Daily Archives: February 27, 2020

Sea piracy, the stuff of kids stories and swashbuckling Hollywood classics, is still with us but modern pirates have none of the charm oftheir storybook predecessors. In 2009, for example, the MV Maersk Alabama was taken over by pirates (as portrayed in the movie 'Captain Phillips'), leading to the kidnapping of the captain and a bloody shootout involving U.S. Navy Seals.

At any given time, there are about 100,000 vessels at sea. Oil tankers, cargo vessels, fishing boats, cruise ships, and patrol boats crowd the seas, and many of them are loaded with riches that prove to be too tempting for seagoing criminals to pass up.

Although most ships won't be hit by them, pirates especially in areas where enforcement is weak play the seas as well, looking for easy targets, specifically among cargo ships and oil tankers. So far in 2020, there have been fewer than 20 incidents of piracy on the high seas, most of them concentrated in specific areas. No ships have been outright seajacked; in most cases, pirates who boarded ships were overcome by the crew.

However, shippers don't take chances they invest a great deal of effort and money inprotecting vessels. The shipping industry annually lays out billions in insurance and in rerouting ships away from danger zones, and then there are the expenses for the deployment of naval forces to protect ships, the hit to local ports for lost business, etc. The total annual cost of piracy prevention is as much as $12 billion.

One reason pirates are able to get away with attacks is their stealthiness. They sneak up on cargo ships and quickly board them before their victims have an opportunity to defend themselves, put some distance between themselves and potential attackers, or inform authorities that they are likely to become victims of a forced boarding.

A quick perusal of attacks shows that stealth is indeed the modern pirate's modus operandi. One attack off the coast of Nigeria saw robbers in a small boat approach an anchored tanker during STS cargo operations. Two of the robbers attempted to board the tanker via the anchor chain. Duty crew on routine rounds noticed the robbers and raised the alarm.

In another attack, Two unauthorized persons from two skiffs came alongside and boarded an anchored tanker. Duty watchman on security rounds noticed the persons on the forecastle deck. Alarm raised and crew mustered. Seeing the alerted crew, the persons jumped overboard and escaped. In a third attack, Five armed pirates in a small craft approached a tanker underway. Alarm raised and evasive maneuvers commenced. Armed security team onboard the tanker fired warning shots resulting in the pirates returning fire and then aborting the approach and moving away.

A cargo ship passes through the Panama Canal's Pedro Miguel Locks on the outskirts of Panama City in February 2018 Photo: AFP / Rodrigo ARANGUA

In each of these and many other reported attacks, pirates were able to approach their targets using small boats that evaded detection, using odd maneuvers and roundabout routes, often under cover of darkness. While crews successfully fended off the attack in each case, the danger of someone getting hit in the crossfire or the pirates actually succeeding always exists. Those stealth tactics, for example, were what enabled Somali pirates to hijack the Aris 13 oil tanker in 2017.

So how can ships avoid pirates? One way is to stick with the crowd. It's unlikely that a pirate skiff will be able to sneak up on a ship in crowded waterways, but there are going to be times and places where a ship may be alone.

In those situations, ships would likely rely on radar, which would give them insight into vessels and objects in the area. Unfortunately, most radar systems are designed to detect large objects that a ship is at risk of colliding with; they often miss small boats and skiffs, the vessels that have become the preferred method of pirate invasion.

A third possibility is to keep in constant touch with naval patrols and other security groups while in dangerous waters. But, often a patrol boat will be tens of kilometers away from a ship, too far to navigate to the scene of the crime when called upon for help.

Fortunately, new developments in vision and sensor technology are available to help deal with the piracy problem. Ships equipped with sensors that take in data about everything surrounding the ship, large and small, can alert crew and patrols that a pirate invasion is on the way.

Using machine learning, for example, a sensor-based system that detects a skiff would analyze its movements, and based on data from previous encounters, it would alert the crew that the kinds of maneuvers the skiff is making indicatethat it is likely a pirate vessel. Crew members could then take their positions to defend the vessel, or even take pre-emptive action against the offenders.

