This article is missing information about investigations and laws following ship collisions.(September 2010) |
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Ship collision is a type of maritime incident, a violent encounter involving moving ship(s). While the standard definition of collision involves more than one moving ship, and an engagement between a ship and a motionless object is formally known as "allision", in practice the word "collision" is used to describe also the situation where a moving ship hits a stationary ship or a fixed object, like a bridge. [1]
Ship collisions are of particular importance in marine accidents. Some reasons for the latter are:
As sea lanes are getting more congested and ship speeds higher, there is a good possibility that a ship may experience an important accident during her lifetime. Higher speeds may cause larger operational loads, like slamming, or excessively severe loads, for example during a collision. Denser sea routes increase the probability of an accident—in particular a collision—involving ships or ships and shore or offshore structures.[ citation needed ]
Almost 27% of ship collisions occur near coasts and 22% at narrow channels. [2] This is due to disregarding best practices and regulations by navigation officers and masters. In addition, the IMO guidelines for voyage planning are not always followed. Violations usually occur when inadequate safe speed, overtaking or miscommunication with the pilot. [3]
Large whales and species like sea turtles or whale sharks often suffer lethal wounds from collisions with ships ("vessel strikes"). [4] [5] [6] There are programs in development and implementation phases, aimed at reducing vessel speed in critical waterways, both voluntarily and by regulation, which aim to protect endangered whales. [7]
Marine mammals are mammals that rely on marine (saltwater) ecosystems for their existence. They include animals such as cetaceans, pinnipeds, sirenians, sea otters and polar bears. They are an informal group, unified only by their reliance on marine environments for feeding and survival.
Admiralty law or maritime law is a body of law that governs nautical issues and private maritime disputes. Admiralty law consists of both domestic law on maritime activities, and private international law governing the relationships between private parties operating or using ocean-going ships. While each legal jurisdiction usually has its own legislation governing maritime matters, the international nature of the topic and the need for uniformity has, since 1900, led to considerable international maritime law developments, including numerous multilateral treaties.
The Lombok Strait, is a strait of the Bali Sea connecting to the Indian Ocean, and is located between the islands of Bali and Lombok in Indonesia. The Gili Islands are on the Lombok side.
Right whales are three species of large baleen whales of the genus Eubalaena: the North Atlantic right whale, the North Pacific right whale and the Southern right whale. They are classified in the family Balaenidae with the bowhead whale. Right whales have rotund bodies with arching rostrums, V-shaped blowholes and dark gray or black skin. The most distinguishing feature of a right whale is the rough patches of skin on its head, which appear white due to parasitism by whale lice. Right whales are typically 13–17 m (43–56 ft) long and weigh up to 100 short tons or more.
The North Atlantic right whale is a baleen whale, one of three right whale species belonging to the genus Eubalaena, all of which were formerly classified as a single species. Because of their docile nature, their slow surface-skimming feeding behaviors, their tendencies to stay close to the coast, and their high blubber content, right whales were once a preferred target for whalers. At present, they are among the most endangered whales in the world, and they are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act and Canada's Species at Risk Act. There are around 356 individuals in existence in the western North Atlantic Ocean—they migrate between feeding grounds in the Labrador Sea and their winter calving areas off Georgia and Florida, an ocean area with heavy shipping traffic. In the eastern North Atlantic, on the other hand—with a total population reaching into the low teens at most—scientists believe that they may already be functionally extinct. Vessel strikes and entanglement in fixed fishing gear, which together account for nearly half of all North Atlantic right whale mortality since 1970, are their two greatest threats to recovery.
The Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary is a sanctuary off the coast of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties in Southern California 350 miles south of San Francisco and 95 miles north of Los Angeles. It was designated in 1980 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Cetacean surfacing behaviour is a grouping of movement types that cetaceans make at the water's surface in addition to breathing. Cetaceans have developed and use surface behaviours for many functions such as display, feeding and communication. All regularly observed members of the order Cetacea, including whales, dolphins and porpoises, show a range of surfacing behaviours.
Cetacean bycatch is the accidental capture of non-target cetacean species such as dolphins, porpoises, and whales by fisheries. Bycatch can be caused by entanglement in fishing nets and lines, or direct capture by hooks or in trawl nets.
The Tethys Research Institute is a non-profit research organisation founded in 1986 to support marine conservation through science and public awareness and by participating in the international conservation process. Tethys' activities are mainly carried out in the Mediterranean Sea, although research programmes have been conducted also in the Black Sea, the North Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean, the Red Sea and Antarctica. The results of these activities have been presented in scientific publications as well as in meetings, workshops and conferences.
