Maritime 2018: How do we value the oceans? by Maritime Foundation

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MARITIME

Louis Mackay

How do we value the oceans?

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MARITIME Contents 1

Ocean values • Editorial Julian Parker obe

Shaping the world economy, and more • Sea trade Lincoln Paine

Geopolitics and information advantage • Information and technology Rear Admiral Dr Chris Parry cbe phd

Monitoring trade wars: an international analysis • Trade wars and shipping Peter Sands , Chief Shipping Analyst, BIMCO

12 Gateways to trade • UK Ports Tim Morris , CEO, UKMPG 15 Progress in controlling illegal fishing • The Pew Trusts Peter Horn mbe, the Pew Trusts 18 Global food security and illegal fishing • The FAO approach Matthew Camilleri, Lori Curtis and Alicia Mosteiro, FAO 21 Transparency: the key to catching rogue fishers • Global Fishing Watch Tony Long, CEO, GFW

Published October 2018 by the Maritime Foundation Charity No. 286784 HQS Wellington, Temple Stairs, Victoria Embankment, London WC2R 2PN www.maritimefoundation.uk Managing Editor: Anthony Harvey Editor: Hugh Brazier Designer: Louis Mackay / www.louismackaydesign.co.uk Advertising: SDB Marketing Printed by Swan Press, Shoreham, UK All articles in this publication are the copyright of their named contributors and may be reproduced only with the contributor’s permission. Any opinions expressed by contributors and advertisers are their own and do not necessarily represent views or policies of the Maritime Foundation. The Maritime Foundation is a registered charity which promotes Britain’s interests across the maritime field. Its purpose is to inform and raise public and parliamentary awareness of the importance of the UK’s manifold dependence on the sea, through education, training and research, and through the Foundation’s annual Maritime Media Awards. All images in this publication are copyright and, unless marked as Public Domain (PD) or covered by a Creative Commons licence, may not be reproduced without the permission of the copyright holder.

25 UNCLOS: fit for purpose? • The law of the sea Professor Steven Haines , University of Greenwich 28 Creating an ocean-friendly society • Ocean literacy Louisa Hooper, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation 31 Making a splash • RRS Sir David Attenborough Linda Capper mbe , British Antarctic Survey 34 Fife yachts • Photographs Kathy Mansfield 36 Can we save Antarctica? • A battle for the icy continent Doaa Abdel-Motaal 39 Stemming the tide of plastic waste • The Green Blue Sara Mills, RYA 42 Plastic in the food chain • Sky Ocean Rescue Thomas Moore, Sky TV 45 Tough decisions, as the clock ticks down • Greener shipping Richard Clayton, Lloyd’s List 48 Designing the world’s maritime future • UK shipping Bob Sanguinetti, CEO, UK Chamber of Shipping 51 Exploring the unknown • Mapping Planet Ocean Jyotika Virmani, XPRIZE ,and Henry Gilliver , Seabed 2030 54 The Fleet Diving Squadron • Royal Navy divers Commander Del McKnight rn 56 The Royal Navy Air Service • A tribute to the pioneers of 1914–18 Commander Sue Eagles qvrm rd 56 A barge fit for a queen • The Royal Barge Gloriana Malcolm Knight, the Gloriana Trust

how do we value the oceans?

| Editorial

Ocean values Julian Parker obe, Chairman, the Maritime Foundation

Kees Torn CC-BY-SA2.0

Vivianne Stewart

ow do we value the oceans? The aim of Maritime 2018 is to challenge assumptions about our relationship with the sea. In this context seaborne trade, maritime industries, ocean resources including energy and fish stocks, oceanographic research and hydrography, naval defence and security and the upholding of law and order in both coastal waters and the high seas all remain vitally important to the UK as an island nation. Today, however, when we think of the value that we place on the oceans, there is a new focus emerging. Thanks in large part to the work of the media, there is a growing awareness that human interventions are damaging the oceans, and that some of the trends in the ecology of marine systems that are now being identified may be irreversible. One key value of the oceans lies in their role as highways for commerce. Civilisations rely on seaborne trade, and trading networks evolve to satisfy our demands in all kinds of complex ways. The theme of trade runs through many of the articles in this publication, covering issues such as the future of the UK shipping industry and British ports, and the wideranging effects that trade wars are likely to have both on national economies and on the global shipping industry. It is also important to remember that trade has consequences for the ocean environment – for example through emissions, the discharge of ballast water and the diffusion of invasive species. There is also value in

the seabed – not only for the energy resources it holds but also for the massive network of communication cables that run across it. Disruption of these networks could become a serious strategic challenge as the established rules-based system of ocean governance shows signs of breaking down. And yet we know very little about the under-sea domain, with less that six per cent of the seabed currently mapped at high resolution. If we value the ocean, we must manage it sustainably and police it effectively, and these are two further vital threads that run through Maritime 2018. Several contributors discuss ocean pollution, reminding us that the sea can no longer be seen as a sink for throwaway

Endangered by undervaluation of the ocean – longliners’ hooks, microplastics and declining stocks of food species as a result of unregulated fishing – an albatross soars over the Southern Ocean.

If we value the ocean, we must manage it sustainably

A highway for commerce – with consequences for the ocean environment.

EDITORIAL

Lakshmi Sawitri CC-BY-SA2.0

Sardines.

Who has the responsibility to clear the ocean gyres in international waters? Who taxes whom for this purpose?

plastics. Thanks to media intervention and environmental agencies we all now know that plastics of all sorts are finding their way into the aquatic food chain. But this creates a totally new type of problem, not simply for individuals but for humanity. How is this to be valued, and who has the responsibility to clear the ocean gyres in international waters? Who taxes whom for this purpose?

Nobody owns the high seas There is a similar unresolved conflict of interest in the case of illegal fisheries. Nobody owns the high seas, and responsibility for law enforcement rests with the flag state of the fishing vessels involved – but it has to be recognised that flag states do not have the resources to cover deep-sea enforcement. At last, the problem of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is being tackled by several agencies, using a range of tools from the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA) to the development of remote-sensing technology. But regrettably there are still many unregulated outlets, and fish processing continues at an international industrial level: demand can always lead supply. This global problem needs an international response – but how is it to be valued, and who pays? The struggle to achieve global compliance, balancing the economic aspirations of nation states and commercial companies, comes

into focus again in relation to Antarctica. Like the open oceans, Antarctica and its delineated sea limits belong to no country. However, mineral extraction and exploitation of the waters and land territory have enormously profitable potential. How are the environmental concerns valued, and will the common heritage of mankind be the guiding principle? Such matters may seem remote, but it is evident that the maritime scene has many dimensions. Some, such as boat building and leisure pursuits, are familiar to many of us – but others are less so, and Maritime 2018 also covers naval diving, trade wars, ocean research, the need for maritime educational initiatives. The multidimensional nature of the subject is matched by the astonishing range of expertise and insight demonstrated by the authors who have contributed to this publication, reflecting the breadth of the spectrum of their involvement with the oceans. To all our contributors, thank you for expanding our horizons and demonstrating not only the opportunities which exist within the sector but also the pressing challenges that need to be overcome. The immensity of the oceans makes sustainable practices difficult to internalise in any meaningful way with respect to value. In spite of this we are seeing that perceptions really are changing – and that is because the media has the power to bring the ocean into our living rooms. Through the Maritime Media Awards, the Maritime Foundation has sought to give recognition to those authors, journalists, and programme makers who provide new insights into the factors which need to be accounted for when we come to reassess maritime values. n

how do we value the oceans?

| Sea trade

Shaping the world economy, and more

Six decades of expansion While in the twenty-first century we tend to look skyward for evidence of globalisation, our attention is misdirected. Planes carry the overwhelming majority of intercontinental passengers, but with the exception of a few high-value goods, the bulk of the world’s tangible goods are carried by sea. Even the notion of the computer ‘cloud’ ignores the reality of how the Internet works, because 99 percent of intercontinental data travels via cables laid on the seabed by ships. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), more than 80% of global trade by volume, and more than 70% by value, travels by ship. UNCTAD put the volume of

Edward Hart 1904 / Library of Congress. PD

here is nothing American about the quintessentially American Big Mac; its principal ingredients are alien to the western hemisphere. The wheat for its bun was domesticated in what is now Iraq; the cattle that supply its beef and cheese are native to Turkey; its garnishes of lettuce, mustard, pickled cucumber and onion originated in Egypt, India and central Asia. All of these reached the Americas as familiars of the miscellaneous conquistadors and colonists who carried them across the seas in hopes of replicating their homelands in a new world. In historical terms, all these and countless other species are newcomers to the Americas, where they arrived by ship scarcely five hundred years ago. Humble though each of them is when viewed in isolation, they contributed directly to the astonishing prosperity of countries from Argentina to Canada, and their movement across the ocean – to say nothing of the people who brought them – is but one instance of the profound and longstanding influence of maritime trade in the world economy.

Lincoln Paine considers the profound and longstanding effects of shipborne commerce – on cities, people and ecosystems

seaborne trade in 2015 at 10.3 billion tons, with a combined value of $25.3 trillion. These figures encompass business-to-consumer and business-to-business sales of myriad different goods, from refrigerated meats, juices, and flowers, to finished products like sneakers, cars, and computers. But the largest share of non-bulk cargoes comprises intermediate goods – components fashioned in various parts of the world and brought together for assembly into finished articles. These end products are then distributed to markets worldwide, once again in the roughly 50,000 seagoing ships of the world fleet. This is to say nothing of the massive quantities of fuel and bulk cargoes like iron ore, coal, grain, sand, and a host of other mundane products. The only time this process attracts public

Carrying the stuff of future hamburgers, Columbus’s Santa Maria – a Spanish replica built to commemorate the quatercenternary, and photographed in 1893.

More than 80% of global trade by volume travels by ship

S H A P I N G T H E W O R L D E C O N O M Y, A N D M O R E

Louis Mackay

A container ship in the port of Lisbon, one of the declining number of major cities with a local waterfront.

On average, every man, woman and child on the planet has access to three times as much stuff as sixty years ago

attention is when sea trade is disrupted and goods are suddenly unavailable. Given our reliance on just-in-time inventory management, even a temporary disruption in flows along the global supply train – from industrial action or a ship sinking, for instance – can have devastating and widely dispersed effects. Anything more severe and sustained, such as armed conflict in the wrong part of the world or prolonged trade wars, could upend the global economy. This assessment is based not on a generic belief in the importance of sea trade, but on an appreciation of how dramatically it has expanded in the past six decades, from the start of the container revolution and the concomitant rise of the consumer society. Since 1960, the world’s population has grown 2.5 times, but the volume of sea trade has increased 7.5 times. On average, every man, woman and child on the planet has access to three times as much stuff as sixty years ago. The implications for our expectations and worldviews are staggering. There are few consumers or producers, in either advanced economies or the developing world, who could begin to fathom life without the massive, globalised economy we have today. For someone aged forty, a world with a volume of trade reduced just to what it was when he or she was born would be almost unimaginable.

The concentration of wealth Important though such figures are in helping us make sense of the impact of shipping on daily life, maritime trade is not simply a function of tonnages and monetary values. The directions in which goods flow help

determine where wealth is concentrated. Shippers are relentless in their quest for economies of scale, and their concerns – everything from the location of ports to the cost and availability of infrastructure and labour – dictate that a few select coastal and river regions benefit from trade far more than others. While cities like New Orleans, Rotterdam, and Hong Kong still obviously look seaward, many others, such as London and New York, have been shorn of their working waterfronts. Container terminals require large, flat areas with easy access to highways and railroads and ample space for marshalling containers and trucks. As containerisation developed, islands like Manhattan and congested urban centres like London’s docklands were abandoned, their functions transferred to remote, underdeveloped areas. Today, there are nearly 5,000 coastal, river, and lake ports of all kinds worldwide. In 2016, the total volume of container throughput was just shy of 700 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units); the top 40 ports accounted for 416 million TEU. Put another way, 60% of container traffic is handled by less than 1% of the world’s ports. Because of the costs associated with building, maintaining, and enlarging port facilities to accommodate ever-larger ships, ports that have committed to handling the biggest ships must constantly increase the size and speed of their cargo-handling operations.

Logistical inefficiencies transferred The results have been transformative. Whereas it once took longer to load or unload a breakbulk freighter than it did for that ship to cross an ocean, now even the largest container ships can be offloaded in a matter of hours. But if ships remain out of sight and out of mind,

S H A P I N G T H E W O R L D E C O N O M Y, A N D M O R E

these efficiencies have real consequences for the rest of us. Ships are only one leg of the intermodal transportation system, the other two being trains and trucks. It is no surprise that we come face-to-face with the latter every day in traffic jams the world over. Laid endto-end, the number of containers handled at the 40 busiest container ports would circle the equator more than 64 times! In effect, shippers have transferred their logistical inefficiencies onto the rest of us, with easily quantifiable economic and environmental results. According to one study, for example, in 2016 the average commuter in the United States spent 42 hours stuck in traffic and burned $1,400 worth of petrol in the process. The paradox in all this is that despite the paramount importance of maritime industries to the world economy, ships and seafarers are all but invisible. Although the world fleet has grown by 50% since a century ago, and the ships are vastly bigger, the shipping industry has faded from view. Not only has port infrastructure been moved away from where most people can see it, but the number of workers employed at sea and alongshore has actually shrunk.

Disastrous side effects Sea trade has had profound economic repercussions of a completely unintended kind, too. The establishment of permanent sea routes between Eurasia and Africa and the Americas made possible the beneficial spread of flora and fauna, including people, from east to west and vice versa, which in turn laid the foundations of the Big Mac. But this seaborne mixing and mingling has also had disastrous side effects. Eurasian and African diseases killed as much as 90% of the indigenous population of the Americas. And in the United States, where some 50,000 non-native plant and animal species have been introduced intentionally or escaped from

managed ecosystems like botanical gardens and home aquariums, more than half the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s endangered bird and plant species are threatened by invasives. Shipping infrastructure has been more immediately implicated in the diffusion of alien species. One outcome of digging canals is the incidental migration of fish and aquatic plants between formerly remote bodies of water, like the Caribbean and the Pacific via the Panama Canal, or the Mediterranean and Red Seas via the Suez Canal. Of far greater consequence in recent years, the use of ballast water to stabilise ships has led to the introduction of aquatic invasives like the Chinese mitten crab from Asia to the Thames, the zebra mussel from the Black Sea to North America, and the North American comb jellyfish to the Black Sea. The harm done by these animals, among many others, has resulted in billions of dollars in damages to municipal infrastructure, native fisheries and coastal habitat.

A complex picture The role of maritime trade in shaping the world economy at the local, national, regional and global level is as indisputable as it is complex. We can easily identify positives and negatives in the story of shipborne commerce, but we must view them all in context. Celebrate as we do the indisputable benefits of global shipping, we cannot ignore its adverse impacts. Above all, a proper appreciation of how our world works depends on a basic understanding of the place of sea trade in everyday life. n Lincoln Paine is the author of The Sea and Civilisation, which won a Maritime Media Awards certificate of merit in 2014. He is currently writing a maritime history of America entitled Global America and how it got that way. He lives in Maine, USA.

Steven G Johnson CCASA3.0Up

Although the world fleet has grown by 50% since a century ago, and the ships are vastly bigger, the shipping industry has faded from view

The North American comb jellyfish, spread by ballast water, and now an ecologically and economically damaging invasive species in the Black Sea..

how do we value the oceans?

| Information and technology

Geopolitics and information advantage Dr Chris Parry considers the need for maritime information advantage in an era of geostrategic competition

t is commonly supposed that more is known by the public about the planets in our solar system than about the oceans and the topography of the seabed. For most

USN/PD

A depiction of the underwater mapping capability of American T-AGS 60 Class Oceanographic Survey ships.

There are indications that the era of collaboration and transparency is about to end

of modern history, interest in its features has mostly been geared towards ensuring safe navigation, warfare, fishing, laying underwater cables and, latterly, the exploitation of resources, notably oil, gas and minerals. More recently, technology has stimulated an acceleration and intensification of major initiatives to map the seabed and water column, led by states, environmental groups, academic institutions and extractive industries.

Collaboration – more or less The emergence of digitised sensor technologies and computer and AI-enabled scanning, interpretation and representational techniques has led to the likelihood of a flood of information about the ‘watery world wide web’ that is the sea. This is made possible by the fact that, outside territorial waters, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) allows, in principle, surveying and mapping to take place beyond the control of coastal states. As a result, it is hoped to provide 3D mapping and visualisations of

almost the entire world’s undersea terrain and associated water conditions by 2030. One of the leading contributors to this collaborative project is Seabed 2030, which plans to map up to 140 million square miles of the seabed by 2030, with the non-profit group General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO) coordinating surveys of the world’s marine topography by about a hundred crowd-sourced ships with multibeam bathymetry systems. Among many other international governmental, academic and non-governmental organisations, UK companies and universities continue to be in the forefront of mapping the seabed and developing detailed geophysical representations of its changing topographies. MAREMAP is a collaborative programme led by the British Geological Survey (BGS), the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) and the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), in partnership with the University of Southampton, the Channel Coastal Observatory, the University of Plymouth, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), the Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) and Marine Scotland. Meanwhile, the UK’s Hydrographic Office is a world leader in the quality and range of its navigational, surveying and marine topography products, as well as its extensive databases. Russia and China also devote extensive resources to these activities, as does the United States, primarily through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The overall pattern has been one of imperfect but recognisable collaboration.

Information superiority However, there are indications that the era of collaboration and transparency is about to end. China and Russia and other authoritarian regimes are becoming progressively restrictive

NOC

USN/PD

G E O P O L I T I C S A N D I N F O R M AT I O N A D VA N TAG E

The UK National Oceanography Centre’s ship Discovery, with an array of ‘gliders’.

to detect submarines and ships), weapons installed on and in the seabed and hubs for unmanned vehicles.

Exploiting ambiguity This increasingly competitive and potentially confrontational situation has been stoked, in part, by UNCLOS. As indicated, UNCLOS legally enabled the surveying and mapping of sea areas outside territorial seas by any state or company, but, in the interests of achieving consensus, never satisfactorily resolved what constituted ‘marine scientific research’, ‘survey activities’, ‘hydrographic survey’ and ‘military survey’ in the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of various countries. This ambiguity now causes contention and allows some states to attempt to impose restrictions on information gathering within their EEZs. The United States, the United Kingdom and other maritime powers associate these activities, especially military surveying in EEZs, with freedoms of navigation and overflight and do not recognise the jurisdiction of the coastal state. China and Russia, as well as others, oppose this view and legislate to control all research activities within their EEZs. In addition, China seeks to extend prohibitions into sea areas where it claims sovereignty and jurisdiction, notably in the South and East China Seas. Its approach has been borne out by a succession of recent incidents, with aggressive policing of its artificial structures in the South China Sea, its harassment of the surveying vessels and aircraft of foreign countries and its seizure of a USNS underwater drone in December 2016. USN/PD

about sharing and releasing information that relates to their territorial seas, exclusive economic zones and other claims. At a time of returning geostrategic rivalry, it has been recognised that information superiority about the maritime domain has become a vital component of not only commercial, but also strategic competition, notably in two critical areas. Firstly, maritime information superiority will provide the ammunition for states conducting ‘lawfare’ – the use of legal means to delegitimise and discredit strategic, regional and local opponents and competitors. The availability of reliable, or at least plausible, information lies at the heart of current disputes, such as in the Arctic and the East and South China Seas, as well as in a wide range of other contentious cases. In addition, claims to EEZs beyond 200 nautical miles rely on the submission of detailed ‘evidencebased’ justifications and the delegitimisation of counter-claims. Conversely, in a post-truth and fake-news world, access to comprehensive, verifiable data is also crucial to combating the false claims of countries that seek to extend their jurisdictions into other states’ economic zones and territorial waters, and into international sea-space. The other key area is that of warfare. The successful exploitation of superior information about the sea and the seabed has long proved a decisive advantage in war, not least in submarine, anti-submarine and amphibious and sea-mining operations. High-quality information and processing will be essential in mapping and negotiating increasingly complex marine environments. Here, the increased use of the seabed for civilian applications, such as transoceanic cables, oil and gas platforms and distribution systems and offshore grids, is likely to be matched by a wide range of military applications – which look likely to include ‘bottom arrays’ (acoustic devices

A Seabed Warfare Workshop held in May 2017 at the US Naval War College with the aim of developing doctrine and concepts that support Undersea Domain-Centric Warfare.

