Identifying Suitable Sites for Macroalgae Cultivation on the Swedish West Coast

Special attention has been paid to sustainable macroalgae cultivation in Europe. The question on where suitable cultivation areas lie, without conflicting with current marine socio-economic activities and respecting the environment, remains a great challenge. Considering 13 criteria critical to seaweed farming such as depth, shipping traffic, and distance to ports, this paper aimed to identify suitable and sustainable offshore areas on the West Coast of Sweden for the cultivation of the Sugar Kelp, Saccharina latissima. An integrated approach with the tools geographic information systems (GIS) and multi-criteria analysis (MCA) was used to aggregate the criteria by means of Boolean and weighted linear combination (WLC) techniques. The Boolean method singled out 544?km² as suitable, whereas the WLC method indicated 475?km² as highly suitable. Both techniques complement each other in finding optimal sites. Furthermore, the integrated models excelled in providing an overview for effective spatial decision-making that fosters sustainable development of macroalgae cultivations within marine and coastal systems.

• Highlights

• To the authors’ knowledge no study on seaweed aquaculture site selection has been conducted using such a range of criteria with the purpose of including sustainability aspects within a comparative GIS-MCDA.

• The large areas identified on the West Coast of Sweden as suitable highlight the potential of this new industry and the complexity of associated marine spatial planning.

• Boolean and weighted linear combination methods were applied and compared, providing valuable insights in the selection of methods for spatial decision-making support. These insights should support a more sustainable development of macroalgae cultivation in the region, as well as a more resilient marine spatial planning process for blue growth strategies.

     

Potential and benefits of electronic charts to Maritime Administrations

Electronic charts have come more and more into use for marine navigation. If complying with the relevant international standards they are an accepted substitute to the mandatory carriage of paper nautical charts. However, the potential of such official, high-quality electronic chart data goes far beyond the use for navigation. In order to show its potential, the basic concepts and features of official electronic charts as a marine geographic information data base are explained and the relation of Hydrographic Offices responsible for their production, to Maritime Administrations is described. The data standard to be followed for electronic charts opens the use of the data for a wide range of possible applications. If efficiently organised, Maritime Administrations can be provided with a powerful, versatile database establishing a single geographic reference data base for e.g. Vessel Traffic Services, for Search and Rescue as well as for various applications in Coastal Zone Management including coastal protection and marine environmental protection. Ultimately, digital marine geographic information will become part of the evolving global spatial data infrastructure.     

Quantitative analysis of materiality in marine insurance

The ex post test of materiality is the traditional approach for a court to examine whether the non-disclosed information of the policyholder is material for a prudent underwriter. The approach of the ex post test has been questioned by the shipping industry, and amendments to the relevant clauses of the Marine Insurance Act 1906 are under discussion. In this research, the factors that significantly relate to marine incidents are determined based on the panel data through the step-wise random intercept model. The materiality of each factor can be reflected by constructing a factor-weighted risk indicator, which can be applied in the ex ante risk assessment of insured vessels. It endeavors to establish a risk index system for measuring the risk level of a ship, which can help both the underwriter and the policyholder in effective assessment of the materiality of information when they conclude the contract. A panel data of total loss incidents during the period 1999–2007 has been collected for verification of the methodology.     

A quantitative risk analysis by using interval type-2 fuzzy FMEA approach: the case of oil spill

ABSTRACT

Risk assessment in maritime domain is one of the most cited topics since maritime transportation poses potential hazard for human life, marine environment and property. To mitigate risk and enhance safety awareness in maritime transportation, safety researchers have been seeking proactive solutions. This article prompts a quantitative risk-based approach combining interval type-2 fuzzy sets (IT2FSs) with failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) to perform a comprehensive risk analysis. Thus, potential failure modes and their effects are revealed by calculating risk prioritisation numbers (RPNs). Whilst the FMEA method provides a robust risk analysing tool with relevant control options, the IT2FSs deals with ambiguity and vagueness of linguistic assessment of decision-makers through the FMEA. Hence, expert’s linguistic assessment in risk assessment can be transformed into useful information in terms of enhancing safety and pollution prevention in maritime industry. To demonstrate the proposed approach, potential failures and effects of a real shipboard oil spill case are handled. The findings show that incomplete information exchanged with local maritime authorities, malfunction of oil skimmer and poor organization of shoreline clean-up team are the most important failures during case of oil spill. The proposed approach provides not only theoretical insight into the maritime transportation industry but also practical contributions to chemical/oil tanker safety and environmental protection by mitigating risk in terms of technical or operational aspects.     

