect biodiversity in the high seas, have ended in failure.

The latest talks among United Nations member states came to an end on Friday with negotiators unable to thrash out a legally binding text to address the multitude of issues facing international waters a zone that encompasses almost half the planet.

Formal and informal discussions have been continuing for some 15 years.

Although we did make excellent progress, we still do need a little bit more time to progress towards the finish line, AFP reported conference chair and UN oceans ambassador Rena Lee as saying.

It will now be up to the UN General Assembly to resume a fifth session of formal talks at a date still to be determined.

Many had hoped the latest session, which began on August 15 at the United Nations headquarters in New York, would finally produce an agreed text on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction, or BBNJ for short.

While its disappointing that the treaty wasnt finalised during the past two weeks of negotiations, we remain encouraged by the progress that was made, said Liz Karan with the NGO Pew Charitable Trusts, calling for a new session by the end of the year.

There had been hope that an agreement was near after world leaders at the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon in July promised to do everything in their power to save the worlds seas, although the closing statement at that event included few clear commitments.

The sharing of possible profits from the development of resources in international waters, remained a sensitive issue in the discussion in New York.

Similar issues of equity arise in other international negotiations, such as on climate change, in which developing nations that feel outsized harm from global warming have tried in vain to get wealthier countries to help pay to offset those effects.

The high seas begin at the border of a nations exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which by international law reaches no more than 200 nautical miles (370 kilometres) from its coast, and beyond any states jurisdiction.

Sixty percent of the worlds oceans fall under this category.

Healthy marine ecosystems are crucial to the future of humanity, particularly to limit global warming, yet only one percent of international waters are protected.

One of the key pillars of an eventual BBNJ treaty is to allow the creation of marine protected areas, which many nations hope will cover 30 percent of the Earths ocean by 2030.

Without establishing protections in this vast area, we will not be able to meet our ambitious and necessary 30 by 30 goal, US State Department official Maxine Burkett said at an earlier press conference.

But delegations still disagree on the process for creating these protected areas, as well as on how to implement a requirement for environmental impact assessments before new activity on the high seas.

What a missed opportunity , tweeted Klaudija Cremers, a researcher at the IDDRI think-tank, which, like multiple other NGOs, has a seat with observer status at the negotiations.

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Missed opportunity: No agreement in latest UN high seas talks - Al Jazeera English

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All governments manage their territories with laws. This is easy enough to understand with respect to solid ground: when you look at a map, borders usually mark where the authority of one country ends and anothers begins. But what about maritime countries, which either border or are completely surrounded by the sea? Do their laws stop at the shoreline? Would that mean that the seas beyond are lawless?

The high seas are not lawless. Well, not completely. According to international law, a maritime country extends outward some distance from its shoreline. During the 20th century several attempts to develop an international law of the sea have been made under the aegis of the United Nations. The results of the third and most-recent United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (which took place in Montego Bay, Jamaica, in 1982) were largely successful, with more than 160 countries having signed the agreement by 2017. Several countries, including the United States and others with significant ocean-facing and sea-facing coastlines (such as Colombia, Venezuela, and Turkey) had yet to sign the agreement, however.

Generally speaking, the law of the sea stipulates that maritime countries essentially control their territorial waters from the shore out to a distance of 12 miles (19.3 km), the 12-mile limit.Within this zone, all laws of that country apply: the country can build, extract natural resources, and either encourage or forbid sea passage through it (or flights over it) just as if it were a parcel of land. Maritime countries are also entitled to an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) made up of the water column and the seabed out to a distance of 200 miles (about 322 km). (The sizes of some EEZs may be limited by the presence of the EEZs of other countries, in which case the overlapping area is often divided equally between the various parties.) The maritime country that owns the EEZ also owns the sea life and mineral resources found within it, but it cannot prevent ships, aircraft, and other vessels from foreign countries from passing through it and over it.

Nevertheless, there is still a lot of ocean beyond the worlds 12-mile limits and EEZs.How are legal matters handled in the vast stretches of ocean beyond?In these regions, vessels and aircraft from any country are free to pass through, fly over, fish, and extract mineral resources. With respect to crimes committed in these areas, the laws of the country owning the vessel or structure upon which the crime has been committed hold sway.This may seem pretty straightforward, but vessels in the sea are often on the move, which creates jurisdictional headaches for investigators and government officials. For example, which countrys laws apply when a person from Country X commits a murder aboard a cruise ship owned by Country Y in international waters, but between the time of the crime and its discovery the ship enters the territorial waters of Country Z?

