Manifestation of maritime piracy as an additional challenge for global conservation

Hostile acts against ships and mariners remain a global social and political phenomenon which usually reflects a high degree of socioeconomic vulnerability. The identification of the causes and driving factors behind the deteriorating maritime security has received considerable attention. However, their potential impact upon biodiversity conservation initiatives remains poorly evaluated. In the present study the spatial overlap between biodiversity hotspots and hotspots of hostile maritime acts are explored. The majority of such hostile acts occur in economically vulnerable countries, with the operation of their Marine Protected Areas largely depending on the revenue generated by visitors. Given that hostile maritime acts could cause financial losses and increase social and political instability, they could significantly alter conservation efficiency. Thus, it is critical to consider the way of incorporating maritime security risks into conservation agendas.     

The communicative competence of Chinese seafarers and their employability in the international maritime labour market

In the past two decades, the seafarer workforce in China has been growing at a much faster pace than that of the Chinese merchant fleet, resulting in an oversupply of seafarers in the domestic market. As one of the major seafarer suppliers in the world, China still faces great challenges to assign Chinese seafarers to the international maritime labour market. Although literature claims that a lack of English communication ability of Chinese seafarers is one of the main barriers for them to compete with seafarers of other nationalities for job opportunities, there is little empirical research to substantiate such claim. To fill this gap, this paper aims to investigate: 1) employers’ views on the current level of Chinese seafarers’ communicative competence; and 2) to what extent their communicative competence correlates with their employability in the international maritime labour market. To achieve the research objectives, a questionnaire survey relating to factors affecting the employability of Chinese seafarers on foreign ships was conducted. Interviews were carried out with employers who had been recruiting seafarers in China. The findings show that English communicative competence is among the top determinants for seafarers to be employed on foreign ships. Most employers believe that there has been a declining trend in the communicative competence of Chinese seafarers over the last decade. Employers interviewed agree that a high priority should be placed on the improvement of quality of maritime English teachers.     

Chinese women seafarers: A case study of the women cadets in Shanghai

In the maritime sector, seafaring has been predominantly a male industry. The industry had developed its own culture which denied or precluded women's participation. This paper draws on the data and analysis of the Gender, Empowerment and Multi-cultural Crew (GEM) Project, an international study aiming to examine seafarers’ welfare, focusing on gender issues arising from a multi-cultural crew environment in three countries: China, Nigeria and the UK. The main research findings, which relate to China, are reported under the headings of motivation, training, employment opportunities and barriers, and career prospects for women. The paper concludes with a discussion on an important new state policy concerning gender equality in university recruitment and with recommendations to move things forward.     

Strategy,policy, and the formulation of maritime cluster typologies

In recent years, clusters of industry have attracted multilateral attention, from academia and practice, alike. Clusters of industry relate to harbouring regional competitiveness; as such, they have come to be considered as important constructs for strategy and policy, that can be deemed as complementary domains. At the same time, maritime clusters are regarded as dynamic cases from a multitude of viewpoints. The concepts of strategic policy, particularly as they pertain to maritime clusters, require deeper understanding and more thorough analysis. In this context, cluster typologies surface as a useful instrument that can offer valuable insight. While this field instils the eventuality of facilitating policy and strategy within clusters, it remains relatively barren. This instance may present the opportunity to better elaborate on the formulation of models and frameworks that address the intricacies within maritime clusters. The research conducted introduces a three-tier framework for the generation of maritime cluster typologies, that bears the potential to enrich strategic management and its eventual policy implications, towards a more streamlined and informed manifestation.     

Ecological changes justifying termination or revision of EEZ and EFZ boundaries

Treaties, establishing boundaries to exclusive economic or exclusive fisheries zones, are generally based on environmental and economic circumstances. They delimit maritime entitlements, which are dependent upon coastal geography and they must, as a matter of law, represent equitable solutions. All perpetual treaties are based on the assumption that the circumstances leading to the conclusion of a treaty remain current as long as the treaty is enforceable. However, climate-related changes - such as sea level rise, coastal erosion, extreme weather events, ocean warming and ocean acidification - are altering the environmental circumstances that are essential to many maritime boundary agreements.An unforeseen fundamental change of circumstances can be invoked as grounds for terminating a treaty when the change relates to an essential basis of the treaty and radically transforms the obligations still to be performed. However, a fundamental change cannot justify termination of a treaty if it is caused by the party invoking it or if the treaty establishes a boundary. This rule is codified in Article 62 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.Treaties delimiting sovereign rights to fisheries are not actual boundary treaties because the travaux préparatoires suggest that the boundary exclusion covers only boundaries delimiting territorial sovereignty. Furthermore, the reason for excluding boundary treaties - the need for permanence and stability - is less pertinent for maritime frontiers that fluctuate until settled through treaties or adjudication. Therefore, maritime boundaries can be subject to termination when their essential basis is affected by fundamental environmental changes.     

