Category Archives: High Seas

California officials will decide today whether to approve construction of a seawall to prevent the rising ocean from destroying a crumbling cliff that supports tracks for one of the nations busiest Amtrak lines.

The vote thrusts the California Coastal Commission into a debate over how to protect the railway carrying 50 trains a day from the effects of climate change. Other proposed solutions include stabilizing the bluff with steel pillars. Theres also a plan to relocate the tracks, a major undertaking thats estimated to cost billions of dollars.

Agency staff have recommended building the seawall at the bottom of a bluff near Del Mar, a beach town where multimillion-dollar houses are threatened by erosion 19 miles north of San Diego.

The railroad runs atop coastal bluffs which are generally 50 to 70 feet high and have a history of landslides and slope failure, said a report by Coastal Commission staff. The proposed project would stabilize areas along the bluffs.

Californias move to protect transportation infrastructure from the immediate effects of climate change comes as roadways, coastlines and residential property around the country face growing risks from intensifying storms, heavier downpours and penetrating ocean waters. The Government Accountability Office warned in a report last month that ballooning disaster costs related to climate change are creating an unsustainable fiscal future.

The federal government alone owns and operates hundreds of thousands of facilities and manages millions of acres of land that might be vulnerable to climate change, the GAO said (Climatewire, May 10).

The debate over the seawall comes as California officials wrestle with how to save the states iconic beaches. A U.S. Geological Survey study in 2017 said rising seawater could destroy two-thirds of all beaches in Southern California if steps arent taken to reduce carbon emissions or adapt to higher oceans.

Already, homes have toppled off cliffs in Pacifica, along bluffs near San Francisco and in Sonoma County. In other beach cities, seawater floods the streets during the highest tides.

The potential approval today would mark a shift for the Coastal Commission, which in recent years resisted permitting many seawalls because they can deplete sand from the beaches in front of them. One of the commissions official missions is to preserve public access to beaches. That has often put the agency at odds with oceanfront homeowners who say seawalls are needed to protect their property.

But the commissions powers are limited in this case, said Laura Walsh, California policy manager at Surfrider Foundation. The San Diego Association of Governments, or SANDAG, a regional planning group, proposed building the barricade to protect the rail line. SANDAG also has sought approval from the Army Corps of Engineers. In addition, the Federal Railroad Administration is providing partial funding for the project. That means all the commission can do is rule whether the proposed seawall is consistent with the California Coastal Act, a beach protection law, Walsh said.

More than 50 trains a day travel on the tracks that curve along the Southern California coast, offering panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean. But the bluffs are crumbling as higher waves chew away at the base of cliffs. Flooding on the tracks has forced local authorities to stop or slow trains repeatedly (Climatewire, Dec. 2, 2019).

The threatened track carries the second-busiest Amtrak route in the country. The train linking San Diego with Orange County, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and beyond transported 841,000 passengers last year, trailing only the Acela line that connects Boston with New York and Washington. A local commuter line, a freight company and the military also use the California tracks.

The proposed seawalls would be linked to other barriers installed during emergency repairs to the tracks. All together,, the seawall would cover approximately 2,500 feet and stand 7 to 8 feet above the ground, the Coastal Commission report said.

Local communities are objecting to the project. Del Mar residents argue it would cut off beach access for residents, said Terry Gaasterland, a Del Mar City Council member.

It also would cause beach erosion, she said, as waves carry off sand in front of the wall. In other locations where seawalls were used, such as in the Chesapeake Bay, she said rocks, or riprap, eventually must be placed in front of the wall to cover a gap created by wave action.

Over a 30-year period, these walls are going to become this horrible thing, Gaasterland said. They have to reinforce with riprap at the bottom of the wall. You know more sand goes away. Its just this negative feedback loop.

The staff recommendation to allow the walls includes several conditions, including that SANDAG remove the walls and restore the bluff in 30 years. That presumes that the tracks would be relocated.

SANDAG wants to move the tracks by 2035 but currently lacks the estimated $2.3 billion needed for the effort. SANDAG also hasnt settled on a location for moving the tracks (Climatewire, Jan. 25).

Hasan Ikhrata, CEO of SANDAG, said the group hopes to get $250 million to $300 million from the state to fund environmental review and design for moving the train.

Some Del Mar residents also argue the seawall would ruin the appearance of the craggy natural bluff for at least the next 30 years, potentially harming its ability to attract visitors. More than 3 million tourists visit the city annually. The average price of a home in the area is $3.7 million, according to Zillow.

Instead of a seawall, Del Mar advocates want to use soldier piles, or vertical steel beams drilled into the ground, to support the train tracks.

Ive been told that engineering wise, the soldier piles are the most stabilizing thing that can be done that thats actually the thing thats the safest for the tracks, Gaasterland said.

Ikhrata said the soldier piles alone wont suffice.

We dont think the piles by themselves are going to stabilize the bluff and make it safe for us, he said. To stabilize the bluff and keep the trains moving at the speeds they are, we do need to do both the piles and the seawall.

Coastal Commission staff argues that using just soldier piles would require more excavation and alteration of the bluff face, the report said. As such, it would be more difficult to remove the development and restore the bluff to a more natural condition once the tracks have been relocated, as compared to the proposed seawalls and surface stabilization.

Del Mar has tangled with the Coastal Commission previously. It was one of the first local governments to say it wouldnt accept efforts to plan for managed retreat, the idea of removing structures along the shore so the ocean can migrate naturally.