The availability of reliable, or at least plausible, information lies at the heart of current disputes Geostrategic competition – a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 aircraft makes an extremely low pass over US guidedmissile destroyer USS Donald Cook in the Baltic (April 2016).

G E O P O L I T I C S A N D I N F O R M AT I O N A D VA N TAG E

Meanwhile, Russia, which holds vast amounts of hydrographic and seabed mapping information about the Arctic derived from its research activities during the Cold War, is highly resistant to the operations of other countries’ information-gathering platforms in the region. As a result, although most surveying and mapping will continue to be provided by aircraft, ships and satellites, this work will increasingly be undertaken by both autonomous and semi-autonomous underwater unmanned technologies. Acting both anonymously and as state-sponsored assets, they will include gliders, capable of spending months on task, as well as preprogrammed and responsive unmanned vehicles deployed from aircraft, ships and submarines, allowing wide area coverage and the penetration of disputed and aggressively defended areas. They will necessarily be linked to wide-area and space-based communications and data links, in order to facilitate command functions and data transfer. USN/PD

One focus of rivalry is the Arctic. Above, warships of the Russian Northern fleet in the Barents Sea. Below, US engineers drill a hole in sea ice to deploy divers during Ice Exercise (ICEX) 2016 – a five-week exercise designed to research, test, and evaluate military operational capabilities in the Arctic.

The US Navy’s SeaGlide - a small autonomous robot gider equipped to gather information under water.

Open and closed regimes In future, the maritime world is likely to be characterised by ‘open’ and ‘closed’ information regimes at sea, practised by those states, respectively, that support a cooperative rules-based system and those which seek to control information about their USN/PD

The maritime world is likely to be characterised by ‘open’ and ‘closed’ information regimes at sea

Contested maritime turf, contested rights of passage: the South China Sea and some of its atolls, seen from space. NASA

Russian Ministry of Defence

territorial seas, economic zones and sea areas of strategic interest. These closed regimes will be reinforced by coercive measures and a proliferation of traffic schemes, exclusion zones and prohibited zones, to conceal and protect sensitive areas and routes (especially those used by submarines), on the pretext of security, environmental protection or sovereign jurisdiction. When coupled to advanced algorithmic and AI-enhanced data analysis and decision support, this situation will lead to an asymmetric information disadvantage for those countries subscribing to an open system, and to corresponding advantages for those that are simultaneously able to access open sources and exclude others from their own closed information base.

A strategic challenge These trends and factors represent a significant strategic challenge to the maritime states represented by the United States, the United Kingdom and their allies in sustaining the established rules-based system at sea. In parallel with maintaining the physical integrity of the watery worldwide web, it is evident that they will also have to sustain decisive information superiority, both for commercial and for strategic reasons, collaborating where they can and competing where they must. n Rear Admiral Dr Chris Parry cbe phd served 36 years in the Royal Navy and was subsequently the founding chairman of the Marine Management Organisation. Today he has his own strategic forecasting consultancy and is a regular broadcaster and commentator in the media. He is the author of Super Highway: Seapower in the 21st Century (Elliot & Thompson, 2014). In 2015 he was the winner of the Desmond Wettern Media Award

how do we value the oceans?

| Trade wars and shipping

Monitoring trade wars: an international analysis

Peter Sands, Chief Shipping Analyst at BIMCO, considers the impact of intensifying trade conflict on an industry that is already struggling to turn a profit

Uncertainty By early July, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) kept its headline global gross domestic product (GDP) growth projection unchanged from April, at 3.9% for 2018 and 2019. The projection was made just after the ‘second round’ of tariffs on 6 July. Since then, much more has happened. The speeding trade-war train is moving faster and faster, adding uncertainty to ever more industries, which have to prepare contingency plans for how to handle the uncertainty and subsequent changes to its businesses. In early August, more goods were enrolled in the trade war and long lists of additional proposals were published. On top of this, a new sanctions regime involving the US and Iran is putting another layer of stress on a shipping industry that is struggling to generate profits. While keeping the headline unchanged, many smaller adjustments were made to 2018 GDP estimates for major economies,

Louis Mackay / © BPC

ho is really in favour of globalisation at the moment? Shipping surely is, but many of the nations that affect shipping at large, with huge imports and exports of seaborne commodities, find themselves entangled more and more in rolling back free trade – right now, at a particularly high speed. The US is spearheading this development, and trading partners find themselves with no other option but retaliation. Starting a trade war is bad for everyone, and shipping is right in the eye of the storm. The most recent round of proposed tariffs, BIMCO estimates, will affect as much as 20% of the containerised eastbound transpacific trade, one of the world’s busiest and most important trade lanes. More and more dry bulk commodities are feeling the effects, whereas the impact on oil and gas tankers is more limited. including Latin America, Brazil, Japan and the euro area – all of them going one way: down. It’s not clear from the IMF data where the balancing upgrade is coming from. Not surprisingly, the IMF’s estimate for world trade volumes, especially among advanced economies, was adjusted downwards for both 2018 and 2019 in July.

Europe It’s no secret that many European economies’ industrial production performance peaked last year. Now it seems as if the slowdown in growth has stabilised. The same goes for the EU monthly manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI); after falling for six months in a row, it went into reverse in July – a sign of stabilising output. Jobs are still being created, although at a slower pace than in 2017. In July, the IMF revised GDP growth projections down for large economies such as Germany, France and Italy, among others, for business-activity reasons, as well as because of political uncertainty.

A bulker at Avonmouth. Dry bulk has been more adversely affected by recent developments than oil and gas shipping.

Starting a trade war is bad for everyone, and shipping is right in the eye of the storm

Louis Mackay

MONITORING TRADE WARS

A Chinese container ship off the coast of Denmark. China continues to drive a lot of shipping demand.

The recent Turkish turmoil is unlikely to have much of an economic impact on the euro area. Spanish and French banks are most exposed, but it’s a small share of their assets. Politically, it’s already a murky picture – and one that still holds a downside, mostly. As 29 March 2019 comes within sight, Brexit is taking up ever more political attention. The UK’s growth projection was also revised downwards by the IMF in July, to 1.4% (– 0.2) in 2018, while the 2019 projection was unchanged at 1.5%.

United States In the lead-up to 4 November, the date when the new US-only sanctions against Iran enter

GDP growth projections, 2017–2019.

GDP growth projections 8.0

7.0

6.0

5.0

4.0

3.0

2.0

1.0

Annual percentage growth

2017-2019E

8.0

2018E

Gl ob al v. e Em co n. er gin W ge or ld co tra n. de vo lum e

2017 Note: World trade volume, is a simple average of growth rates for export and import volumes (goods and services).

ca fri

Br az

ina

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ain

pa Ja

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an y

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Ita ly Un ite d

ite dS

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2019E

Source: BIMCO, IMF

into force, the US is seeking wider support for the initiative. Shipowners and operators are already affected by the sanctions. It’s critical for many operators to be able to call at US ports continually, and this makes them shy away from Iranian business. In turn, this opens up an emerging and growing market serving Iran and, for example, China for owners and operators that never call at US ports. Other US sanctions against Russia and Turkey are expected to have less of an impact on the shipping industry. In the midst of the trade war, the ‘advance estimate’ of US second-quarter GDP growth came in high, at 4.1% (seasonally adjusted at annual rates), pushed up by personal consumption expenditure on goods, and even more on services. The final day for hearing comments on the proposed US$200 billion tariff list of imported Chinese goods is 5 September. Implementation of that list is likely to happen in October 2018. BIMCO is keeping a close eye on the developments of the trade war and its impact on shipping via regular updates.

Asia Emerging and developing economies’ share of global GDP is going up constantly. This is largely because of Asian economies such as those within the ASEAN-5 (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam), which is projected to grow by 5.3% in 2018 and 2019. China and India, the largest of the

MONITORING TRADE WARS Monthly industrial production, year-on-year, 2014–2018.

Monthly industrial production Year-on-year, 2014-2018

15%

12%

Outlook The trade war is already affecting large parts of the shipping industry. Only crude oil was exempted in a last-minute adjustment by the Chinese authorities. Once pulled off the list, BIMCO does not expect it back. Most attention is on the US–China trade war, but it’s a global war impacting on many other nations in different ways – and one

-3%

EU-28

USA

Japan

China

India

Jul. 2018

Jan. 2018

Jul. 2017

Jan. 2017

Jul. 2016

-15%

Jan. 2016

-12%

-15%

Jul. 2015

-9%

-12% Jan. 2015

-6%

Jul. 2014

-6% -9%

Jan. 2014

Asian economies besides Japan, are expected to grow at even faster rates. Japan is set to return to a low GDP growth level for 2018 and 2019, at around 1%, down from 1.7% in 2017. A slow start to the year has pushed down growth because of weak private consumption and investments. A reversal of these trends and stronger exports are expected to drive the Japanese economy faster in the second half of the year. South Korea experienced a relatively poor second quarter, as it grew only 0.7% during Q1 (2.9% annualised). Exports, accounting for 43% of GDP, grew by only 0.8% after a jump of 4.4% in Q1. Investments in capital goods and private consumption fell during the second quarter. As a positive side-effect of the trade war, some of the Asian manufacturing hubs outside China may see their share of extraAsian exports increase at a faster rate than before. Many semi-finished manufacturing goods are transported around Asia in containers, before being exported overseas. Currently, 25% of global container shipping volume is intra-Asia. China continues to drive a lot of shipping demand as it develops further. The Chinese economy is still growing quite strongly, but at a slower pace than before. To smooth the way to a lower growth level, the People’s Bank of China has returned to easing monetary, as well as fiscal, policies in 2018.

Growth rate

18%

15%

Growth rate

18%

Brazil

Source: BIMCO, Eurostat, NBS China, METI, Federal Reserve System, SIDRA, MOSPI

that also affects the global shipping industry. Domestic steel markets are now being ‘protected’ from imports. Trading partners are having difficulties figuring out how to continue doing business. Up until now, the impact has mostly been massive uncertainty, added to an increasingly complicated trade environment. But as new tariff regimes are put into force, during the recent and coming months, transport volumes on a larger scale will be involved. Dry bulk and container shipping is at the centre of this. One of the effects of the trade war may be longer sailing distances for some commodities, while others will experience shorter sailing distances. Overall, however, a general increase in the cost of goods is likely to lead to decreased demand, so shipped volumes could drop. The trade war also presents a risk of slower global economic growth, which will also hurt the shipping business. These are my observations at the end of August 2018, at the time of this magazine going to press: the situation is obviously very fluid, with potential changes daily, let alone weekly or monthly. The next market update will be available in the first week of November. n BIMCO (the Baltic and International Maritime Council) is the world’s largest international shipping association, with around 2,000 members in more than 120 countries. Its global membership includes shipowners, operators, managers, brokers and agents. For further information, see www.bimco.org

A general increase in the cost of goods is likely to lead to decreased demand

how do we value the oceans?

| UK Major Ports Group

Gateways to trade Tim Morris, Chief Executive Officer, UKMPG, looks forward with confidence to the future of the UK’s ports

With around 95% of all goods entering and leaving the UK moved by sea, ports are the UK’s predominant gateways to the world

njoying a cup of tea or coffee while you’re reading this? You wouldn’t be able to without major UK ports. With around 95% of all goods entering and leaving the UK moved by sea,1 and 75% of that passing through the ports of UK Major Ports Group (UKMPG) members, sea ports are the UK’s predominant gateways with the world. They enable trade and provide each of us with many of our daily needs. Nearly half of the UK’s food and feed is handled by one of the UK’s largest ports on its way to your home and hand. Almost every screen you look at – TV, phone, tablet – has arrived in the UK via the sea. Our ports are also fundamental for the UK’s strategic manufacturing sectors. Eight out every ten cars made by the UK’s world-beating automotive sector, for example, are exported. These are just some examples of the fundamental role that ports, and particularly major ports, play in our lives and for the UK economy – an economy to which the ports sector directly contributed £7.6 billion of value in 2015.2

Trade benefits us all Does it matter that we trade with the world? Yes, it certainly does. International trade has an important, positive impact on economic growth. Trade increases competition and allows the scale required for greater productivity and innovation. Again, the UK’s automotive sector is a case in point. The Treasury recently referenced two weighty academic studies demonstrating the benefits to a national economy from more international trade:3 n A 1% increase in the trade-to-GDP ratio leads to a 0.17–0.33% improvement in GDP per capita. n A 1% improvement in export growth brings a 0.5–0.75% boost to GDP per capita. So, although of course it’s never as straightforward as economists’ models predict, the evidence does suggest that an economy that trades more is generally one that creates more value.

Realising the potential Major ports are also key catalysts for investment and jobs in their local regions, regions which can too often suffer from high levels of economic and social hardship.4 This catalytic effect is not just in the ports themselves – where the jobs are 47% more productive than the UK average,5 and often significantly better paid than local averages. It is also in the surrounding hinterlands as ports develop their broader estates and local land for productive use – logistics parks, fulfilment centres and manufacturing facilities. The wider infrastructure

G AT E WAYS TO T R A D E : U K P O R T S

UKMPG

development – such as road and rail connectivity – made to support port development can also open up a range of more general economic and business activity for coastal communities. It is claimed that each pound spent on a road scheme connecting a port can add more than four pounds of value for the wider local economy through improving conditions for business and tourism.6

It is of course essential that growth is sustainable, both economically and environmentally. Major ports take environmental stewardship very seriously. They play an important role in sectors such as renewable energy – including as sites for wind and solar energy – as well as being vital parts of the supply chain. They have made good progress on issues such as air quality, and they are developing the next generation of hybrid and fully electric equipment. The task for both business and regulators is to ensure that environmental protection proceeds hand in hand with the economic growth that creates jobs and economic wellbeing.

The Brexit challenge Much has been written about the risks from Brexit. It’s important to get the facts straight and concentrate concern on the real areas of risk. The UK’s large ports handle huge volumes of non-EU trade already. In some UKMPG ports, 95% of trade comes from outside the EU Customs Union. The main ports handling high volumes of self-driven traffic (‘accompanied’ or ‘selfpropelled RoRo’ in the jargon) on very short sailings within the EU are not UKMPG members, but we acknowledge that these ports face a particular concentration of Brexit risk

The tanker Scirocco in the Port of Bristol.

UKMPG

Sustainable benefits

factors. Department for Transport statistics identify 8% of UK port volumes for 2016 as falling into this category.7 Dover is by far the dominant port in this segment, making up 6% of UK port volumes, with a 97% concentration of self-propelled RoRo traffic. The challenges certainly shouldn’t blind us to the opportunities that Brexit brings. The fact that boosting the UK’s trade with the world is now high on the agenda is great news not just for ports but for many sectors of the UK economy. Some ports are already experiencing customer interest as alternatives to congested routes are put in place. And, given that the UK’s major ports sector is unique in Europe in being privately run and owned, Brexit is an opportunity to create the right pro-investment policy framework for the UK situation. Port operators have proved time and again that they can adapt successfully to major change – but to do so they need clarity on what changes are needed, pragmatism around the period of change, and safeguards on any negative impacts on investment and competitiveness.

Looking forward with confidence With Brexit, the UK stands at a transformational point in its history. Trade and ports will be central to the UK reasserting

New environmentally friendly cargo handling equipment: the all-electric Kalmar fast-charging straddle carrier, currently on trial – a world first here in the UK.

G AT E WAYS TO T R A D E : U K P O R T S

London Gateway container terminal.

UKMPG

Britain is at its best when it is an open, trading nation, and its ports have been foundations of the nation’s economic success and prosperity for hundreds of years. If the UK continues to make trade a national priority, has the courage to grasp the opportunities that Brexit offers and takes an infrastructure-led approach to growth, major ports are confident that they will continue to play this foundation role for centuries to come. n

We have the potential to boost investment, jobs and opportunity in our coastal communities, as well as in globally trading supply chains

itself as a confident, successful independent nation on the world stage. Through doing so we have the potential to boost investment, jobs and opportunity in our coastal communities as well as in globally trading supply chains throughout the UK. So what is the three-point plan from the UK’s major ports to supercharge the success of the UK as a global trade player? 1. Hard-wire ‘trade’ as a priority into government and regulation – for example by establishing a cabinet committee and conducting a ‘trade first’ review of key policy areas. 2. Make sure we have the right connectivity between the UK’s global gateways and our main centres of economic activity and populations – for example by putting more focus on improving the key ‘freight corridors’ responsible for the majority of trade movement in the UK. 3. Use the UK’s new flexibility to set a policy and regulatory landscape that’s appropriate for its unique major ports sector – for example by exploring the potential of ‘free ports’ to drive investment and jobs around our coast and by setting environmental standards which remain high but which reflect the specific circumstances of the UK.

