A Novel Approach to Reduce the Environmental Footprint of Maritime Shipping

Maritime shipping is a strategic sector with a strong international vocation and management. The need to define regulations valid for many different countries w...     

Labour relations and the transfer of the Panama Canal[1]

The international maritime community is concerned about Panama's preparedness to undertake the responsibility of what many consider to be the world's greatest maritime asset, the Panama Canal. In accordance with treaty provisions, the longer within the dominion of the U.S. government and its attendant regulatory framework and policies. To a great extent, Panama's efforts to prepare for the transfer thus far have been driven by its objective of a seamless transfer, whereby the status quo (meaning the Canal's existing institutional and organizational framework and attendant policies and procedures) would be preserved as much as possible. This would assure the maritime community that it can expect the same service and cost standards traditionally enjoyed under the Panama Canal Commission's stewardship. Still of great concern, however, is the continued reliability and productivity of the Canal's labour force; the Canal's reliability and efficient performance in the past is often attributed to its history of harmonious labour management relations. This article addresses some of the critical labour relations issues that will need to be considered even if Panama's status quo objective for the transfer is achieved.     

Prediction of ship brittle fracture casualty rates by a probabilistic method

It has been proposed that grade A should be replaced with a tougher steel for ship construction. This recommendation is not supported by casualty statistics. Brittle fractures have decreased from once every 10 ship years at the time of the Liberty ships, to once every 100 ship years in the 1950s, and now stand at around once every 10,000 ship years. The authors have developed a probabilistic fracture mechanics approach indexed to the Charpy 27 Joule temperature, T_27J. This is used here to analyse the Liberty ship failures. Comparison with a databank of T_27J values for grade A steel spanning 1920 to 1995 suggests that the Liberty ship steel was unusually brittle. The probability analysis shows good agreement between predicted and observed fracture casualty rates for the Liberty ships and helps explain why brittle fractures are now uncommon in grade A steel ships.     

Cybertran: A systems analysis solution to the high cost and low passenger appeal of conventional rail transportation systems

A new transportation system is described. CyberTran is a steel wheel on rail system designed to travel on elevated guideways, utilizing large numbers of 6 to 20 passenger automated vehicles weighing less than 10,000 pounds. The benefits from these light weight vehicles include dramatically reduced system cost and increased passenger appeal. The system described has been prototyped and tested at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, a U. S. Department of Energy Research and Development Laboratory.     

Measurements of Emissions to Air from a Marine Engine Fueled by Methanol

Emissions of exhaust gases and particulate matter from a dual fuel marine engine using methanol as fuel with marine gasoil as pilot fuel have been examined for ...     

(Law for the Promotion of Competition and Consumer Protection) was passed in early 1995. The impact this law will eventually have, however, is uncertain because rules for its implementation have not yet been established.

Governments in their port reform efforts have experimented with liberalization and commercialization to improve port operations. Because of their failure to meet expectations or because of changing competitive environments, these options have generally been discarded in favour of privatization. In mature large-volume port systems, privatization was a relatively obvious solution, because interport or interterminal competition would be achieved to the extent that the monopolistic tendencies characteristic of their predecessor organizations would cease to exist. In countries with a limited number of ports having relatively small cargo volumes, however, the case is quite different. These countries would have to pursue strategies that would still induce competition in spite of their limited cargo volumes if they hoped to achieve the same privatization benefits and market disciplines enjoyed in other countries. This article examines the port reform approaches used in three distinct competitive settings;the experiences in these countries offer some guidance on how to assure that ports will feel competitive pressures even under conditions of limited cargo volumes.     

Assessing the Impacts of Gender Integration in Ghana’s Fisheries Sector

Abstract

This article presents the results of an impact assessment of a component of a large scale USAID sustainable fisheries management project initiative aimed at integrating gender and strengthening the role of women in fisheries management in Ghana. The assessment is based on a literature review and qualitative field data collection. It assessed gender integration from three entry points: improving the Ghanaian policy environment for gender in fisheries, empowering women post-harvest processors, and engaging women gleaners in fisheries co-management. The assessment found that an important milestone was the adoption and implementation of the Ghanaian Fisheries Sector’s National Gender Mainstreaming Strategy in 2016. Summarizing the impacts on local post-harvest processors and gleaners, the assessment found that female post-harvest processors have increased capacity, confidence, and engagement in fisheries management. Gender mainstreaming efforts have succeeded in challenging cultural norms about women’s role in fisheries. Women have been exposed to sustainable fisheries management and are better equipped with the knowledge and leadership skills to advocate for good fisheries practices, which they actively demonstrate.     

Making Landfall: Linkages between Fishing Communities and Support Services

The relationship between the fishing industry and the fisheries-related support service sector creates economic benefits for communities through the strong linkages between fishermen and their land-based suppliers and the induced or multiplier effects from fisheries revenue. The support service sector is embedded within fishing communities where the impacts of fisheries management changes are perpetuated. This article examines the potential for such impacts by evaluating the diversity of fishing gear use, ex-vessel revenue, presence of processing plants, public moorage, and haul-out or tidal grids, and the number of vessels in a community, in relation to the availability of support services in communities in Alaska. The results show that the presence of a processor and haul-out facilities in a community significantly affects the number of support service businesses; however, there is not a strong association with the number of vessels or ex-vessel revenue. One hypothesis is that fishermen often travel to other communities to obtain services. We evaluate this hypothesis using social network analysis to evaluate transfers of revenue for fishery-related goods and services. Ultimately, this informs the exploration of the importance of support service businesses and fishery-support infrastructure to the continued well-being of fishing communities.