Many oceanfront homes in the community have seawalls. Those have been allowed for the most part because the houses were built before 1977, when a beach protection law known as the California Coastal Act made it more difficult to build barriers.

Gaasterland, the City Council member, said those walls are well above sea level, and therefore dont contribute to as much beach erosion as the proposed wall for the railroad tracks.

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Train threatened by rising seas could be saved with a wall - E&E News

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) has given the Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for several capital acquisition projects of the Indian defence forces. This includes the procurement of next-generation Corvettes for the Indian Navy at an approximate cost of Rs 36,000 crore. A look at the features of these naval vessels and their efficacy in the modern naval battlefield.

A Corvette is the smallest class of naval ships and it falls below the warship class of a frigate. These are highly agile ships and are categorised as missile boats, anti-submarine ships, coastal patrol crafts and fast attack naval vessels. The word corvette itself is derived from French and Dutch origin. Corvettes date back to the 18th and the 19th century when they were extensively used in the naval warfare duels that were fought at high seas. However, these were powered by sails and masts, and disappeared for a while when steam powered naval ships made their appearance. During World War II, the term Corvette was used to describe vessels which had anti-submarine roles assigned to them. Modern Corvettes can go up to 2,000 tons in displacement which helps in keeping them agile.

The Indian Navy at present has the Kamorta Class Corvettes, which are also known as Project 28. These ships have an anti-submarine role and are manufactured at Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers in Kolkata. The four Kamorta Class Corvettes that the Indian Navy possesses are named INS Kamorta, INS Kadmatt, INS Kiltan and INS Kavaratti. The first of these was commissioned in 2014 and the last one in 2020.

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The next-generation Corvettes will be manufactured for various roles like surveillance missions, escort operations, deterrence, surface action group operations, search and attack and coastal defence. It is worth noting that these roles will be in addition to the anti-submarine roles being already performed by the existing Corvettes in the Navy.

As per the AoN accorded by the DAC, these next-generation generation Corvettes will be constructed based on new in-house design of the Indian Navy using latest technology of ship buildings and would contribute to further the governments initiative of Security and Growth for all in the region (SAGAR).

The in-service Kamorta Class Corvettes also have a high degree of indigenous equipment being used on the platform. This includes Bharat Electronic Limited (BEL) manufactured Shikari sensor and processing system and Bomber and Electronic Warfare Suits also manufactured by BEL and named Ajanta. These vessels also have the Sanket electronic warfare systems and Kavach decoy launchers.

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Explained: Next-generation Corvettes, and the combat edge Navy seeks through them - The Indian Express

(Bangkok) The Thai government should provide recently rescued Rohingya asylum seekers with assistance and immediate access to procedures to determine their refugee status, Human Rights Watch said today.

On June 4, 2022, the Thai navy found 59 Rohingya 31 men, 23 women, and 5 children from Myanmar stranded on Koh Dong Island near Satun province in southern Thailand. The navy took them ashore and detained them at the 436 Border Patrol Police unit. Thai officials who questioned them said these Rohingya were abandoned by smugglers, who charged them about 60,000 Thai baht (US$1,750) per person for a journey to Malaysia.

The Thai government should end its policy of summarily locking up rescued Rohingya people and throwing away the key, saidElaine Pearson, acting Asia director at Human Rights Watch. Thailand should permit the United Nations refugee agency to screen all Rohingya arriving in Thailand to identify and assist those seeking refugee status.

To protect Rohingya asylum seekers, it is crucial for the Thai government to permit the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to conduct refugee status determination interviews, Human Rights Watch said.

Like its predecessors, the Thai government of Prime Minister Gen. Prayut Chan-ocha has treated Rohingya arriving at the border as illegal immigrants, detaining them insqualid lockups. According to one Western embassy in Bangkok, Thai officials are holding more than 470 Rohingya in indefinite immigration detention with no access to refugee status determination procedures. Thai authorities have not permitted UNHCR to conduct refugee status determinations for them. Thailand also discriminates against Rohingya by refusing to allow them to register as legally documented migrant workers, unlike other people coming from Myanmar.

Meanwhile, the Thai navy announced that it will maintain a policy to intercept Rohingya boats that come too close to the coast. After providing them with fuel, food, water, and other supplies, the navy will push those boats pushed onward to Malaysia or Indonesia. This amounts to a continuation of Thailands deadly pushback policy, which has resulted in Rohingya boats going missing on the high seas and people dying, Human Rights Watch said.

The Thai navy further stated that any boat that somehow lands on Thai shores will be seized, and immigration officials will arrest the men, women, and children aboard on illegal entry charges and detain them.

Thai authorities have, for years, said they do not want to accept Rohingya as refugees. However, under international law, Thailand cannot summarily reject at the border the claims of asylum seekers fleeing persecution. Thailand is obligated not to return them before providing a full and fair assessment of their claims for international protection, Human Rights Watch said.

The Myanmar government and military have long persecuted the Rohingya, members of a Muslim ethnic minority group who have lived in Myanmars Rakhine State for generations, driving them to flee repression and dire poverty. The situation has significantly worsened since August 2017, when the Myanmar military committedethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity against the Rohingya.

Given the lack of security and overcrowded, unsanitary and dangerous camp conditions where many Rohingya are forced to live in Bangladesh, many have risked harsh weather conditions on the Andaman Sea to embark on dangerous journeys to Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia, often falling prey to human trafficking gangs.

