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
- New deep-water channel allows first ship to pass Key bridge wreckage in Baltimoreon April 26, 2024 at 8:41 am
The first cargo ship passed through a newly opened deep-water channel in Baltimore on Thursday after being stuck in the harbor since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed four weeks ago, halting most ...
- A robbery took place at a Delta Twp. pizzeriaon April 26, 2024 at 5:49 am
LANSING, Mich. (WLNS)– A Cottage Inn Pizza was victim to a robbery this morning in Delta Township on W. Saginaw Hwy. Details are scarce. 6 News does not know the time the robbery took place, or if the ...
- First cargo ship passes through new channel since Baltimore bridge collapseon April 26, 2024 at 5:10 am
A cargo ship passed through a new deep-water channel in Baltimore on Thursday, the first to cross the new channel since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed last month, shutting down most ...
- First ships pass through temporary channel past Key bridge wreckage in Baltimoreon April 25, 2024 at 2:17 pm
A new deep-water channel is allowing ships to pass the Francis Scott Key Bridge wreckage in Baltimore. The channel now opens up more maritime traffic to the harbor since the bridge collapsed when ...
- 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.
- First ship passes through new channel alongside Baltimore bridge wreckage and stranded Dalion April 25, 2024 at 11:49 am
First ship passes through new channel alongside Baltimore bridge wreckage and stranded Dali - After 33 days waiting in the port of Baltimore, Balsa 94 has become the first cargo ship to leave through ...
- 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 to open deeper channel, enabling some cargo ships to pass after bridge collapseon April 23, 2024 at 11:23 am
The Port of Baltimore is preparing to open a deeper channel for commercial ships to get in and out for a few days.
- 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.
- Apple Is No Longer The World’s Biggest Smartphone Maker By Volume—As Samsung Ships More Handsets In Q1on April 15, 2024 at 4:34 am
According to a report iPhone shipments were down 9.6% in the first quarter of 2024 while the rest of the market grew by 7.8%.
via Bing News