Maritime Disaster Research Articles

Mesoscale ocean eddies determine dispersal and connectivity of corals at the RMS Titanic wreck site

The sinking of the RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912 remains one of most iconic maritime disasters in history. Today, the wreck site lies in waters 3800 m deep approximately 690 km south southeast of Newfoundland, Atlantic Canada. The wreck and debris field have been colonized by many marine organisms including the octocoral Chrysogorgia agassizii. Because of the rapid deterioration of the Titanic and the vulnerability of natural deep-sea coral populations to environmental changes, it is vital to understand the role the Titanic as well as other such structures could play in connecting ecosystems along the North American slope. Based on Lagrangian experiments with more than one million virtual particles and different scenarios for larval behavior, given the uncertainties around the biology of chrysogorgiids, the dispersal of larvae spawned at the Titanic wreck is studied in a high-resolution numerical ocean model. While the large-scale bathymetry shields the Titanic from a strong mean flow, mesoscale ocean eddies can considerably affect the deep circulation and cause a significant speed up, or also a reversal, of the circulation. As a consequence, the position of upper and mid-ocean eddies in the model largely controls the direction and distance of larval dispersal, with the impact of eddies outweighing the importance of active larval swimming in our experiments. Although dependent on larval buoyancy and longevity, we find that the Titanic could be reached by larvae spawned on the upper slope east of the Grand Banks. Therefore, the Titanic could act as a stepping stone connecting the upper to the deep continental slope off Newfoundland. From the Titanic, larvae then spread into deep Canadian waters and areas beyond national jurisdiction.

Numerical study on the motion characteristics of free fall lifeboats entering calm water and rough sea

As ocean engineering operations extend into deeper seas, the working environment becomes increasingly complex, making free fall lifeboats (FFLBs) more vital for maritime disaster rescues. Unlike traditional davit-launched lifeboats, FFLBs are propelled into the water at a specific velocity and angle, engaging in a complex motion process of launch, impact, submersion, and resurfacing. Therefore, to assess the safety of FFLBs, this paper regarding the lifeboat as a rigid body aims to investigate the six-degree-of-freedom motion characteristics of lifeboat entering the water with different entry angles θ and wave environment, with a specific focus on analyzing the primary causes of capsizing. The numerical simulations of water entry with various θ, wave heights H, and relative entry positions are carried out by combining large eddy simulation and overset mesh technology. The free surface is captured by the volume of fluid method, and the attitude change, acceleration change, motion trajectory, and free surface evolution law of lifeboats are analyzed. The findings suggest that lifeboats can enter calm water safely at θ of 20°–50° and maintain a stable posture. Moreover, in extreme conditions where θ is either 0° or 90°, there is a high risk of entry failure due to excessive vertical acceleration and poor motion attitude, respectively. Furthermore, when facing waves, lifeboats experience reduced horizontal displacement when entering at peak and downward zero point compared to calm water conditions, which poses challenges for avoiding potential dangers.

The Vagaries of the Sea: Evidence on the Real Effects of Money from Maritime Disasters in the Spanish Empire

Abstract We estimate the effect of money supply changes on the real economy by exploiting a recurring natural experiment: maritime disasters in the Spanish Empire (1531–1810) that resulted in the loss of substantial amounts of silver money. We find that negative money supply shocks caused Spanish real output to decline. A transmission channel analysis highlights slow price adjustments and credit frictions as mechanisms through which money supply changes affected the real economy. Especially large output declines occurred in textile manufacturing against the backdrop of a credit crunch that impaired merchants’ ability to supply their manufacturers with inputs.