The Thai government should help the oppressed Rohingya, not worsen their suffering, Pearson said. The Thai government should immediately allow them access to desperately needed protection.

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Thailand: Allow Newly Arrived Rohingya Access to Asylum - Human Rights Watch

New Morning Consult Poll Shows Broad Support for Increasing Sustainability for Seafood

PBS NewsHour's Tipping Point: Fisheries on the Brink focuses on Protecting our Oceans

WASHINGTON, June 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A new Morning Consult poll commissioned by the Walton Family Foundation shows a majority of Americans (70%) want their seafood to be sourced sustainably and that Americans want to know where their food is processed (65%), an important step in ensuring seafood is sourced by companies with high environmental and human rights standards.

Released ahead of World Oceans Day, this new data shows near-universal agreement on the need to protect the oceans, and that Americans are committed to sustainable seafood as a means of keeping the oceans' fragile ecosystem in balance.

"The challenges of climate change intersect with building resilient food systems in our world's oceans," said Moira Mcdonald, Environment Program Director at the Walton Family Foundation. "At the Walton Family Foundation, we focus on sustainable seafood because we know that when you take care of the fish, you're necessarily taking care of everything else that matters in the ocean. So, that means being smart about how much we fish, what we fish and where we fish."

Traceability of seafood, meaning where it is caught, processed, and sold, has become an increasingly important and topical issue as sanctions against Russia have made tracing the origin of seafood even more consequential. Currently, less than halfof the seafood that comes into the United States has traceability requirements.

"Americans want to know where the seafood they eat comes from and that responsible fishing practices are being used," said Mcdonald. "We need industry and government to work together to strengthen our systems so that fishers who are doing the right thing are not at a competitive disadvantage."

PBS NewsHour science correspondent and Tipping Point executive producer, Miles O'Brien, will host a live-streamed special, "Tipping Point: Fisheries on the Brink" to explore the connections between climate change, warming oceans, migrating fish populations, the economic stressors facing fishermen and the fishing industry, bad actors on the high seas, and ever-growing seafood demand this Wednesday, June 8th at 7:00 p.m. ET. The special includes live and recorded interviews with various officials, scientists, fishermen, and thought leaders including United States special presidential envoy for climate John Kerry, biologist Daniel Pauly, "The Climate Diet" author Paul Greenberg, Princeton professor Curtis Deutsch, and others.

The Walton Family Foundation is a proud principal sponsor of the program, which can be viewed onlineand on NewsHour's social platforms, including YouTube, Twitterand Facebook.

About the Walton Family FoundationThe Walton Family Foundation is, at its core, a family-led foundation. Three generations of the descendants of our founders, Sam and Helen Walton, and their spouses, work together to lead the foundation and create access to opportunity for people and communities. We work in three areas: improving K-12 education, protecting rivers and oceans and the communities they support, and investing in our home region of Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta. To learn more, visit waltonfamilyfoundation.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

SOURCE Walton Family Foundation

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Walton Family Foundation Urges Action on Seafood Traceability Ahead of World Oceans Day - PR Newswire

Forecasts have warned of thunderstorms and lightning moving across the central belt.

The Met office has issued a yellow alert for heavy, slow-moving downpours, which are likely to hit Glasgow and Edinburgh today.

The thick band of rain is predicted to move across the country between 1pm and 8pm, and stretch as far south as Newcastle.

It brings the risk of lightning strikes affecting power lines, heavy spray on the roads and possible localised flooding.

A second warning for rough seas and high waves for the North West of Scotland has also been issued.

As well as thunder, rain and lightning, thereis also the chance the storms could bring hail, and people are being advised to take care on the roads.

The Met Office warning said: Where flooding or lightning strikes occur, there is a chance of delays and some cancellations to train and bus services

Spray and sudden flooding could lead to difficult driving conditions and some road closure.

There is a slight chance that power cuts could occur and other services to some homes and businesses could be lost.

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Scotland's weather: Thunder and lightning warning issues by the Met Office | HeraldScotland - HeraldScotland

Projects aim to bring salmon population back from crisis point.

New funding of 500,000 will support the development of wild salmon conservation measures.

The money will be used for two projects, the National Adult Sampling Plan which provides crucial data on wild salmon stock and the development of a standardised fisheries management plan template which can be used by all the fisheries management areas in Scotland.

Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon will announce the funding as part of a speech to international delegates and Scottish stakeholders at the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation (NASCO) annual meeting this evening.

It follows the publication of the Scottish Governments Wild Salmon Strategy which aims to bring the wild salmon population in Scotland back from crisis point.

An implementation plan for the strategy will be introduced by the end of the year.

Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon said: I am looking forward to addressing NASCO delegates conference and highlighting the significant work that is being done in Scotland to reverse the decline in wild salmon stocks.

In addition to the measures we will take in Scotland, we are committed to supporting and pushing forward collective action in the international arena, so the young salmon leaving our rivers survive the many challenges they face on the high seas to return to their home river to spawn the next generation.

Recently published salmon fishery statistics continue to confirm the downward trend in the numbers of wild salmon returning to Scottish rivers and we must now reinvigorate our collective efforts to ensure a positive future for the species.

Although the pattern of decline is repeated across the salmons North Atlantic range, with climate change a significant factor, there remains much that we can do in our rivers, lochs and coastal waters to seek to build resilience and transform the fortunes of this iconic fish.