Using advanced vision technology, systems could more easily identify offending vessels. By recording speed and trajectory and matching the data with a map of the surrounding area, for example, a system could provide authorities with information on the likely whereabouts of offenders, making it easier to catch them before they strike again.

Long John Silver is long gone, but his criminal heirs are still plying the high seas quite successfully, unfortunately. Pirates who steal cargo or, increasingly, kidnap crews and hold them for ransom earn tens of millions of dollars a year. New developments in technology will hopefully put this scourge to a stop once and for all.

(Yarden Gross is CEO and Co-founder of Orca AI)

Read more:

High Seas Piracy Is Alive And Well. Can We Kill It? - International Business Times

Maneater is John Wick if Keanu Reeves had gotten whacked and his dog had to embark on a bloody campaign of retribution instead. You play as an ever-evolving bull shark pup with an axe to grind against a local celebrity big game hunter who goes by Scaly Pete. Pete, that surly cajun SOB, caught and gutted your mother while you were being born, killing her, disfiguring you, and thereby earning him a righteous chomping. Of course, Pete has his own qualms about the situation, primarily the fact that you tore off his hand on your way out of the womb and then promptly ate it as you escaped. Whatever, that dude's a jerk.

From the moment the prologue ends, your eventual showdown with Scaly Pete is set. But how well-prepared you arrive at your inevitable loggerhead is an entirely different matter. Maneater mixes the open world environments of GTA with light action RPG elements from Far Cry.

Players start as a newly-born bull shark who must survive the brackish waters of seven explorable Southeastern American delta regions. The initial stages of the game are rather sedate, with a focus on generally snacking on anything smaller than yourself. By predating on smaller animals like catfish and turtles, the player can quickly build up their shark's strength, collect valuable resources for levelling, and gain necessary XP.

Once you bulk up, level up, and evolve sufficiently, you'll be able to expand your hunting range further, eventually overlapping your territory with competing predators like muskogee, alligators -- even orcas. And then eating them.

Once your shark reaches adolescence you'll be able to accept various missions -- fighting off other apex predators, for example, or hunting a specific number of prey species to keep their population in check (yes that especially includes humans) -- in order to accelerate your XP gains.

If the prescribed missions aren't your thing, you can also just tool around looking for trouble. The game offers a number of optional tasks, goals, discoverable checkpoints, hidden resource boxes, and other secrets for players to find. And as soon as your shark hits its adolescent stage, the entire game map opens for exploration.

Your shark will also gain new powers as it eats its way through the seas, including developing a Thresher Shark-like tail whip; a sturdy casing of protective bone armor, or increasingly sensitive sonar skills. Hell yes your shark does sonar.

During my playthrough at a hands-on event in San Francisco last week, my shark's feeding frenzies eventually attracted unwanted attention from the local human population who invariably called out multiple waves of shark hunters (and eventually Coast Guard units) in an effort to end my reign of terror. It was not unlike the police response to earning infamy stars in GTA.

The difference being that, unlike GTA, Maneter has a set number of enemy waves to survive and if players can actually chomp, ram, tail-whip and thrash their way through those opponents, they'll afford themselves the opportunity to face off against one of ten local shark hunter bosses. Ingest all of those fishermen and you'll get a shot at Scaly Pete himself.

The game itself is fairly short -- around 8 - 10 hours for the primary quest alone and about 16 hours if you complete all of the optional missions, according to the developers. Maneater will be available for PS4, XBox One, and at the Epic Game Store for $39.99 on May 22nd, with a version for the Switch arriving at an undisclosed later date.

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Hunt the high seas as a hyper-evolved super shark in 'Maneater' - Engadget

Two Saco-based fishermen are looking to score a wicked big catch, before a nationwide audience.