Kae Tempest, London and the digital affects of neoliberalism

ABSTRACT This paper extends recent examinations of neoliberalism’s affective impact through a close reading of Kae Tempest’s 2016 piece Let Them Eat Chaos. Building upon the work of Rachel Greenwald Smith, I demonstrate how Tempest locates geopolitical discussions of neoliberal affect in London’s particular geo-historical contexts. The significance of this approach lies in the insights Tempest offers into the digital infrastructures that underpin neoliberalism’s affective atmosphere. These findings are expounded through a close reading of Tempest’s work in dialogue with the writings of Paul Gilroy, Byung-Chul Han, Wendy Hui Kyong Chun and Mark Fisher. Through such a framework, I foreground how gentrification is a key driver in establishing, and maintaining, neoliberalism’s digitally enervating affects. The paper concludes via the work of Hans Blumenberg – whose meditations on maritime disaster help unpack the emancipatory humanism Tempest seeks to salvage from London’s ruin. Offering no grand political alternatives, Tempest’s critique of neoliberal technology aims, instead, at redrawing the parameters of political solidarity.

Formation of secondary microplastics during degradation of plastics originating from the MV X-Press Pearl maritime disaster

AbstractThe MV X-Press Pearl maritime incident had a profound impact on the marine and coastal ecosystems along the west coast of Sri Lanka. Considerable quantities of plastic pellets, specifically nurdles or pellets measuring less than 5 mm and estimated at 1680 tonnes, were released into the Indian Ocean. A notable portion of these plastic pellets/primary microplastics (MPs), has the potential to degrade into secondary MPs. The objective of this study was to investigate and understand the degradation process of plastic pellets into secondary MPs under the extreme conditions of fire and exposure to chemicals during the MV X-Press Pearl maritime disaster. Beach sand samples were collected from 40 locations along the affected west coast of Sri Lanka, at both mean sea level and the berm. An additional 20 samples were collected for a background study covering the entire coastline of Sri Lanka. The Wet Peroxide Oxidation (WPO) process was employed to separate microplastics, and observations of secondary MP quantities were recorded. Fourier Transform Infra-Red Spectroscopic (FTIR) analysis was carried out to identify functional groups of MPs. The variance in average values of secondary MPs at mean sea level (large MPs (i.e. size > 0. 5 mm) = 33 ± 56 items per 1 mm2 and total MPs (i.e. observed through microscope under 40× magnification) = 61 ± 66 items per 1 mm2) and the berm (large = 61 ± 154 items per 1 mm2 and total MPs = 106 ± 165 items per 1 mm2) suggested significant dispersal of large quantities of MPs to other areas in the Indian Ocean with oceanic currents. The baseline average value of secondary total MPs in other coastal areas of the country was approximately 53 ± 66 items per 1 mm2. The positive correlation between large and total secondary MPs and plastic pellets pollution index indicates that a considerable amount of plastic pellets were degraded into secondary MPs within 6 to 8 days after the accident, under the influence of nitric acid and heat/fire. These secondary MPs are mainly composed of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE), as identified by FTIR observations. Consequently, these lightweight polymers have the potential to spread across a wider region, posing a severe environmental threat on a global scale as a transoceanic marine pollutant.

The European way of Ukraine for the organization of search and rescue at sea

The article examines the legal framework for the organization of search and rescue at sea in Ukraine in the context of European integration, and also investigates the existing shortcomings and overlaps in the distribution of functions and assignment of tasks between the State structures of Ukraine, and identifies the areas for reforming the organization of search and rescue at sea to improve efficiency and bring Ukraine closer to the state of search and rescue at sea in the European Union (EU).
 The relevance of the study lies in the strategic direction of Ukraine towards EU membership and the approximation of Ukrainian legislation to that of the European Union, which requires reform of legal regulation in the field of search and rescue at sea in Ukraine.
 Ukraine, as a maritime state and a member of the International Maritime Organization, has assumed an international obligation under the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue, 1979, and acceded to it by Resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine No. 2786-XII of November 17, 1992.
 Accordingly, the purpose of the publication is to conduct a theoretical study of the issues related to Ukraine’s implementation of the international obligation to search for and save human life in case of maritime disaster in the context of European integration and trends for its improvement.
 The methodological basis of the study is a systematic structural analysis of the organizational (institutional) and legal regulation of search and rescue at sea.
 The article also provides conclusions on the areas of legal reform and improvement of the efficiency of the organization of search and rescue at sea in Ukraine with a view to improving the legal regulation of this area of legal relations to a level which would be in line with international standards and bring it closer to the legislation of the European Union.

