China's trade surplus topped $1 trillion for the first time as manufacturers seeking to avoid President Donald Trump's tariffs shipped more to non-U.S. markets in November, with exports to Europe, Australia and Southeast Asia surging.Shipments to the United States dropped by close to one-third from the same month a year before."The tariff cuts agreed under the U.S.
By Captain Bobbie Scolley, U.S. Navy (ret.) and Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet, U.S. Navy (ret.)For more than six decades, spanning from 1905 to the late 1970s, the U.S. Navy’s diving apparatus for deep ocean operations and salvage remained fundamentally unchanged. During this period, the demographic of navy divers also saw little alteration.
The maritime industry is entering a new era of accountability. Environmental standards are tightening, customer expectations are rising, and regulatory bodies are demanding more transparency than ever before. From carbon reporting to waste documentation to diversity and inclusion expectations, the compliance landscape is expanding rapidly.
In a previous article, we explored how shrinking attention spans demand new approaches to training. But atten-tion is only part of the story. Memory itself is changing. Today’s mariners, like the rest of us, live in a world of instant answers, with tools like Google, Siri, and now AI agents and copilots. Instead of storing knowledge, the reflex is often to look it up.
Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK) has completed a joint demonstration with Singapore-based Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD) that verified the long-term use and storage of biofuel onboard ships, confirming its technical safety and sustainable usability.The six-month trial, as part of Project LOTUS, involved continuous use of B24 biofuel on a pure car and truck carrier.
EnQuest completed the removal of the Heather Alpha topsides on August 11.The Allseas-owned Pioneering Spirit heavy lift vessel removed the 15,300 tonne topsides in a single lift, the largest single lift planned in the North Sea this year.EnQuest Decommissioning Director, John Allan, said: “The Pioneering Spirit completed the lift in around 14 seconds
The modern mariner has changed. Today’s crew members may be just as fluent in maritime procedures as they are in memes, video shorts, and social media scrolling. And while that brings tech-savviness and adaptability, it also introduces a very real challenge: shrinking attention spans.
Shipbuilding in the United States has seen a heightened profile with increased attention from Congress and the Trump 2.0 Administration. The ongoing dialogue regarding reinvigorating the U.S. deep sea fleet has brought mainstream attention to vessel construction, which has been nearly absent in recent years.
Some emergencies are so rare that they’re easy to overlook during regular training cycles, until they happen. Engine room fires. Rudder failure during storm conditions. Total power loss at sea. These low-frequency, high-impact scenarios are not just the stuff of tabletop exercises; they’re the events that test a crew’s true readiness.
Every mariner knows the routine: alarms sound, crew muster, checklists are followed, and then everyone returns to work. But the question remains—are these mandatory safety drills truly improving onboard safety, or have they simply become boxes to check? The reality is, drills often suffer from predictability and repetition, causing crews to disengage and limiting their effectiveness.
Whether it’s an unsafe working condition, an equipment failure, or a concern about a colleague’s competency, mariners must feel empowered to voice concerns without fear of retribution. For all the training you invest in, nothing is more important than a mariner using their intuition and instincts, refined over a lifetime at sea, to recognize and act on potential dangers.
There’s a tendency for owners to stick with the coatings they are familiar with, but environmental concerns, particularly regarding marine biodiversity, are providing fresh opportunities for them to reconsider.Measuring hull coating performance from noon reports yields around 350 data points over a five-year docking cycle after including full loaded sailing days and excluding adverse weather