FRI OCEAN

A Norwegian shipping company rejected an accusation from Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, that it refused to rescue sailors from a sinking Russian cargo ship in the Mediterranean Sea.Medvedev accused the Norwegian-flagged Oslo Carrier 3 of not coming to the aid of sailors on board the Ursa Major cargo ship, which carries out missions for the Russian Defence Ministry's military construction arm.  The Ursa Major ran into trouble on Monday and then sank between Spain and Algeria with 14 of its crew of 16 taking to a lifeboat.

NATO will boost its presence in the Baltic Sea after the suspected sabotage this week of an undersea power cable and four internet lines, while alliance member Estonia launched a naval operation to guard a parallel electricity link. Finland on Thursday seized a ship carrying Russian oil on suspicion the vessel had caused an outage of the Estlink 2 undersea power cable linking it with Estonia and fibre optic lines, and on Friday said it had asked NATO for support.Baltic Sea nations are on high alert for acts of sabotage after a string of outages of power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022

The more than half decade that has passed since the inception of the subchapter M towboat rule affords an up-close-and-personal look at how it is going. The scorecard is a mixed bag.More than six years ago, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) began inspecting towing vessels for compliance with the new towboat rules; specifically, 46 CFR Subchapter M. It has been a long road to compliance with many starts and stops, and much learning on both sides of the law.Has it been a success? If success is measured by Certificates of Inspection, then yes. Roughly four-fifths of the towing vessels that were afloat in July 2018 have their COIs. But the remaining 20% do not.

Finnish authorities said they boarded and took control of an oil tanker travelling from Russia on December 26, 2024, on suspicion it caused the outage of an undersea power cable and three internet lines connecting Finland and Estonia a day earlier.The Cook Islands-registered ship, named by authorities as the Eagle S, was boarded by a Finnish coast guard crew which took command in the Baltic Sea and sailed the vessel to Finnish waters, a coast guard official told a press conference."From our side we are investigating grave sabotage," Robin Lardot, Director of the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation, said.

The maritime industry’s elusive quest to achieve so-called ‘zero’ emissions continues. Where it ends is not a one-size-fits-all discussion.The year-end maritime industry discussions tend to move away from global influence and back drift to national and domestic debates. As this happens, a positioning of a relatively small group of American owners and operators prepare for the upcoming business year and markets. The propulsion debate continues to be future fuels based upon sustainability and climate change. And it is not only what you burn in your engine, but also what you will be trading domestically in your barges and tankers.