Modelling a major maritime disaster scenario using the universal modelling framework for sequential decisions

This article examines a major maritime disaster scenario in which a large number of individuals in medical distress are stranded at a remote Arctic location and must be evacuated. Within this context, we examine a multi-domain operation where a maritime asset with limited capacity is tasked to provide medical assistance at the evacuation site and limited air assets are used to evacuate individuals to a forward operating location. The objective of the operation is to maximize the number of lives saved. However, this value is dependent on a variety of factors, such as: uncertainty in the deterioration and improvement of the individuals’ medical condition; the arrival time of the maritime asset; the number of air assets employed; and the decision policies used to select who receives medical assistance and who is evacuated. Our contributions are twofold. First, we formulate the multi-domain operation as a sequential decision problem using the universal modelling framework for sequential decisions. Second, we present a hypothetical case study that explores how this model may be used to provide decision support for planning purposes. To do so, we use the model to explore how the expected number of lives saved is impacted by: varying the maritime asset’s arrival time and number of air assets employed; varying the decision policies used and assessing how these impacts are dependent upon when the maritime asset arrives; and varying the arrival time of the air assets, such as when they are prepositioned.

Risk evaluation and remedial measures for heavy metal contamination in lagoonal sediments of the Negombo Lagoon, Sri Lanka after the X-Press Pearl maritime disaster

Negombo Lagoon is a vital ecological and socio-economic resource in Sri Lanka that has become susceptible to anthropogenic heavy metal contamination. Therefore, short-core sediment samples from the Negombo Lagoon were analyzed to quantify heavy metal contaminants including both metals (Cr, Ni, Co, Cu, Cd, and Pb) and metalloid As; assess their ecological risk; identify critically polluted regions; and to investigate temporal variation in heavy metal concentration. According to the results, Ni is the most abundant heavy metal in lagoonal sediments. Ni, As, and Cr have severely contaminated the sediments as confirmed by their higher geo-accumulation indices (Igeo) and contamination factors (CF). The degree of contamination (Cdeg) indicated an exceedingly high overall heavy metal contamination, and the pollution load index (PLI) exhibited a prominent site quality decline. Individual potential ecological risk factor (Er) values revealed that Ni, As, and Cd pose a substantial ecological risk. Similarly, the potential ecological risk index (PERI) displayed that heavy metal contamination is a significant peril to this ecosystem. Spatial distributions of the heavy metals are governed mainly by the sediment grain size and freshwater influx. Ni concentration in lagoonal sediments has remarkably increased during the last six years (2016–2022) predominantly due to anthropogenic Ni sources, including the recent X-Press Pearl ship accident. In light of the severe heavy metal contamination in lagoonal sediments, the current study recommends a phytoremediation approach for the Negombo Lagoon.

Gene Eric Salecker. Destruction of the Steamboat Sultana. The Worst Maritime Disaster in American History by Michael Razer

Gene Eric Salecker. Destruction of the Steamboat Sultana. The Worst Maritime Disaster in American History by Michael Razer

Fire and Oil Led to Complex Mixtures of PAHs on Burnt and Unburnt Plastic during the M/V X-Press Pearl Disaster.