Zack Plante and Charlie Boivin will be featured on the ninth season of National Geographics reality TV show Wicked Tuna, beginning Sunday. Plante and Boivin were filmed last summer competing against seven other boats fishing out of Gloucester, Massachusetts, where the show is based. Theyll be seen fishing out of their 35-foot boat, Wasabi.

The point of the show is to see which crew makes the most money from their seasons catch, while highlighting the competitiveness and drama on the high seas along the way. Boivin and Plante are among three new crews on the show this season, competing against several other boats that have been on the show before. As the only boat from Maine, Boivin and Plante the latter of whom a news release described as ready to stir the pot went into the show with a little bit of a chip on their shoulders.

These veterans whove been on the show for a while think theyre much better fishermen than everyone else, said Boivin, 38, who lives in Lebanon. Fishing for bluefin tuna is not an easy thing, but I know were as good as anyone else.

The seasons premiere episode will be Sunday at 9 p.m. on the National Geographic cable channel. The season runs for 15 episodes, with new episodes each Sunday at the same time. There is no prize at the end of the show, just bragging rights for the crew with the biggest haul. Though boats that do well might be invited back, and the fame of being on the show presents money-making opportunities.

I know a lot of these other guys (on the show) are in the chartering business. Once youre known for being on Wicked Tuna, everyone wants to be on your boat, said Boivin.

Neither Plante nor Boivin are allowed to say what happens on their boat, or on this season of Wicked Tuna beforehand. While the show mostly features boats based in Gloucester, other Maine boats have been part of Wicked Tuna before. The Portland-based boat Erin & Sarah competed in 2016, captained by Pete Speeches of Scarborough.

Plante and Boivin are co-captains and the only crew on their 35-foot, 39-year-old boat, which is owned by Boivin. Like all the crews on Wicked Tuna, they fish for the massive bluefin with rod and reel. Early in the season, they can start catching them three miles out, but later might venture out some 40 miles, Plante said. The fish range in weight from 200 to 700 pounds, and it can take anywhere from 45 minutes to seven or eight hours to land one, the two fishermen said. A big fish can be worth thousands of dollars at the dock.

Boivin, who also works for a company that installs power line poles, grew up fishing in lakes and streams in southern Maine. But he got bored with that hobby and looking for more challenges, he started helping a cousin on his lobster boat out of Biddeford. He heard about tuna fishing from other fishermen, tried it and was instantly hooked. He bought his boat a fixer-upper and began fishing for tuna commercially about eight years ago.

Plante, 28, grew up in Springvale and lives in Shapleigh. Like Boivin, he grew up fishing in lakes and streams but never really did much ocean fishing. He was working for his fathers excavation company in 2013 when he was in a bad accident on his motorcycle he said a car hit him after running a stop sign that left him hospitalized for a couple months. He suffered injuries to his spinal cord, legs, knee, feet and jaw and took about three months to start walking again.

A couple years after the accident, he was helping a friend run charter fishing trips off the Maine coast. Through other fishermen, he met Boivin, who introduced him to bluefin tuna fishing. He too was instantly enamored of it. When not fishing for bluefin tuna, Plante fishes on a boat out of Boston.

So when someone sent Plante an email saying Wicked Tuna was casting new boats, he thought it was worth a shot to apply. As bluefin tuna fishermen, he and Boivin always welcome a challenge.

This is something we care about, Plante said.

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Saco fishermen compete on new season of 'Wicked Tuna' - Press Herald

It takes an hour from the surface of the Indian Ocean, descending 3,000 metres in a submersible research pod, to reach the bizarre creatures that cluster around hydrothermal vents on the seabed. Youre in a titanium sphere that is about two metres in diameter, says evolutionary biologist Julia Sigwart, describing her voyage to Kairei hydrothermal vent field, east of Madagascar.

The vessel is equipped with robotic arms, probes and cameras like a manned, underwater version of the Mars rover. In lieu of seats, theres a padded floor. So youre hunched up together with the two pilots who are driving it and manipulating it, she says.

