Marine Space Research Articles

Waste Heat Utilization in Marine Energy Systems for Enhanced Efficiency

The maritime industry, central to global trade, faces critical challenges related to energy efficiency and environmental sustainability due to significant energy loss from waste heat in marine engines. This review investigates the potential of waste heat recovery (WHR) technologies to enhance operational efficiency and reduce emissions in marine systems. By analyzing major WHR methods, such as heat exchangers, Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) systems, thermoelectric generators, and combined heat and power (CHP) systems, this work highlights the specific advantages, limitations, and practical considerations of each approach. Unique to this review is an examination of WHR performance in confined marine spaces and compatibility with existing ship components, providing essential insights for practical implementation. Findings emphasize WHR as a viable strategy to reduce fuel consumption and meet environmental regulations, contributing to a more sustainable maritime industry.

Dis/incremental Dwelling and the Right to the Beach in Jamestown, Accra, Ghana

AbstractIn mid‐2020, the municipal authority of Accra, Ghana levelled the dwellings of approximately 450 residents remaining in an informal beach settlement in Jamestown, long the centre of an artisanal fishing economy. The destruction marked the culmination of at least four demolition cycles to clear ground for a Chinese‐financed commercial harbour. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between demolitions, we demonstrate how residents erected smaller, more precarious structures designed for ease of disassembly/reassembly using cheaper, salvaged building materials—a tactic we term dis/incremental dwelling. We interpret these practices of everyday refusal as asserting residents’ “right to the beach”—a claim to access beach and marine space, to participate in convivial associative life and the informal fishing economy, and to resist political marginalisation from infrastructure development and ocean grabbing. The right to the beach provides a conceptual and political vocabulary to centre just coastal futures in urban West Africa and beyond.

Bringing a justice lens to ocean access

AbstractMaritime spaces have transformed rapidly the last decades. Open waters and beaches have become restricted and sometimes privatized enclosures. Different forms of extractivism have led to biodiversity loss and in particular to declining fish populations. Additionally, large-scale coastal and marine infrastructure projects, such as deepening and widening of shipping channels, have destroyed important habitats. These profound socio-ecological transformations have had an impact on geographies of resource access and control and consequently on the ability of actors to access, use and benefit from coastal and marine space. Moreover, changes in the lending policies of local banks have posed additional and severe challenges for fishers’ ability to fish. Such processes effect in particular the livelihoods of coastal and small-scale fisher communities and consequently increase existing inequalities and injustices. We suggest to bring the literature on ocean justice and access and property into dialogue and develop a heuristic for analysing inequalities and justice claims. Based on qualitative case studies focussing on the Sicily (Italy), the Elbe estuary (Germany) and the Lofoten (Norway), we show that investigating access relations facilitates the identification of unequal societal relationships with nature. Our cases illustrate that power relations in which privatization processes and access relations are embedded, determine whether injustices can be translated into justice claims and how successful these claims are. Moreover, unequal socio-ecological relations are also influenced by what we call translocal justice. Translocal justice is often lost in processes of commodification, privatization and in the rescaling of political authority and power, as local ties and confidential relationships vanish.

First evidence of microplastic inhalation among free-ranging small cetaceans.

Plastic is a ubiquitous environmental contaminant, resulting in widespread exposure across terrestrial and marine spaces. In the environment, plastics can degrade into microparticles where exposure has been documented in a variety of fauna at all trophic levels. Human epidemiological studies have found relationships between inhaled microplastics and oxidative stress and inflammation. Previous studies of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) have reported prevalent exposure to plasticizing chemicals (e.g., phthalates) as well as particle loads in gastrointestinal tracts, but exposure from inhalation has not yet been studied. The objective of this study was to determine if inhalation is a viable route of microplastic exposure for free-ranging dolphins. Exhalation samples were opportunistically collected from dolphins residing in Sarasota Bay, Florida (n = 5) and Barataria Bay, Louisiana (n = 6) during catch-and-release health assessments to screen for microplastic particles. All dolphin samples contained at least one suspected microplastic particle, and polymer composition was determined for 100% of a subset (n = 17) of samples. Additional studies are warranted to better understand the extent of inhaled microplastics, as well as to explore impacts, given potential risks to lung function and health.