Methane release and coastal environment in the East Siberian Arctic shelf

In this paper we present 2 years of data obtained during the late summer period (September 2003 and September 2004) for the East Siberian Arctic shelf (ESAS). According to our data, the surface layer of shelf water was supersaturated up to 2500% relative to the present average atmospheric methane content of 1.85 ppm, pointing to the rivers as a strong source of dissolved methane which comes from watersheds which are underlain with permafrost. Anomalously high concentrations (up to 154 nM or 4400% supersaturation) of dissolved methane in the bottom layer of shelf water at a few sites suggest that the bottom layer is somehow affected by near-bottom sources. The net flux of methane from this area of the East Siberian Arctic shelf can reach up to 13.7 × 10⁴ g CH₄ km^− 2 from plume areas during the period of ice free water, and thus is in the upper range of the estimated global marine methane release. Ongoing environmental change might affect the methane marine cycle since significant changes in the thermal regime of bottom sediments within a few sites were registered. Correlation between calculated methane storage within the water column and both integrated salinity values (r = 0.61) and integrated values of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) (r = 0.62) suggest that higher concentrations of dissolved methane were mostly derived from the marine environment, likely due to in-situ production or release from decaying submarine gas hydrates deposits. The calculated late summer potential methane emissions tend to vary from year to year, reflecting most likely the effect of changing hydrological and meteorological conditions (temperature, wind) on the ESAS rather than riverine export of dissolved methane. We point out additional sources of methane in this region such as submarine taliks, ice complex retreat, submarine permafrost itself and decaying gas hydrates deposits.     

Mussel and Seaweed Cultivation in Offshore Wind Farms: An Opinion Survey

German coastal regions and adjacent offshore waters are claimed for a variety of different, and often overlapping, uses. Conflicts of interest are expected to increase due to the planned construction of offshore wind farms. The development of an integrated approach combining different commercial activities, such as open ocean aquaculture and wind farming, could be a possible solution to overcome these conflicts. To illuminate existing perception and opinions on this multiple-use idea, this study examines the attitudes of representatives of eight different actor groups toward potential offshore wind farm–mariculture integration in the German North Sea. Results from our questionnaire survey show that the respondents’ attitudes toward the suggested multiple-use setting seem to be largely influenced by their general opinion toward offshore wind farms. The Fisheries actor group differs from the other questioned groups in that negative attitudes are overall predominant. This case study points to the need for a credible mechanism that more successfully integrates key actor groups, such as fisheries, into future planning and research issues.     

Arctic shipping scenarios and coastal state challenges

The Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum of the eight Arctic states, is currently embarked on a comprehensive assessment of Arctic marine activity in the 21^st century — the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment (AMSA). One of the challenges for theAMSA study team has been to identify the major uncertainties that will be central to shaping the future of Arctic marine use in 2020 and 2050. Using scenario planning, AMSA has identified two primary drivers and uncertainties: (A) Resources and trade; and, (B) Governance. Four scenario narratives have been developed with these two, key uncertainties as the framework elements. The main arguments focus on the fact the Arctic has experienced globalization early in the century and that the global maritime industry has already ventured into the Arctic Ocean. Marine access in the Arctic Ocean is also changing in unprecedented ways and the extraordinary transformation Arctic sea ice is undergoing — thinning, extent reduction, and a reduction in the area of multiyear ice in the central ocean — has significant implications for longer seasons of navigation. However, the high prices of global commodities such as oil, gas, and hard minerals (for example, copper, nickel and zinc) have generated high levels of demand for Arctic natural resources. The Arctic states are challenged by an overall lack of maritime infrastructure to adequately support current and future levels of Arctic marine operations; ports, communications, environmental monitoring, search & rescue, incident response, aids to navigation, and coastal charting, to name a few, require substantial and timely investment by the coastal states and marine operators. A second challenge is the ongoing development of an integrated system of rules and regulations governing Arctic navigation that will enhance marine safety and ensure marine environmental protection throughout the basin. These challenges will require historic levels of cooperation among the Arctic states and broad engagement with the many, non-Arctic stakeholders and actors within the global maritime industry.     