With not even a loo on board, its definitely on the bijou side for an eight-hour working day, but for Sigwart, director of the marine laboratory at Queens University, Belfast, the experience is worth it.

As you go down the light fades out rapidly. When you turn off the lights of the submersible you can see all of the bioluminescence of everything thats alive in the water all around you big and small. Its like a beautiful starscape.

While much of the ocean floor looks like a ghost town to the naked eye, the concentrated patches of life around hydrothermal vents are as densely, if not as diversely, populated as coral reefs.

The vents are where mineral-rich hot water, between 300C and 400C (572-752F), bursts out from below the Earths crust, swirling into the cold seawater like black smoke. These smoking chimneys loom up at you, out of the blackness. Theyre just incredible, says Sigwart.

One current evolutionary hypothesis is that the special conditions around deep-sea thermal vents sparked the beginnings of life on Earth.

But these rare and vital ecosystems are under serious threat from deep-sea mining for minerals such as zinc, used for car batteries and mobile phone circuit boards, say campaigners. You might expect that in open water, which does not belong to anyone, the seabed would be safe from commodification, but in 2019 Greenpeace reported that 30 floor-exploration licences had been granted worldwide by the International Seabed Authority (ISA), a UN body.

Deep-sea mining is the process of retrieving mineral deposits from the deep sea the area of the ocean below 200 metres, which is the largest and least explored environment on Earth, occupying 65% of the planets surface. Metals found there such as copper, nickel, aluminium, lithium, cobalt and mangen are increasingly needed to make batteries, smartphones and solar panels.

When will it happen?So far, 30 exploration licences have been granted by the International Seabed Authority (ISA), a UN body. In total, 1.5m km2 has been set aside for mineral exploration (equivalent to an area the size of Mongolia) in the Pacific and Indian Oceans as well as along the mid-Atlantic ridge. No exploitation contracts have yet been allocated but they are expected to be given out as early as this year when ISAs Mining Code is expected to be approved. This will be a set of rules to regulate prospecting, exploration and exploitation of marine minerals in the international seabed area.

Why is it a problem?Critics are concerned mining could do huge damage to the deep sea and the creatures and ecosystems that exist there. Underwater ecosystems like volcanic mountains, hydrothermal vents and deep-sea trenches are still poorly understood. Many endemic deep-sea species could be wiped out by the creation of a single large mine, while more mobile creatures will be indirectly affected by noise and light pollution.

What can be done?Comprehensive studies need to be carried out to assess the potential damage to biodiversity before deep-sea mining goes ahead, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature(IUCN). Fundamentally, the IUCN also says people need to recycle and reuse products so there is less demand for extraction of natural resources. Researchers have created a list of priorities for deep-sea conservation. The survey, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, included the responses of 112 scientists.

Phoebe Weston

Mining companies in Germany, China, Korea, India and the UK are among the recipients. Theyre not supposed to be used for commercial-scale mining, but several of the licences have been renewed and theyre into a second 10-year term, says Sigwart, adding that the ISA is currently developing a regulatory framework for commercial mining in the high seas.

The race is now on for Sigwart and other biologists to identify and learn more about the vent-dwelling creatures and lobby for their protection. Many are only found in these unique and isolated places. The vivid mottled orange snail, Gigantopelta aegis, has only been located in one area estimating 8km squared.

Elin Thomas, Sigwarts PhD student, has set to work assessing the vent species discovered so far against the criteria for the International Union for the Conservation of Natures red list. Because of its small, singular habitat and the threat of mining in the Indian Ocean, the Gigantopelta aegis is now classified as critically endangered.

Another colourful character on the vent scene is Alviniconcha strummeri, named after the Clashs Joe Strummer on account of its spiky shell resembling punk rockers. Its red list status is vulnerable.