PREDIKSI PASANG SURUT PERAIRAN SEKITAR KOTA BITUNG DENGAN PENAMBAHAN KONSTANTA HARMONIK PERAIRAN DANGKAL

Bitung is a city with the most intensive marine space utilization activities in North Sulawesi Province. Therefore, information regarding oceanographic conditions is very important in relation to development in this city. One of the important information regarding oceanographic conditions is tides. This study was conducted with the aim of assessing the accuracy of tidal prediction with the addition of shallow water harmonic constituents and examining the amplitude fluctuations of the main harmonic component due to the addition of the shallow water constituents. The least squares method was used to calculate the amplitude and phase of tidal harmonic constituents, followed by data prediction. The data used is the measurement data of BMKG Bitung City tidal station in January, February and March 2024. The results obtained are the addition of shallow water harmonic constituents to the tidal analysis around Bitung City increases the accuracy of the prediction data. The best RMSE value for January data is 3.8323 cm; February 4.1902 cm; and March 4.2558 cm. The correlation coefficient increases and the percentage of predicted data with differences < 3 cm and < 6 cm with the observation data becomes larger. It is also found that when processing with few harmonic constituents, the amplitudes of constants M2, S2, K1, and O1 fluctuate. The addition of harmonic constituents in the analysis results in more constant amplitudes of constituents M2, S2, K1, and O1.

La exploración de los hidrocarburos en el caso de las islas Malvinas de 1995 a 2022

This paper aims to analyze the hydrocarbon exploration process in the Malvinas Islands carried out by the United Kingdom from 1995 to 2022. In relation to this, the question of the Malvinas Islands refers to a dispute between the Argentine and British governments over sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands and islands of the South Atlantic, the surrounding marine spaces, which also includes oil and gas. In this sense, these resources hosted on the islands’ submarine shelf were a long-standing focus of interest. In the 1990s, the British government authorized the arrival of transnational companies to carry out exploration activities and possible exploitation in an area that is still under international dispute. In this context, the Argentine State recognized these insular and maritime areas as an integral part of its national territory and, consequently, rejected the presence of these companies and declared their activities illegal.

Temporal and oceanographic factors differentially affect two size classes of white shark at a Southern California aggregation site

Ontogenetic habitat shifts are a common feature of many marine species, including sharks, which face conservation threats when their distributions overlap with human resource extraction and habitat modification. White sharks Carcharodon carcharias, for example, exhibit a distinctly coastal phase as juveniles, with a limited distribution compared to the basin-scale range of adults. Using an unoccupied aerial vehicle (UAV), we studied a coastal aggregation site within a Southern California Bight nursery area to determine how fine-scale temporal and oceanographic factors affect white sharks at different developmental stages. White shark density, as measured via UAV, was highly variable across time of day and day of year, with modest variation across years. Typically, more sharks were observed in the late afternoon hours. Sharks, especially those <3 m total length, were observed more often during periods of colder seafloor temperatures, potentially reflecting avoidance of these colder, deeper waters by more cold-intolerant smaller white sharks. Alternate models incorporating sea surface temperature showed a very small but significant association between surface temperatures and <3 m total length white sharks for the months we surveyed, but no such association for larger sharks. There were no or only modest effects of visibility, swell height, chl a levels, sea state, and tidal height on UAV-observed shark density. Understanding how temporal patterns and oceanographic predictors of density change over time as well as how shark ontogeny interacts with these factors can help us to better understand how this species uses coastal habitats and predict when they may be more likely to share marine space with humans.