Only by acting together, at home and overseas, and applying our collective resource, knowledge and expertise can we hope to change the fortunes of this iconic and vital species.

Scotland is a stronghold for salmon, which start their lives in streams and rivers, migrate to the high seas to grow and return home to spawn, connecting diverse habitats over a vast area.

Salmon are affected by a wide range of pressures, some at sea, but many others acting within the Scottish freshwater and coastal environments. A key contributory factor appears to be climate change.

Background

Salmon live in fresh water for 1-4 years before undertaking a long migration north to their feeding grounds in the North Atlantic. After 1-3 years at sea, adults often return to the river in which they were hatched to spawn and begin the next generation.

Details on the funded projects:

National Adult Sampling Programme

Development of Fisheries Management Plans

200,000 (including 100,000 from Crown Estate Scotland) to develop a standardised fisheries management plan template which can be used by all the fisheries management areas in Scotland. The plans will allow data to be collected on: environmental characteristics of the area; the status of the fish populations salmon and sea trout; the pressures facing wild salmon in the area; current actions and future management options to protect and restore the fish and fisheries. Fisheries Management Scotland and its members will be involved in the development of the fisheries management plan template and technological solutions required. Funding will be provided to all fisheries boards and trusts.

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Funding to support salmon recovery - gov.scot - Scotland.gov.uk

From a naval command centre perched on the coast of Ecuador's Galapagos Islands, Capt. Isiais Bodero Mala surveyed incoming satellite feeds tracking fishing vessels circling one of the world's most biodiverse places.

Mala was previously a submarine commander, so conservation monitoring wasn't initially a first-choice assignment for the long-serving mariner.

But with hundreds of fishing boats routinely stalking around the world-famous marine protected area for endangered hammerhead sharks, giant squids and other species, his work here is increasingly vital. Ecuador and other Latin American countries have tasked their security forces with cracking down on the fleets poaching from their waters.

Standing in front of large computer screens with other sailors in crisp white uniforms, Mala recounted a story from a fellow submarine commander who was using sonar to listen to a "massive school of fish" from his battle station while tracking a flotilla of Chinese ships.

"After the fishing fleet had passed, there was complete silence the fish had disappeared," Mala said in an interview.

About one in five fish consumed globally is either caught illegally without proper reporting or regulations to protect the sustainability of fish populations, according to a British study. It's an enterprise worth up to $50 billion USannually, depriving some of the world's poorest coastal communities of crucial nutrition and income, exacerbating declining stocks and threatening endangered species.

June 5 is the United Nations' International Day for the Fight against Illegal, Unreported and UnregulatedFishing (IUU), and officials say the problem is only getting worse globally.

As co-ordinated fishing fleets increasingly prowl the world's oceans often entering the waters of small developing nations governments and conservationists are increasingly turning to space-based technology to push back against the industrial-scale theft of marine resources.

In Ecuador, the government has enlisted help from Canadian tech companies and Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to tackle the problem.

"There has been a big change on the technology front in recent years," said Sean Wheeler, DFO's chief of international programs. "Before, we were missing the ability to see the whole state of play."

With tens of thousands of industrial fishing boats operating across the world's oceans, pinpointing illicit operators is like searching for a "needle in a haystack," said Mark Carmichael, a senior executive with the Brampton, Ont.-based space technology firm MDA.

Under a $7-million project financed by Ottawa, the company, which is behind the Canadarm on the International Space Station, is providing satellite tracking, remote sensing and the ability to synthesize large amounts of data to Ecuador's navy.

Linking feeds from powerful satellites, including MDA'sRadarsat-2, with vessel ownership data and records of past offences can help security forces zero in on ships carrying out illicit activities, DFO's Wheeler said.

Other organizations, including the Google-backed tracking group Global Fishing Watch, provide Ecuador with artificial intelligence interpreting boat movements, including fishing operations in prohibited areas.

These different pieces of information are uploaded onto a map in one of Ecuador's naval operation centres, allowing security forces to better pick their battles for intercepting suspicious ships.

It's logistically impossible to inspect every ship on the high seas, Wheeler said, so "space-based [satellites] allow countries to better organize the limited resources we all have."

Environmental crimes, including illegal fishing, are the world's third-most lucrative illicit enterprise, according to the global police organization Interpol, just behind drugs and counterfeit goods and ahead of human trafficking.

The prevalence of these crimes has been increasing "drastically" at five per cent annually,Interpol reported, with "huge profits to be made and risk factors relatively low in terms of penalty."

An estimated 11 to 26 million tonnes of fish are illegally captured and unreported annually, according to estimates from an Imperial College London study cited by the United Nations. The tide, however, could be starting to turn.

"There is increasing global momentum to address crimes in the fisheries sector," said Lejda Toci, an officer with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). "There are some very good initiatives countries have amongst themselves from satellite imagery, mapping the vessels, tracking the vessels and databases of suspicious vessels."

All large commercial ships are supposed to use a tracking tool called an Automatic Identification System (AIS), which reveals locations and voyage information to avoid collisions.

Ships engaged in illegal fishing, however, often shut off their AIS, particularly when they enter a sensitive area like the Galapagos Marine Reserve, said Capt. Mala. A Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) also broadcasts a ship's identity, location and speed, but it only sends out a signal every couple of hours and it, too, can be turned off.

Monitoring AIS or VMS movements is often the first tool used by navies to combat illegal fishing. But when vessels turn off their locators and "go dark," more advanced tech tools need to be unsheathed.

