NEW SATELLITE DATA REVEALS WHOPPING BOOST IN SHIPPING
Maritime traffic on the world’s oceans has increased four-fold over the past 20 years, likely causing more water, air and noise pollution on the open seas, according to a new study quantifying global ship traffic.
The research used satellite data to estimate the number of vessels on the ocean every year between 1992 and 2012. The number of ships traversing the oceans grew by 60 percent between 1992 and 2002. Shipping traffic grew even faster during the second decade of the study, peaking at rate of increase of 10 percent per year in 2011.
Traffic went up in every ocean during the 20 years of the study, except off the coast of Somalia, where increasing piracy has almost completely halted commercial shipping since 2006. In the Indian Ocean, where the world’s busiest shipping lanes are located, ship traffic grew by more than 300 percent over the 20-year period, according to the research.
Ships powered by fossil fuels dump oil, fuel and waste into the water and pump exhaust into the air. Shipping is also a major source of noise pollution, which is increasingly considered potentially harmful to marine mammals, said Jean Tournadre, a geophysicist at Ifremer, the French Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea in Plouzane, and the study author.
“I found it quite worrisome that the ship traffic grew so much, even in very remote regions of the world,” Tournadre said, “especially when we know that they are the major source of pollution [on the open ocean].”
International trade and the sizes of merchant fleets have both enlarged rapidly over the past two decades, explaining the steep rise in ship traffic, the study reports. The new analysis has been accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.
Burgeoning ship traffic has increased the amount of pollution in the atmosphere, particularly above the Sri Lanka-Sumatra-China shipping lane, where the study notes a 50 percent increase in nitrogen dioxide, a common air pollutant, over the 20-year period.
Tournadre said he hopes the new study will increase scientists’ understanding of how human activities are affecting marine ecosystems and improve models of atmospheric pollution in the open ocean.
The new dataset will provide scientists with invaluable insights into the patterns of ship traffic and the traffic’s effect on the environment, said Batuhan Osmanoglu, a radar systems engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Green Belt, Md., who was not involved in the study.
“The nice thing about this study is that they have a unique dataset, that maybe we’re looking at for the first time,” he said. “Whenever you have a unique dataset you can quite easily learn something new.”
The Latest on: Worldwide ship traffic
[google_news title=”” keyword=”Worldwide ship traffic” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Worldwide ship traffic
- Xinhua world news summary at 0045 GMT, April 26on April 25, 2024 at 6:02 pm
"We attacked the Israeli ship, MSC Darwin, in the Gulf of Aden with a number of naval missiles and drones, hitting it accurately," Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a televised statement ...
- Cargo ship fire in Dardanelles Strait halts maritime trafficon April 25, 2024 at 1:11 pm
A dry cargo vessel caught fire in the Dardanelles Strait in Türkiye's northwestern province of Canakkale on Thursday, prompting authorities to suspend maritime traffic in the vital waterway.
- Changi Airport passenger traffic in 1st quarter of 2024 surpasses pre-Covid level by 0.5%on April 25, 2024 at 11:21 am
Passenger traffic at the Singapore Changi Airport increased by 0.5 per cent compared to pre-Covid levels in 2019. Changi Airport Group (CAG) said in a Apr. 25 media release that the airport recorded ...
- Ship traffic through Suez Canal plunges by two thirds after Red Sea attackson April 24, 2024 at 3:10 am
Ships crossing through the waterway dropped by 66% in the first week of April, compared with the same period last year, official figures showed.
- Baltimore port set to take big step toward giving ships greater accesson April 23, 2024 at 6:24 pm
It puts the cleanup effort slightly ahead of schedule, as officials previously said they hoped to open a channel of that depth by the end of April.
- SA ports lacking capacity to handle maritime trafficon April 19, 2024 at 1:01 am
The disruption in the Red Sea has seen a steady increase in maritime trade vessels coming to the ports of South Africa, but experts have warned that the country’s ports lack the capacity to ...
- Green and Digital Shipping Corridor for Ports of LA, Long Beach and Singapore could create 700 jobson April 18, 2024 at 3:34 pm
An environmentally minded initiative has the potential socioeconomic impact of using more zero- and near-zero emission fuels.
- 'More warships needed to boost Red Sea traffic'on April 17, 2024 at 9:51 am
The head of a European Union force protecting cargo ships from Houthi attacks in the Red Sea said on Tuesday the operation had met its goals, but freight traffic cannot increase without more warships.
- Ohio River near Pittsburgh reopens to maritime traffic after sunken barge is foundon April 16, 2024 at 4:18 pm
The U.S. Coast Guard has reopened the Ohio River in Pittsburgh to maritime traffic, nearly four days after 26 barges broke loose and floated away during flooding. The Coast Guard ...
- Iran seizes cargo ship in Strait of Hormuz after threats to close waterwayon April 13, 2024 at 4:40 am
The Aries is leased by international shipping line MSC from Gortal Shipping, an affiliate of Zodiac Maritime, Zodiac said in a statement, adding that MSC is responsible for all vessel activities.
via Bing News