Scale‐sensitive marine law and policy design: Towards ecosystem‐based management across spatial and temporal scales

AbstractEcosystem‐based management (EBM) is promoted in scholarly literature and international policy as a way to improve marine ecosystem outcomes, through the integration of marine law and policies across sectors, communities, and scales. A legal and policy framework that supports EBM at appropriate temporal and spatial scales is fundamental to the successful deployment of EBM. However, marine management is typically fragmented and misaligned, with a range of laws, policies, governance institutions, and sectoral frameworks applying to different marine spaces and working on varying timescales. In this focus article, we draw on our comprehensive study of Aotearoa New Zealand's marine law and policy to analyze the challenges scale mismatches present for marine law and policy implementation, focusing on key policy areas across fisheries, environment, conservation, and Indigenous rights and interests. We identify key opportunities to better align marine law and policy to ecosystem scale dynamics, revealing critical lessons for the imperative of scale‐sensitive marine law and policy design, globally.This article is categorized under: Policy and Economics > Research and Development Policy and Economics > Governance and Regulation Climate and Environment > Ecosystem Services

Marine Spatial Planning and the loss of traditional power in Fiji and the Cook Islands

A rapidly expanding area of marine space in the Pacific is being assessed under a process known as Marine Spatial Planning (MSP). Through the political process, MSP brings together an assemblage of national governments, private organizations and local communities to define how marine spaces should be governed. MSP results in numerous new marine spatial categories that delimit an area according to the respective principals and rules decided upon. The authors of this article argue that traditional powers to make and enforce decisions concerning the governance of marine spaces have been weakened through the political process of MSP in the Pacific. The responses that emerged from conducting qualitative semi‐structured interviews with participants in Fiji and the Cook Islands indicate that indigenous marine authority is being undermined through manipulation of the MSP process. The findings further revealed an underlying recognition that the MSP process has proven to be incapable of equitably weighing indigenous Pacific Islanders’ interests in relation to the economic, environmental and security interests of external ocean stakeholders. The authors further argue that external ocean stakeholders can successfully pursue their own objectives through the MSP process in ways that bypass indigenous authority.

Adjustment of the marine ecological red lines in China

The marine ecological red lines (MERLs) is an institutional innovation of the Chinese government to seek a balance between ecological protection and social development. China’s MERLs was designated in 2017, but there are problems such as insufficient consideration of areas of high ecological importance and lack of convergence with marine functional zoning. This paper carries out the adjustment of the MERLs in China by constructing the methods of marine ecological importance assessment and human activities disposal assessment, and the results show that after the adjustment, the type and distribution pattern of China’s MERLs is more reasonable, the areas of high ecological importance in the MERLs increases significantly, the intensity of human activities in the MERLs declines significantly, and the unification with the use of marine space is realized. China’s adjustment of the MERLs is based on scientific assessment and realizes the coordination of development and protection, which can provide a reference for global marine ecological protection.

Hybrid offshore wind–solar energy farms: A novel approach through retrofitting

Due to the inherent variability of the power output of offshore wind farms, their integration into electrical grids poses a challenge to their stability and leads to significant balancing costs. Combining wind and solar power may be expected to mitigate the power output variability. In addition, a number of synergies can be realised—shared infrastructure, shared crews and vessels for operations and maintenance, and last but not least, optimum use of scarce marine space. The objective of this work is to investigate this hybrid approach and, in particular, to determine the optimum capacity of the solar energy subsystem given a certain installed capacity of the wind energy subsystem. Three case studies are considered in Europe and China. Each of them is an existing wind farm that could be retrofitted with floating solar PV. After assessing the local wind and solar energy resources, the optimal size of the floating solar array is calculated with a view to smooth the aggregated power output of each farm. Subsequently, the benefits of this hybrid approach are demonstrated from various perspectives. It is found that a much larger solar array is required for a wind farm with a large installed capacity, but the specific optimal size depends more on the local wind and solar resources. The novelty of this paper lies in its exploration of retrofitting existing offshore wind turbines with floating solar PV systems from the perspective of addressing the variability challenge for the currently operating wind farms. This study could serve as a guideline for project designs aiming to retrofit existing offshore wind farms with solar PV technology, thus reducing balancing costs and facilitating the penetration of offshore renewable energy into national power grids.

Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of multi-use of marine space: A comparative analysis of offshore wind energy and mussel farming in the Belgian Continental Shelf with terrestrial alternatives

The Belgian Continental Shelf is a highly used part of the North Sea, where many different maritime activities thrive, such as shipping, fishing and energy production. Offshore wind energy in particular has gained importance in the region and concessions zones are allowed to be combined with aquaculture activities. It is unclear what the environmental impact of maritime multi-use is, from a life-cycle perspective, where there is potential to create synergies in the value chains, and how similar the impact compares to currently used alternatives. Therefore, this study performs a Life Cycle Assessment on a combination of a full scale existing wind energy farm and a mussel farm design. When analyzing the net environmental impact results of the multi-use offshore farm at the level of three areas of protection, i.e. human health, ecosystem quality and natural resources, it shows that the mussel farm contributes relatively the most to the net impacts, while the majority of the avoided burdens are attributed to the wind farm. Mainly the supply chain of materials required to manufacture its components followed by the operational activities of the multi-use offshore farm contribute to the environmental footprint. Moreover, taking advantage of joint activities, i.e. combined transport between the wind and mussel farm during operational activities (Scenario 1) and at decommissioning phase (Scenario 2) did not show a significant reduction in the overall net impacts of a multi-use farm. The life cycle assessment results of a multi-use offshore farm are furthermore compared with relevant terrestrial benchmarks in Belgium, i.e. nuclear energy and pork meat production. While the benchmarks have a high burden on the area of protection ecosystem quality due water and land use requirements, the multi-use farm mainly impacts the remaining areas of protection, i.e. human health and natural resources, again as a consequence of the burdens of its supply chain. This study reveals the potential of offshore multi-use farms in terms of environmental sustainability, offering valuable insights to policy-makers and value chain actors, and generally contributes to well-informed decision-making.

A discursive field of contested ethics: Reporting the UK’s blue economy in the making

This paper analyses newspaper coverage of ‘blue economy’ in the UK 2012–2020. It elaborates on Germond-Duret and Germond’s (2022) finding that UK media published a dominant development discourse concerning the UK’s marine space without reflecting on the risks of growth agendas. Articles from UK print media featuring ‘blue economy’ were compiled from LexisNexis then analysed to establish patterns of publishing, the investors, investments and projects reported, the experts cited and their statements on blue economy. Analysis reveals no sustained coverage, little that communicated with a national audience, little investigative reporting, and no predominance of London-based newspapers in news production. Reporting on blue economy was sporadic until a surge in 2020 that coincided with efforts to secure investments through local growth plans. Newspapers registered this buzz of activity, collecting statements from actors who used business ethics to express the legitimacy of their planning to build what they called a ‘blue economy’ even though this looked more like ‘blue growth’. A second group of actors including the Scottish Government announced plans to build a ‘sustainable blue economy’. These actors used the ethics of regional development, achieving net zero and protecting, enhancing or restoring ocean environments. Journalists reported critical views on these plans: inadequate attention to environmental protection, investment in activities seen as environmentally unsustainable or investments with limited regional development. Thus, analysis of statements on ‘blue economy’ reveals a discursive field featuring a confusion of contested ethical claims. This paper identifies the UK’s fragmented newspaper landscape and new architecture of public–private enterprise partnerships as important contexts shaping media engagement with blue economy.

Ecosystem-based maritime spatial planning in practice? On the limitations of a legalistic planning tradition

The implementation of an ecosystem-based approach (EBA) is a core requirement of the EU Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) directive. Ecosystem-based management presents a fundamental challenge to established practices concerning the planning of marine space and the governance of human activities at sea. Experience to date indicates considerable variation in the application of EBA across Europe. This variation can be attributed in part to differences in underlying planning traditions and cultures. In this article, we examine the specific case of EBA implementation in the current maritime spatial plan for Germany’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Following an interpretive analysis approach, we critically analyse how the scope and function of planning are understood in German MSP policy and practice. A narrow understanding of planning as solely concerned with the spatial coordination of competing claims on marine space is traced to a legalistic terrestrial planning tradition with a long history in German public administration. This narrow interpretation of the role of planning is found to fundamentally restrict the strategic, performative capacity of German MSP and, in particular, the potential for German MSP to apply ecosystem-based management principles. In conclusion, we contend that the implementation of an EBA requires a fundamental shift in planning paradigms and modes of governance. This empirical case provides a basis for critical reflection on the capacity of EU member states to implement an EBA as understood under the MSP directive and the mode of planning this might entail.