Innovation types in the Finnish maritime cluster

The Finnish maritime cluster is an important sector of Finland's economy. However, literature on innovative activities within the cluster is limited. This article focuses on Finnish shipbuilding and marine industry firms. Several innovation types are identified. These are analyzed according to general characteristics of firms. The data is from a survey of 148 shipbuilding and marine industry companies; most of the variables are ordinal scale and are analyzed with standard statistical survey methods. Considering the significance and past technological achievements of the sector the results indicate surprisingly low radical innovation related-activity and attitudes towards it. As well, the results provide no evidence to support previous research, suggesting that the shipbuilding and marine industry produces more organizational than technological innovations. The innovativeness of the firms varies according to distinct characteristics such as size, intensity of in-house and collaborative R&D activities, and level of internationalization. The empirical results provide a platform for policy implications and directions for future research; innovations concerning environmental efficiency are raised as an important future area of development.     

Environmental awareness and practice concerning maritime air emissions: the case of the Greek shipping industry

One of the most urgent environmental problems facing the shipping industry today is the reduction of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from its operations and the possible cost-effective ways in which this reduction could be accomplished. Various technical and operational measures have been proposed as well as market-based instruments for the achievement of the compliance of marine industry with these measures. This paper investigates the levels of environmental awareness of the Greek shipping companies and their views and practices on the proposed policies for the reduction of GHG emissions from their ships. A survey was carried out using a questionnaire distributed to Greek shipping companies of different sizes, involved in different segments of the marine industry, so that the survey's results not only represent a large part of the Greek shipping industry but also reveal the different environmental attitudes and practices on maritime GHG emissions among the shipping companies. Given the size and the importance of the Greek shipping industry in the international maritime field, this paper's results present a special significance as they could be further analyzed and taken into account for the achievement of the compliance of marine industry with any future policy instrument for the reduction of maritime GHG emissions.     

Spatially Prioritizing Seafloor Mapping for Coastal and Marine Planning

Coastal and marine areas provide vital services to support the economic, cultural, recreational, and ecological needs of human communities, but sustaining these benefits necessitates a balance between growing and often competing uses and activities. Minimizing coastal zone conflict and reducing human-induced impacts to ecological resources requires access to consistent spatial information on the distribution and condition of marine resources. Seafloor mapping provides a detailed and reliable spatial template on the structure of the seafloor that has become a core data need for many resource management strategies. The absence of detailed maps of the seafloor hinders the effectiveness of priority setting in marine policy, regulatory processes, and marine stewardship. For large management areas, the relatively high cost of seafloor mapping and limited management budgets requires careful spatial prioritization. In order to address this problem, a consensus based approach, aided by decision-support tools, and participatory geographic information systems (GIS), was implemented in Long Island Sound to spatially prioritize locations, define additional data collection efforts needed, and identify products needed to inform decision-making. The methodology developed has utility for other states and regions in need of spatially prioritizing activities for coastal planning, and organizations charged with providing geospatial services to communities with broad informational needs.     

Use of GIS-Based Models for Integrating and Developing Marine Fish Cages within the Tourism Industry in Tenerife (Canary Islands)

Site selection is a key factor in any aquaculture operation, affecting both success and sustainability. Moreover, it can solve conflicts between different coastal activities, making a rational use of the coastal space. Geographical information systems (GIS) have become of increased significance for environmental planning and assessment mainly because of the need to compare a great number of spatially related data, and because it can be used to couple these spatial data with their attributes and overlay them. This study used GIS and related technology to build a spatial database using those criteria which were considered to have any influence in integrating marine fish-cage culture within the tourism industry in Tenerife. Criteria were grouped in three submodels (distance to beaches, nautical sports, and viewshed), which were combined to generate a final output showing the most suitable areas for cage culture development in coexistence with tourism. Most areas of the coastline of Tenerife were identified as being suitable (56%) or very suitable (46%), suggesting that marine cage aquaculture could be developed on the island in coexistence with the well-established tourism industry.     