"The only way to find the dark vessels is to do surveillance from space," Carmichael said. To make that happen, MDA is working with Ecuador to pursue other signals.

When boats shut off their trackers before sailing into protected areas, some mariners still need to stay in touch with the outside world via satellite phones. Additionally, ships usually keep their onboard radar functioning to avoid collisions. Boat engines also unintentionally emit electromagnetic waves constituting a specific signature.

Some of these signals can be followed by MDA with radio frequency sensing, a military technology now available for civilian use, Carmichael said. MDA satellites can pinpoint radio waves emitted by satellite phones or onboard navigation systems, even if a ship's other location information has been hidden or corrupted.

Another tool, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), picks up radar wave reflections from boats at sea even if their other tracking tools are off, creating an image that is then relayed to authorities. SAR is especially useful for visualizing boats in remote locations or during periods of bad weather when other technologies, such as Very High Resolution satellite imagery, are less effective.

First developed for submarine warfare, Passive Acoustic Systems monitor underwater listening devices to identify a ship's location and the type of fishing gear it's using based on the sound it makes while sailing.

Data from all of these complex systems is combinedwith the help of advanced algorithms, Carmichael said, and provided to Ecuador's naval operations centres. With location information projected on computer screens, intelligence operatives can then dispatch their forces more efficiently.

"We get information from the operations centre. Then we are sent out," said Jorge Lopez, commander of Ecuador's machine-gun-equipped offshore patrol vessel Isla Isabela.

The patrol ship has special image recognition software that can identify endangered sharks his team might find onboard a fishing boat just by their fins.

As a result of this kind of data, Lopez said his forces were able to intervene against nine semi-industrial boats harvesting from waters reserved for small fishermen last year. Caught illegally harvesting, some of those fishermen are still in jail, he added.

According to a recently passed law, fishing vessels operating in Ecuador's waters are supposed to be outfitted with AIS. But the law has yet to be fully implemented. For now, only industrial fishing ships, and artisanal fishing boats allowed to operate within the Galapagos marine reserve, are equipped and monitored, fishermen and officials said.

The rise of AIS and other satellite tracking tech hasn't been met with universal support.

Some small-scale fishermen welcome the new technology as a tool to protect law-abiding harvesters around the Galapagos. It also allows relatives to know their kin are safe at sea.

"The AIS is an excellent idea," said 70-year-old Alberto Granja, a longtime Galapagos resident and retired fisheries worker. The problem, he said, is that buying the gear costs $1,200 US and many of the trackers donated to local fishermen by conservation groups now need to be replaced.

To other fishermen, the technology is little more than red tape one more piece of kit poor workers have to maintain on their boats and a symptom of government overreach.

"There are huge Chinese fleets out there," he said. "There is no control of big boats outside the reserve The Chinese have the technology to detect where the fish are, but we don't."

Chinese fishing incursions into the Galapagos's exclusive economic zone have not been a regular occurrence since a flotilla of more than 300 boats besieged the area in 2020, drawing a public rebuke from Ecuador's government, as well as naval action and international headlines.

Since then, the fleet seems to have kept away from the Galapagos, focusing instead on other parts of South America.

Ecuadorian officials have met with Beijing's representatives on the issue, Capt. Mala said. China's embassy in Ecuador did not respond to requests for comment.

With few enforceable rules on what boats can take from the high seas, there is not much that can be done about the fleet's activities today, conservationists said.

China is still not part of the Port State Measures Agreement, a key UN treaty enabling port inspections crucial to reducing the laundering of illegally caught fish.

While Chinese vessels are thought to be the worst offenders when it comes to large-scale illegal practices including the 2017 actions of the vessel Fu Yuan Yu Leung, caught with some 7,000 sharks aboard, many of them endangered species ships from Ecuador and nearby nations certainly aren't innocent.

Between 2018 and 2020, more than 135 unauthorized Ecuadorian industrial fishing boats were caught operating inside the marine protected area, according to data from the Galapagos National Park.

To try and build a united front for conservation, Ecuador has partnered with neighbours Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama to link several marine protected areas, including the Galapagos, creating an uninterrupted corridor for sharks, turtles, whales and other sea life spanning 500,000 square kilometres. Presidents of the four nations announced plans for the Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor (CMAR) during the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, last November.

In January 2022, Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso signed a declaration expanding the Galapagos Marine Reserve by 60,000 square kilometres, an area larger than Nova Scotia, bringing the Galapagos marine protected area to 198,000 square kilometres.

Tracking boats at sea is just one part of the equation, said analysts. Navies, especially in cash-strapped countries across the Global South, have limited resources to chase down and board vessels inside their own exclusive economic zones.

Rather than following boats, some tech experts are turning their attention to tracking the fish itself. At some point, illegally caught fish will be sold to consumers, and naming and shaming repeat offenders at the retail level can be a powerful tool.

This, however, is harder than tracking ships. The mixing up of fish from different boats and even fishing areas through the transfer of catch at sea, a process known as transshipment, means tracing the origins of the marine life sold in different products is challenging.

Many seafood traders also mislabel fish shipments, to avoid taxes, regulations or simply increase profits, conservationists said. Moreover, it is not known how much of the illegally caught fish ends up in mixed products, such as fish meal and pet food, for which the origins are often even more difficult to ascertain.

"It's really hard to have traceability for fish and seafood with transshipment," said Nancy De Lemos from the monitoring group Global Fishing Watch. "It's hard to identify which fish comes from a legitimate activity and which does not."