Indigenous Peoples, Marine Space and Resources, and International Law: The Interaction Between International Human Rights Law and the Law of the Sea, written by Endalew Lijalem Enyew

Indigenous Peoples, Marine Space and Resources, and International Law: The Interaction Between International Human Rights Law and the Law of the Sea, written by Endalew Lijalem Enyew

Geomorphological processes following the construction of an offshore artificial island in the radial sand ridges of the South Yellow Sea

Offshore artificial islands represent a novel way to develop and utilize marine space resources. Previous research has focused on predicting erosion and deposition distributions following the islands construction, utilizing laboratory experiments and numerical simulations. However, the absence of long-term continuous monitoring has hindered systematic studies on the geomorphological processes of these islands. A 20-years of underwater terrain monitoring scheme was conducted before and after construction of the Rudong Artificial Island in Jiangsu Province, China. The results were combined with on-site observations of tidal currents, suspended sediment concentrations, and surficial sediment to investigate the evolution of the water channel–sand ridge system and the development process of local scour around the artificial island. The results indicated that after the construction of the artificial island, its surrounding water channels showed an overall evolution trend of the north channel shifting towards the north, the middle channel widening and moving south, and the south channel extending westward and southward. Scour has been observed at the four corners of the artificial island, with the peak depths of 7.3 m, 5.6 m, 13.7 m, and 12.2 m at the southwest, northwest, northeast, and southeast corners respectively. The scour in the southwest and northwest corners reached an equilibrium within five years. However, in the southeast corner, continuous erosion of the shoal on the southeast side of the artificial island enhanced the local hydrodynamic force, leading to further scour development. The large-scale scour in the northeast corner was mainly caused by changes in the local flow field following the construction of water intake pipelines and their protection projects. These geomorphological changes are the joint results of the natural evolution of the radial sand ridges and local erosion and deposition from engineering construction. Currently, the sandbanks surrounding the island are still undergoing dynamic evolution following engineering construction, and local scour around the island has not yet reached equilibrium.

Balancing Climate Justice with Sustainable Development Needs in A Policy: Questioning about Government Regulations for National Strategic Projects Facilitation

The problem is that Government Regulation Number 42 of 2021 on National Strategic Projects Facilitation deals with the concepts of environmental balance and climate change policy. Spatial planning, including marine space, land acquisition, and forestry, should support national strategic projects. On the one hand, the environmental balance must be maintained to mitigate global warming. Government Regulation Number 42 of 2021 on National Strategic Projects Facilitation is like a two-eyed knife; the balance point must be found so that climate justice and sustainable development do not "kill" each other. Through normative research methods with qualitative data analysis, it was discovered that Government Regulation Number 42 of 2021 on National Strategic Projects Facilitation, on the one hand, succeeded in becoming an infectious engine for infrastructure development and development for the welfare of the community, but on the other hand, Government Regulation became a suppressive engine for the community group, the living environment, and spatial balance. Government Regulation Number 42 of 2021 on National Strategic Projects Facilitation is not yet on the side of the people and communities most vulnerable to the impact of climate change due to the development of the PSN infrastructure to pursue the achievement of the SDGs. Therefore, the pattern of Government Regulation Number 42 of 2021 on National Strategic Projects Facilitation must change, not only “increase the number of infrastructure developments” but also the quality of human life today and in the future, so that the access to SDG’s in Indonesia becomes something comprehensive because it does not interfere with achieving other indicators

Diving into warming oceans: Assessing 3D climatically suitable foraging areas of loggerhead sea turtles under climate change