Ship grounding or ship stranding is the impact of a ship on seabed or waterway side. It may be intentional, as in beaching to land crew or cargo, and careening, for maintenance or repair, or unintentional, as in a marine accident. In accidental cases, it is commonly referred to as "running aground".
The environmental effects of shipping include air pollution, water pollution, acoustic, and oil pollution. Ships are responsible for more than 18% of nitrogen oxides pollution, and 3% of greenhouse gas emissions.
The Shōnan Maru 2 is a Japanese security vessel, operated by the [[Japanese Fisheries Agency]].
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society engages in various demonstrations, campaigns, and tactical operations at sea and elsewhere, including conventional protests and direct actions to protect marine wildlife. Sea Shepherd operations have included interdiction against commercial fishing, shark poaching and finning, seal hunting and whaling. Many of their activities have been called piracy or terrorism by their targets and by the ICRW. Sea Shepherd says that they have taken more than 4,000 volunteers on operations over a period of 30 years.
The Alfaguara project is a marine life conservation project operated from Puñihuil in the northwest of Chiloé Island, the main island in the Chiloé Archipelago in southern Chile.
As of December 6, 2013, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have established a final rule in which eliminates sunset provision or the expiration date for regulations regarding vessels traveling in the Atlantic. To reduce fatal ship collisions, these required restrictions include speed limits of no more than 10-knots for vessels of 65 feet or greater in certain locations and at certain times of the year along the east coast of the U.S. Atlantic seaboard.
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) established a rule in 2008 to implement vessel speed restrictions of 10 knots or less on ships 65 ft (20 m) or longer in various locations along the East Coast of the United States. The purpose of the regulations was to reduce the probability of deaths and injuries to endangered North Atlantic right whales due to collisions with ships. The rule was enacted December 9, 2008.
A drift whale is a cetacean mammal that has died at sea and floated into shore. This is in contrast to a beached or stranded whale, which reaches land alive and may die there or regain safety in the ocean. Most cetaceans that die, from natural causes or predators, do not wind up on land; most die far offshore and sink deep to become novel ecological zones known as whale falls. Some species that wash ashore are scientifically dolphins, i.e. members of the family Delphinidae, but for ease of use, this article treats them all as "drift whales". For example, one species notorious for mass strandings is the pilot whale, also known as "blackfish", which is taxonomically a dolphin.
Rice's whale, also known as the Gulf of Mexico whale, is a species of baleen whale endemic to the northern Gulf of Mexico. Initially identified as a subpopulation of the Bryde's whale, genetic and skeletal studies found it to be a distinct species by 2021. In outward appearance, it is virtually identical to the Bryde's whale. Its body is streamlined and sleek, with a uniformly dark charcoal gray dorsal and pale to pinkish underside. A diagnostic feature often used by field scientists to distinguish Rice's whales from whales other than the Bryde's whale is the three prominent ridges that line the top of its head. The species can be distinguished from the Bryde's whale by the shape of the nasal bones, which have wider gaps due to a unique wrapping by the frontal bones, its unique vocal repertoire, and genetic differences.
Natacha Aguilar de Soto is a Spanish marine biologist at the University of La Laguna (ULL), Tenerife, Canary Islands. She is a Ramón y Cajal research and teaching fellow at ULL and has been a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow at ULL and at the Center for Research in Ecological Modeling (CREEM) of the University of St. Andrews (SMRU). She is the director of cetacean research within ULL's BIOECOMAC.
Southeast Asia is home to a diverse marine environment. The region is host to extensive coral reefs, mangroves and seagrass beds, and has even been described as the Amazon rainforest of the ocean. The region is estimated to contain approximately 35% of the world’s mangrove species and over 45% of the world’s seagrass species.. The shipping industry has multiple damaging impacts on marine habitats and wildlife, such as pollution from port actives, oil spills ballast and bilge discharge, waste dumping from ships and direct physical impact from grounding and anchor damage.
Collisions between cetaceans and vessels – known as 'ship strikes' or 'vessel strikes' – are a significant cause of death and traumatic injury for cetaceans. And these accidents are likely to become more common in the future due to the increasing amount of traffic on our seas, and the increasing size and speed of today's ships.Tackling this threat to the world's cetaceans is hampered by the fact that under- or non-reporting of ship strikes is still the norm around the globe. ... Since its creation in 2009, more than 1,200 incidents have been registered [until 2014].