Her organizationis trying to address that by tracking transshipments to identify which vessel was shifting the catch and where the mothership eventually docks. But even if a large ship thought to be engaged in illicit transshipments on the high seas is tracked to port, that information alone often isn't enough to bring criminals to justice.

"It's a sector that's complex and global in nature," said the UNODC's Lejda Toci. Bad actors can use loopholes in national legislation or register in a secretive jurisdiction regardless of where they fish, she added. "These are all aspects that make it particularly susceptible to transnational organized crime and corruption."

More than one third of global fish stocks are being overexploited, according to UN data, and the impacts of illegal fishing are getting worse.

Working at a stall in an open-air Galapagos market, 52-year-old fishmonger Marisa Felipe Suarez is one of the millions of people hurt by the mechanized pilferingof the world's oceans.

Wearing a blue cap and a big smile, she's married to a fisherman and regularly sails the Galapagos's waters herself with a licence for a small catch.

"This is a maritime reserve of international value," she said of the islands, which have enough diversity of life to have inspired Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

"There should be help to stop [illegal fishing] from navies all over the world. These big fishing boats come from afar, take everything and then bring the fish back to their countries."

The travel and reporting for this story were funded by a grant from the Global Reporting Centre and Social Sciences Humanities and Research Council.

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To fight illegal fishing in the Galapagos, Ecuador turns to Canadian satellite and sensing technology - CBC News

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Americans have a "hole" lotta love for the donut.

Credit Maine mariner Captain Hanson Crockett Gregory for that. The then-future high-seas hero, in a moment of deliciously divine inspiration as a teenage galley boy, turned a poorly cooked blob of sailors sustenance into the iconic, ring-shaped and deep-fried delicacy we know and love today.

His innovation changed the way people in the U.S., and now much of the world, eat breakfast.

Captain Gregory "was bold and brave and bright," enthused Texas author Pat Miller,who first heard of the culinary innovator amid a boat tour of Boston Harbor.

MEET THE AMERICAN WHO HONORS THE MEMORY OF 200,000 FALLEN WAR HEROES

She chronicled the adventurous life of Gregory (1832-1921) in her 2016 childrens book, "The Hole Story of the Doughnut" (Harper Collins).

U.S. consumers eat more than 10 billion donuts per year, according to the Simmons National Consumer Survey while an incredible 96% of Americans say they enjoy donuts.

Maine sea captain Hanson Gregory inspired a beloved American culinary icon when he invented donut as a teenage galley boy aboard the Ivanhoe on June 22, 1847. (The Crockett Collection at the Camden (Maine) Public Library)

But Gregorys long-lasting contribution to American culinary culture has gone largely unrecognized, save for the epithet upon his humble gravestone in a small, isolated sailors cemetery in Quincy, Mass., overlooking Boston Harbor, where he lived out his final years.

It reads simply: "Capt. Hanson Gregory. Recognized by the National Bakers Assn as the inventor of the doughnut."

Donut lovers celebrate National Donut Day on the first Friday of June June 3, 2022, this year in honor of the Salvation Army members who fed the deep-fried rings of dough to American soldiers in Europe during World War I.

The culinary world should celebrate another milestone later this month as well. The donut turns 175 years old on June 22.

The sea captain is buried in a sailors' cemetery in Quincy, Mass., overlooking Boston Harbor; this gravestone notes his culinary contribution to America. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)

That was the day, in 1847, that teenage sailor Gregory thought of an innovative solution to a problem plaguing the hungry crew of the sailing ship Ivanhoe.

Dough that was deep-fried in cauldrons of lard had been served to sailors on the seas for centuries. Dutch cooks made a notable version called oily cakes.

"When [the cakes] were fried, they were completely fried through. The idea caught on."

Washington Irving grew to become America's first celebrity writer chronicling the life of Dutch settlers in the Hudson River Valley. He's believed to be the first to use the phrase "dough-nuts" to describe the Dutch treat in his 1809 treatise, "A History of New York."

They were not the donuts as we know today.

It was "just a big blob of dough," Miller told Fox News Digital. "The center would remain greasy and partially cooked."

They were so dense, doughy and uncooked that "sailors called them sinkers," she said.

Gregory, just 15 at the time, was struck by an idea to lighten the sinker. He took the lid off a water-tight tin can that was used to store pepper in the ship galley.

"He used it like a cookie cutter. He cut out the center of the oily cakes," she said, while displaying a 19th-century tin spice can, with its sharp-edged lid.

NATIONAL DONUT DAY 2022: WHERE TO FIND FREE DONUT DEALS

"Then, when [the cakes] were fried, they were completely fried through. The idea caught on. It spread around the world because sailors told sailors."

She wrote in her book, "Ships' cooks now served holey cakes" instead of oily cakes.

Hansons mom introduced the innovation to landlubbers, selling them at a friends general store in their native midcoast Maine, Miller said.

"The first holes ever seen by mortal eyes!" Captain Hanson Gregory

"Well, sir, those donuts were the finest ever tasted," an elderly Captain Gregory told The Patriot Ledger of Quincy, Mass., in a 1916 interview, as in his golden years he gained recognition for his invention of years earlier.

Texas author Pat Miller wrote the 2016 children's book, "The Hole Story of The Doughnut," chronicling the life of Captain Hanson Gregory, with illustrations by Vincent X. Kirsch. (HarperCollins Publishers)

"No more indigestion no more sinkers just well-done, fried-through doughnuts."