Climate change impacts on marine species have been mainly studied considering only the sea surface despite the fact that most species depend on habitats at different depths. With sea temperatures warming unevenly across depths, identifying critical marine habitats while considering the three-dimensionality of the seascape is a major conservation challenge. Unfortunately, this research field remains largely unexplored and only few examples permit the identification of vertically coherent areas. Here, we developed a climate niche-based framework to delineate critical areas across different depths and assess their consistency over space and time. We use loggerhead sea turtles as a model species to identify climatic suitable areas for the present and future three-dimensional marine space of the Mediterranean Sea, using temperatures from three bathymetric layers of 5 m, 25 m and bottom neritic waters. We analyzed both juvenile and adult sea turtles, which use different depth-related habitats. Our analysis revealed that the coherence among thermal suitable habitats of different depths varied across the different life stages. Although near-surface habitats of juvenile sea turtles spanned across a vast area of the Mediterranean, their water-column habitats were spatially restricted. Near-surface, deep and water-column habitats of adults shared similar distribution patterns. Under future conditions, all types of three-dimensional habitats seemed to primarily maintain thermal stability, however, even opposite changes were predicted for different depths. Our study provides an advanced spatial mapping of sea turtle habitats, highlighting the significance of the three-dimensional marine space and how the selection and combination of specific bathymetric zones may impact patterns in distribution.

Hybrid wind-solar energy resources mapping in the European Atlantic

The complementarity of offshore wind and solar resources can enhance the energy output of a hybrid farm and reduce its variability relative to a stand-alone, conventional offshore wind farm. In this work offshore wind and solar resources are characterised and mapped in a large study area covering the European Atlantic, the North and Baltic Seas, and the Canary Islands. The intra-annual and overall variabilities of wind power density and solar irradiance are investigated, and their complementarity is evaluated on the basis of their correlation. Negatively correlated regions include the seas around Ireland and Great Britain, with vast wind resources (mean wind power density ~1500 Wm−2 off W Ireland) and comparatively limited solar resources (mean solar irradiance ~100 Wm−2). Positively correlated regions include notably the Canary Islands, with the highest values of solar irradiance in the study area (mean values of ~280 Wm−2). Two study sites are chosen for more detailed investigation – one with a negative correlation, off W Ireland; the other with a positive correlation, off the Canary Islands. Even in the positively correlated regions, it is found that the correlation coefficient is never large (always under 0.2), which signals an opportunity for reducing power output variability through hybrid or co-located wind-solar farms. This, along with the other advantages of hybrid or co-located wind-solar farms (optimised use of scarce marine space, shared electrical infrastructure, shared O&M crews and vessels, etc.), attests to their potential in the European Atlantic. This potential could be realised through new hybrid or co-located wind-solar farms, or by retrofitting floating solar PV into existing offshore wind farms.

Ocean economic and cultural benefit perceptions as stakeholders' constraints for supporting conservation policies: A multi-national investigation

Given the vastness and interconnectedness of the ocean, marine conservation requires international treaties, especially after the High Seas Treaty was signed. However, most international marine conservation treaties do not have enforcement mechanisms and leave the fulfillment of obligations to the States’ responsibility. As States’ monitoring, managing, and enforcing capacity is limited, including stakeholders in policy-making and -implementing processes is crucial. Although some multi-national studies have been conducted to examine predictors of stakeholders’ support for conservation management and valuations of ecosystem services, few have focused on how their perceived most crucial economic and cultural benefits of their countries’ oceans are associated with their support level for policies focused on ocean preservation. Thus, the current study aims to fill this gap by employing the Bayesian Mindsponge Framework (BMF) analytics on a dataset of 709 stakeholders from 42 countries, a part of the MaCoBioS project funded by the European Commission H2020. We found that stakeholders’ considerations of the ocean’s provisioning (or economic) and cultural ecosystem services as their countries’ most vital benefits are generally negatively associated with the policy support level. Regarding economic aspects, stakeholders considering transportation and shipping, renewable energy generation, and oil and gas provision as the most crucial benefits their countries’ oceans provide tend to give less support for policies focusing on ocean preservation. For cultural aspects, perceiving recreation and tourism, aesthetic pleasure, mental health and well-being support, and sense of identity provision as the most important benefits provided by the country’s ocean are negatively associated with the policy support level. These findings provide preliminary evidence on the stakeholders’ psychological constraints to support marine conservation-focused policies, which can be insights that might explain why international treaties about environmental and maritime issues mostly failed to produce their intended effects and warn of the risks and challenges to enacting marine protection policies in the high seas effectively. Recommendations for improving the effective management of multi-use marine space and building the eco-surplus among stakeholders are also provided to reduce the perceived competing interests among stakeholders.