With respect to international crimessuch as piracy, human trafficking, and crimes against humanityany country or international organization can theoretically claim authority over the matter using the concept of universal jurisdiction. This concept could be used to justify the right of one party or another to thwart the criminal activity as it happens, bring charges against the assailants, and try the assailants in their own national (or international) courts. Since the laws of individual countries and international courts are not recognized by all countries, however, there is often no fully accepted referee. Government officials in one country might choose not to recognize the legal authority of another.

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Are There Laws on the High Seas? | Britannica

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Representatives from countries around the world and dozens of civil society organizations are huddled and working around the clock at UN headquarters in New York this week for negotiations on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ). The BBNJ Agreement, also referred to as the High Seas Treaty, is one of several important environmental negotiations concluding in the next four months. In addition to this treaty, we are also hoping to conclude one on conserving and restoring biodiversity,we are launching a two-year negotiation of an agreement to tackle the plastic pollutioncrisis, and continue the hard work of implementing the Paris Agreement now that we finished all the rules for implementation at the meeting last November. The decisions we take in these agreements and negotiations will have a make or break impact on the health of the place we all call home.

The high seas span two-thirds of the ocean and cover half the planet.

The first one of these covers what is known as the high seas that currently has only limited governance and is often unmonitored. Right now, there are rules and regulations only covering certain commercial activities like fishing, dumping, seabed mining, and shipping but there is not a single international agreement governing conservation or protection of high seas biodiversity hot spots, and there are only limited regulations for endangered marine biodiversity itself things like migratory birds, sea turtles, and marine mammals have limited protections. Here are 5 reasons why the BBNJ Agreement matters.

It is often said that the ocean is too big to fail. That is simply not true the ocean is more fragile than most people understand. It is also more essential. It provides the oxygen we breathe and food for tens of millions of people. And it has been a source of inspiration for humanity. In fact, as Dr. Jane Lubchenco says, the ocean is too big to ignore. And this week in New York City, the United States will help to lead the way in making sure it is ignored no more.

About the Author: Monica P. Medina was confirmed as Assistant Secretary for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs on September 28, 2021.

Excerpt from:

Why Protecting the High Seas Matters - United States Department of State - Department of State

168 world governments had been negotiating the details of a new UN High Seas Treaty to safeguard the high seas and marine life, during a two-week session in New York, however, they could not come to an agreement in the end.

The negotiations focused on four key areas:

Marine protected areas

Environmental impact assessments

Providing finance and capacity building to developing countries

Sharing of marine genetic resources

Fishing catch limitations, shipping lane routes, and exploratory activities like deep-sea mining, which could be hazardous to marine life, would all be affected by the new treaty.

The high seas, which are international waterways where all nations have the right to fish, ship, and conduct research, were created by this agreement.

The growing hazards of climate change, overfishing, and shipping traffic pose a threat to marine species that exist outside of the 1.2 percent of protected areas.

Prior to the summit, more than 70 nations, including the UK, had previously decided to safeguard 30 percent of the worlds seas.

According to research published earlier this year and funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 10 to 15 percent of marine species are already on the verge of extinction.

Between now and January, many international meetings on numerous topics are planned, including the UN General Assembly meeting and the COP27 annual climate conference.

Even if the treaty is signed, further work to protect the high seas will still need to be done.

source:BBC

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UN High Seas Treaty postponed until further negotiations - TVP World

The debut of Seabourns sixth ship, the Seabourn Venture, signals a new era in adventure travel for the ultra-luxury cruise line. The worlds newest expedition ship embarked on her first official voyage on July 27. The godmother of the Seabourn Venture, Alison Levine, is an expert climber and bestselling author who has led climbs on the highest peaks of each continent.

A PC6 Polar Class ship, the Seabourn Venture is capable of sailing in all parts of the world. She features modern technology and hardware that extends her global deployment and capabilities.