The United Kingdom Major Ports Group (UKMPG) is the trade association representing most of the larger commercial ports in the United Kingdom. It has nine members who, between them, own and operate over 40 ports. For more information, see http://ukmajorports.org.uk

References 1. Port freight statistics: 2016 final figures (revised). Department for Transport, 2017. www.gov.uk/ government/statistics/port-freight-statistics-2016final-figures. 2. The economic contribution of the UK ports industry: a report for Maritime UK. Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), September 2017. 3. The long-term economic impact of EU membership and the alternatives. HM Treasury, 2016. 4. For example, see Living on the edge: Britain’s coastal communities.TheSocialMarketFoundation,September 2017.www.smf.co.uk/publications/living-edge-britainscoastal-communities. 5. The economic contribution of the UK ports industry: a report for Maritime UK. CEBR, September 2017. 6. See for example the Heysham – M6 link road project: https://heyshamlink.lancashire.gov.uk/background. aspx. 7. Port freight statistics: 2016 final figures (revised). Department for Transport, 2017 (combining Tables 103, 204 and 400).

how do we value the oceans?

| IUU fishing – the Pew Trusts

Progress in controlling illegal fishing Peter Horn mbe of the Pew Charitable Trusts reviews the steps being taken Making progress An obvious mechanism for deterring any crime is to make it unprofitable. Two measures show how that can be achieved. The first, the European Union (EU) IUU regulation of 2008, is an example of a government using its stature

Fishery inspectors check whether fishing gear complies with national regulations and licensing conditions. Small-mesh nets lead to the harvesting of juvenile fish and damage fish stocks.

llegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing cheats coastal communities that depend on healthy fish populations for income, skews scientific stock assessments that rely on accurate reporting, and undermines law-abiding fishers who play by the rules. It also represents a major threat to the world’s fisheries and the marine environment. As the global problem of IUU fishing has gained wider attention in recent years, the challenge of how to assess progress in the fight to end it has grown. Detailed assessments of IUU fishing rarely align in their conclusions, and better awareness and reporting of IUU incidents can give the impression that illegal fishing is increasing around the world. That isn’t so. In fact, the global community is making strides in combating this urgent problem. A diverse group of stakeholders, including many governments, companies in the fishing and seafood industries, Interpol, human rights groups and conservationists, have stepped up their game – and in many cases joined forces – to end illegal fishing. The main tools they’ve used in that effort include legislation, regional and global agreements, technology and, most importantly, political will. Since 2009, the Pew Charitable Trusts has been working to end industrial-scale illegal fishing by fostering cooperation among key partners for policy change and implementation. More recently, we have begun engaging with seafood buyers to educate them on existing policies that can help keep illicitly caught fish out of their supply chains. We’re also working to help ensure that authorities have the tools they need to crack down on this activity. Our vision is for a cost-effective global system to deter illegal fishing wherever possible, monitor waters to better identify suspected IUU activity, and prosecute those proved to have engaged in the crimes.

as one of the world’s leading seafood markets to pressure other governments to better police their fleets and encourage fishing within the law. When the EU identifies a seafood-exporting country as insufficiently preventing IUU fishing by its fleet, it might issue a warning, called a yellow card, giving the country a deadline for improving its performance. Countries that succeed are awarded a green card, restoring their ability to export freely to the EU. Those that fail face a potential ban – a red card. The EU has been using this effectively over the past ten years, and has brought significant positive change from numerous countries around the world. The second measure that could have a profound impact on illegal fishers’ ability to sell their stolen goods is the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA), an international treaty that entered into force in

A diverse group of stakeholders have stepped up their game, – and in many cases joined forces

PROGRESS IN CONTROLLING ILLEGAL FISHING

Belize-registered trawler Greko 1 was fined for fishing illegally in Somali waters. Investigations revealed that the Greko 1 and her sister ship Greko 2 had officially been ‘scrapped’ and that the owner had received €1.4 million under an EU capacity reduction scheme.

governments around the world are still issuing flags of convenience, others have recognised the negative consequences of lax oversight and have mended their ways. Pew is in the final stages of developing a tool through which flag states will be able to assess both their requirements for monitoring fishing vessels and their progress in doing so.

The Berkat Manjala was one of ten Indonesian flagged vessels arrested off South Africa for suspected illegal fishing. It absconded from detention in 2013 and remains at large despite international efforts to trace it.

FISH-i Africa’s first success. The fishing vessel Premier was denied port access to offload its catch by FISH-i Africa members. A US $1 million fine was paid to the Liberian authorities for illegal fishing in Liberian waters.

2016. Parties to PSMA can refuse entry to their ports to foreign-flagged vessels known to have engaged in IUU fishing. If a vessel is found to have broken the law, officials will share that information with other ports and other governments. So far, 55 countries have ratified the PSMA, and more are expected to do so in the coming years. Looking forward, it is encouraging to see momentum building behind the International Maritime Organization (IMO)-sponsored Cape Town Agreement, which would raise standards concerning fishing vessel safety, tracking, and inspection; experts expect this to expose a lot of IUU operators, many of whom pay scant attention to the welfare of those working at sea. As the architects of the EU IUU regulation recognised, ensuring that flag states fulfil their obligations is critical to countering IUU fishing. The flag state controls fishing vessel registration, which is required to conduct any fishing operations. It is fair to say that flag state performance on fishing vessels is patchy, but not all poor performance in that area is wilful. While some

Methods for monitoring Of course, to monitor vessels, authorities and governments must be able to identify those ships. For larger vessels, achieving that starts with an IMO number. While there is no global requirement that fishing vessels have IMO numbers, forward-looking governments and regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs) are increasingly requiring them for ships over a certain length or tonnage. The official registry of IMO numbers for fishing vessels has grown by 15% over the past year. Increasingly, authorities are also relying on two long-standing tracking tools – the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) and the Automatic Identification System (AIS) – to help detect and deter illegal fishing. Although fishing vessels are exempt, many states mandate AIS for their fishing fleets, along with a secondary means of monitoring. AIS has limitations, though: it relies on the captain to provide vessel position and identity, and can be easily manipulated to hide illegal activity. To help tighten monitoring of boats on the water, many governments and authorities are turning to satellite-based tracking technology, through initiatives including OceanMind, Global Fishing Watch and Vulcan Skylight. These platforms process vast amounts of data and use machine-learning techniques to identify and track suspect vessels, such as

PROGRESS IN CONTROLLING ILLEGAL FISHING

by homing in on specific patterns (fishing operations are quite distinctive). The technologies also highlight anomalies in a vessel’s self-reported data. All of this is making it harder for illicit actors to hide. Work is also under way to better understand transshipment – the transfer of fish between vessels at sea or in port – and to what extent unscrupulous captains are using it to move illegally caught fish to market. Experts and authorities don’t know if there is a strong relationship between transshipment and IUU fishing but recognise that the practice presents an opportunity to mix legally and illegally caught fish, as well as to keep crews at sea for months or years at a time. For these reasons, most people involved with management of the industry agree that transshipment needs to be either closely overseen or banned. Increasingly, players along each step of the seafood supply chain understand why and how they should be working to eliminate IUU fishing. Many companies are including a risk assessment of the potential for illegally caught fish to enter their supply chains and are taking actions to mitigate it, demanding increased transparency from suppliers. With more companies seeking to ensure the legality of their fish, these efforts are slowly increasing the likelihood of discovering and reducing the profit for illegal fishers.

Political will In the developing world especially, the agencies that historically have been tasked with fisheries conservation and enforcement are woefully underfunded and understaffed. But that hasn’t stopped some of those governments from making great strides against IUU fishing. In the western Indian Ocean, a partnership of eight African nations is showing what can be achieved on a limited budget if there is sufficient political will. Launched

Luke Duggleby/Redux/The Pew Charitable Trusts

Ports of landing have traditionally been a weak point in the global fight against IUU fishing, but this is changing. By supporting strong port controls, the seafood industry can give assurance that it is not inadvertently contributing to illegal fishing.

in December 2012, FISH-i Africa is a Pewsupported partnership among Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Somalia and Tanzania. These governments share information and coordinate responses to suspected illegal fishing in each other’s waters, a collaboration that has led to over thirty successful prosecutions. While there is still a long way to go, progress is evident in the fight against IUU fishing. Political and public awareness of the issue has increased, and legislation, treaties, technology, partnerships and other mechanisms are helping to cost-effectively deter, detect and successfully prosecute IUU offences. Critically, countries and regions that demonstrate political will are making significant progress, as seen through FISH-i Africa’s recent successes and the number of governments that have reformed their fisheries management after receiving red or yellow cards under the EU IUU regulation. While the fight is far from over, global momentum to end IUU fishing is helping tighten the net on the illegal operators who are stealing fish, exploiting workforces, and undermining governance of the oceans. n Peter Horn, acting director of the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Ending Illegal Fishing project, is a former Commander in the Royal Navy, in which he served more than 30 years and his appointments included the Fishery Protection Squadron as well as senior positions in strategic planning and intelligence. He joined Pew in 2015. He holds a master’s degree in intelligence and security studies from the University of Salford.

Workers pull tuna into nets in the hold of a Thai-run fishing vessel during a port inspection. Inspectors examine the fish to ensure it is reported correctly.

In the western Indian Ocean a partnership of eight African nations is showing what can be achieved on a limited budget if there is sufficient political will

how do we value the oceans?

| IUU fishing â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the FAO approach

Global food security and illegal fishing Matthew Camilleri, Lori Curtis and Alicia Mosteiro describe how international regulations are being developed to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing

s of mid-2017, the global population numbered nearly 7.5 billion, and it is expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050. Combined with the increasing challenges of hunger and malnutrition, this means that food security is a major concern. Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Fish and fish products play a crucial role in nutrition and global food security, serving as a valuable source of nutrients and micronutrients of fundamental importance for diversified and healthy diets. This is particularly the case for many communities in lower-income countries, where the importance of fish is enhanced by the fact that fish contains many of the vitamins and minerals required to address some of the most severe and widespread nutritional deficiencies. Fish provides more than 20% of the average per capita animal protein intake for 3 billion people, more than 50% in some less developed countries, and it is one of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most traded food commodities. The growing need for nutritious and healthy food will increase the demand for fisheries products from marine sources that are already stressed by excessive fishing pressure, marine pollution, coastal degradation and climate change. Fisheries governance, and the national and international policy and legal frameworks within which it is framed, must ensure that this important source of healthy food is available for generations to come. FAO

Tuna, an important food fish in many parts of the world. IUU fishing in defiance of conservation measures adds to the pressure on stocks already threatened by overfishing and ocean warming.

Fish and fish products play a crucial role in nutrition and global food security

The challenge of IUU fishing Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is recognised as a major threat not only to the sustainability of fisheries resources but also to marine ecosystems in general, undermining the sustainable management of fisheries and marine resources. IUU fishing accounts for up to one-fifth of the global capture fisheries production. According to the most recent publication of The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA),1 in 2016, 40.3 million people were employed in the primary sector of capture fisheries, with even more engaged in related secondary sectors. For many coastal communities, fish may be the only major source of animal protein. Maintaining a sustainable fishery is important for the food security of those communities, which both consume fish and gain an income from fisheries in order to purchase other food items. The fisheries sector is already facing several challenges, including fully or overfished fish stocks, climate change and environmental damage, and it is particularly vulnerable to natural disasters. Additional changes, such as the effects of IUU fishing, may therefore have serious consequences in poor fishing communities that are already under stress. IUU fishing takes advantage of corrupt administrations and exploits weak management regimes, in particular those of developing countries lacking the capacity and resources for effective monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS). IUU fishing is found in all types and dimensions of fisheries; it occurs both on the high seas and in areas within national jurisdiction, it concerns all aspects and stages of the capture and utilisation of fish, and it may sometimes be associated with organised crime. Fisheries resources available to legitimate fishers are removed by IUU fishing, which can lead to the collapse of local fisheries, with small-

GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY AND ILLEGAL FISHING

How the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA) works. The entry of a foreign vessel to a port for the purposes of landing or transshipping catch, refuelling, maintenance or drydocking can be denied if inspection or detection reveals evidence of IUU fishing. Any denial is promptly notified to flag states and relevant authorities.

How do we tackle IUU fishing? The principles of responsible fisheries management have been prescribed in a number of international ocean and fisheries instruments, and have been supported and strengthened by regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs) around the globe. However, states do not always satisfactorily fulfil their duties in line with such instruments and regional mechanisms, which allows space for the occurrence of IUU fishing. The development and adoption of international guidelines to improve flag statesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; compliance with their duties and to promote better traceability of fishery products in the value chain through the use of catch documentation schemes, together with the development of fishing-vessel records at regional and global levels, are important achievements in the fight against IUU fishing. And, considering that fishing vessels are highly dependent on the use of ports, including ports of states other than their own, support for the implementation of

port state measures in combating IUU fishing has increased remarkably over the years, leading to the adoption of the landmark Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Agreement on Port State Measures (PSMA).2 The PSMA, which entered into force in June 2016, sets conditions for the entry and use of ports by foreign fishing vessels and defines minimum international standards to be applied in reviewing information prior to a vesselâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s entry into port, conducting inspections in port and taking measures against vessels found to have engaged in IUU fishing. As of August 2018, there were 55 parties to the PSMA, including the European Union as one party. The agreement provides an opportunity for states to collaborate and exchange information on fishing vessels and their activities, including through and with RFMOs, thereby creating a network which supports port states in combatting IUU fishing, flag states in the control of their vessels, coastal states in protecting their fishery resources, and market states in ensuring that fishery products derived from IUU fishing do not enter their markets.

Notable progress In addition to the PSMA, substantial progress has been made on the adoption, launch and implementation of instruments and tools to combat IUU fishing. The Global Record of Fishing Vessels,

Steve Evans CC-BY-SA2.0 Gen

scale fisheries in developing countries proving particularly vulnerable. Products derived from IUU fishing can find their way into overseas trade markets, thus throttling local food supply. IUU fishing therefore threatens livelihoods, exacerbates poverty, and augments food insecurity. The very nature of IUU fishing, that it is clandestine and operates outside of existing fisheries regulations, combined with its complexity, makes it difficult to estimate or fully understand its magnitude.

IUU fishing can lead to the collapse of local fisheries, with small-scale fisheries in developing countries proving particularly vulnerable

Local fishers off the coast of Mozambique. IUU fishing undermines local markets as well as threatening previously sustainable fish stocks that local fishers and their communities have traditionally depended on.

GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY AND ILLEGAL FISHING

US Navy / PD

Off the Côte d’Ivoire, sailors from the Ivorian navy investigate a vessel suspected of illegal fishing.

Matthew Camilleri / FAO

Becoming party to various international instruments is only the first step

Fisheries enforcement officers heading out to a vessel inspection under the Port States Measures Agreement at Kokopo, East New Britain, Papua New Guinea.

Refrigerated Transport Vessels and Supply Vessels (Global Record) concept has been widely supported, and the information tool is expected to play a crucial role in closing the information gap on vessels carrying out fishing and fishing-related activities. In addition to the ‘identification’ information such as registration, characteristics and ownership, the tool also integrates other pieces of information relevant to the fight against IUU fishing such as previous vessel names, owners and operators as well as authorisations to fish, transship or supply, and history of compliance. FAO launched the public version of the Global Record information system in July 2018, including one-third of the global eligible fleet. Additionally, the Voluntary Guidelines for Catch Documentation Schemes were adopted in July 2017, and will provide assistance in the development and implementation of any catch documentation schemes.3 Additionally, efforts to better understand and monitor at-sea transshipments as well as guidelines to facilitate estimating the magnitude of IUU fishing are also under way. These initiatives strengthen international cooperation, as well as increasing knowledge on specific aspects of IUU fishing, directly supporting the ability of states and organisations to effectively combat IUU fishing. These complementary tools, alongside such important instruments as the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the UN Fish Stocks Agreement,4 the International Plan of Action to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate IUU Fishing,5 the Compliance Agreement6 and the FAO Voluntary Guidelines for Flag State Performance,7 serve to ensure a comprehensive

governance framework for fisheries management and the fight against IUU fishing.

Assisting developing countries Becoming party to various international instruments is only the first step. The real challenge arises when working towards their implementation. While all countries face some challenges in implementing these instruments, the obstacles that developing countries face are often much more extreme, and the need for special assistance is recognised in most of these international instruments. In 2017, FAO launched its Global Capacity Development Umbrella Programme in support of the PSMA and complementary instruments, and will be providing assistance to over 33 countries in its first five years of implementation. The global community has been making real efforts to raise awareness about the prevalence and deleterious effects of IUU fishing; the result is that it has become a priority at national, regional and the global levels. While the elimination of IUU fishing alone will not resolve the issues of either overfishing or food insecurity, it will certainly mark important progress in the right direction. n

References 1. www.fao.org/3/i9540en/I9540EN.pdf 2.

www.fao.org/port-state-measures/en

www.fao.org/3/a-i8076e.pdf

www.un.org/Depts/los/convention_agreements/ convention_overview_fish_stocks.htm

www.fao.org/3/a-y1224e.pdf

FAO (1995). Agreement to Promote Compliance with International Conservation and Management Measures by Fishing Vessels on the High Seas.

www.fao.org/3/a-i4577t.pdf

Dr Matthew Camilleri is head of the FAO Fishing Operations and Technology Branch. Lori Curtis and Alicia Mosteiro are FAO Fisheries Officers.

how do we value the oceans?

| Global Fishing Watch

Transparency: the key to catching rogue fishers Tony Long explains how Global Fishing Watch is making effective use of new technology

of driving the global community toward actionable plans to protect the ocean. SDG14 calls for the sustainable use of marine resources, ending IUU fishing and harmful subsidies, science-based fisheries management and the conservation of at least 10% of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s coastal and marine areas by 2020. Most

The Automatic Indentification System (AIS), here being used by a US Coast Guard operator, makes it possible to identify as well as to detect the presence and behaviour of ships. Global Fishing Watch makes use of AIS data, as well as other vessel-tracking systems.

recently, historic negotiations were held at the UN in September 2018, the start of a process to agree a treaty to protect the high seas. It has taken fourteen years of discussion at the highest levels to initiate negotiations to protect over half of the planet. It is a sobering thought â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but these negotiations simply must not fail. The Canadian Group of Seven (G7) presidency is building an ocean legacy into the mandate of the Group. The Charlevoix blueprint sets out clear actions for the G7 members to undertake in support of healthy seas and resilient coastal communities.5 The Commonwealth is also placing the ocean high on its agenda after publishing the Blue Charter.6 Of the Commonwealthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 53 member states,

IUU fishing is profitable because illegal fishers find it easy to bring their stolen goods into ports

US Coast Guard / PD

llegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is a multi-billion-dollar organised crime that endangers marine life, hurts law-abiding fishers, and deceives responsible retailers and well-meaning consumers alike. It continues because it is highly profitable. And it is profitable because illegal fishers currently find it easy to bring their stolen goods into ports, across borders, and onto our store shelves and restaurant menus. It is important to remember what is at stake: the livelihoods and food security of millions of coastal residents who depend on healthy fish populations and marine ecosystems. Seafood, from both wild and farmed sources, accounts for nearly $143 billion in global trade every year.1 It is the most valuable food commodity in the world, and while many governments, fisheries authorities and conservation groups are making real progress in the fight to reduce IUU fishing and conserve marine ecosystems, there is still much work to be done. IUU fishing is estimated to account for up to $23.5 billion worth of seafood each year.2 Overfishing, resulting from poor enforcement, a lack of science-based management and inadequate global governance, is estimated to reduce global fisheries production by $83 billion.3 These are alarming figures, and while governments do not always give our ocean the priority is deserves, there is growing ambition at the highest levels.

Ambition for ocean protection Guided by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG-14),4 world leaders are charged with the responsibility

T R A N S PA R E N C Y: C ATC H I N G R O G U E F I S H E R S

Global Fishing Watch

A detail of Global Fishing Watch’s ‘Night Light Vessel Detected’ layer, showing the night-time movements and positions of vessels in the Java Sea.

31 are small-island or developing states, so it is of the utmost importance to have ocean and climate change on their agenda. Achieving these global ambitions will rely on transparency. It will demand sharing open data, the best use of new and emerging technologies and robust action against illicit actors – all held together by visionary, committed leadership.

Transparency is key Transparency is crucial for good stewardship of our global ocean – to fight illegal fishing, to protect fish stocks and livelihoods, and to

Global Fishing Watch

A screenshot of Global Fishing Watch’s ‘Vessel Encounters’ layer, pinpointing likely instances of transshipping fish at sea.

increase the safety and wellbeing of fishers. It has the power to drive success by revealing what is happening across our ocean, making clear who is complying with the rule of law and who is not, who is taking advantage of weak governance and who is profiting from it. Small-island and developing countries with large ocean resources, in particular, stand to benefit. By embracing transparency in their waters, these nations have a cost-effective way of monitoring vessels that places the burden on the fishers to demonstrate compliance rather than the country to prove illegality. Transparency is also a growing priority for leading seafood businesses, and important to consumers. And that’s because transparency engenders trust. Without transparency, supplychain traceability risks being compromised and consumers lose confidence in the sustainability and legality of the seafood they purchase. Through transparency we can create a more complete and interconnected picture of fishing occurring across our global ocean. A picture that transcends national boundaries, connecting the dots and bringing into sight what is happening beyond the horizon, on the high seas.