In May 2021, the M/V X-Press Pearl container ship burned for 2 weeks, leading to the largest maritime spill of resin pellets (nurdles). The disaster was exacerbated by the leakage of other cargo and the ship's underway fuel. This disaster affords the unique opportunity to study a time-stamped, geolocated release of plastic under real-world conditions. Field samples collected from beaches in Sri Lanka nearest to the ship comprised nurdles exposed to heat and combustion, burnt plastic pieces (pyroplastic), and oil-plastic agglomerates (petroplastic). An unresolved question is whether the 1600+ tons of spilled and recovered plastic should be considered hazardous waste. Due to the known formation and toxicity of combustion-derived polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), we measured 20 parent and 21 alkylated PAHs associated with several types of spilled plastic. The maximum PAH content of the sampled pyroplastic had the greatest amount of PAHs recorded for marine plastic debris (199,000 ng/g). In contrast, the sampled unburnt white nurdles had two orders of magnitude less PAH content. The PAH composition varied between the types of spilled plastic and presented features typical of and conflicting with petrogenic and pyrogenic sources. Nevertheless, specific markers and compositional changes for burning plastics were identified, revealing that the fire was the main source of PAHs. Eight months after the spill, the PAH contents of sampled stray nurdles and pyroplastic were reduced by more than 50%. Due to their PAH content exceeding levels allowable for plastic consumer goods, classifying burnt plastic as hazardous waste may be warranted. Following a largely successful cleanup, we recommend that the Sri Lankans re-evaluate the identification, handling, and disposal of the plastic debris collected from beaches and the potential exposure of responders and the public to PAHs from handling it. The maritime disaster underscores pyroplastic as a type of plastic pollution that has yet to be fully explored, despite the pervasiveness of intentional and unintentional burning of plastic globally.

Identification of the Most Important Events to the Occurrence of a Disaster Using Maritime Examples

Previous studies on maritime disasters have noted the importance of searching for their causal factors in the analysis of different types of vessels and various regions where accidents have occurred. The main objective of the study that this article presents was to develop a new approach to modelling and causal analysis of the course of maritime disasters in order to provide a holistic evaluation of this phenomenon. The novel approach adopted to support the thesis combined event network analysis and fault tree analysis (used in functional analysis for modelling the structures of systems) in the process analysis. The authors advanced a thesis that, in the studied population of disasters, there were dominant classes of basic events in each phase of the process during the course of a disaster (distinguished by means of an event network). Thirty maritime disasters that occurred between 1912 and 2019 were selected for quantitative and qualitative analyses. In each disaster, the different phases of its course were distinguished: latent, initiating, escalating, critical, and energy release. A total of 608 basic events were identified in the population, enabling the identification and characterisation of 44 classes of events. The importance of the events in each of the phases was calculated by means of importance measures. The findings confirmed the thesis. At the same time, an analysis of the importance of basic events in each phase revealed that the most common basic events are not always the most important.

Marine pollution after the MV X-Press Pearl maritime disaster: Societal impacts based on research outcomes

The occurrence and distribution of marine pollutants has been extensively investigated following the MV X-Press Pearl disaster in the Indian Ocean. Work by numerous researchers has provided the basis for determining environmental and pollution impacts in the Indian Ocean. Accordingly, this article presents social impacts based on the outcomes from recent research findings published in conventional journal articles, and refers to an ongoing research project examining plastic/microplastic pollution in Sri Lanka. The main social impacts can be summarized as: (i) knowledge transfer to the public via expert judgments, (ii) awareness in the community, and (iii) policy changes. Awareness and policy changes can gradually increase positive benefits such as improved plastic waste management, abating plastic usage, plastic recycling, and revising existing regulations where relevant.

Contemporary Maritime Legal Framework of the Ship Salvage

Salvage operations have been an essential aspect of maritime law for centuries due to their critical role in averting the loss relating to life and property in our natural ecosystem following a maritime disaster. The Salvage Convention, enacted in 1989, is the primary international legal basis for salvage operations. This study examines the Convention and its bearing on current maritime law. In this essay, we'll go over what Salvage is, how it's regulated by law, and what the Convention's main provisions and principles are. Subsequently, a set of case studies is employed to scrutinize the pertinence of the Convention, with a focus on critical concerns and challenges within the sector. The study offers a meticulous evaluation of the Convention, a juxtaposition with alternative global legal structures, and suggestions for enhancement. The research results demonstrate that the Convention has significantly affected current maritime law and that further adjustments are required to address new problems and difficulties in the sector. The analysis concludes with implications for the current marine law system and recommendations for future research.