多种热力循环在船舶热能发电系统中的应用

发展和应用船舶柴油机热能发电技术是实现航运业节能减排的重要途径之一。围绕蒸汽朗肯循环、有机朗肯循环、卡琳娜循环和布雷顿循环4种应用于船舶主机烟气余热回收利用领域的热力循环，介绍各循环的基本原理和工质选择，并进行装置效率对比，对以热力循环为基本原理的船舶柴油机热能发电系统的研究现状和发展趋势进行总结。论文研究认为：有机朗肯循环拥有相对较高的热能回收发电效率，而以S-CO2为循环工质的布雷顿循环拥有更显著的船舶热能回收发电应用前景，在探求可联合“契合点”的基础上建立以“蒸汽-有机朗肯联合循环系统”为代表的两种甚至两种以上循环方式的联合热力循环余热回收发电系统是提升船舶热能发电整体效率的重要手段。     

海事地理信息系统的设计与初步实现

海事地理信息系统是在计算机硬件和软件支持下,对空间信息进行存储、查询、分析和输出,并为用户提供决策支持的综合性技术。它能直观地显示重要的统计分析、专题信息,具有强大的辅助分析、决策能力。在介绍了GIS、B/S和C/S结构的技术特点的基础上,探讨了海事地理信息管理系统的结构设计、功能设计和数据库设计,并对系统进行了初步实现。通过对海事地理信息系统的建设,制定海事地理信息标准规范,当前的许多应用系统以及将来要建设的系统都可以而且应该在海事地理信息系统的基础上进行结合、扩展,充分发挥空间地理信息为信息化建设带来的巨大优势。     

Ship Scrapping and the environment—the buck should stop!

The Shipbreaking industry has always had a vague image of being 'dirty', 'hazardous' and 'environmatally unfriendly'. As world fleet ages, technology advances and regulations become more stringent, the incidence of shipbreaking activity is set to increase, accompanied by a dispersal of operations bases. The corresponding environmental impacts are, thus, also said to expand commensurately, in magnitude and extent. This coupled with the fact that the shipscrapping is an industry that has a tendency to be located on the shores of the developing countries makes it an environmental tinderbox. The primary reason for this being the lack strict marine environmental regulations in the third world. Neither is the issue addressed at the international forum. The paper addresses the possibilities of the environmental impact of shipscrapping activities. The fact that this part of the shipping industry remains absolutely unregulated, causes a potential detriment to the marine environment. Finally the paper highlights why and what needs to be done.     

Understanding Recreational Boater Attitudes to Zoning in a Proposed Marine Protected Area

Although the success of marine protected areas (MPAs) and associated zoning schemes is largely dependent on stakeholder acceptance and support, there have been relatively few studies examining the response of recreational stakeholders to MPA proposals. This study investigates the response of recreational boaters to a proposed MPA in British Columbia, Canada. Using a structured questionnaire (n = 543) and a focus group (n = 6), the research examines the level of support for the concept of marine zoning and identifies key factors influencing support or opposition. Results indicate that a small majority of recreational boaters support the concept of marine zoning, but that there are areas of concern that ought to be addressed as MPA implementation proceeds. Support for zoning was strongly related to perceived benefits, particularly environmental benefits. Furthermore, perceived benefits overall were found to outweigh concerns as determinants of recreational boater support for zoning. Major dimensions of opposition included perceptions of over-regulation, loss of access for boating, and mistrust of the government. A suggestion is that such concerns may be mitigated through focused communication and meaningful involvement of boaters in the zoning process.     

Effects of Human Activities on the World's Most Vulnerable Coral Reefs: Comoros Case Study

Effective management of highly biodiverse and threatened reefs requires the identification of human activities driving declines on the particular reef to be managed. The island nation of the Comoros is a model setting to investigate effects of human activities on diverse and threatened coral reefs, with abundant and diverse marine life, local dependence on reef resources, and a variety of anthropogenic pressures on reefs rendering the nation vulnerable to coral reef degradation. Using data from 21 sites throughout the Comoros, we evaluated the relative influence of human activities and other natural and anthropogenic factors on benthic cover and fish richness, abundance, and biomass with the goal of providing prioritized management targets. Human activities including fishing, beach sand extraction, and beachfront housing and development had the strongest relationship with degraded reefs but with some seasonal fluctuation, while geographic patterns most consistently predicted reef degradation across seasons. Comparing analyses conducted with and without human activities as predictors, the inclusion of human activities greatly improved explanatory power. Baseline data on reef biotic composition and localized anthropogenic impacts, monitoring over time, and controlled experiments can facilitate an adaptive management approach for protecting fragile reef ecosystems in the Comoros and elsewhere.     