A spotlight on fishing activity Transparency is therefore at the heart of our mission. Global Fishing Watch tracks and visualises global fishing activity, and, in doing

T R A N S PA R E N C Y: C ATC H I N G R O G U E F I S H E R S

With an Indonesian naval vessel standing by, in a joint operation with the Royal Australian Navy, sailors from an Australian warship board a vessel suspected of illegal fishing in the Timor Sea.

Commonwealth of Australia

so, is able to support more efficient and effective monitoring. Our open-access map takes in multiple sources of vessel monitoring data and reveals fishing activity in near real-time.7 The vessel tracking visualised in the map is based on Automatic Identification System (AIS) data, but we can also use data from other vessel tracking systems, such as the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS). Indonesia has led the way in sharing this traditionally proprietary data in Global Fishing Watch. Our ambition is bring twenty more countries into our map platform within a decade. We continue to develop the platform. Most recently we added the first-ever â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;liveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; global view of likely transshipping at sea â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a practice that can mask illegal fishing activity because of patchy monitoring. We are also adding layers of data that allow us to understand what vessels VMS and AIS might be missing. The imagery in our new night-time fishing layer, in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is exposing the position of vessels that are hiding from other monitoring systems. This has been particularly useful in monitoring the squid fishers. Our platform has the power to be transformational for fisheries management. It flips the burden of monitoring. Honest fishers are tracked easily and openly, demonstrating their good track record and compliance. Rogue operators stand out due to their patchy track and activity history, or suspicious behaviour. Monitoring and enforcement becomes more focused on demonstrating compliance, more targeted when pursuing offenders, and therefore less costly.

Trusted travellers at seas By bringing information into the open we begin to break down the electronic walls that illicit activity can hide behind. More openness allows better application of international regulations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter, and Eliminate IUU Fishing, often referred to as PSMA.8 Under this agreement, a country can turn away from port, or bring in for inspection, any vessel it suspects of involvement in IUU fishing. Keeping a vessel at sea that is suspected of illegal fishing is a great way to change behaviours. While at sea with a full hold, it is wasting time and fuel, all of which are a significant cost to operations. A compliant vessel, on the other hand, with a clear and unambiguous vessel history and track, can enter port and be back out at sea. It is like a trusted traveller scheme for fishing vessels. From the perspective of a former naval officer, unless your vessel is on dedicated fisheries duties in UK waters, you rarely get involved in the realm of fisheries. This is a missed opportunity. A navy should not think of this as fisheries protection. Boardings are not a necessary feature; this is maritime domain awareness and very much the remit of every naval vessel. Many of the waters fished around the globe are in nations that lack enforcement resources. IUU fishing vessels are also often used to transport illicit goods and traffick

Indonesia has led the way in sharing this traditionally proprietary data in Global Fishing Watch

T R A N S PA R E N C Y: C ATC H I N G R O G U E F I S H E R S

Commonwealth of Australia

An Indonesian Armed Forces aircraft on patrol in a joint maritime security operation with the Royal Australian Navy, targeted particularly at illegal fishing, and based on shared tactics and surveillance data.

Our ambition within the next ten years is to reveal the vast majority of the world’s commercial fishing activity

people. When on watch on the bridge, or in the operations room, a source of information that can quickly verify the legitimacy of a detected vessel is needed. The Royal Navy has had a database of merchant vessels for many years, but no such system exists for fishing vessels. It makes it very difficult to understand whether you are looking at a legitimate fisher or a vessel being used to disguise illicit activity. There is no central, complete or accurate record of fishing vessels. There has been progress at the FAO to establish a global record, but it remains some way off and it has taken an NGO, Trygg Mat Tracking, to establish and maintain a central IUU vessel list.9 The list, and Global Fishing Watch, are filling a void.

The new digital ocean Global Fishing Watch has a grand vision for healthy, productive, and resilient oceans, where transparent and effective governance of marine resources supports biodiversity and sustainable development. Our ambition within the next ten years is to reveal the vast majority of the world’s commercial fishing activity – capturing some 300,000 of the largest vessels responsible for 75% of the global marine catch – and increase our ability to track more small-scale fishing vessels. We are continuing to invest in revolutionising the ability to monitor and visualise the global commercial fishing fleet while furthering scientific research, boosting the global dialogue on transparency in fisheries, and supporting seafood traceability. The ocean is essential to our survival, and Global Fishing Watch is committed to being part of the solution, to achieve a healthy, thriving blue planet. n

References 1. FAO (2018). The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2018: Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals. www.fao.org/state-of-fisheriesaquaculture. 2. Agnew DJ, Pearce J, Pramod G, et al. (2009). Estimating the worldwide extent of illegal fishing. PLOS ONE 4(2): e4570. doi: 10.1371/journal. pone.0004570. 3. World Bank (2017). Giving oceans a break could generate us$83 billion in additional benefits for fisheries. www.worldbank.org/en/news/pressrelease/2017/02/14/giving-oceans-a-break-couldgenerate-83-billion-in-additional-benefits-forfisheries. 4. United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14. www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/oceans. 5. G7 (2018). Charlevoix blueprint for healthy oceans, seas and resilient coastal communities. https:// g7.gc.ca/en/official-documents/charlevoixblueprint-healthy-oceans-seas-resilient-coastalcommunities. 6. Commonwealth Blue Charter. http:// thecommonwealth.org/commonwealth-bluecharter. 7. Global Fishing Watch. Interactive fisheries map. http://globalfishingwatch.org/map. 8. FAO. Agreement on Port State Measures (PSMA). www.fao.org/port-state-measures/en. 9. Trygg Mat Tracking. Combined IUU fishing vessel list. www.iuu-vessels.org/iuu.

Tony Long was appointed CEO of Global Fishing Watch in 2017. Previously, he served in the Royal Navy for almost three decades, developing expertise in maritime surveillance, maritime policy and international relations, as well as commanding a minehunter and a frigate. He has an MA in defence studies from King’s College London.

how do we value the oceans?

| UNCLOS – the law of the sea

UNCLOS: fit for purpose?

What has changed since UNCLOS III? The volume of maritime trade is four times what it was in the early 1970s, when the lengthy negotiations that resulted in the Convention began. Ocean resources are now more obviously under threat than at any time in history. The effects of climate change – not a serious agenda item five decades ago – and the consequences of marine pollution are now at last taken seriously, if by no means adequately dealt with. Technology develops daily in so many different ways. Unmanned, autonomous shipping is one likely area of innovation, as are major developments relating to resource exploration and exploitation. Demand for ocean resources is fuelled by substantial increases in global population and phenomenal economic growth in regions formerly undeveloped. There are more people at sea today than at any time in history. Many are working in dreadful conditions and far too many are being trafficked, with their human rights entirely ignored. International human rights law was virtually non-existent in the early 1970s, and its relevance at sea was simply not on UNCLOS III’s agenda.

Regulation, governance – and enforcement The Law of the Sea was not frozen in time in 1982. Indeed, it has changed significantly in a number of ways. The International Maritime Organization (IMO), for example, has been responsible for the development of a great deal of regulation, and there are currently over twenty IMO conventions. Beyond the work of the IMO, there has been a proliferation in laws and regulations, especially to do with fisheries, marine pollution, and the general protection of the oceans. There is a great deal more law today than there was before UNCLOS III. Negotiating and drafting laws is only one stage in the process of effective regulation and sound governance, however. Without a means of monitoring compliance and enforcing the law when it is ignored or breached, that law would be virtually worthless. In theory, at least, when the law is broken within areas of

Wikimedia Commons / PD

There are more navies and other maritime forces today than at any time in history, but even the largest (the US Navy) cannot dominate as the Royal Navy once did during the nineteenthcentury Pax Britannica. Many navies are coastguards in all but name, and coastguards themselves have proliferated, as coastal states have attempted to bring some sort of order to their offshore zones.

International jurist Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) was the first to develop the concept of mare librum – freedom of the seas. Circumstances have changed, with territorial disputes, overfishing and environmental degradation now becoming issues of global concern.

Maltese and Swedish diplomat Arvid Pardo (1914–1999), the ‘Father of UNCLOS 1982’. Wikimedia Commons / PD

t is just over half a century since the Maltese Ambassador to the United Nations, Arvid Pardo, delivered a speech to the UN General Assembly calling for the oceans to be declared the ‘common heritage of mankind’. That speech initiated the process (UNCLOS III) that led eventually to the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 UNCLOS), widely regarded as the ‘Constitution of the Oceans’. It is now close to a quarter of a century since it entered into force, in November 1994. A lot has happened since.

Steven Haines examines the achievements and shortcomings of the UN Convention that has governed our use of the oceans since 1982

UNCLOS – FIT FOR PURPOSE? UNCLOS parties and signatories

Parties Parties doubly represented by the European Union Signatories Non-parties

The vast majority of vessels go about their business well beyond the reach of their states of registry

Sea areas defined by UNCLOS.

coastal-state jurisdiction, it is the adjacent state that should take necessary enforcement action. Far too often, however, coastal states – especially the poorer ones – simply do not have the wherewithal adequately to police their own waters. This is indeed a major problem, and one that needs to be addressed. Nevertheless, it is on the high seas where the law is at its weakest. No single state has a responsibility to police this vast area; nor is there an international authority effectively empowered to do so.

Beyond the reach of the law Maritime crime is on the rise. We all know about piracy, of course, especially as a consequence of the recent activities of Somaliabased pirate gangs. But piracy is not restricted to that region or time – it has always been a feature of far too many coastal areas globally. Smuggling is also big business, with sophisticated criminal groups operating to sustainable business plans. There is clearly a problem, and it seems that the current constitution of the oceans is lacking a means of dealing with it. The notion of ‘free seas’ – mare liberum – not only grants freedoms to legitimate users of the oceans but also provides opportunities to those intent on taking criminal advantage. The freedom of the high seas was seen as a vital element of ocean governance at the time of UNCLOS III, so much so that widespread agreement would not have been possible without it being enshrined in the convention. Anarchy is a contentious word, but it has some relevance when applied to the open oceans. A fundamentally important provision of UNCLOS was that only flag states would

have jurisdiction over their registered ships in international waters. Sadly, this makes it extremely difficult to police the oceans. The vast majority of vessels go about their business well beyond the reach of their states of registry. Not even the major maritime powers can police their fleets effectively. And the large open registries simply don’t have navies or coastguards of any substance – their fleets sail the oceans without any flag-state monitoring.

Where is UNCLOS IV? It is a serious concern that the framework provided in UNCLOS fails to meet the needs of effective ocean governance. Despite this, there is no international appetite for the negotiation of a new comprehensive arrangement for the seas as a whole. Indeed, it is difficult to the point of being impossible to imagine the negotiation of a new convention. There is no UNCLOS IV in prospect, and it is most likely that the general arrangements we have will remain in place for many years to come. Having said that, there is now a growing movement to deal with resource exploitation and environmental challenges on the high seas. Indeed, negotiations are beginning to produce a convention under UN auspices for that very purpose. But as with so many attempts to regulate the oceans, unless the agreement that emerges includes a realistic method of ensuring universal compliance and the provision of an effective enforcement mechanism, it will fail to achieve its objective.

Lawful seas, safe seas To provide a short answer to the question posed – is UNCLOS fit for purpose? – one must accept that it falls short, especially with regard to maintenance of good order on the seas beyond territorial limits. We need lawful seas – let’s call it a mare legitimum – for the effective regulation of resource exploitation

UNCLOS – FIT FOR PURPOSE?

A boarding party from US Coast Guard Cutter Tampa intercepting a small craft involved in narcotics smuggling. Smuggling, piracy, people trafficking and unlawful fishing are all issues that may call for international arrangements for policing on the high seas. UNCLOS is failing to deliver.

USCG / PD

and for the protection of an environment vital for life on our planet. But we also need safe seas on which people can go about their legitimate business without undue risk to themselves and their welfare. The people employed at sea deserve to be well treated, with their human rights respected. Importantly, those with criminal intent need to be at serious risk of penalty. At the moment, UNCLOS is not delivering these requirements. We know, for example, that slave labour is used in fishing fleets engaged in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, operating with impunity on a global scale. Nobody is preventing it or bringing those responsible to justice. While many will argue that the current constitution for the oceans is working reasonably well, in this fundamentally important sense it is certainly failing to deliver. It is not fit for purpose.

Management of our common heritage We are failing to ensure that our ‘common heritage’ is being properly and responsibly managed and, unless we are directly affected ourselves, we are ignoring the welfare and safety of people at sea. A serious debate about how ‘lawful seas’ can be developed and maintained is now an imperative. And any new initiative must look well beyond the process of negotiating law, to resolve the practical issues of compliance and enforcement. What is the solution? Let’s go for the UN taking charge, deploying an international maritime police force and prosecuting

offenders in a court of justice for the oceans. Simple really – except that it is far from that. The level of cooperation and agreement such a solution would require is something the international political system is utterly incapable of delivering. States act in their own interests. They also tend to be driven by short-termism. Major maritime interests will not wish to lose the high seas freedoms they currently enjoy I propose no answers here. That is not a ‘cop-out’. It is recognition of political reality. There is little point in proposing ideal solutions when they go against stark realities. Getting all the vested interests to agree on a new and effective arrangement for the seas beyond territorial limits is not looking likely any time soon. If it is to be achieved, the very least we must do is acknowledge the scale and complexity of the problem. And we must accept that UNCLOS has shortcomings inherent within it which many of those who negotiated it four decades ago were blissfully unaware of. One hopes that those negotiating the new convention for the high seas will take note. n Steven Haines is Professor of Public International Law at the University of Greenwich

We are failing to ensure that our ‘common heritage’ is being properly and responsibly managed

how do we value the oceans?

| Ocean literacy

Creating an ocean-friendly society Louisa Hooper of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation reviews recent initiatives to promote ocean literacy – among adults as well as children

to view the ocean primarily as a holiday destination, or a source of fish, rather than the vibrant, life-giving, blue heart of our planet.

Out of sight, out of mind Ideally, our sense of connection with the ocean should develop early in life, but building ocean literacy is not just for children, and we have some serious catching-up to do. Last year saw the publication of Getting Below the Surface, the report of a study carried out by the FrameWorks Institute on behalf of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. This study revealed holes in adult understanding about the ocean and marine conservation in the UK that are undermining people’s willingness to actively engage with the issue and support solutions. Interviews and analysis pointed to a lack of appreciation of the ways human activities are changing the ocean – which is seen by many as remote, unconnected to daily life, and so big that it is immune to human impacts – or how these activities are disrupting ecosystems, the climate and, ultimately, human health and wellbeing. In a case of ‘out of sight, out of mind’, people think about the ocean when they eat fish, or go to the beach, but otherwise consider it an issue for people who live on the coast. There is a failure to grasp the connection between land and ocean, and that – just as all rivers lead to the sea – even if we live hundreds of miles inland the air we breathe, our food and our weather come courtesy of the ocean, and all our actions have a ripple effect across our blue planet.

An opportunity for change But the study also highlighted an unmissable opportunity for change. Despite the low levels of ocean literacy displayed by much of the adult population, there is widespread appreciation of the value and necessity of marine conservation, and real concern about Russ T

Our sense of connection with the coean should develop early in life.

cean literacy means more than knowing the basic facts about the ocean; it requires a deeper understanding of our influence on the ocean and the ocean’s influence on us. It goes beyond awareness of the environmental threats facing the ocean, to nurture a closer relationship between individuals, communities and the ocean that sustains us all. Ocean literacy is a powerful tool for remedying the disconnect that leads so many people in our society

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specific threats from pollution and overfishing. This creates a hospitable environment for driving the cultural changes needed to reconnect people with the ocean and take action to support marine conservation. That is exactly what we have been doing over the past year through a range of initiatives targeting different sectors of the population, and as part of a global wave of change that is building unprecedented momentum behind ocean action. At the first ever UN Ocean Conference in June 2017, there was a global call for ocean education, at schools and throughout communities. The incredible success of the BBC series Blue Planet 2 inspired millions of people to think more personally about what the ocean means to them and triggered an immediate reaction to the scourge of plastic pollution. There has never been a better, more exciting time to inspire action through stories about the sea. The impact of plastic pollution is capturing the global imagination and demonstrating the huge power of images. Pictures and videos of marine animals choking on plastic present a direct, undeniable link to our careless, throwaway culture in a way that speaks to even the most urban, ecologically disconnected among us. Alongside the swell of support for plastic bag bans and deposit return schemes, awareness of plastic pollution can be a gateway to accelerating wider ocean literacy and promoting the shared values needed to drive marine conservation. It is a chance to mobilise entire generations of ocean protectors.

Building ocean literacy Earlier this year, our Valuing the Ocean programme supported a series of two-day ocean literacy ‘creative sprints’ bringing together people from diverse sectors such as education, technology, and design. Hosted by Wild Labs, an organisation that uses collaboration across

Louis Mackay

Brighton. People may think about the sea when they go to the beach, but otherwise there is a failure to grasp the connection between the land and the ocean.

industries to find solutions to conservation challenges, the sprints explored new ways to seize this opportune moment for boosting ocean literacy and engagement. Wild Labs also delved further into the cultural landscape of ocean literacy and how inspirational stories can strengthen our relationship with the sea through their We Are Ocean survey and report. This work proposed new ways to talk about the ocean, using language that builds a more intimate relationship, evokes wonder, and compels people to engage in solutions. Ideas that are emerging out of the Wild Labs sprints and other studies include touring ‘Ocean Imaginariums’ to harness the imagination of both adults and children, pop-up ‘Step into the Sea’ exhibitions in cities, and ‘Ocean Wise’ learning guides linked to water sports. Bringing ocean understanding into mainstream culture will help to build oceanliterate cities in our increasingly urban world. Cities are engines of ideas and innovation and have the potential to be pioneering places for marine conservation, whether they are by the sea or not. Enhancing ocean literacy will enable people to understand the wider challenges facing the ocean – and humanity, including climate change, unsustainable fishing and the deterioration of coral reefs. Videos explaining ocean acidification may not attract as many views on YouTube as turtles strangled by plastic wire, but it is vital that people appreciate the many, sometimes less visible,

Despite low levels of ocean literacy, there is widespread appreciation of the value and necessity of marine conservation The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation supported the initiative to establish 8 June as World Ocean Day in schools.

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Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

The plastic boat used by Surfers Against Sewage in an event outside Parliament to raise politicians’ awareness of plastic pollution.

Schools as powerful incubators of change is the philosophy behind the drive to establish a World Ocean Day every 8 June

ways we are influencing the ocean, and how these changes will impact our lives. A new initiative that is actively working to generate support for wider ocean solutions is the Agents of Change project, led by partners of the Marine CoLABoration created by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation to explore how to communicate the value of the ocean more effectively. Agents of Change is engaging and empowering different actors in coastal communities behind support for Marine Protected Areas, sustainable fisheries, and sustainable marine planning. The end goal is to create a more ocean-friendly society that can spread well beyond the coast.