Communal Mourning and Contemporary Elegy in Korean Poetry

Abstract An extended period of public mourning followed the 2014 Sewol Ferry disaster, one of South Korea’s largest maritime disasters which resulted in over three hundred passenger deaths. This article examines leading contemporary South Korean poet Kim Hyesoon’s narration of collective trauma in her elegy for the dead, Chugŭmŭi chasajŏn (Autobiography of Death, 2016). Drawing on the oral tradition, particularly the songs of female shamans, Kim facilitates a radical empathy with which her speaker enters the physical bodies of the dead and invokes their spirits. Kim’s polyvocal speaker traverses historical memory to excavate these deaths: Autobiography of Death connects the recent loss of life involved in the sinking of the Sewol Ferry with the structural injustice experienced by dissidents who were killed during South Korea’s democratization movement. I argue that Kim places her elegy in the public sphere by engaging the embodied memory of individuals to voice the transhistorical grief of the Korean community.

Oil spill remediation by biochar derived from bio-energy industries with a pilot-scale approach during the X-Press Pearl maritime disaster

Most traditional oil spill clean-up techniques are still laboratory based and are expensive and fairly ineffective. This study investigated the capacity of biochars derived from bio-energy industries in oil spill remediation with a pilot-testing. Three different biochars from bio-energy industries, Embilipitya (EBC), Mahiyanganaya (MBC), and Cinnamon Wood Biochar (CWBC) were assessed for the removal of Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) at three dosages (10, 25, and 50 g L−1). Pilot-scale experiment was conducted with 100 g of biochars separately in the oil slick of X-Press Pearl shipwreck. All adsorbents exhibited rapid oil removal (within 30 min). Isotherm data were well explained by Sips isotherm model (R2 > 0.98). The pilot-scale experiment resulted oil removal for CWBC, EBC and MBC as 0.62, 1.12, and 0.67 g kg−1 respectively, even in rough sea conditions with a limited contact time (>5 min) indicates biochar's capacity in oil spill remediation as a cost-effective material.

Estimation of hazardous and noxious substance (toluene) thickness using hyperspectral remote sensing

A hazardous noxious substance (HNS) spill accident is one of the most devastating maritime disasters as it is accompanied by toxicity, fire, and explosions in the ocean. To monitor an HNS spill, it is necessary to develop a remote sensing–based HNS monitoring technique that can observe a wide area with high resolution. We designed and performed a ground HNS spill experiment using a hyperspectral sensor to detect HNS spill areas and estimate the spill volume. HNS images were obtained by pouring 1 L of toluene into an outdoor marine pool and observing it with a hyperspectral sensor capable of measuring the shortwave infrared channel installed at a height of approximately 12 m. The pure endmember spectra of toluene and seawater were extracted using principal component analysis and N-FINDR, and a Gaussian mixture model was applied to the toluene abundance fraction. Consequently, a toluene spill area of approximately 2.4317 m2 was detected according to the 36% criteria suitable for HNS detection. The HNS thickness estimation was based on a three-layer two-beam interference theory model. Because toluene has a maximum extinction coefficient of 1.3055 mm at a wavelength of 1,678 nm, the closest 1,676.5 nm toluene reflectance image was used for thickness estimation. Considering the detection area and ground resolution, the amount of leaked toluene was estimated to be 0.9336 L. As the amount of toluene used in the actual ground experiment was 1 L, the accuracy of our estimation is approximately 93.36%. Previous studies on HNS monitoring based on remote sensing are lacking in comparison to those on oil spills. This study is expected to contribute to the establishment of maritime HNS spill response strategies in the near future based on the novel hyperspectral HNS experiment.

