Record number of manatees die in Florida as food source dries up

State officials report ‘unprecedented’ deaths due to starvation as pollution and algal blooms take toll More manatees have died already this year than in any other year in Florida’s recorded history, primarily from starvation due to the loss of seagrass beds, state officials have said. The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission reported that 841 […]

Create Futuristic Solar-Powered Catamarans from Volkswagen

After churning out cars 84 years, Volkswagen is switching gears and segueing into the yachting game. The German automaker recently announced it’s taking its electric vehicle platform to the high seas in the form of a new solar-electric catamaran. Volkswagen has partnered with Austrian builder Silent Yachts for the new endeavor that will eventually see […]

Cruising: Florida Bay Backcountry

It pays to keep a sharp lookout in the Backcountry Florida Bay is located between the southern tip of mainland Florida and the Florida Keys. The Backcountry as it’s called consists of a triangular area generally north of the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW); south of the mainland and east of a line from Flamingo to Lower […]

Zero by 2050: Is the technology there yet?

If you didn’t get the message that shipping needs to decarbonize, welcome back from your vacation on Mars. The International Maritime Organization has set what the International Chamber of Shipping describes as an “ambitious” goal of reducing total GHG reductions from shipping by 50% by 2050. In terms of the difficulty of achieving it, the […]

Toxic ‘forever chemicals’ are contaminating plastic food containers

Harmful PFAS chemicals are being used to hold food, drink and cosmetics, with unknown consequences for human health Many of the world’s plastic containers and bottles are contaminated with toxic PFAS, and new data suggests that it’s probably leaching into food, drinks, personal care products, pharmaceuticals, cleaning products and other items at potentially high levels. […]

Listening to the seabed to limit collisions with cetaceans

A new tool will soon join the long list of options available to those who travel the world’s oceans to avoid collisions with cetaceans. The Bombyx 2 project proposes to submerge buoys that will listen for the presence of these underwater animals to warn of their presence.

‘Heat dome’ probably killed 1bn marine animals on Canada coast, experts say

British Columbia scientist says heat essentially cooked mussels: ‘The shore doesn’t usually crunch when you walk’ More than 1 billion marine animals along Canada’s Pacific coast are likely to have died from last week’s record heatwave, experts warn, highlighting the vulnerability of ecosystems unaccustomed to extreme temperatures. The “heat dome” that settled over western Canada […]

Spain Plans to Install 1-3 GW of Floating Wind Turbines by 2030

Spain plans to install floating wind turbines on the deep waters off its coasts with capacity to generate between 1 and 3 gigawatts of power by 2030, its Energy and Environment Ministry said on Wednesday.As part of a global shift away from carbon-emitting fossil fuels, governments and companies are

2021 Gussies Electric Boat Awards Finals Voting

Welcome to the Finals Voting Round of the 2021 Gustave Trouvé Awards for Excellence in Electric Boats and Boating. Gustave Trouvé is the inventor of the outboard boat motor, an electric motor that he used to propel his boat ‘Le Téléphone’ down the Seine River in Paris in 1881. “The Gussies” – the international awards […]

Reinventing sails to save the seas

We see them, we need them, but what are they doing to the planet? Maybe sailing can come to the rescue. In this report by The Big Idea, the Spanish startup bound4blue is reinventing the sail to make the shipping industry more sustainable: If the shipping industry was a country, it would be the sixth-most […]