Surfers, schools and parliaments Jacques Cousteau taught us that people protect what they love, and no one loves the sea more than surfers. This is being demonstrated by Surfers Against Sewage and their work to raise our ocean literacy and engagement by targeting schools and politicians on the issue of plastic pollution. As well as fostering less polluting habits from an early age through their Plastic-Free Schools programme, they are building out the initiative to inspire plasticfree communities, and are now calling on our elected representatives to lead by example by launching a campaign for a plastic-free parliament. Children active in the schools programme have written nearly 800 letters to MPs to demand action on plastic and, in April 2018, pupils from Portreath Primary School in Cornwall travelled to London to address the Protect Our Waves All Party Parliamentary Group. After presenting their own activities, these children posed challenging questions to MPs and definitely made them think about the two million single-use plastic items purchased

by the Palace of Westminster last year! Schools as powerful incubators of change is also the philosophy behind the drive to establish a World Ocean Day in schools every 8 June. The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation supported a pilot of this idea in 2018, and now hundreds of schools have registered to take part. Next year we look forward to seeing thousands of children dressing up, holding special assemblies, and taking part in ocean education lessons that will hopefully trickle ocean literacy up to their parents. Love and understanding of the ocean needs to start young and continue to grow and guide our choices throughout life. From parliaments to primary schools, surfers to chefs, we are listening more to the ocean, learning how we benefit from what it provides, and harnessing our ingenuity to develop creative solutions to conserve and restore marine ecosystems. Ocean literacy encourages everyone to realise that we are all connected to the ocean, all the time, and need to act to protect our planet: Earth-On-Sea. n • FrameWorks Institute. Getting Below the Surface: Mapping the Gaps Between Expert and the Public’s Understanding of Marine Conservation in the UK. https:// gulbenkian.pt/uk-branch/publication/ getting-below-the-surface. • United Nations Ocean Conference. https://oceanconference.un.org. • Wild Labs. We Are Ocean. https://www. weareocean.blue. • Marine CoLABoration. Agents of Change. https://marinecolab.org/agents-of-change. • Surfers Against Sewage. Plastic Free Schools. https://www.sas.org.uk/plasticfree-schools. Louisa Hooper is Senior Programme Manager with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

how do we value the oceans?

| RRS Sir David Attenborough

Making a splash Cammell Laird / British Antarctic Survey

n a blazing hot Saturday in July, the hull of the new polar research ship for Britain entered the water for the first time. The launch of hull number 1390, the RRS Sir David Attenborough, is an important milestone in the construction of this state-ofthe-art polar research vessel.

Linda Capper mbe describes the launch of Britain’s new polar research ship, and looks forward to future scientific discoveries

In the three years since Cammell Laird successfully beat off competitors from shipyards in Europe, Korea, Singapore and elsewhere, production has been full steam ahead. Commissioned by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) for operation by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), this new ship not only pushes the boundaries of science and engineering but, according to Cammell Laird’s CEO John Syvret, also represents the re-emergence of the Merseyside shipyard as a global maritime engineering company. In May 2016, Science Minister Jo Johnson confirmed that the name of the £200 million polar research ship would be RRS Sir David Attenborough. In October that year, Sir David performed the keel-laying ceremony with a theatrical flourish that delighted all who watched. Since then, hundreds of shipyard workers – engineers, welders, apprentices and others – have toiled round the clock to assemble over a million pieces of steel, installing engines, a scientific moon pool and ‘plug-and-play laboratories’. In August 2017, the 899 tonne steel stern block, equivalent in weight of 71 London double decker buses and more than 23 metres long and 24 metres wide, travelled by barge from Hebburn-based shipyard A&P Tyne (Newcastle) to the Birkenhead construction hall. In a remarkable engineering collaboration, this block

connected to the rest of the hull with millimetre precision.

Festival atmosphere

Cammell Laird / British Antarctic Survey

The UK and global maritime engineering

So, on a sunny July day this year there was a festival atmosphere at the Cammell Laird shipyard. As the Mersey tide reached its optimal conditions around noon, Sir David Attenborough and BAS Director Professor Dame Jane Francis pushed the launch button. Over 3,000 people – scientists, engineers, workers and their families – cheered as the 129 metre, 10,000 tonne hull moved apparently effortlessly down the slipway. The national anthem played. It was emotional for everyone involved in getting the construction this far. Centre-stage, Sir David addressed the crowds: s far as I am concerned, to see this A magnificent hull with my name on it is the greatest possible honour; and I thank everyone who has been involved in this wonderful enterprise, and wish them huge success when this marvellous ship gets down there in the Antarctic, which we thought was so remote but which, we realise now, is absolutely crucial to the future of all of us.

Professor Dame Jane Francis and Sir David Attenborough push the launch button. Above: the newly launched hull attended by tugs at Cammell Laird’s dock in Birkenhead.

It was emotional for everyone involved

Cammell Laird / British Antarctic Survey

RRS SIR DAVID AT TENBROUGH

The superstructure is craned into position.

The polar oceans and global change The sense of anticipation of what the RRS Sir David Attenborough will deliver is building among the polar science community. The vast frozen worlds of the polar regions are a major component of the earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s global climate system. The polar oceans keep our planet cool and supply other oceans with nutrients. But, because of their remoteness and inhospitable nature, data coverage is extremely sparse. Understanding the polar oceans is critical to understanding the big questions about our global environment. By working together, scientists create observing systems to collect and interpret crucial scientific data that shapes policy, protects the environment and ultimately improves peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lives. Recent technological advances mean that scientists can now combine high-quality land and ship-based observations with high-quality satellite data from previously inaccessible areas. Over decades, studies have shed new light on the consequences of the shrinking sea ice for Cammell Laird / British Antarctic Survey

Understanding the polar oceans is critical to understanding the big questions about our global environment

Across the country and around the world millions of people watched the live TV and web broadcast of an incredible engineering achievement. Among the small team on engineers on board were the captains of the RRS Sir David Attenborough, Ralph Stephens and Will Whatley. For them, this is the beginning of a journey of new scientific discoveries yet to be made.

The crowd , and Sir David, speaking, on a great day for Merseyside.

ocean circulation, climate and the ecosystem. Surveys of the deep ocean have yielded vital discoveries about marine biodiversity and informed an international census of marine life. Long-term studies have helped us understand the marine food chain, and have provided critical scientific information to underpin the sustainable management of fisheries. Improving our understanding of how the polar oceans influence, and respond to, global change is an urgent mission for polar scientists. These oceans respond to global temperature change; absorb heat and carbon from the atmosphere, including that produced by humans; sustain an abundance of wildlife; and provide food for a hungry world.

Economic significance of the polar oceans These chilly waters are economically significant, and likely to become more so in the future. Reduced Arctic sea ice is opening up access to oil, gas and mineral reserves. It is possible that the Arctic contains more than 20 per cent of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s undiscovered, recoverable oil and gas. This issue is the subject of much discussion by national and international governments. Many species depend on the polar oceans for food and reproduction. Millions of seabirds, whales and fish all rely on the unique biodiversity of the polar oceans for their survival. Humans, too, benefit from the polar-ocean ecosystems: more than seven million tonnes of fish is caught in Arctic waters annually, equivalent to 10 per cent of the global fin-fish catch. The current annual Antarctic krill catch is less than 0.1 per cent of their estimated biomass. The small shrimp-like crustacean has up to 400 trillion individuals. Polar oceanographers strive to understand changes to ocean ecosystems so that they can model this in a meaningful way. Polar oceans

RRS SIR DAVID AT TENBROUGH

Rolls Royce

A visualisation of the ship at work in the Antarctic.

Preparing for the next decades of discovery While construction of the new ship continues, scientific teams from BAS and universities across the UK are planning two ‘rehearsal cruises’ that will test not just the deployment of scientific equipment but also a new way of working. Future research cruises will be more multidisciplinary than those currently carried out from the BAS-operated RRS James Clark Ross. Scheduled for early 2020, and after completion of technical sea trials, the first scientific ‘rehearsal’ cruise will take place in the Antarctic, with the Arctic cruise coming later in summer of that year. The purpose of these cruises is to ensure that the new ship is fully fit-for-purpose to support a broad range of peer-reviewed science. The two cruises will fully test the capability to mount and support large, longduration multidisciplinary science cruises of the type anticipated to be undertaken in future. Each cruise will include a full team of scientists and technicians with the appropriate skills and experience.

Antarctic research cruise Led by BAS’s Dr Sophie Fielding, the Antarctic rehearsal cruise will run for forty days during January and February 2020 in the Southern Ocean. It will encompass a wide range of

scientific activities, with a primary focus on biological and biogeochemical studies, but also including geological, physical oceanographic and atmospheric science projects. The RRS Sir David Attenborough will visit a range of Antarctic marine environments including coastal waters off subAntarctic South Georgia, the deep waters of the South Shetland Island trenches, and open-ocean and sea-ice-covered waters of the Weddell Sea east of the Antarctic Peninsula. Cammell Laird / British Antarctic Survey

research will help predict the consequences of these changes on, for example, surface ocean productivity, species distributions and food webs, as well as the ecosystem services they provide. Future projections are particularly important because they help refine the policy decision-making processes. Scientific evidence that will emerge from the RRS Sir David Attenborough’s Antarctic and Arctic research missions will be essential for future management of polar ecosystems.

Arctic research cruise Coordinated by Dr Ray Leakey of the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), the Arctic rehearsal cruise will begin during summer 2020. The fifty-day cruise, in the Greenland and Norwegian seas, will be split into two or three separate legs. It will encompass a wide range of multidisciplinary science activities with a focus on geological, physical oceanographic and atmospheric science studies in order to complement activities undertaken on the preceding Antarctic rehearsal cruise. The cruise will visit a range of Arctic marine environments including fjordic and coastal waters off Svalbard and east Greenland, and the open-ocean and sea-ice-covered waters of the Fram Strait. n The RRS Sir David Attenborough will enter full service from autumn 2020. To find out more, visit www.bas.ac.uk/attenborough. Linda Capper mbe is Head of Communications at British Antarctic Survey. She leads a joint engagement campaign to promote the scientific and societal benefits of the new polar research ship.

With the superstructure fitted.

The Antarctic rehearsal cruise will run for 40 days during January and February 2020 in the Southern Ocean

34 15-Metre class, Tuiga

Fife yachts Photographs by Kathy Mansfield The racing yachts built around the turn of the twentieth century, designed by Herreshoff, GL Watson, Nicholson, William Fife and others, were at the cutting edge of contemporary development. William Fife, or rather William Fife III, for his grandfather William began the business on the banks of the River Clyde at Fairlee, is particularly renowned for the artistry and balance of his designs, and also their unmatched construction â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a splendid aspect of the British shipbuilding tradition. Because of their quality, almost a third of his 23-Metre class, Cambria

boats still exist and many have been lovingly 19-Metre class, Mariquita

restored â&#x20AC;&#x201C; nearly thirty were racing in a special Fife Regatta at the Voiles de St Tropez in October 2018.

19-Metre class, Mariquita

35 23-Metre class, Cambria

19-Metre class, Mariquita

Halloweâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;en

19-Metre class, Mariquita

how do we value the oceans?

| Antarctica

Can we save Antarctica? Doaa Abdel-Motaal asks what lies ahead, as a battle for the icy continent is waged under the guise of scientific inquiry

Peter Fretwell / British Antarctic Survey

ost people think of Antarctica as a completely pristine environment. After all, it has no indigenous inhabitants – only penguins, seals and albatrosses living far away from the dangers faced by wildlife on other continents.

Indigenous inhabitant of Antarctica – an emperor penguin with young at Snow Hill Island colony – the most northerly colony of Emperor penguins, with the warmest average temperatures – likely to be the most vulnerable to climate change.

Similarly, to political experts, Antarctica is in good hands, governed as it is by the widely celebrated Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), which is considered one of the most successful international legal regimes. But what if you were to discover that Antarctica is currently the world’s least environmentally protected continent? Only

1.5% of its ice-free portions have been formally designated as a specially protected area under the ATS, whereas the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity has recommended a 17% global target. Given that Antarctica has no indigenous people, and that we are told it has no largescale commercial activity either, the 1.5% figure becomes all the starker. What, then, is the explanation for its vulnerability?

Flags and footholds A fierce battle for Antarctica took place in the earlier part of the twentieth century, with seven countries making unilateral territorial claims, and the US and Soviet Union abstaining only for the purposes of not escalating the political conflict. Negotiated under President Eisenhower, with the US very much in the driver’s seat, the 1959 Antarctic Treaty froze all territorial claims, demilitarised the continent, and dedicated it to peace and science. While the ATS was negotiated with all the right intentions, it seems to have had the perverse outcome of accelerating the race for the seventh continent under the guise of scientific inquiry. To gain entry into the Antarctic Treaty, countries have to send a scientific expedition or build a research station. Currently, the 29 decision-making powers have dotted Antarctica with a total of 82 research outposts. Eighteen of them have multiple stations. Despite this number, studies reveal that only two countries, the US and the United

The Antarctic Treaty The Antarctic Treaty System is the whole complex of arrangements made for the purpose of regulating relations among states in the Antarctic. At its heart is the Antarctic Treaty itself. The original Parties to the Treaty were the 12 nations active in the Antarctic during the International Geophysical Year of 1957–58.

C A N W E S AV E A N TA R C T I C A ?

23 countries alone have assigned a total of 37,557 place names

Left: circumference of the Antarctic Treaty area: the ATS covers all land and ice shelves south of 60° south. Below: Territories of Antarctica.

Kingdom, produce 41% of all Antarctic science. The vast majority of stations were established simply to gain a foothold in Antarctica and to fly the national flag. In fact, in a supposedly unoccupied continent, place names have strangely enough been ascribed to its every corner. Overall, 23 countries alone have assigned a total of 37,557 place names there. It has led some scholars to call for the decolonisation of the continent, and Professor Alan Hemmings of the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, has asked why the world succeeded in establishing an international space station but not an international Antarctic one.

Antarctica’s environment is fragile and currently at risk. While parties to the ATS have banned mining there in an Environmental Protocol to the main treaty, the ban appears to have been driven as much by a desire to protect historical territorial claims from eroding, as by environmental concerns. The ban can be revisited in 2048. Claimant states did not want to see others mine in their area of claim. In fact, evidence suggests that claimant states have deliberately weakened the environmental oversight function of the ATS. For instance, despite

Adam Bradley / British Antarctic Survey

Tourism, fishing and bioprospecting

Britain’s Rothera Research Station, on Adelaide Island, off the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula.

C A N W E S AV E A N TA R C T I C A ?

Because Antarctica belongs to all treaty parties, the unfortunate reality is that it belongs to no one Main outposts owned by members of the Antarctic Treaty.

Lewnwdc77 / CC-BY-SA3.0

Tourists in a RIB encounter a humpback whale in Wilhelmina Bay, off Graham Land, on the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. The scale of tourism on the continent has grown hugely, with almost 30,000 landings in 2017.

an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) requirement for all activities in Antarctica, no one can veto a proposed activity, with the final decision resting with the activity’s proponent. Furthermore, EIAs are taken so lightly that they are seldom submitted on time. Take for example the construction of the South Pole Traverse by the US, a 1,650 km long ice road, for which an impact assessment was only submitted many years after the work started. This casual approach to environmental protection would not be so significant were economic activity not on the rise in the continent. Tourism, fishing and bioprospecting – which is the mining of Antarctica’s living resources for industrial, medical and other purposes – are all gaining ground. In 2017, for instance, nearly 30,000 tourists made landings on the continent.

Owned by no one, claimed by all Both tourism and bioprospecting in particular are taking place in a virtual regulatory vacuum. In fact, because Antarctica belongs to all treaty parties, the unfortunate reality is that it belongs to no one. The rule in Antarctica is that individuals are solely subject to the penal jurisdiction of the country of which they are nationals. This makes treaty parties powerless to stop the environmental damage caused by others in front of their eyes. With the 2048 date soon approaching for a possible revisiting of the ban on mining, we must ask ourselves: what lies in store for Antarctica? The continent’s climate is warming, which is likely to make its resources more accessible and to render its landmass potentially habitable. In March 2015, a temperature of 17.5 degrees Celsius was recorded at the Esperanza weather station on the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, the highest temperature ever recorded on the continent. This warming, combined with its weak environmental regulatory framework, and the mere 1.5% protected area designation, could bode very badly for the continent. We must not allow the renewed battle for Antarctica to come at the expense of its environment. n Doaa Abdel-Motaal was until recently Executive Director of the Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health. In 2015 and 2016 she travelled across Antarctica and the Arctic in a research sabbatical on the polar regions. Her book Antarctica: the Battle for the Seventh Continent was published in 2016.

how do we value the oceans?

| The Green Blue

Stemming the tide of plastic waste

Sara Mills, RYA Communications Officer, takes a look at how the leisure boating industry is helping to protect the environment

hen the Environment Secretary called on sports leaders from across the Commonwealth to join in the fight against the scourge of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans earlier this year, it was a clear message to the sporting community to clean up its act.

lastic pollution is one of the most pressing P environmental challenges of our time and we all have a role to play to tackle the threats our oceans face. There are few groups which have the global reach and power the sports sector does to inspire change and mobilise action. The industry is already making great strides, and I look forward to seeing how they can build on this progress to be true ambassadors for global change.

The government also announced a £61.4 million package of funding to boost global research and help countries across the Commonwealth stop plastic waste from entering the oceans in the first place.

A leading light The Royal Yachting Association (RYA) has always been forward-thinking in its approach to the impact that boating has on the world’s waters. The Green Blue is a joint environmental initiative established by the RYA and British Marine more than a decade ago to promote the sustainable use of coastal and inland waters. By raising awareness, this ongoing campaign has helped boat users, member businesses, sailing clubs and training centres reduce their impact

on our waters, to keep them in great shape for now and into the future. Focusing on educational programmes, the RYA as a membership organisation strives to maintain freedom of access and rights of navigation for recreational boaters in the UK’s marine protected areas, as well as between water bodies. The Green Blue Campaign is working towards an environmentally self-regulating boating community, as campaign manager Kate Fortnam explains: ecreational boaters are passionate about the R environment they live, work and spend most of their leisure time in. We’re keen to show and build upon the positive steps clubs, centres, marinas and other businesses and organisations are already taking to minimise any impacts they may have on their marine environment – and to help them to further develop this to work towards making boating even more sustainable.

Awareness of environmental issues has undoubtedly increased in recent years. But there is more work to be done to protect the future sustainability of our marine ecosystems.

The plastic tide.

Awareness of environmental issues has undoubtedly increased Microbeads.

RYA

With mass sporting events often generating up to 750,000 plastic bottles and 7 tonnes of waste, representatives from Premier League football, swimming and ocean sailing agreed to take a look at how the sector can use its influence to tackle this blight and bring about global change. Environment Secretary Michael Gove said:

Rich Carey / Shutterstock

The need for global change

STEMMING THE TIDE OF PLASTIC WASTE

RYA

RYA training courses aim to teach environmental best practice to boaters from the start.

RYA

How are clubs and RYA training centres contributing?

Planning race courses so that they avoid environmentally sensitive areas is just one example of a whole host of measures that boating venues and clubs can take to encourage boaters to protect the marine environment.

Boaters see first-hand the amount of waste at sea or washed up on shore

Reducing waste Boaters see first-hand the amount of waste at sea or washed up on shore, as well as the overwhelming amount of fragmented and microscopic marine plastic debris that cannot be just scooped out of the ocean. A key focus of the RYA’s work is to help them find ways to reduce plastic waste. RYA Magazine, which regularly carries articles and features on recycling plastics, recently set an example to its members by switching its plastic wrapper to a plasticfree packaging. Made from potato and maize starch it is fully biodegradable and is compostable or can be disposed of with general household rubbish. The RYA has also ordered the first of its fully biodegradable and eco-friendly membership cards, which are 80% chalk based. Editor Deborah Cornick said: “It’s in everyone’s interest to protect the natural environment that supports our recreational boating activity. We need to ensure that meeting the needs of the present does not compromise the needs of future generations. These actions are just part of the RYA’s continued sustainability commitment.”

The Green Blue, a joint environmental initiative by the RYA and British Marine, applies to inland as well as coastal waters.