The X-Press Pearl disaster underscores gross neglect in the environmental management of shipping: Review of future data needs

The X-Press Pearl disaster has the unfortunate hallmarks of other global container ship disasters that are becoming increasingly common and will continue to cause future environmental damage. Port container throughput is ~830 million twenty-foot equivalents (TEUs), projected to grow for the next four decades at minimum, and industry experts predict that ship sizes will continue to grow to 50,000 TEU. Misdeclared content, poor packing, inadequate stowage/lashing, ship-board fires, climate-change-driven intensity of storms, and increasing ship size all ensure increasing environmental damage from container ship maritime disasters. Industry consensus is that the number of containers lost at sea is conspicuously undercounted, and the impact of lost containers is unstudied. This paper reviews specific aspects of the container ship industry that contribute to environmental damage, and then addresses needs for risk, impact assessment and environmental management as pertains to industry operations and container ship disasters such as the X-Press Pearl.

We need to plan streamlined environmental impact assessment for the future X-Press Pearl disasters

The X-Press Pearl disaster illustrates the urgent needs for streamlined environmental impact assessment to inform decision making. The environmental contamination caused by the disaster is complex, and the biological impact of different environmental stressors, and at different biological scales, needs to be determined. Traditional methods for analyzing complex environmental stressors are often inefficient and do not reflect the biological impact of pollution. The combination of chemical stressors and biological impacts is the key to environmental impact assessment based on integrated monitoring. Whole-cell bioreporters are tools for rapid, efficient and quantitative detection of the bioavailability, stressor effects, and toxicity of pollutants, i.e., spanning a wide range of applications. Here we propose the view that using whole-cell bioreporter technology to streamline short-term environmental impact assessment for maritime disasters such as the X-Press Pearl is more fit-for-purpose/practical than other approaches in use.

Enhanced Offshore Wind Speed Forecasts along the US East Coast: A Deep Learning Framework Leveraging NDBC Buoy Data

Offshore wind speed is a critical factor that influences various aspects of human life, and accurate forecasting is of utmost importance for the efficient utilization of offshore resources. In this paper, we present a novel deep-learning-based model for multisite offshore wind speed forecasting along the US East Coast. The proposed model is trained using the collected 2018–2020 National Data Buoy Center buoy data and tested using the 2021–2022 data. By inputting historical wind speed data into the model, simultaneous forecasting results can be obtained for multiple buoy sites through the embedding layer, feature extraction layer, and long short-term memory layer. Notably, the embedding layer, which is specifically engineered to capture spatial dependencies between multiple sites, proves to be highly effective in the context of multisite wind speed forecasting, as substantiated by our conducted ablation experiments. The evaluation metrics display satisfactory results: The 12-h average root mean square error at 1-h forecasting intervals is 2.09 m/s, the correlation coefficient is 0.7, and the mean absolute error is 1.24 m/s. Through case studies, the proposed model demonstrates its effectiveness in forecasting wind speeds during hurricanes, underscoring its potential for use in the offshore wind energy assessment and maritime disaster warning domains.

Current Status and Future Plans for Surface Current Observation by HF Radar in the Southern Jeju

The southern strait of Jeju is a divergence point of the Tsushima Warm Current (TWC), and it is the starting point of the thermohaline circulation in the waters of the Korean Peninsula, affecting the size and frequency of marine disasters such as typhoons and tsunamis, and has a very important oceanographic impact, such as becoming a source of harmful organisms and radioactively contaminated water. Therefore, for an immediate response to these maritime disasters, real-time ocean observation is required. However, compared to other straits, in the case of southern Jeju, such wide area marine observations are insufficient. Therefore, in this study, surface current field of the southern strait of Jeju was calculated using High-Frequency radar (HF radar). the large surface current field is calculated, and post-processing and data improvement are carried out through APM (Antenna Pattern Measurement) and FOL (First Order Line), and comparative analysis is conducted using actual data. As a result, the correlation shows improvement of 0.4~0.7 and RMSE of about 1~19 cm/s. These high-frequency radar observation results will help solve domestic issues such as response to typhoons, verification of numerical models, utilization of wide area wave data, and ocean search and rescue in the future through the establishment of an open data network.