标准化助推船舶行业高质量发展

船舶工业是我国高端装备制造业的重要组成部分.近年来,我国船舶工业发展迅速,在海洋防务、海洋开发、海洋科考和海洋运输等装备领域取得了一系列突破性成果,主要造船指标多年位居世界前列.我国政府高度重视船舶标准化工作,积极促进装备研制与标准化相结合,提升船舶标准化工作能力,加大标准化对行业发展的支撑力度,加速国际标准化工作的推进,这对提升我国船舶装备国际影响力、实现造船业高质量发展产生深远影响。     

Barriers for adoption of energy efficiency operational measures in shipping industry

According to the Third Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Study 2014 of International Maritime Organization (IMO), the total emission in 2012 are estimated to be 949 million tonnes which is 2.7% of global CO₂ emission by total shipping and expected to increase from 2012 levels by 50–250% by 2050. Significant changes are needed to all industry by implementation of energy efficiency design and operational measures to meet existing and future global emission reduction targets. Although the fuel cost-reducing effects of some energy efficiency measures and new technologies are well established and matured, shipping companies appear reluctant to adopt them. Besides, it is observed that the stakeholders are directly or indirectly involved for implementation of energy efficiency measures in shipping industry. Therefore, the objective for this study was to identify the barriers to energy efficiency operational measures by a qualitative survey among various stakeholders from all corners of shipping industry. It has been found in the research that the barriers for implementation of all cost-free operational measures are almost the same such as lack of information of the measure, lack of awareness and competence of ship crews and operation difficulties which are in nature of information and technical barriers. But financial issue and owner’s interest are the key barriers for some other operational measures which are related to costing and need investment for implementation.     

Heterogeneous archaeal communities in the particle-rich environment of an arctic shelf ecosystem

We evaluated the phylogenetic diversity of particle-associated and free-living archaeal assemblages from the Mackenzie River and Beaufort Sea in the western Canadian Arctic. The physico-chemical characteristics of the water separated the sampling sites into three groups: riverine, coastal and marine water, which had strikingly different archaeal communities. The riverine water was characterised by the presence of Euryarchaeota mainly belonging to the LDS and RC-V clusters. The coastal water was also dominated by Euryarchaeota but they were mostly affiliated to Group II.a. The marine waters contained most exclusively Crenarchaeota belonging to the Marine Group I.1a. The results suggest that Euryarchaeota in the coastal surface layer are associated with particle-rich waters, while Crenarchaeota are more characteristic of Arctic Ocean waters that have been less influenced by riverine inputs. The particle-associated communities were similar to the free-living ones at the riverine and marine sites but differed from each other at the coastal site in terms of the presence or absence of some taxonomic groups in one of the fractions, or differences in the proportion of the phylogenetic groups. However, there was no specific archaeal group that was exclusively restricted to the free-living or particle fraction, and the diversity of the particle-associated archaeal assemblages did not significantly differ from the diversity of the free-living communities.     

The social and political economy of coastal zone management: Shrimp mariculture in Ecuador

Abstract

The paper examines the applicability of First World CZM policy for the Third World by focusing on Ecuador's shrimp mariculture, an industry whose explosive growth has reshaped the coastal zone and generated problems threatening loss of the resource base itself. This has led to recognized need for CZM and movement by development agencies to transfer the CZ policies of developed countries. Against this background, the analysis explores local concepts of investment and conservation, the role of government and law, and the influence of the social economy on mariculture development. It illuminates how local use and management of coastal resources is inseparable from specifically Ecuadorean cultural concepts, institutions, and practices. This places in relief the salient differences between management in the First and Third Worlds, illuminating how coastal zone management must not only be internally consistent, but cognizant of and integrated into the prevailing social, economic, and political conditions.