Many boating venues are striving to ensure they have the facilities in place to enable their members to act in a more environmentally sustainable way. Simple measures can make a huge difference. Providing recycling bins, avoiding single-use plastics, ensuring there is a spill kit available to clean up accidental oil or fuel spills, providing and encouraging the use of antifoul groundsheets to capture paint drips and scrapings to dispose of in hazardous waste bins, planning race courses that are away from environmentally sensitive areas are all easily achievable. Setting up a washdown area where boats, trailers and equipment can be washed will help to stop the spread of harmful invasive plant and animal species. RYA-recognised training centres aim to reach leisure and professional customers at the start of their boating journey by teaching them about environmental best practice on their courses. By engaging instructors first, the information can be filtered down. Cue cards and quizzes produced by the Green Blue are available to instructors to engage adults on courses. Games include charades, eyespy and an eco boat check aimed at testing customers’ environmental knowledge in a fun way. Instructors can download free swatch cards containing interactive shore-based and on-water activities to use in their lessons. RYA instructors may also apply for free environmental awareness training, which has been particularly successful with dinghy and windsurfing instructors.

In the sporting arena

RYA

In the words of RYA Racing Manager Ian Walker: e strive to adopt the RYA’s recycling W approach, which seeks to minimise waste,

STEMMING THE TIDE OF PLASTIC WASTE

RYA

Plastic waste washed up on a beach.

reuse/recycle where possible and reduce energy consumption. Our policy on single-use plastics is to greatly reduce our use of them and where feasible to eliminate them entirely. Our athletes and support staff use refillable water bottles and bring reusable lunch boxes to events. We make sure that all athletes, support staff and contractors minimise waste and reuse/ recycle plastic where possible.

Sharing our environment The Green Blue offers support in how to adopt best practice to minimise the impact boating activity might have on marine wildlife and the habitats in which it exists. Seeing marine wildlife from the water is always a thrill, and the developing network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) around the UK features an amazing array of creatures. MPAs exist around much of the UK coastline, so it’s important that the recreational boating sector seeks to have a better understanding of the species and habitats protected in the areas in which we undertake our boating activities. Through knowledge of wildlife behaviour and the areas where marine birds and mammals breed, feed and rest, boaters will become more aware of how to minimise disturbance when out on the water. To help safeguard our marine waters and the wildlife we share our boating environment with, the Green Blue offers these simple top tips: n Find out more about the area you are boating in. Contact the local harbour authority or wildlife trust for local advice and marine codes. They can offer a wealth of information on what species you might see and any local protocols you need to be aware of. n Think about speed. Always be steady, predictable, quiet and cautious around marine wildlife. This applies whether you spot something in the distance, whether

something pops up close by, or whether your passage takes you past seals hauled out on rocks or colonies of seabirds on the cliffs. What else can we do as boaters? n Stamp out the use of single-use plastics by using refillable water bottles and reusable bags n Buy products with less packaging n Always choose products without microbeads n Ditch the disposables – remove all plastic cups and straws n Consider more eco-friendly alternatives such as cutlery and rubbish bags made from com-starch, which can be composted n Use eco-friendly cleaning and personal products n Take part in year-round beach and shoreline clean-ups n Find local recycling facilities at www. recycle-more.co.uk n Don’t throw anything over the side – including food – and prevent loose items from blowing overboard n When carrying out maintenance, use only eco-friendly products and fresh water, and take care that no debris (including paint flecks) ever enters the water For more information or to download your free copy of The Green Guide to Boating visit www.thegreenblue.org.uk. The site is packed with practical advice, case studies and information on green products to help you save money, protect water quality and habitats and, ultimately, safeguard the future of our inland and coastal waterways. n Become a #GreenBlueChampion at www.thegreenblue.org.uk and follow the Green Blue on Twitter: @TheGreenBlue.

Stamp out the use of single-use plastics … Ditch the disposables… Don’t throw anything over the side

The RYA’s new, eco-friendly membership cards.

how do we value the oceans?

| Sky Ocean Rescue

Plastic in the food chain Sky TV’s Ocean Rescue campaign is now in its second year. Science correspondent Thomas Moore brings us up to date

Plastic detritus.

530,000 strokes and burned 100,000 calories. But it wasn’t just a story of human endeavour, a battle with nature and a new record set. Lewis – the United Nations Patron of the Oceans – was swimming to highlight the plight of the marine environment. Overfishing, climate change and plastic pollution are putting the world’s oceans under unprecedented pressure. And The Long Swim up the Channel brought the message home. The UK’s coastal waters are also in trouble.

An underwater Eden

Sky Ocean Rescue

ne has to question the sanity of anyone prepared to swim the length of the English Channel wearing only a pair of Speedos. It’s over 500 kilometres of often rough water, the world’s busiest shipping lane, and there are lots of jellyfish. But Lewis Pugh did it, and Sky News followed him all the way, from Land’s End to Dover. In 49 days he took

Before he set off we took Lewis to Lundy Island, 20 kilometres off the north Devon coast. For decades the marine life there has been protected from fishing, extraction or any other damaging activity. It is an underwater Eden. Lewis swam in clear blue water with seals that have lost their fear of humans. And he saw lobsters that have swelled in number, spilling over into neighbouring areas where fishing is still allowed. Lundy represents a win–win for conservation and for local fishermen. There are similar conservation zones off the Isle of Arran and the Yorkshire coast. But they amount to a few square kilometres of protected water. A tiny fraction of the 500,000 square kilometres of UK coastal seas. It’s nowhere near enough. Lewis wants 30% of the world’s ocean properly protected, with a network of conservation zones acting as nurseries for fish. The Environment Secretary, Michael Gove, met Lewis as he climbed onto the beach in Dover. Mr Gove has paid tribute to the

Sky Ocean Rescue

PLASTIC IN THE FOOD CHAIN

influence of our campaign, not just on marine protection, but on plastics too. He has set up a ‘Blue Belt’ of protected areas around the UK. But the protection is weak. Goodwin Sands in the eastern Channel was afforded protected status this summer. But a fortnight later the Port of Dover was given permission to dredge 3 million tonnes of aggregate from the area next year to expand the harbour. What kind of protection is that?

A dirty business Launched in January 2017, Sky Ocean Rescue aims to shine a spotlight on the issues affecting ocean health, find innovative solutions to the problem of ocean plastics, and inspire people to make small everyday changes that collectively can make a huge difference. A year on, January 2018 saw the airing of the latest in a series of campaign documentaries, Dirty Business. The film uncovered thousands of tonnes of plastic scrap that had been collected for recycling from British households but then transported and dumped on sites as far away as Hong Kong. The programme revealed that the system makes it more lucrative to export our plastic recycling than to process it ourselves. It even creates a financial incentive for companies to fraudulently claim they have recycled packaging, particularly for plastic. In response to the investigation, Michael Gove committed to reducing the

amount of waste we produce and processing more of it at home. The pressure from the Ocean Rescue campaign is working.

Responses from government and business The British government is bringing in taxes to incentivise manufacturers to use more recycled plastic – or use alternative materials instead. And a deposit scheme on plastic bottles is on the way, something we have campaigned for. Businesses too have started to act, sensitive to the concerns of their customers. Of the supermarkets, Iceland has promised the toughest action, with a vow to eliminate plastic packaging from its own-brand products. It’s long overdue. As consumers we can’t avoid much of the packaging that comes home with our weekly shopping. It needs suppliers to take control. Several restaurant chains have stopped using straws – McDonald’s, Pizza Express, and Wetherspoon’s among them. Anyone who has seen the viral video of a turtle having

Highlighting the plight of the marine environment, Lewis Pugh, United Nations Patron of the Oceans, five miles off Shoreham and heading for Dover.

The system makes it more lucrative to export our plastic recycling than to process it ourselves

PLASTIC IN THE FOOD CHAIN

Ocean ‘garbage patches’, such as those in the Pacific, shown here in a graphic from the US National Ocean Service, are where large volumes of microplastics end up, concentrated by rotary currents, and covering large areas of open sea where cleaning up would be a difficult and expensive operation.

The author, broadcasting for Sky TV’s Ocean Rescue, from Santorini, Greece.

a straw extracted from one of its nostrils will appreciate just how big a deal this is. Sky is also leading by example. Singleuse plastic will be eliminated from our business and products by 2020. Most of the disposable plastic has already been removed from our catering facilities, with staff issued with reusable alternatives. So far we’ve used 750,000 fewer plastic bottles and 7 million fewer coffee cups. It’s a clear message to all companies: it can be done.

Sport and the media Sky is also using its influence in the world of sport, to push the #PassOnPlastic message to a new audience. You may have seen the Sky Ocean Rescue logo on the shirts of Team Sky in the Tour de France. Our cricket commentators and pundits have handed out refillable water bottles at England test matches. And most recently Sky and the Premier League teamed up to encourage football clubs and fans to take action and

Sky Ocean Rescue

The latest estimate is that 13 million tonnes of plastic enter the ocean every year

eliminate single-use plastic. The rest of the media have also taken heed of the overwhelming support for action on plastic, and upped their coverage of the issue. The BBC’s Blue Planet 2, with its stunning images, showed us what is at stake. The more coverage the better. There is urgency to the plastic crisis. The latest estimate is that 13 million tonnes of plastic enter the ocean every year. Much of it comes from the developing world. But that doesn’t let us off the hook in the west. As Dirty Business showed, our recycling can end up in countries with weaker environmental controls. And packaging from western companies litters the beaches of Mumbai and elsewhere.

A glimmer of hope, but much more to do Producers need to take more responsibility for their wrappers and sachets. Fortunately some innovative companies are experimenting with packaging made from seaweed, algae or even shrimp shells rather than plastic. Hopefully that soon becomes the norm. It was a huge honour to receive the award for Maritime Awareness last year. Sky Ocean Rescue continues, committed as ever. But despite the success so far, there is still so much more to do. n At last year’s Maritime Media Awards, the Sky News science team won the judges’ special award for maritime awareness for their Sky Ocean Rescue campaign. For further details of the campaign, see https://skyoceanrescue.com.

how do we value the oceans?

| A greener future for shipping

Tough decisions, as the clock ticks down Roberto Venturini CC-BY-SA2.0

he International Maritime Organization (IMO) is the United Nations agency that regulates shipping, mainly through the work of two subcommittees – the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) and the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC). MSC was the driving force behind IMO regulations for many years, but MEPC has, unofficially, taken precedence since IMO signed up to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The two broad goals that are having the greatest impact on shipping are Goal 13: ‘Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts’, and Goal 14: ‘Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.’

Richard Clayton, Chief Correspondent of Lloyd’s List, looks forward to a momentous year of decision making for commercial shipping

Fuel consumption In 2011, IMO became the first international body to adopt mandatory energyefficiency measures for an entire industry sector, with a suite of technical and operational requirements for new and existing vessels that entered into force in 2013. Expectations were that by 2025 all new-building ships would be 30% more energy efficient than those built in 2014. The new fuel consumption data collection system requires aggregated data to be reported to a ship’s flag state after the end of each calendar year. When it confirms that the reported data comply with requirements, the flag state issues a Statement of Compliance to the ship. The data are transferred to the IMO Ship Fuel Oil Consumption Database, from which the IMO Secretariat draws up an annual report for the MEPC subcommittee. Collecting

these data on fuel consumption gives the IMO a statistical platform from which to take decisions and, crucially, supports IMO’s claim to be the single competent forum for regulating international shipping. IMO welcomed the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, which was drafted in December 2015, unanimously recognising the agency’s own role in mitigating the impact of greenhouse-gas emissions from international shipping.

Sulphur limits The next step in its strategy was to put into effect a significant reduction in the sulphur content of fuel oil used by ships, from 3.5% mass/mass to just 0.5%. There was no doubting the need for the change. As IMO

Filling the sky with carbon particulates, nitrous oxide and sulphur emissions, a bulk carrier manoeuvres off Port St Louis, near Marseille.

IMO welcomed the Paris Agreement on Climate Change

A GREENER FUTURE FOR SHIPPING

The container ship Margrethe Maersk off the California coast. Researchers from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration studied the vessel’s emissions from a research aircraft and a research ship, and found that, as the container ship reduced speed and shifted to low-sulphur fuels near the coast, air pollution emissions plummeted, in some cases by as much as 90 percent.

One year to go

NOAA / PD

There is now only one year to go before the new global sulphur limit kicks in. The maritime sector, from flag states to class societies, and from bunker associations to shipowner organisations, has been feverishly assessing the options, which effectively boil down to (a) use an IMO compliant fuel with 0.5% sulphur content; (b) install an exhaust-gas cleaning system (known as a scrubber) and continue to burn 3.5% sulphur fuel; or (c) use an acceptable alternative such as LNG or methanol. A high-sulphur fuel can be used where IMO 2020-compliant fuel is not available – in such cases a Fuel Oil Non-Availability Report must be tendered. For ships operating mostly or partly in Sulphur Emission Control Areas, currently the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, and the coast of North America, the transfer is not expected to cause much concern. Operators have had to source compliant fuel for several years – since 1 January 2015 in the case of 0.1% sulphur fuel. But for vessels operating outside these areas, the shift from 3.5% to 0.5% will be significant. For many, the option of installing a scrubber in time for launch date is no longer available. By the end of 2018 it is estimated about 1,200 scrubbers will have been fitted or ordered to be fitted to meet the deadline, compared with IMO estimates of about 3,800. This has a bearing on whether refiners provide sufficient quantities of high-sulphur fuel to serve the ships with scrubbers. For these ships the time it takes of pay off the additional investment in a scrubber has been a key factor. The consensus appears to be that those who have already installed or ordered will see a swift return on their investment, while those who have left the decision to invest

The maritime sector has been feverishly assessing the options

Secretary General Kitack Lim explained, the reductions are expected to have ‘a significant beneficial impact on the environment and on human health’, particularly for people living in port cities and coastal communities beyond the existing emission control areas. The date for introduction of the new global limit was contentious, with some states arguing that there would not be sufficient compliant fuel by an initially agreed launch date of 1 January 2020; they were pushing for a delay of five years. After much negotiation, a decision was reached in favour of sticking to the tighter deadline, although a review would be undertaken on whether enough compliant fuel would be available. Even though this decision was acclaimed as a landmark for the environment and for human health, it left little time for a global industry to evaluate the alternative fuel sources, make necessary investment in compliance strategies, train seafarers and shore employees in bunker handling, enable oil refineries to plan fuel policies, and allow engine manufacturers enough time to develop and install compliant propulsion systems. Regulations governing sulphur oxide emissions from ships are included in Annex VI to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL Convention). Annex VI sets progressively stricter regulations to control emissions from ships, including sulphur oxides (SOx) and nitrous oxides (NOx).

IMO

A GREENER FUTURE FOR SHIPPING

Dumping ballast water – and spreading harmful invasive species.

IMO

beyond 2020 will see not only a lengthening of payback time but also a narrowing in the price difference between high- and low-sulphur fuel.

Ballast water

A year of decisions

The fuel consumption data collection and global sulphur limit regulations have not been the only environmental demands in shipowners’ in-trays. The long-running Ballast Water Management Convention was adopted by IMO in 2004, but it was not until September 2016 that the tonnage threshold was passed. The International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments was introduced to halt the spread of invasive aquatic species, which damage local ecosystems, affect biodiversity, and can cause substantial economic loss. It entered force on 8 September 2017, one year after Finland handed over the instrument of acceptance. This convention requires all ships in international trade to manage their ballast water and sediments to certain standards, according to a ship-specific ballast water management plan. All ships will also have to carry a ballast water record book and an International Ballast Water Management Certificate. The performance standard is being phased in over time, to allow owners to install an on-board treatment system. After a slow start, more than 60 type-approved systems are available; the US Coast Guard has nine systems already approved and ten more under review. Shipowners were reluctant to invest in treatment systems until they could be sure their system was widely approved, with the US Coast Guard – the initiator of this regulation – holding back the longest. The main techniques used for ballast water treatment are ultraviolet radiation, electrochlorination, and chemical injection systems.

Complying with these three IMO-driven requirements has become a major headache for shipowners, and they dominate technology conferences across the maritime world. The year to 1 January 2020 will be one of decisions for owners, operators and managers, not helped by a further requirement to pursue a major reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050. Neither the IMO nor shipowners’ organisations want compliance to become a tick-box exercise. However, some financially stretched owners are likely to make decisions not only about emissions reduction but also about whether it’s possible to be both green and profitable. One of the consequences of these ongoing discussions is the impact they have had on the service sector, including classification. Class societies have a depth of technical knowledge that most shipowners lack, so it’s expected that owners will seek to form closer partnerships with class. This will only be aided by digitisation, and especially by the increasing use of data analysis, to drive optimisation of vessel operations. This in turn will call for differently skilled seafaring and shore staff. Faced with a transformation of the environmental landscape for commercial shipping, decisions will be taken over the next year that could see seismic changes in the industry. Few shipping leaders have so far invested in new technology to ease this transformation, and the clock is ticking. n Richard Clayton joined Lloyd’s List in mid2017 as Chief Correspondent. He has long experience as a maritime journalist and was previously for many years Daily News Bulletin Editor then Editor of Fairplay magazine.

Sampling ballast water through the sounding pipe.

Shipowners were reluctant to invest in treatment systems until they could be sure their system was widely approved

how do we value the oceans?

| UK shipping industry

Designing the world’s maritime future Bob Sanguinetti, Chief Executive of the UK Chamber of Shipping, says Britain’s shipping industry is well placed to rise to the challenge

Louis Mackay

One of the main things holding us back is complacency

he United Kingdom is one of the world’s foremost maritime nations. There is no dispute about that, but let’s unpack what it means. Pressure is building as never before on the UK to maintain its position as a world-leading maritime centre. Independent analysis by consultancies such as Menon continue to rate London as the world’s top city for maritime law and services, but other international maritime hubs around the world are coming for the crown. Meanwhile, London’s rankings as a centre for technological innovation, ports and logistics services, and attractiveness and competitiveness (Menon’s own categories) have slipped. The UK has also lost ground in maritime technological development, as a string of recent deals illustrates. Rolls-Royce, which is headquartered here, is selling its commercial marine business to Norway’s Kongsberg, for instance. The acquisition includes RollsRoyce’s ship intelligence activities, which have been developing technologies to enable remote and autonomous operation of commercial vessels.

London’s status as a world-leading maritime centre is now confined to maritime law and services; in other respects its ranking is slipping and under threat.

Closing the gap It’s time to analyse the gap between our potential and our performance. One of the main things holding us back, I would say, is complacency. We can be proud of the fact that the UK has been a principal architect of the way the world’s current maritime industry works, but that does not

mean we should have any automatic right to play the same role in the future. We must seek to be the globe’s foremost centre for shipowning, services, equipment and technology. But these are all areas in which the UK either has lost ground through being outcompeted or is under pressure from its international rivals. How can we fight back? In the most basic sense, we need to make it even easier to do business in the UK. It goes without saying that we need to nurture and support home-grown maritime business, encouraging people to apply their entrepreneurial zeal to the shipping industry. But in order to increase the number of maritime companies operating here, we also need to make it easier for foreign companies to establish a UK base. To do that, we must ensure the UK’s high international profile translates into meaningful economic activity.