He proclaimed they were "the first holes ever seen by mortal eyes!"

The influence of the donut on American culture had only just begun.

Boston-area entrepreneur William Rosenberg opened the first Dunkin Donuts in 1950 in Quincy less than a mile as the crow flies from the sailors cemetery where Captain Gregory has laid at rest since 1921.

The proximity of the original donut maker's burial place, and the birth of the nation's largest and most famous donut chain, appears to be nothing more than a quirky coincidence.

The first Dunkin' Donuts, founded in Quincy, Mass., in 1950, remains a roadside attraction today that draws visitors from as far away as Saudi Arabia, said franchisee Victor Carvalho. (Dunkin')

The Carvalho family now owns the original Dunkin location still in the same spot as it was in 1950, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

It's something of a tourist attraction, drawing donut lovers from as far away as Saudi Arabia, franchisee Victor Carvalho told Fox News Digital.

"We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Gregory," the family said.

"We feel a sense of pride and responsibility," he said, charged as they are with the ownership of an American culinary landmark. Yet even the Carvalho family, he said, only recently became aware that Gregory was buried a short distance away, across a narrow finger of Boston Harbor called Town River.

Scott Logan is charged with the care of Gregory's grave as the head of the City of Quincy's cemeteries department.

A variety of donuts are shown close up. Dunkin today has 12,600 donut shops in 40 countries, including 8.500 in the U.S. alone.

He grew up playing football, baseball and softball behind Snug Harbor School, just feet from the donut maker's burial place. Yet he only became aware of the donut pioneer in his role as cemetery caretaker.

"Everyone in Quincy knows about Dunkin' Donuts," Logan said. "Nobody knows the guy who invented the donut is buried right here. Nobody ever asks about him."

MEET THE AMERICAN WHO INVENTED LIGHT BEER

The Rosenberg family who founded Dunkin' apparently recognized Gregory's influence in later years. They reportedly paid to have the captains current gravestone erected in 1982, with a ceremony featuring local schoolchildren, after his original burial marker went missing.

Donuts and more donuts including some decorated in a patriotic theme.

"We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Gregory," the family told UPI at the time.

Dunkin' today boasts 12,600 donut shops in 40 countries, including 8,500 in the U.S. alone. It sells about 2 billion donuts and Munchkin donut holes worldwide each year, the company told Fox News Digital.

Captain Gregory lived a dramatic life of high-seas adventure well after his teenage epiphany.

Gregory's intrepidity earned him honors from Queen Isabella II of Spain herself.

He delivered supplies, lime most notably, from New England to San Francisco in the wake of the California Gold Rush. The journey took him around the dangerous seas of Cape Horn at the tip of South America.

Along the way, Gregory rescued seven Spanish sailors from drowning aboard a sinking ship. His intrepidity earned him honors from Queen Isabella II of Spain herself.

Author Pat Miller displays the type of 19th-century spice can that helped inspire the invention of the donut in 1847. Sailor Hanson Gregory used the lid of the can to cut holes in the middle of the dough balls before frying them, in order to ensure even cooking throughout. (Fox News Digital)

The captain later named one of his daughters in honor of her majesty, according to Miller.

Gregory died in 1921, without full recognition of his trend-setting creation.

His legacy as the inventor of donuts was elevated, however, during "The Great Doughnut Debate" of 1941 at Hotel Astor in New York City, according to a Smithsonian Magazine report in 1975. The captains relative, Fred E. Crockett, spoke in defense of the family.

"Captain Gregory was the unanimous choice of the judges."

Cape Cod attorney Henry A. Ellis sought to debunk the claim of the Crockett/Gregory family, with a tall tale that the donut can be traced to a scuffle between Pilgrims and Native American people in the 1620s, in which a Wampanoag fired an arrow through an Englishman's ball of dough.

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"The issue was never really in doubt," Smithsonian reported.

"Mr. Crocketts presentation included an array of affidavits, letters and other documents. Captain Gregory was the unanimous choice of the judges."

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The industry cemented Gregorys position in 1948, when the National Bakers Association confirmed Captain Gregory as the inventor of the donut his status as an American innovator literally etched in stone overlooking the ocean on which he spent his life.

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Meet the American who invented the donut - Fox News

Unless you live near a port, you probably dont think much about the tens of thousands of container ships tearing through the seas, hauling some 1.8 billion metric tons of stuff each year. Yet these vessels run on some of the dirtiest fuel there is, spewing more greenhouse gases than airplanes do in the process. The industry is exploring alternative fuels and electrification to solve the problem for next-generation ships, but in the meantime a Y Combinator-backed startup is gearing up to (hopefully) help decarbonize the big boats thatre already in the water.

London-based Seabound is currently prototyping carbon capture equipment that connects to ships smokestacks, using a lime-based approach to cut carbon emissions by as much as 95%, co-founder and CEO Alisha Fredriksson said in a call with TechCrunch. The startups tech works by routing the exhaust into a container thats filled with porous, calcium oxide pebbles, which in turn bind to carbon dioxide to form calcium carbonate, essentially limestone, per Fredriksson.