In total, 15 hydrothermal vent species described fondly as super weird by Sigwart have been added to the red rist. The mythical-looking sea pangolin, AKA the scaly-foot snail, was the first to be identified as at risk (status: vulnerable). Resplendent in armoured skirts that would be the envy of any Roman centurion, the layers of black flaps around its foot, along with its helmet-like black shell, are a result of the very mineral riches that are attracting the mining industry.

The iron that precipitates out of the vent fluid, says Sigwart, is incorporated into the shell and the scales of the scaly foot. It hasnt grown an iron shell, but the available environmental iron on the surface has integrated into it.

The scaly-foot snail and Gigantopelta aegis are the most fascinating to Sigwart, because each has independently evolved a cunning way to bypass the whole kerfuffle of having to eat. All life around the vents depends on bacteria for energy. There are no plants, so the creatures have to either graze on slimy microbial mats, or eat each other. Rather than bother with any of that, however, these two evolutionary geniuses have an internal organ inside which microbes live, providing all their energy needs.

Its not all snails and germs down there, however. There are giant ghostly white crabs scuttling about, stalked barnacles, tube worms, shrimps and mussels. Different vent systems around the world have their own assemblages of animals. The first vents, discovered in the late 1970s, were in the east Pacific and are known for their metre-long lipstick worms.

In Sigwarts experience, people often assume these ecosystems are out of harms way, nobody can reach them. Its all fine. But its no longer fine, because now were on a path to developing commercial-scale deep-sea mining and vents are a target. We can no longer naively hope that the depths of the oceans are still pristine and untouched.

More and more, says Sigwart, its clear that they are already impacted by human activities. We find plastic in deep-sea sediments, the ocean circulation patterns are being altered by global climate change.

Crucially, she says, the tide is turning when it comes to scientists becoming more vocal about the animals that would otherwise stay out of sight and out of mind. Deep-sea biology is fascinating and exciting, and it inspires a sense of wonder in everybody, says Sigwart.

There are very few of us that have the privilege of actually working on these animals and habitats. We have a burden of responsibility to try to explain them to other people before the damage is done.

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features

Read more from the original source:

One scientist's mission to save the 'super weird' snails under the sea - The Guardian

Key point:Emplaced on islands dotting the Pacific Ocean, HIMARS and kindred missile launchers could give Chinese ships of war a very bad day.

The feel-good story of last month comes out of the U.S. Marine Corps, whose leadership has set in motion a crash effort to field anti-ship missiles for island warfare. Grabbing headlines most recently is the high-mobility artillery rocket system, or HIMARS. In effect, HIMARS is a truck that totes around a launcher capable of disgorging a variety of precision-guided munitions. Some can pummel ships at sea.

And devil dogs will grin. As will their U.S. Navy shipmates. Americas navy can use all the joint-service help it can get as it squares off against China and Russia in their home waters. The Marine Corps Hymn proclaims that marines are first to fight, and that remains true in this age of Eurasian seacoasts abristle with long-range precision-guided armaments and missile-armed ships and planes prowling sea and sky. But that fight will commence at sea, not on distant beaches. Marines realize they may never reach Pacific battlegrounds without first winning command of waters that furnish an avenue into contested littorals.

Marine Commandant Robert Neller is fond of telling his comrades they must fight to get to the fight. His logic is remorseless. And marines will take up arms in company with navy and merchant-marine sailors who man the fleet. Expeditionary forces cant even begin prying open the halls of Montezuma or the shores of Tripoli until they defeat hostile navies and batter down anti-access defenses. But it goes further. In all likelihood, the fight will involve more than just the naval services. U.S. Air Force aviators may bear a hand in future high-sea imbroglios. Even the U.S. Army stands poised to get into the action as soldiers prepare for multi-domain operations spanning the terrestrial, airand, yes, saltwaterdomains.