Fulfilling the potential Consider this symptom. There are many high-net-worth shipowners from abroad who keep homes in London. Yes, buying bricks and mortar in the capital will always be a sound investment for the super-rich, but there’s more to the story. Although international shipowners enjoy having London as a base for their personal lives, only a small number have gone so far as to set up offices and businesses here, providing employment for UK nationals and contributing to our maritime sector and the economy as a whole. Confidence is being shown in one aspect of the UK, but it is not translating into meaningful economic activity. We also need to find a way to encourage investment into the wider shipping clusters – there’s a great deal more to our maritime industry than what lies within the M25. Liverpool, Hull, Southampton, Teesport

Robert Cutts / CC-BY-SA2.0

DESIGNING THE WORLD’S MARITIME FUTURE

and countless other port towns have huge potential. We must help them fulfil it.

Delivering transformational change It should be clear by now that to solve these various problems we need the government’s help – and before we can get that, we need to put good ideas before our politicians, backed up with evidence, statistics and costings. That’s where the Chamber of Shipping comes in. It’s our job to put proposals in front of government and put together a persuasive and carefully researched case as to why each respective idea should be put into policy. This is all easier said than done. What sets us back is the same obstacle that I believe hampers most of the world’s shipping industry, from individual companies to regional maritime organisations, right up to the various international trade bodies: shipping needs to improve its ability to identify, as well as articulate, what it needs. It is not a problem unique to this country – other maritime nations have similar issues. But the difference is that the shipping industry in the UK, as the nation negotiates its exit from the European Union, is being handed a gift of an opportunity to demonstrate its economic value and leverage. The payoff for having a clear vision for the future of the industry would be huge. As part of its industrial strategy, the government

has challenged sectors to come forward with proposals that will help the UK build competitive advantage over its international rivals, enhance productivity, address shortfalls in skills and advance developments in technology. The government has said it will work with sectors that organise themselves behind ‘strong leadership’ – including universities and regional leaders – to help deliver ‘transformational’ change across the country.

Innovative ideas The UK’s maritime sector is working on its own proposal for a specialist sector deal, work that is being coordinated by industry promotional body Maritime UK with the University of Southampton. It is hoped the finished proposal will be submitted to government in early 2019. We have already begun laying the groundwork to make our case undeniable. Economics consultancy CEBR last year undertook a study of the economic value of the UK’s shipping industry on behalf of Maritime UK. The study found that the direct economic contribution of the maritime sector exceeds those of other comparable industries like aviation. So we already have the evidence to show how much maritime matters. Now we need to come up with good policy ideas that will change the face of our industry in much

A Hong Kong-registered container ship manoeuvring in the Port of Southampton – one of many ports around the country that, given due investment, have huge potential.

There is a great deal more to our maritime industry than what lies within the M25

DESIGNING THE WORLD’S MARITIME FUTURE

Wikimalte CC-BY-SA4.0

We already have a nationwide infrastructure for tech innovation – but this is not yet being applied to maritime

the same way that tonnage tax has. Tonnage tax is a stunning example of how innovative policy can not only work but also have a multiplying economic effect throughout the sector – a reward for developing new policy ideas and lobbying for them effectively. The CEBR study estimated that without the tonnage tax regime the UK shipping industry would have directly contributed 73% less in gross value added (GVA) during 2015 – equivalent to around £3.1 billion. Without tonnage tax, there would be 37,000 fewer jobs, £410 million less in tax contributions and £3.7 billion less in exports of seaborne transport services, the study found. It’s true that the Brexit negotiations have created uncertainty, but the government is also asking industry for direction – we have a real opportunity here to make our voice heard. As the country experiences a radical shift, this is precisely the time we should be putting forward innovative policy ideas.

A global problem solver From where can we draw inspiration? Can UK maritime become the problem solver for the global industry? Let’s apply British ingenuity and expertise to resolve some of global shipping’s biggest headaches. One of these challenges could be decarbonisation, which class society DNV-GL recently designated a ‘megatrend’ that will change the face of the shipping industry. The International Maritime Organization has determined that the maritime community must drastically reduce its carbon emissions – and countries

Ampere – the world’s first battery-powered ferry, on Norway’s Sognefjord. Developments in battery technology, together with regulatory and environmental pressures, indicate growing potential for battery propulsion in larger vessels than those in which it is at present practical and economic, so it is a field in which Britain could invest more.

are now racing to be the first to meet the technological challenge that comes with this. Our policy ideas should combine our world-class research, development and innovation capabilities to come up with commercially viable solutions that will not only benefit our maritime industry and our global offer, but will boost UK plc too. One such pathway could be the lobbying for government funding for the development of batteries for vessel propulsion. We already have a nationwide infrastructure for tech innovation – but this is not yet being applied to maritime. The government has allotted some £250 million for research and development work into batteries that could be used to power road vehicles, and a similar programme could be funded for decarbonisation technology for shipping. With government support and the coordinated efforts of industry and research bodies, we could see the UK leading shipping to a carbon-free future. This is just one example. All of us who care about the future of the industry must find more. I have no doubt that we can beat the competition from around the world and once again be the architect of the world’s maritime future. But if we are to achieve that then we need an ambitious vision, innovative policy development and robust lobbying. I am confident that the UK Chamber of Shipping can help to provide all three. n For more information on the UK Chamber of Shipping, see www.ukchamberofshipping.com. Bob Sanguinetti served for almost three decades in the Royal Navy, rising to the rank of Commodore, before coming Chief Executive of the Port of Gibraltar in 2014. He was appointed Chief Executive of the UK Chamber of Shipping in July 2018.

how do we value the oceans?

| Mapping Planet Ocean

Exploring the unknown

Inadequate resolution You may find a map of the seabed that shows underwater mountains and deep-sea canyons, but the best average resolution, globally, is approximately 1 square kilometre. These coarseresolution maps have been produced by cleverly interpolating a few direct measurements and numerous indirect measurements (through satellites). Currently only about 6% of the seabed has been mapped using high-resolution direct measurement techniques. Understanding the topography of the seabed is of critical importance – with data needed to predict the path of tsunamis and illuminate the study of tides, wave action, sediment transport, underwater geo-hazards, cable routing, fisheries management and resource exploration, among others. We cannot sustainably manage what we don’t understand. Sea-floor maps are also vital for the security, safety and economic health of nation states. The ‘Blue Economy’, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), is valued at $1.5 trillion a year and creates the equivalent of 31 million full-time jobs. But the task of mapping the sea floor

XPRIZE

at a high resolution provides a number of significant challenges.

Three major challenges The first major challenge is in the opaque nature of the ocean. Satellites can cover large areas of land, but cannot make direct, high-resolution measurements of the seabed. In order to get accurate bathymetric maps, we need in-situ devices that can operate in corrosive salt water, move through a fluid that provides a high resistance compared to air, work in total darkness under extremely high pressures (1 atmosphere for every 10 metres beneath the surface), and communicate through a medium that does not lend itself to easy communications. Many of the in-situ technologies we have are slow or require considerable power to operate for long periods of time. A second major challenge is the extent of the area yet to be mapped, which is almost

Portuguese Team PISCES’s autonomous underwater vehicle, DART (Deep water Autonomous Robotic Traveler) floating in a test tank, with reflection.

We cannot sustainably manage what we don’t understand Team PISCES works to secure their AUV in the test lab as they prepare for a six-hour operational submergence demonstration for the competition.

XPRIZE

s technology evolves, so too does our knowledge. For example, satellites now show, with increasingly finer resolution, the surface of the earth. Through the data and images we get from space, we see the beauty of the mountains and valleys, forests and deserts, cities and farmlands, and we believe that we have a good understanding of our home. But 71% of the earth is covered by water – and as Sir Arthur C. Clarke famously said, ‘How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is quite clearly Ocean.’ How well do we really know our planet, when most of it remains a mystery, hidden under about 4 kilometres of seawater?

Jyotika Virmani and Henry Gilliver, explain how the global movement to map ‘Planet Ocean’ is gathering pace, spurred on by two recent initiatives – the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE and the Nippon Foundation–GEBCO Seabed 2030 project

EXPLORING THE UNKNOWN

XPRIZE

Japanese Team KUROSHIO demonstrates their autonomous underwater vehicle to XPRIZE officials at their research facility in Yokosuka.

The eight Grand Prize teams are preparing for the final test of the competition

Team GEBCO-NF Alumni’s autonomous unmanned surface vehicle, SEA-KIT, explores the offshore coastline of Horten, Norway in a field test for the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE.

too large to comprehend – almost 360 million square kilometres. To overcome these first two challenges and reach the remotest parts of the ocean, the technologies used to explore the deep ocean are generally deployed from a vessel, which presents the third major challenge – the cost. Vessels are costly to own or rent, and often require significant staffing, as some human intervention is needed for navigation and support of the deep-sea data collection operations. Although existing technologies developed over the last few decades have given us great insights into the marine realm, they are expensive, not fast enough, and cannot scale up to the task at hand. It is estimated that we will need over $3 billion and a few hundred years in order to map our entire seabed to a 100-metre resolution.

The XPRIZE competition The Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE, a $7 million competition, was designed to accelerate the development of autonomous and rapid underwater technologies to map the sea floor at high resolution and low cost. XPRIZE, a non-profit organization based in Los Angeles, California, is the global leader in designing and implementing innovative competition models to solve the world’s grandest challenges. In addition to addressing the challenge of mapping the deep seabed XPRIZE

Members of German Team ARRGONAUTS-Fraunhofer IOSB conduct a wet test of their Great Diver AUV in the Rhine.

down to 4-kilometre depths, contestants in this international competition are required to bring back images from the ocean. A $1 million National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) bonus prize has also been offered for innovators to develop pioneering technology that can detect a chemical or biological signal underwater and autonomously track it to its source. This international competition, launched in December 2015, will conclude in 2019. As the competition approaches the final phase, the field has been whittled down from the initial 32 teams who registered to eight teams who are still competing for the Grand Prize, and five teams competing for the Bonus Prize. The eight Grand Prize teams, with team members from 25 countries, are preparing for the final test of the competition – to map at least 50% of a designated offshore 500-square-kilometre competition area down to 4,000-metre depths, at 5-metre horizontal resolution and 0.5-metre vertical resolution. Teams will have 24 hours in which to collect the data for the map, bring back 10 images from the sea, and find a deep-sea object. These field tests, taking place in November and December in the Mediterranean, off Greece, will determine the winners of the Grand Prize ($4 million first-place prize, $1 million second-place prize). The five Bonus Prize teams will meet in January 2019 for field tests to determine the winners of the $1 million Bonus Prize. Since the launch of this XPRIZE in late 2015, the maritime community has generally seen an increasing shift towards autonomy – both in ships at sea and in underwater technologies. The XPRIZE competing teams are using remote-controlled surface vessels, autonomous underwater devices, swarm robotics, drones, 3D-printed housing, cuttingedge imaging and sensing technologies, artificial intelligence and advance computing

EXPLORING THE UNKNOWN

Portuguese Team PISCES operates their ROAZ autonomous surface vehicle in the Port of Leixões, Matosinhos as part of their Round 1 Technology Readiness test to qualify for the finals.

XPRIZE

The Seabed 2030 project One organisation taking a leading role in this process is the Nippon Foundation–GEBCO Seabed 2030 project, which aims to map the entirety of the world’s ocean floor by 2030. The project contributes to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 14 – ‘to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development’ – and will also support the UN’s Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. It is clear that the Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 project and the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE are natural partners. The Nippon Foundation–GEBCO Seabed 2030 project is an international network of leading ocean scientists and ocean mapping experts. Four regional centres have been established, each with responsibility for a region of the world’s ocean. They are based at the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), Germany, covering the Southern Ocean; the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), Wellington, New Zealand, covering the south and west Pacific Ocean; the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, USA, covering the Atlantic and Indian Oceans; and Stockholm University, Sweden, in partnership with the University of New Hampshire, USA, for the North Pacific and Arctic Ocean. The Global Centre, responsible for producing the global map, is based at the UK’s National

Oceanography Centre, Southampton. The use of emerging technologies will play a central role in the Seabed 2030 project. Using current technology, scientists estimate it will take around 350 ship-years to accurately map the ocean deeper than 200 metres. That is, one research ship equipped with a modern multibeam echosounder would take 350 years to complete the task. New technologies will be instrumental in reducing this timescale, which is why the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE is so important for the long-term goals of the Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 project.

Just the start of a journey The end of the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE will be marked with one team being crowned the winner. However, all the teams will collectively have expanded the technology available to address this grand challenge. This is only the beginning of humanity’s journey to the last undiscovered frontier. Its legacy will live on in the Nippon Foundation–GEBCO Seabed 2030 project, and its aim to map the entirety of the world’s ocean floor by 2030. n Jyotika I. Virmani PhD is Senior Director, Planet and Environment, and Executive Director, Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE. Henry Gilliver is a spokesperson for the Nippon Foundation–GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project.* XPRIZE

to uncover our oceans. These innovative competition entries are continuing to push the boundaries of autonomous operations at sea, and it is inevitable that many of these emerging technologies will be instrumental in mapping our vast sea floor. One of the monumental impacts from this XPRIZE will be to reduce the timeline of obtaining a high-resolution map of our entire planet from a few hundred years to less than 15 years.

This is only the beginning of humanity’s journey to the last undiscovered frontier

Team CFIS uses new lidar technology for faster and more efficient ocean-floor mapping. Team leader Toby Jackson takes his own-designed AUV Aldus for a late evening trial run on Lake Annecy, France.

Royal Navy divers

The Fleet Diving Squadron Commander Del McKnight rn describes the varied work undertaken by the Royal Navy’s clearance divers

They are experts in discreet long-distance swims Royal Navy divers with their launch RMAS Moorfowl at Loch Striven, after recovering the remains of one of Barnes Wallis’s ‘Highball’ bouncing bombs.

n Horsea Island, on the northern shore of Portsmouth Harbour, lie the dark and murky waters of an old torpedo testing lake. On the edge of that lake sits the home of the Fleet Diving Squadron (FDS). The headquarters building itself contains eight of the ten diving units that make up FDS, with the other two located within the naval bases at Clyde and Devonport.

Operationally focused The squadron comprises over 165 highly motivated and dedicated Royal Navy clearance divers, whose training and unique skill set enable them to support UK interests on a global scale, whether that be explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) on land or sea,

diving capabilities or engineering support to both the surface and sub-surface flotillas, at home and abroad. In 2017, the squadron was called out on 442 EOD tasks and 11 improvised explosive device (IED) tasks within the UK. The squadron supports a further nine named Royal Navy operations and four defence tasks, with 63 combined UK and global tasks taking place in 2017. In addition, FDS is increasingly employing mine warfare personnel to man and operate a growing number of offboard systems, such as the autonomous robots that are integral to mine counter-measures efforts, and remotely operated vehicles used for underwater force protection.

The teams Among the teams that make up the squadron are the three units of the Fleet Diving Group, whose responsibilities include maritime counter-terrorism and mine counter-measures. They are experts in discreet long-endurance swims using oxygen rebreathing sets, often at night, then climbing the sides of ships and offshore oilrigs. Or they may work in shallow water, ensuring that any beach used by the Royal Marines and the Amphibious Task Group is clear of dangerous ordnance, using autonomous systems and hand-held sonar to locate mines and make them safe. These are all arduous tasks that require a huge amount of practice and extreme levels of fitness. Underwater force protection teams may fly out to join ships overseas. In recent years this has primarily meant supporting Gulf operations, but the Navy divers also participate in numerous exercises over the course of the year, as well as in wider training and development exercises. There are also two Area Dive Groups, Northern (based at Faslane) and Southern (split between Portsmouth and Plymouth). In addition to supporting the Navy’s surface and

THE FLEET DIVING SQUADRON

Climbing rope ladders is just one of the many skills Royal Navy Divers practise.

submarine fleets, they may be tasked to provide assistance to civil authorities such as the police and the coastguard, and they are on call to supply divers to the NATO Submarine Rescue System (NSRS). Both groups also deploy regularly to areas where old ranges or munitions are found – for instance to the Gower peninsula near Swansea – where they remove or make safe numerous legacy mortar and artillery rounds, many of which are chemically filled and remain quite potent and dangerous to this day.

The tasks – a few examples We recently helped to recover some Barnes Wallis bouncing bombs from the bottom of Loch Striven, where they had lain since World War 2. The loch had been the site of trials conducted for a ‘Highball’ bouncing bomb, the navy counterpart to the RAF Dam Busters’ bombs. The concept was to use it against the German ship Tirpitz that was menacing the Arctic convoys from the safety of the Norwegian fjords. Several bombs were recovered, and they will be displayed at the Brookland Museum in Surrey and the de Havilland Aircraft Museum in Hertfordshire after they have been properly preserved. Another recent task took us to central London, where a German 500 kg bomb left over from the Blitz had to be removed from the vicinity of London City Airport. Lifting equipment was used to raise the bomb from the seabed, out through a lock and down the Thames, a transit that took in excess of ten hours. When FDS was asked to help out at an overturned fishing vessel we had to deploy quickly, for it was possible that crew might be trapped inside. Two divers searched the hull, and sadly located a body. They managed to complete the dive just as the stricken vessel sank beneath the waves, proving the danger of the situation. Some tasks are closer to home – for when HMS Queen Elizabeth made her first entry

into Portsmouth in August 2017, it was the responsibility of FDS to ensure that the seabed and jetty were thoroughly searched. Members of the squadron have also been heavily involved in developing the underwater force protection plan for the new aircraft carrier, and have recently sailed with her to the United States to ensure her trials continue as planned.

A challenging career In truth a hundred different activities could be described, from parachute training to diving on the World War 2 carrier HMS Hermes in Sri Lanka, from numerous IED call-outs to unwrapping fishing net from around a submarine. The Fleet Diving Squadron is an interesting place to work, providing varied employment, not just for divers but increasingly for a range of support staff. Any young man or woman looking for an interesting and challenging career need look no further! n Commander Del McKnight joined the Royal Navy in 1989. Since 2016 he has been Commanding Officer Fleet Diving Squadron.

An FDS team providing security as HMS Queen Elizabeth enters Portsmouth fot the first time.

They may be tasked to provide assistance to civil authorities

Royal Navy divers attending the capsized fishing vessel Solstice, shortly before it sank off Plymouth in 2017. HMS Argyll standing by. One body was recovered.

