Africa’s inclusive maritime news portal
IN CONVERSATION: Exploring the Indian Ocean as a rich archive of history – above and below the water line.
On many beaches around the Indian Ocean, keen observers may spot bits of broken pottery. Washed smooth by the ocean, these shards are in all likelihood hundreds of years old, from centres of ceramic production like the Middle Eastern Abbasid caliphate and the Chinese Ming dynasty.
Read moreIN CONVERSATION: An ocean like no other: the Southern Ocean’s ecological richness and significance for global climate
The Southern Ocean, also called the Antarctic Ocean (or even the Austral ocean), is like no other and best described in superlatives.
Read moreIN CONVERSATION: The Atlantic: The driving force behind ocean circulation and the taste for cod
Did the Atlantic close and then reopen?” That was the question posed in a 1966 paper by the Canadian geophysicist J. Tuzo Wilson.
The answer? Yes, over millions of years. And it was the breakup of the supercontinent Pangea, starting some 180 million years ago, that began creating the Atlantic Ocean basin as we know it today.
The Pacific Ocean is the deepest, largest ocean on Earth, covering about a third of the globe’s surface. An ocean that vast may seem invincible. Yet across its reach the Pacific Ocean’s delicate ecology is under threat.
Read moreIN CONVERSATION: Arctic Ocean: climate change is flooding the remote north with light – and new species
Read moreWMO: 2020 TO BE ONE OF THE WARMEST
Climate change continued its relentless march in 2020, which is on track to be one of the three warmest years on record. The years 2011-2020 will be the warmest decade on record, with the warmest six years all being since 2015, according to the World Meteorological Organization in a news item released from Geneva on 2 December.
Read moreHydrography is the applied science which deals with the measurement and description of the features of the seas and coastal areas for the primary purpose of navigation.
Read moreTRANSNET COMPLETES R39 MILLION REFURBISHMENT PROJECT AT PORT NOLLOTH
Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) has completed a rehabilitation of the infrastructure of Port Nolloth on the north-western coast of South Africa. The R39 million infrastructure upgrade was carried out over 14 months.
Read moreWHAT IT TAKES TO BE THE GLOBAL TERMINAL OPERATOR OF CHOICE
The top terminal operators globally account for approximately 30% market share in the world. According to Port Technology (2014), the world’s top 5 terminal operators by market share percentage are PSA International (market share for its global port projects was recorded at 8.7%), Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) (7,0%), APM Terminals (5,5%), DP World (5,1%) and China Merchant Holdings International (3,6%). Transnet Port Terminals CE, Nozipho Sithole, gives her views on what factors are key to making one an international terminal operator of choice.
Read moreREMEMBER WINTER IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC 40 YEARS AGO
40 years ago the m.s. München, a German LASH carrier of the Hapag-Lloyd line sank with all hands for unknown reasons in a severe storm in December 1978. This is the story of that tragedy and the tugs and ships that searched for her. The most accepted theory is that one or more rogue waves hit the München and damaged her, so that she drifted for 33 hours with a list of 50 degrees without electricity or propulsion.
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