The Seabourn Venture has 132 oceanfront suites, each with a private veranda, and accommodates 264 guests. There are eight different dining venues, including sushi and pho restaurants. These are complimentary and let guests dine when and with whom they wish. Complimentary premium spirits and fine wines are available. Tipping is neither required nor expected.

The Restaurant on the Seabourn Venture will offer fine dining.

The Seabourn Venture is staffed with a 26-person expedition team that brings destinations to life. Team members include submarine pilots, lead kayakers, bear guides, dive masters, marine biologists, geologists, surface supervisor officers, climatologists, and ornithologists. Their valuable insights are offered via formal presentations and in casual conversations over meals and during leisure experiences.

The Seabourn Venture has been created to provide super-exclusive, off-the-ship adventures for guests. Inclusive expedition experiences include Zodiacs, scuba diving, and snorkeling, plus other complimentary excursions. Optional expedition excursions are available for an additional charge.

The Seabourn Venture is equipped with a great selection of water toys. Besides 24 Zodiacs and kayaks, there are two custom-built submarines, each with a capacity for six persons.

Hosted by members of the expedition team, the Seabourn Venture has an open bridge policy providing first hand access to the ships command center and officers navigating the journey. (This is at the discretion of the captain.)

The Seabourn Ventures Constellation Lounge

Public spaces on the Seabourn Venture have narratives of their own, combining the spirit of adventure and thrill of discovery with Seabourn-style luxury and comfort. The Expedition Lounge, located on Deck 4, is adjacent to the Discovery Center, where guests gather to enjoy the natural history and cultural programming. The Bow Lounge, with the closest access to the water, is a prime setting for watching marine life. The Constellation Lounge, the highest indoor viewing point, is located on the top deck, with stunning 270-degree views and an intimate interior dressed up in dark blue and red, inspired by the constellations in the evening night skies. The Club is a space for guests to enjoy afternoon tea and pre-dinner music.

When the Seabourn Venture sailed out on July 27, she was doing a 12-day Northern Isles expedition cruise, departing from Tromso, Norway, and then sailing on to the Arctic and Svalbard Archipelago. One of the worlds northernmost inhabited areas, the archipelago is home to polar bears, puffins, and other wildlife.

In October, the Seabourn Venture will do 10-to-14-night sailings to the Caribbean and then head south to Central America, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile, and Peru. From November 2022 to February 2023, the Seabourn Venture will sail on 11-to-22-day voyages to Chile, Antarctica, South Georgia, and the Falkland Islands. In March and April 2023, she will offer 7-to-12-night sailings in Brazil and the Amazon.

The Seabourn Pursuit will call in Iceland in 2023.

The Seabourn Ventures sister ship, the Seabourn Pursuit, is currently under construction and set to launch in 2023. Like the Seabourn Venture, shell carry two custom-built submarines as well as 24 zodiacs and kayaks. And she will have a 26-person expert expedition team.

The Seabourn Pursuit will explore the waters and beautiful landscapes of Iceland, Greenland, and Norway through the spring months and into early summer 2023. In August 2023, one highlight will be the Northwest Passage journey from Kangerlussuaq, Greenland to Nome, Alaska.

Seabourn is renowned for luxury amenities, onboard service, and a high level of cuisine. The Thomas Keller steakhouses on their ships, including the Seabourn Ovation, are one example. But combining luxury with super-exclusive adventures on its purpose-built expedition ship, the Seabourn Venture, introduces a new dimension, one to definitely consider when planning your groups next cruise.

By Cindy Bertram

Cindy Bertram has 15+ years of cruise industry expertise in marketing, content creation, sales, and training as well as social media. Her MBA from Loyola University Chicago complements her high creative edge and liberal arts BA. She can be reached atcindy@ptmgroups.com.

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A New Era of Adventure on the High Seas - Leisure Group Travel

The Salt Roads: How Fish Made a Culture

John Goodlad

Birlinn, pp. 254, 17.99

The Shetland Islands and the Faroes may seem to be somewhere out there in distant waters, marginal and in the greater scheme of things not very important in the history of the world. But from a maritime perspective it is precisely the fact that they are suspended in mid-ocean, surrounded by water that teems with fish (if one knows where to look) that has given them a role in human history out of all proportion to their size. In his fascinating account of the part played by these islands in the harvesting of cod and herring from the North Atlantic, John Goodlad raises vital questions about the worlds food supplies. He also brings to light the heroic endeavours of the poor and humble fisherfolk who mastered fierce Atlantic storms and experienced shipwreck in order to bring food to our everyday table.