Though carbon capture has yet to really catch on for ships, Seabound is just one of the companies out to prove the tech can eventually scale. Others, including Japanese shipping firm K Line and Netherlands-based Value Maritime, are developing their own carbon-capture tech for ships, typically utilizing the better-established, solvent-based approach (which is increasingly used in factories). Yet this comparably tried-and-true method demands more space and energy aboard ships, because the process of isolating the CO2 happens on the vessel, according to Fredriksson.

In contrast, Seabound intends to process the CO2 on land, if at all. When the ships return from their journey, the limestone can be sold as is or separated via heat. In the latter case, the calcium oxide would be reused and the carbon sold for use or sequestration, per Fredriksson, who previously helped build maritime fuel startup Liquid Wind. Her co-founder, CTO Roujia Wen, previously worked on AI products at Amazon.

Seabound says it has signed six letters of intent with major shipowners, and it aims to trial the tech aboard ships beginning next year. To get there, the company has secured $4.4 million in a seed round led by Chris Saccas Lowercarbon Capital. Several other firms also chipped in on the deal, including Eastern Pacific Shipping, Emles Venture Partners, Hawktail, Rebel Fund and Soma Capital.

Beyond carbon capture, another Y Combinator-backed startup is setting out to decarbonize existing ships via a novel battery-swapping scheme. New Orleans-based Fleetzero aims to power electrified ships using shipping container-sized battery packs, which could be recharged through a network of charging stations at small ports.

Continued here:

Carbon capture is headed for the high seas - TechCrunch

ByIrina Anghel and Eamon Akil Farhat

May 21, 2022,(Bloomberg) Theres never been a more dreamy way to have your coffee delivered than a sailboat across the Atlantic.

A small number of specialty roasters in Europe are now offering beans that have been sailed rather thanshipped via fossil-fuel burning vessels from South America. While theyre a rare luxury compared with standard bags of supermarket coffee, these wind-blown beans may inspire some imaginative ideas for finding and stamping out carbon emissions fromyour everyday life.

Heres a glimpse of the journey: Roasters buy the beans directly from growers in countries like Colombia before theyre stored in a warehouse and loaded onto a sailboat destined for ports like Le Havre, France or Penzance, England. The crossing typically takessix weeks. The beans are then couriered to specialty roasters before ending up in espressos served in coffee shops or at home.

Youre one step away from the coffee being grown, almost, said Richard Blake, founder of Yallah Coffee, a Cornwall-based roaster who sells beans sailed from Colombia. A 1-kilogram bag of Yallah Coffees Las Brisas beans costs 50 ($62) but boasts a carbon footprint close to zero. As a price comparison, the most expensive coffee beans UK supermarket Tesco Plcsells onlineis a 1-kilogram bag for 13.75 ($17).

Blake said people are happy to pay for a premium product if they feel like there is value in all the steps.

That can be lost with the homogenized mix of beans on a supermarket shelf, he said, whereas if its single origin, and if its on a ship, theres less people in the chain, and that creates more value.

A few years ago, a small group ofenvironmentally focused entrepreneurs, such as Shipped by Sail in the UK, started using pirate-like schooners to prove that goods like coffee could be transported with near-zero emissions even if it took more money and all the risks linked with crossing the Atlantic on hundred-year-old wooden boats for a couple dozen bags of high-end beans.

What started as bravado is now making a bit more business sense. Consumers have become more willing to pay extra for the greener coffeeand roasters are rising to the challenge to provide it to them.

TakeBelco, a sustainable coffee importer based in France serving around 1,000 specialty roasters all over Europe. The company bought 22 tons of Colombian coffee delivered by a schooner earlier this year. Its had such positive feedback from customers that theyrenow planning to import at least halfof their total coffee beans about 4,000 tons by sailboat by 2025. In order to do this, though, theyre going to need a bigger boat.

Belco is relying on shipments from Frances TransOceanic Wind Transport, a sailing freight transport company. To meet growing demands of customers like Belco, TOWT is building a sailing vessel capable of holding 1,100 tons of goods. The first ship is due in June next year and three more should follow by 2026.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Costa Ricas SailCargo Inc. is preparing to sail South American beans north to customers like Serge Picard, the owner of CafWilliam Spartivento, the biggest Canadian-owned roaster for Fair Trade Organic coffee. Caf Williams said it has invested in a new SailCargo veseel that will carry 250 tons of goods when its expected to launch next year.

Years of innovation have given the coffee industry plenty of ways to reduce its carbon footprint on the farm level, from replacing chmical fertilizers with organic wasteto using renewable energy to power equipment. Shipping has remained a weak spot. It might be more efficient to transport coffee beans by sea than air, but todays cargo ship engines are driven by bunker fuel the dregs of th oil refining process. Large sailboats have motors for when theyre needed, but their main source of power is emissions-free wind, which gives them the added benefit of being mostly immune tovolatile oilprices.

To be sure, conventional freighters which hold thousands of tons of goods are much more economic than a ye olde pirate ship, or even a 1,000-ton sailing vessel, for transporting lots of different cargo like coffee. But that isnt stopping some coffee importers and sailboat manufacturers from trying to overthrow the heavy ships command of the high seas.

Maxence Lacroix, co-founder of Belgian specialty roasteryJavry, which acquired its first order of coffee beans via sailboat earlier this year, is keen to see disruption in the shipping industry.

We need to be lots of small actors to be able to change things, because the bigger actors are definitely not going to do it, he said. The change must come from the bottom.

2022Bloomberg L.P.

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Coffee Shipped by Sailboats In Efforts To Disrupt The Heavy Ships' Command Of The High Seas - gCaptain