What is a maritime cluster?

The phenomenon of maritime clusters has spawned a rich body of scholarly work in the last fifteen years. Yet, the answer to one important question has remained elusive: what is a maritime cluster? This question is important because maritime clusters have rapidly become the focus of economic competitiveness policies promoted by both firms and policymakers. This study reviews research articles published over a 15-year period that investigate maritime clusters and derives three distinct definitions of a maritime cluster from them: an industrial complex, an agglomeration of interlinked industries, and a community-based network.     

地缘政治研究中的“盎格鲁—撒克逊”传统

地缘政治理论形成和发展往往受到其主要思想家所代表的具有特定地理特征的国家的利益诉求和政策关切的影响,在地缘政治研究中存在着明显的"国别倾向"。在西方现存的三大地缘政治思想传统中,尤以"盎格鲁—撒克逊"传统影响最大。这一思想传统的主体由马汉的"海权论"、麦金德的"心脏地带"学说、斯皮克曼的"边缘地带"学说构成,主要反映了以英美为代表的海洋性国家的历史经验和利益诉求。     

The future of containerization: perspectives from maritime and inland freight distribution

As containerization enters its peak growth years, its potential future developments over maritime and inland freight transport systems are being questioned. A series of issues can either further accelerate the adoption of containerization worldwide or, alternatively, could impose an upper limit to the extraordinary contribution that containers have implied for logistics systems and global commodity chains. These mainly include macro-economic, technical/operational and governance factors. Future containerization will be largely determined by interactions within and between four domains ranging from a functional to a spatial perspective. The logistical domain involves the functional organization of transport chains and their integration in supply chains. The transport domain involves the operation of transport services and intermodal operations. The infrastructural domain involves the provision and management of basic infrastructure for both links and nodes in the transport system. The locational domain relates to the geographical location of nodes and sites in the economic space and forms a basic element for their intrinsic accessibility in terms of centrality or intermediacy. It is underlined that the future of containerization will dominantly be shaped by inland transport systems.     

Institutional interaction to address greenhouse gas emissions from international transport: ICAO, IMO and the Kyoto Protocol

In response to Article 2.2 of the Kyoto Protocol, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) have begun to consider greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from international aviation and shipping. However, neither ICAO nor IMO have taken any effective action on the issue yet and progress can be characterised as slow. The lack of action has so far not been made up for by measures within the climate change regime or by individual countries. An important motivation for the efforts of ICAO and IMO so far has been the potential regulatory competition with the climate change regime. However, given the lack of political will to act on the issue within the latter, this motivation has not been very forceful. Against this backdrop, I argue that there are in particular three options for furthering progress within ICAO and IMO, namely (1) enhancing the threat of regulation of GHG emissions from international transport under the climate change regime; (2) undertaking unilateral domestic action by various countries (in particular the EU); and (3) furthering a learning process within ICAO and IMO. Furthermore, a closer coordination of efforts under ICAO, IMO and the climate change regime could facilitate and accelerate progress.     

Loch Macumber (early Carboniferous) of Atlantic Canada

Following the Acadian Orogeny, Atlantic Canada accommodated several, large, relatively deep lakes within a wrench-fault basin complex called the Maritime Basin. Late Devonian and Tournaisian lakes were hydrologically open, shallow to deep, mainly fresh water bodies. Middle Visean lakes, here collectively called Loch Macumber, were closed, deep, and meromictic. Their deposits comprise the first and thickest of five sequences in the Maritime Basin. Salinity in the loch increased with time from restricted marine or penesaline, to saline. Basin-centre facies consist of a thin, but extensive, sheet of black, peloidal laminated lime mudstones and an overlying thick evaporite complex. The carbonate sheet grades laterally into both laminated to thinly bedded marlstones, siliciclastic sandstones, and microbial, biocementstone mounds. Laminae consist of alternating carbonate and either silty carbonaceous shale or siliciclastic clay and silt. The mudstone and marlstone are locally interbedded with siliciclastic and carbonate turbidites, resedimented (?deep water) breccias, and olistostromes. Seasonal changes in anoxia and/or carbonate production produced rhythmic laminae of carbonate and carbonaceous shale. Carbonate grains consist of silt-sized microbial clots and rare arthropod carapaces and brachiopod shells. The mounds originated as tufa precipitated around subaqueous hydrothermal springs that supported chemosynthetic communities. Resedimentation processes including incipient brecciation, sliding, slumping, debris flows, and turbidity currents were common. The mounds trapped hydrocarbons from the surrounding laminite and sulphides from underlying hydrothermal vents. Increasing salinity with time resulted in sulphate and chloride precipitation that filled the basins and ended the life of Loch Macumber. After the deposition of thick evaporites the topography became less accentuated, the seas less saline, and the faunas more normal marine.