In this edition of the In the Know podcast series, TME spoke with Saildrone CFO Barak Ben-Gal about the carbon savings that his firm delivers for clients. Using unmanned, automated wing-sail propulsion, Saildrone’s USVs can deploy from any dock and transit autonomously to the area of operation and navigate or loiter for a year or more at a time. Working for commercial enterprises and government organizations, they have sailed through hurricanes, conducted surveys in the Bering Sea, tracked maritime security threats in the Persian Gulf, and monitored the safety of migrant craft off the coast of Haiti.

In addition to operational advantages, Saildrone USVs have ultra-low lifecycle emissions, and their wind propulsion “avoids” 99.9 percent of the carbon that bunker-fueled survey ships would generate to carry out the same contract.

To read Saildrone's full carbon impact report, go to https://www.saildrone.com/carbon-impact-report.

In this episode of the In the Know podcast, Capt. Andrew Kinsey, senior marine risk consultant for insurer Allianz, joined The Maritime Executive for a conversation about the biggest hazards facing shipping today. Allianz recently issued its annual report on leading risk factors, and it highlighted dangerous trends that bear watching. The insurer cautions that as ships get bigger, the size and cost of shipping's biggest accidents will rise, as illustrated by the double-ended grounding involving the 20,000 TEU boxship Ever Given in March. The ocean freight industry's persistent challenges with cargo misdeclaration, improper packing and container fires also deserve close scrutiny and enforcement, Capt. Kinsey says. And a new underlying factor - crew fatigue from excessive length of service, driven by the COVID-19 pandemic - is subtly raising the risk of human error aboard vessels of all kinds.

In this episode of The Maritime Executive's podcast series, editor in chief Tony Munoz spoke with four top officers of Coalition Task Force Sentinel (CTF Sentinel), an eight-nation maritime security partnership that guards against malign state-sponsored activity in the Strait of Hormuz, Gulf of Oman, Red Sea and Strait of Bab el-Mandeb, along with all points in between. The organization was created in the wake of the serious maritime security incidents in the Gulf of Oman in 2019, including the suspected limpet mine attacks on tankers in June 2019 and the Iranian seizure of the UK-flagged tanker Stena Impero in September.

Our conversation included Commodore Adrian Fryer of the British Royal Navy, the task force's commander; Lieutenant Commander Dudley Malster of the British Royal Navy, the head of its operations department; Lieutenant Commander Danielle Centeno of the U.S. Navy, its maritime trade officer; and  Lieutenant Commander Charles Banks, the Task Force’s Public Affairs Officer. For more details on CTF Sentinel's mission, listen in.

In this episode of the In the Know podcast, Port Tampa Bay CEO Paul Anderson and Maritime Executive Magazine Editor in Chief Tony Munoz talk about port operations in the COVID-19 era - the challenges, the opportunities and the lessons learned for port executives going forward.

In this episode, TME editor-in-chief Tony Munoz and news editor Paul Benecki spoke with Jennifer Carpenter, the president and CEO of the American Waterways Operators. 2020 was a tumultuous year for America's tug, towboat and barge operators, and 2021 is shaping up to be busy: AWO is helping its members navigate a new administration, COVID-19, Subchapter M, VIDA and more.

Port of Corpus Christi CEO Sean Strawbridge on America's Energy Exports by The Maritime Executive Magazine

In this episode of the In the Know podcast series, Wärtsilä Shaft Line Solutions sales director Panu Sorvisto spoke with The Maritime Executive about Wärtsilä Airguard, a VGP-compliant alternative to using environmentally acceptable lubricants (EALs) in an oil-lubricated bearing. Airguard allows the operator to continue to use petroleum-based lubricants because it eliminates the oil-to-sea interface. 

This conversation is sponsored by Wärtsilä Shaft Line Solutions, an original equipment manufacturer with over 100 years’ experience of designing, manufacturing and servicing shaft line products for the merchant, naval and cruise markets. Wärtsilä Shaft Line Solutions provides products and services for the whole shaft line, from seals and bearings to couplings, stern tubes and condition monitoring systems.

In this episode of In the Know, we're joined by Dr. Jonathan Ward, author of the new book China's Vision of Victory. Dr. Ward is the founder of the Atlas Organization, a consultancy focused on Chinese and Indian national strategy. He has also consulted on geostrategic issues for political risk consultancy Oxford Analytica and for the U.S. Department of Defense. In this telephone conversation, Dr. Ward joined us to talk about China's rise and the key role that the maritime sector plays in its ambitions. For the details, listen in for more.

DNV GL's Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen on Class in the COVID-19 Era by The Maritime Executive Magazine

Port of Corpus Christi CEO Sean Strawbridge On America's Energy Renaissance by The Maritime Executive Magazine