In other words, future fights promise to be joint fights that mesh capabilities from naval and non-naval services. In that sense, the future promises to be a throwback to Pacific campaigns of old. Its fitting, then, that marine magnates are peering both ahead and back in time as they orient the Corps toward todays challenges. They want to harness newfangled technology to help win the war at sea while returning the service to its maritime heritage after seventeen years of battling insurgents and terrorists on dry land. In so doing they intend to bolster the efficacy of American maritime strategy.

First, technology. Nowadays sea power is no longer purely a matter for fleets. To the extent it ever was: that a ships a fool to fight a fort is an old adage, not one of recent coinage. Nor is sea power an exclusive province of navies. It is a joint enterprise whereby seagoing, aviation, and ground forces concentrate firepower at embattled scenes on the briny main to impose their will on the foe. The logic is plain. More and more shore-based weaponry can strike farther and farther out to sea as sensor technology and precision guidance mature. Fleets are beneficiaries of fire support from that weaponry so long as they cruise within its range.

Or as General Neller puts it, Theres a ground component to the maritime fight. Marines constitute a naval force in a naval campaign; you have to help the ships control sea space. And you can do that from the land.

And you can do it best from the land you already occupy. Emplaced on islands dotting the Pacific Ocean, HIMARS and kindred missile launchers could give Chinese ships of war a very bad day. If positioned along the first island chain paralleling the mainlands coastline before the outbreak of war, marines and their joint-service and allied brethren could plausibly threaten to bar access to the Western Pacific and points beyond. And they could execute the threat in wartime, confining Chinese merchantmen, warships, and aircraft to the China seas to exact a frightful economic and military penalty should Beijing do things the United States and its allies hope to deter.

The Marine Corps missile procurement blitz will be instantly familiar to Chinas Peoples Liberation Army (PLA). In fact, the marines are mounting a version in miniature of the PLAs anti-access/area-denial, or A2/AD, strategy. Chinas armed forces want to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet and affiliated joint forces out of the Western Pacific or take a heavy toll should they try to break in. Advanced technology likewise super-empowers U.S. and allied forces. They could strew anti-ship and anti-air missiles on landmasses comprising the first island chain while deploying additional munitions aboard aircraft, submarines, and surface craft lurking nearby.

Land forcesmarines and soldiers, American and alliedcan anchor the ground component of U.S. maritime strategy in Asia. Like A2/AD, island-chain defense leverages the symbiosis between sea- and shore-based implements of sea power. Joint firepower will help expeditionary forces fight their way to the fight. Or, in the case of the first island chain, likely battlefields already belong to allies or friends. Island warriors only need to hold friendly soiland as military sages from Clausewitz to Moltke the Elder teach, tactical defense represents the strongest form of warfare.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Beijing ought to feel flattered indeed. And dismayed!

Second, culture. Sophisticated implements like HIMARS accomplish little unless used with skill and verve. The naval services are trying to rejuvenate martial cultures deadened by three ahistorical decades. Once upon a timein fact, throughout their history until recent timesthe U.S. Marine Corps and Navy assumed they had to fight for command of the sea before they could harvest the fruits of command. In other words, they assumed they had to wrest control of important waters from local defenders in order to render seaways safe enough to land troops, bombard coastal sites, or, in the air and missile age, loft firepower deep into the interior. They had to make the sea a protected sanctuary.

In other words, they assumed they had to do what naval services have done throughout history. Yet service chieftains instigated a cultural revolution in 1992, declaring in effect that the sea services were now exempt from the rigors of peer-on-peer combat. That year they issued a strategic directive titled . . . From the Sea proclaiming that, with the Soviet Union dead and the Soviet Navy rusting at its moorings, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps could afford to reinvent themselves as fundamentally different sea services. With no peer antagonist to duel and none on the horizon, they were at liberty to assume away their most elemental function.

Not only could the sea services drop their guard; the leadership ordered them to. And they complied. Tactics and weaponry for prosecuting major combat languished in the wake of . . . From the Sea. The services first lost their fighting edge during the strategic holiday of the 1990s, and then while waging irregular warfare in the years since 9/11. Small wonder the services find themselves struggling to refresh their cultures for the new, old age of great-power strategic competition thats upon us.