Beguiled by the sight of modern massive trawlers that use sonar to identify shoals, and are often in consequence guilty of massive overfishing, we forget the sheer physical struggle that was demanded of Shetlanders when they used to set out in their small sailing boats, not unlike those of their Viking ancestors. They could read the seas without any sophisticated instruments and they identified where the fish might lie through canny instinct. They hauled in their catch by hand, while being tossed around by the waves.

We also forget how important fish has been, and remains, in feeding the world. Goodlad reports that fish remains the prime source of protein across the globe, with 180 million tons being consumed annually, significantly more than chicken or red meat: Without fish, the worlds population could not be fed. This means that those who regard eating fish as a crime against nature have gravely over-simplified the problem of making fish sustainable. The author believes this must be done through good management. Fish stocks can recover from overfishing, and the intelligent farming of fish could become a vital resource. Perhaps, though, he needs to pay more attention to the pollution of the oceans, as a result of which fish are ingesting plastic micro-pellets and failing to achieve the size they used to reach. The 80 kilogram halibut of past times have all but disappeared.

Salt also figures largely in the history Goodlad tells, for fish was a product that needed to be carefully preserved after catch. The search for Atlantic cod was already well underway by the end of the 15th century, when Hanseatic merchants visited Shetland to buy salt fish and John Cabot witnessed the shoals off Newfoundland. Soon after, or maybe secretly before Cabot, Basque fishermen arrived in the same waters.

Cod has the advantage of storing its oil in its liver, while its flesh is pure protein, and that makes it suitable for drying in the cold winds of the North Atlantic and for salting. To this day, bacalhau is the national dish of Portugal, and reconstituted stoccafisso, or stockfish cod dried until it has the texture of cardboard still features on menus in Venice.

Occasionally ranging as far as Greenland in their search for cod, Shetlanders were able to tap into this market after the Napoleonic wars. Peace with Spain meant they could sell their produce there, though in the early days the quality was not as high as that fished by the Basques. Shifting their search closer to home, they discovered great shoals off the Faroes, and their salt cod improved to the point where they were even able to convince their Basque rivals to buy it.

These changes took place against a grim background of famines, bankruptcies and shipwrecks. Goodlads wonderful book offers a powerful evocation of a hard life in the unforgiving terrain of the Shetlands and the Faroes. For Shetlanders, fish were for centuries the main means to a livelihood, and the conditions under which local lairds employed their fishermen made the struggle even harder their fishermen is the right phrase, since their legal condition was, Goodlad observes, little better than that of serfs. Attempts to challenge the Dutch command of the herring fisheries faltered, but eventually herring rather than cod became the favoured catch.

This was not an easy switch to make. Herring, a very oily fish, deteriorates quickly, and as far back as the late Middle Ages the Dutch had perfected a way of salting and curing herrings that earned its supposed inventor, Willem Beuckelszoon, the dubious honour of being counted as the 157th most famous Dutch citizen in a poll conducted a few years ago.

Herring was the staple fish in northern Europe, just as cod was in southern Europe, and Shetlanders intruded themselves into the Scottish herring fisheries which, on the eve of the first world war, were sending about 2 million barrels to the Baltic every year. Much of it was then transported by sleigh deep into the eastern European interior, since it was enormously in demand in the Jewish shtetls of Belarus and Ukraine, as it also was among students of Scottish universities, who would arrive each term loaded with herrings and oatmeal.

There is much in this book about life and culture in the Shetlands and Faroes. The sense of a common Viking heritage can be gauged from the presence of plenty of Norse vocabulary in Shetlandic speech (which is based on Scots, the old Scandinavian language known as Norn having died out). Goodlad suggests that, if the economically dynamic Faroes can go their own way as a semi-independent nation with aspirations to full sovereignty, the same could happen in Scotland. More to the point, surely, is the future of Shetland and Orkney in an independent Scotland. With such a strong sense of their distinctive identity and history they might well wish to remain part of Britain, or might acquire a status similar to the Isle of Man, another formerly Norse territory. Or be handed back to Norway after 550 years? Perhaps not.

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Courage on the high seas - The Spectator