RNAS 1914 –18

The Royal Naval Air Service Commander Sue Eagles qvrm rd pays tribute to the pioneering spirit of the RNAS in the First World War

The young airmen of the RNAS were spirited and ingenious adventurers

his year’s centenary of the end of the First World War is a landmark anniversary for Britain and the world. The colossal impact of the war has been extensively documented, yet public awareness of the daring and courageous exploits of the Royal Naval Air Service and the influence of naval aviation is still little known. The Royal Naval Air Service (1914–18) fought with distinction and valour on all fronts during the First World War, pioneering many aspects of aerial warfare, winning two Victoria Crosses and leading the way in innovation and 1

endeavour – thereby establishing the ethos and spirit of the Fleet Air Arm today. Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914, and even though flying was barely out of its infancy, within weeks the RNAS had pioneered the first strategic air raids against Zeppelins in their bases many miles from the sea – outstanding achievements in navigation and daring. Winston Churchill saw the potential of naval aviation from the outset. The RNAS raid on the Zeppelin factory at Friedrichshafen on 21 November 1914, a flight of 250 miles across enemy country, although only partially successful in damaging the sheds, had farreaching effect and is recognised as the first strategic bombing raid in history. A few weeks later, in December 1914, 2

R OYA L N AVA L A I R S E R V I C E 1 9 1 4 – 1 8

the RNAS raid on Cuxhaven was another defining moment in history, being the birth of ‘Carrier Strike’, the first time aircraft operating from ships at sea achieved strategic effect ashore. Naval Air Squadrons also flew alongside the Royal Flying Corps in combat over the trenches, making an important contribution to the air war on the Western Front. The young airmen of the RNAS were spirited and ingenious adventurers with a zest for life – and for pushing the boundaries. In four short years they pioneered the development of ship-borne combat aircraft, anti-submarine warfare and the first aircraft carrier, skilfully building the RNAS into a highly effective naval air arm. It is often overlooked that the RNAS also developed 8

RNAS Victoria Cross heroes Sub-Lieutenant Rex Warneford VC 7 June 1915. For conspicuous bravery during a mile-high, moonlight duel with a German airship over Belgium destroying the Zeppelin in mid-air. Lieutenant Richard Bell-Davis VC 19 November 1915. For extraordinary courage and bravery rescuing a fellow pilot shot down behind enemy lines in Bulgaria during the Gallipoli campaign.

the first armoured cars. By the end of the war, the RNAS had 55,000 personnel, 3,000 aircraft and 103 airships. Their efforts and sacrifice not only led to the present-day Fleet Air Arm but live on through the work of the charity, Navy Wings, which held an Armistice Centenary Dinner in London on 9 October 2018 in tribute to the courage and gallantry of all those who served in the Royal Naval Air Service. n For more information, see www.navywings.org.uk 10

1. White & Thompson No 3 flying boat. 2. Short type 184 Seaplane. 3. RNAS bombing from an SSZ airship (colour tinted). 4. The night-time duel fought with a Zeppelin by Warneford VC in his Morane-Saulnier aircraft. 5. Turret launch of a Sopwith Camel. 6. RNAS recruiting poster. 7. Cdr Dunning making the first landing of an aircraft on a ship at sea, 1917 (colour tinted). 8. Sub-Lieutenant Rex Warneford VC. 9. Lieutenant Richard Bell-Davis VC. 10. Sopwith triplane in action. All images by courtesy of the Fleet Air Arm Museum

The Royal Barge Gloriana

A barge fit for a queen Malcolm Knight of the Gloriana Trust describes how the world’s ultimate rowing boat is always a sight to behold, whatever the weather

original drawings from master boatbuilder Mark Edwards (Richmond Bridge Boathouses) developed by naval architects Stuart Roy and Ed Burnett. The keel was laid in November 2011 in a warehouse in Brentford, west London, with the build being managed by Damian Byrne (Byrne, Longshore & Co.). A team of nearly sixty traditional boat builders from around the UK was brought together to work in shifts for nineteen weeks building the first royal barge for over two hundred years. They were joined by skilled artists from Hare & Humphreys, who completed the fine painting and gilding of the exterior decorations, which were carved by Polygon Scenery Ltd. The Gloriana Trust

Gloriana duiring the build, showing her frames and planking from the inside.

he story of the building of this splendid barge goes back to when Lord Sterling (Chairman of the National Maritime Museum) was approached, on behalf of the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, and asked which vessel might be suitable for an event on the River Thames at Hampton Court Palace to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012. Following consultation with the curators at the National Maritime Museum, Lord Sterling commissioned the building of a barge that would be timeless. Plans were drawn up, with

Launched in ‘Gloriana weather’

With the saloon taking shape in February 2012.

The Gloriana Trust

The result of their labours is the craft we see today – 90 feet (27 metres) long, 11 feet (3.4 metres) wide, 10 tonnes, built of highgrade marine plywood on oak ribs, with sweet chestnut and oak from Prince Charles’s estate used in the construction. The hull is finished to super-yacht standards, and all the fine decoration was hand-painted and gilded using over 2,300 books of 23.3-caret gold leaf. During the build, assistance from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and Lloyd’s Register ensured that the royal barge complied with all necessary regulations for her to be

The Gloriana Trust

A BARGE FIT FOR A QUEEN

Diamond Jubilee Pageant The final build and coming together of all the finery was completed with the barge moored at Richmond. The royal barge, named Gloriana after Elizabeth I, was presented to the Queen accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh at Greenland Pier, Rotherhithe, on 25 April (it rained), and the public finally saw the barge for the first time on 3 June when she led the 1,000boat Diamond Jubilee Pageant down the River Thames from Chelsea to Tower Bridge. It rained! The pageant was the largest flotilla seen on the river for hundreds of years, with boats coming from all over the country, Europe and most importantly the Commonwealth. Leading the Queen and the royal party on board the Spirit of Chartwell were the 300 boats of the Manpowered Squadron (organised by Thames Alive – Malcolm Knight and Peter Warwick) and the flags of the 53 Commonwealth countries carried by Sea Cadets in their Trinity 500s. Following the royal barge were 700 motorised boats of all types – a spectacle enjoyed by millions in London and worldwide on that special day.

Olympic and other duties Gloriana was next seen carrying the Olympic Flame on the final day of the torch relay before the London Olympics. The cauldron mounted on the bows was lit by Sir Matthew Pinsent

The Gloriana Trust

outside Hampton Court Palace and a crew of eighteen Olympians ranging from 1946 to the 2012 hopefuls rowed the barge down river escorted by three different flotillas – traditional skiffs and gigs, youngsters from London Youth Rowing in fine boats, and finally Watermen’s cutters from the City livery companies. Once again, thousands came and watched this spectacular flotilla as it progressed down the Thames into London. The flame was then passed to a motor launch, which delivered it to the Olympic Park, and the ‘Greatest Show on Earth’ began. The Queen’s Row Barge has gone on to attend events up and down the River Thames. She has become a welcome sight at regattas and riparian events, and has led flotillas celebrating Magna Carta 800, the Lord Mayor’s Show, the Queen’s 90th birthday, the Commonwealth Games and many others. More recently the Duchess of Cornwall welcomed the winners from the BBC Radio 2 ‘500 Words’ competition on board outside Hampton Court Palace. The six youngsters were then taken for a short row with students from Kingston Grammar School at the oars. The Gloriana Trust

granted a Class V Passenger Boat certificate. When not being rowed by eighteen oarsmen/ women, she is powered by two Torqeedo Deep Blue 40 Sail Drive auxiliary electric motors, whose rechargeable lithium ion batteries give approximately eight hours of cruising time – the first of her kind on the Thames. In early April 2012 the barge was taken from the warehouse by low loader to Isleworth, where she was launched in what we came to call ‘Gloriana weather’ – it poured with rain!

Top: First outing on the Thames. Above: Sir Steve Redgrave coxing a young crew at Newham.

She has becomer a welcome sight at regattas and riparian events Gloriana at Henley.

A BARGE FIT FOR A QUEEN

The Gloriana Trust

Gloriana’s crew toss oars.

The royal barge will be used to promote better use of the Thames

In recent years Gloriana has led a flotilla of traditional rowing craft over the University Boat Race course an hour before the main races. Boats from as far afield as Venice and Malta have taken part, with oarsmen and women from fixed-seat rowing clubs bringing their boats from around the UK. The flotilla is followed up the course by two divisions of Watermen’s cutters being raced by the City livery companies and finally the 1829 replica original eights are raced by invitation crews – a wonderful ‘warm-up’ preliminary event to the boat races that follow.

Promoting youth events on the Thames Her Majesty asked that Gloriana be retained by a new charitable trust, with assistance from Thames Alive, and she approved the principle that the royal barge will be used to promote better use of the Thames. This will be achieved by providing opportunities for a range of charities to play their part in events and celebrations upon the river, with particular emphasis on involving young people. In 2016, a concept from Lord Sterling and Sir Steve Redgrave (now a trustee) to support and encourage youth rowing led to the setting up and running of the Gloriana Achievers

Gloriana’s bell and decorated stern fittings. The Gloriana Trust

The Gloriana Trust

Gloriana taking part in the Jubilee pageant on the Thames.

Day in the Royal Albert Dock, London. Eighty students from east London schools with a rich mixture of ethnic backgrounds who have never rowed before are invited to attend. During the morning session they are taught to row in skerries (eight-oared side-by-side boats) by coaches from Skerries 4 Schools, and this is followed by a time trial to find the fastest overall school and then side-by-side races to decide the fastest two crews. These two winning crews then row Gloriana in the finale flotilla, escorted by their fellow students in their skerries. They are all given certificates for attending, and the winning school is presented with the Gloriana Achievers Blade, a splendid trophy created for the event. The feedback has been tremendous, with such comments as ‘life changing’, ‘amazing day’, ‘awesome’ and ‘unique, enjoyable’. Plans are now afoot to extend the Achievers Day to another similar event in west London.

A permanent home During the summer months Gloriana currently moors in St Katharine Docks, on display to the many visitors to these historic docks. The Port of London Authority assists with winter storage for the barge and with her annual maintenance. Discussions continue regarding a permanent home for the barge in a purpose-built barge house on the River Thames, to protect the fine gilding and woodwork and ensure she remains on display throughout the year. n The Queen’s Row Barge is now managed by the Gloriana Trust on behalf of the Queen, while an operating company, Gloriana Services Ltd, handles the day-to-day running of the barge. For further details, see www.glorianaqrb.org.uk or our Facebook page.

Pew supports the work of the Maritime Foundation and those protecting and conserving our oceans. To learn more about the work of The Pew Trusts, please visit: pewtrusts.org/uk

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NOC MARINE AUTONOMY & TECHNOLOGY SHOWCASE 13-15 NOVEMBER 2018

conference.noc.ac.uk/matshowcase

Blue sea thinking We’ve been driven by new ideas for more than a century. That’s why we’re delighted to congratulate all of the winners of the 2018 Maritime Media Awards and applaud them on their innovation and creativity. We pride ourselves on providing highly-skilled engineering support to our partners and customers together with a forward-thinking approach to problem solving – you might call it blue ‘sea’ thinking.

Marine | Land | Aviation | Cavendish Nuclear

#PassOnPlastic

babcockinternational.com

PORTLAND PORT UK

Portland Harbour is located just off the English Channel. Its close proximity to some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, its sheltered location and the benefit of being one of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest man made harbours has provided the port with an enviable reputation in the maritime industry. The former Royal Navy dockyard was taken over by Portland Port in 1996 and has developed into a thriving and expanding commercial hub. The port offers a number of vessel services as well as being experienced in the handling of dry and liquid bulk cargoes, cruise ships and ship repairs.

WWW.PORTLAND-PORT.CO.UK

ÂŠ STEVE BRADBURN

EXPLORE THE HISTORY OF MARITIME WARFARE

FROM THE ANCIENT WORLD TO THE CUTTING EDGE OF MODERN WARFARE, OSPREY PUBLISHING IS THE DESTINATION FOR MILITARY HISTORY NOW AVAILABLE FROM ALL GOOD BOOKSHOPS AND ONLINE AT WWW.OSPREYPUBLISHING.COM

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Come Aboard!

... the Royal Maritime Club, the perfect venue for overnight stays, holiday breaks, social occasions and business meetings ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

A welcoming ambience Over 100 comfortable bedrooms to suit all needs Special rates for seafarers and other military personnel Fully accessible Swimming Pool with hydrojets, Infrared Sauna, Spa Pool Horatio’s restaurant serving a set price dinner Traditional buffet style English breakfast Compass Cafe and Victory Bar serving refreshments Snooker and Skittle Alleys

Telephone or email for further details...

Queen Street, Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO1 3HS Club Tel: (023) 9282 4231 Email: events@royalmaritimeclub.co.uk

www.royalmaritimeclub.co.uk

BECOME A SEA CADETS BENEFACTOR and help launch teenagers for life today In a changing often overwhelming world, too many teenagers are getting lost in life. As a Sea Cadets Benefactor you can help them to develop into resilient, confident young people, who can launch well in life, whatever their background. Benefactors club membership is £1,000 per year. For more information about the programme and all the benefits of joining please contact:

Monika Czechowska, Partnerships Manager t: 020 7654 7016 e: mczechowska@ms-sc.org w: sea-cadets.org/benefactors Patron: HM The Queen Marine Society & Sea Cadets, a charity registered in England and Wales 313013 and in Scotland SC037808

SC Maritime Media ad (130x185mm) v2.indd 1

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OMMS (Bristol) Ltd

OMMS (Southampton) Ltd

Avonmouth & Portbury Occupational Medical Services Ltd Dr Peter Clark MB ChB DRCOG MRCGP DOccMed DAB We specialise in maritime occupational health and medical aid for ships and crew across the UK St Andrew’s Medical Centre St Andrew’s House St Andrew’s Road Avonmouth Bristol BS11 9DQ

Portbury Medical Centre Royal Portbury Docks Portbury Bristol BS20 9XF

Trafalgar Medical Centre The Pit Llanarth Nr Usk Monmouthshire NP15 2YB

Tel: St Andrew’s & Portbury 01179 380280. Tel: Trafalgar 07885 962067 24-hour mobile: 07885 962067 / 07860 702304 Email: kathyclarkomms1@gmail.com

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WEST HIGHLAND STEAMERS

The advent of the 4-masted iron sailing ship unexpectedly prolonged the usefulness of windjammers into the age of steam ships. It is the human story of events at the high point of merchant sail-power between 1870 and 1907. Following the phenomenal success of the world’s first 4-masted iron merchant ship County of Peebles R & J Craig decided to build a further 11 jute clippers – Craig’s “Counties”– for their Scottish East India Line. Here the careers of each of the twelve renowned 4-masters are revealed in detail for the first time in one publication.

PUFFER AHOY! A book about the puffers of Scotland’s West Coast. The first part of the book consists of short stories about various puffers and the journeys which they made. The second part is a unique collection of old photographs and paintings, some in colour, showing these puffers and other forms of transport from the early 1900’s.

This book records every ship in the Hutcheson / MacBrayne fleet from 1851 onwards, it has now been extended to include the earlier constituent fleets, and to include all vessels up to 1987, and include other fleets that have operated in the West Highlands. Fleet Lists in tabular form give the principal particulars of most of the vessels, complete with over 100 illustrations of these historic vessels. Those who can recall happy holidays spent in the Western Highlands and Islands of Scotland will find much of interest in this book.

CLYDE RIVER AND OTHER STEAMERS

THE LOG OF THE CUTTY SARK

The title of the book retains the word “Steamers” as most of the Clyde Vessels were of this description when the first edition was written, however later editions included “Motor Vessels” as they began to outnumber steampropelled vessels in the Clyde and Loch fleets. There are 211 text pages, 101 of Fleet Lists, and a total of 120 photographs (55 in colour), many of great interest and rarity.

A history of the famous tea and wool clipper, Cutty Sark, considered to have been the fastest of all the clippers. Compiled from her log books, her captains’ abstracts and information from those who served aboard her, those who served aboard her rivals, or were connected with her in some way . The Log of the Cutty Sark includes numerous illustrations, scale plans of her lines, mid-ship section and sail area, scantling details of both Cutty Sark and her great rival Thermopylae, even the sizes of the Cutty Sark’s standing, running and stunsail rigging are given.

Brown, Son & FerguSon, Ltd. NAUTICAL PUBLISHERS FOR OVER 180 YEARS

A free catalogue of our publications is available on request. Please write to: Brown, Son & Ferguson, Ltd. 426 Drumoyne Road, Glasgow G51 4DA You can also contact us by phone on: 0141 883 0141 or via e-mail at: info@skipper.co.uk All of our publications are also available from our website: www.skipper.co.uk

THE ASSOCIATION OF WRENS SALUTES THOSE WHO SERVED IN THE WOMEN’S ROYAL NAVAL SERVICE supply, cook, steward, writer, pay, shorthand, tailoress, parachute-packer, night-porter, signals, wireless-telegraphist, air, boat, transport-mechanic, m.t.driver, despatch-rider, torpedoman, degausser, boom-defence, pigeon-handler, regulator, postman, intelligence, net-defence-repair, messenger, boats-crew, cox’n, bowman, stoker, armourer, painter, cine-op, radar-plotter, boarding-officer, coder, cypher-officer, telephonist, sickberth-attendant, gardener, met-observer, range-assessor, welfare, dental-nurse, stores-victualling, clothing, air, education, photographer, special-duties-Y, hygienist, stores-accountant, family-services, diver, engineering-mechanic,operations, artificer-apprentice, and many others.

1917-19 & 1939-1993

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WINGS

Inspire & Remember

Men and women of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines serve their country, often at times of danger. Established in 1922, the RNBT helps non-commissioned Sailors, Marines and their families (The RNBT Family) throughout their lives. Your donation will help us to help them. Castaway House, 311 Twyford Avenue, Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO2 8RN T: 02392 690112 F: 02392 660852 E: rnbt@rnbt.org.uk www.rnbt.org.uk

Jobs, Skills & the Future

A TRIBUTE TO

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Protecting members’ jobs Supporting maritime training Securing the future of the industry

ROYAL NAVal AIR SERVICE

IN THE GREAT WAR

The Royal Naval Air Service fought with distinction and valour on all fronts in World War One, pioneering many aspects of aerial warfare and winning two Victoria Crosses

navywings.org.uk Preserving the Nation’s Naval Aviation Heritage INTERNATIONAL

nautilusint.org Registered Charity Number 1117272.

Women’s Royal Naval Service Benevolent Trust

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Providing relief in cases of necessity or distress amongst its members and their dependants.

The Trust exists to provide worldwide advice and financial relief in cases of necessity or distress among its members and their dependants and to make grants for the education of members. A member is automatically anyone who was serving in the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS) and transferred to the Royal Navy on 1 November 1993, or anyone who has served in the WRNS since 1939. The Trust aims to give help in the most constructive way possible, whilst dealing with all requests speedily and effectively. Every case is considered on need and taken on its merit. Members may apply to us for help direct, or a relation or friend can do so on their behalf. With the member’s consent, we may then arrange for a caseworker to visit.

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For further details and information on how to contact us to apply for assistance please visit: www.wrnsbt.org.uk

Women’s Royal Naval Service Benevolent Trust Castaway House, 311 Twyford Avenue, Portsmouth, Hants. PO2 8RN T: 023 9265 5301 E: generalsecretary@wrnsbt.org.uk Registered Charity No. 206529

WRNSBT

Despite the wealth of literature it has inspired, the enduring glamour attached to it, and the fact that it holds a significant place in any account of British social history and leisure, there has until now been no complete survey of yachting for nearly 50 years. Mike Bender presents its course from Elizabethan times to the present day, taking in technological developments, social and cultural change, and the many record-breaking exploits that helped to popularise it. The breadth and depth of A New History of Yachting alone would convince a sceptic of the historical importance of a leisure activity which has previously been overlooked by historians. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MARITIME HISTORY

A tremendously interesting and highly readable book – a marvellous addition to the bookshelf of any thinking sailor.

ROYAL CRUISING CLUB NEWSLETTER

9 colour & 15 b/w illus.; 464pp, Hardcover & eBook, £30

www.boydellandbrewer.com

“Remain Undetected. Maintain Constant Communication. Be at Fifteen Minutes Notice to Fire” The inside story of Britain’s nuclear deterrent, revealing the secretive life of submarines and the men who served on them.

Hardback | £19.99 WWW.CASEMATEPUBLISHERS.CO.UK

OUT NOW

ARE YOU A SERVING OR RETIRED UK SEAFARER? Seafarer Support is a free confidential telephone and online referral service helping to support serving and former UK seafarers and their families in times of need

0800 121 4765

ď&#x192;ź

www.seafarersupport.org

www.facebook.com/seafarersupport

@seafarersupport

COMMERCIAL & MILITARY SHIPBUILDING, SHIP REPAIR, UPGRADES & CONVERSIONS WWW.CAMMELL-LAIRD.COM

n Creating media interest in the sea ighlighting the economic n H importance of maritime activity ringing maritime knowledge n B and skills to the young n Remembering seafarers lost at sea n Working with like-minded organisations

Kathy Mansfield