Few in uniform today remember the Cold War, when the prospect of battle was a daily fact of life. Preparing for strategic competition demands more than upgrading equipment or relearning skills grown stale. It demands that officialdom and senior commanders imprint bloody-minded attitudes on the sea services anew. Only thus will they extract maximum combat power out of new weapons and sensors, assuring hardware fulfills its potential.

And third, strategy. If highfalutin technology and the cultural counterrevolution pan out, the U.S. Marines and fellow services will have positioned themselves to execute a strategy that could give rival great powers fits. Look back again to look ahead. During the late Cold War, the founding chief of the U.S. Office of Net Assessment, Andrew Marshall, exhorted the Pentagon and the armed forces to fashion competitive strategies whereby they could compete at a low cost relative to American economic means while compelling the Soviets to compete at a prohibitive cost relative to their means. Over time the approach would render waging cold war unaffordable for Moscow.

Competitive strategy is a mode of competition worth rediscovering. The United States and its allies are developing hardware and methods for closing the straits puncturing the first island chain to Chinese vessels and aircraft. In so doing they can deny China the access it must have to transact commerce, diplomacy, and military affairs in faraway regions. And they can close these narrow seas with systems such as HIMARS. While HIMARS anti-ship rounds are not cheap in absolute terms, dislodging rocketeers from Pacific islands would prove far more burdensome for the PLA. An allied strategy can compel Chinese forces to fight to get to the fightflipping the logic of anti-access and area denial against them.

In short, island-chain defense is strategy on the cheap in relative terms. Its an approach that would conjure a glint in Andrew Marshalls eye.

Lets call it a Great Wall in reverse strategy, with islands comprising the guard towers and joint sea power stationed on and around the islands forming the masonry in between. The legendary Great Wall was built to keep out Central Asian nomads who ravaged China from the steppes. Properly fortified, an archipelagic Great Wall can barricade China within the China seasand thereby force the PLA to compete on allied terms at a fearsome cost to itself.

See more here:

The Marine Corps Has A Strategy To Beat China: Island-Based Anti-Ship Missiles - The National Interest Online

After taking over Catalina Island last year for an epic edition of Groove Island, Groove Cruise Cali returns for another sailing from Los Angeles!

Whether its the infectious atmosphere brought forth by the GC Fam or the fantastic artists they book, theres nothing quite like the party that happens on the high seas while aboard Groove Cruise. Now, after a successful sailing out of Miami earlier this year, Whet Travel has announced that theyll be returning to the West Coast with a fresh edition of Groove Cruise Cali.

This year, Captains who set sail on Groove Cruise Cali on October 15-18will be treated to 72-hours of nonstop music to dance the day and night away from over 50 DJs, plenty of artist interactions and exclusive experiences, and six costume parties to attend among other fun activities on board the NCL Bliss.

Related: Check out our interview with Whet Travels Founder Jason Beukema for a deeper look at what Groove Cruise is all about!

Speaking of the NCL Bliss, this ship for this sailing is one of the best in the fleet with over 30 unique restaurants appealing to any taste and an amusement park featuring a racetrack, waterslides, mini-golf, aqua park, and laser tag. There will also be single staterooms offered for those who are traveling to Groove Cruise solo or cant find a roommate to split with.

Register now for your chance to win a stateroom for two and get first access to bookings.

While were not sure who will be taking the stage during Groove Cruise Cali if past lineups are any indication then were sure its going to be a fantastic time. Expect plenty of house, techno, and trance to dominate the lineup and keep your feet moving, sea legs or not!

The public on-sale begins March 4 via GrooveCruise.com with online with payment plans starting at just $92! Dont forget to use code EDMIDENTITY for a $50 per person discount!

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Groove Cruise Returns to the West Coast with Groove Cruise Cali - EDM Identity