Marine BizTV video awards for 2008 to be declared soon

Its time for another great award ceremony by Marine BizTV.

Mr. Sohan Roy, the CEO of Marine BizTV has announced the second Marine BizTV video awards for the year 2008 to be held on April 29 and 30, 2008 at Kochi, India. The nominees for various awards under various categories will be invited shortly. The award categories are best corporate video, best audio score, best narration, best camera, best directed video, best marine documentary, best graphics, best script, best maritime project, best editing and so on. Apart from this, two special jury awards and a lifetime achievement award for overall contribution will also be given away. The special jury awards were award for marine awareness for children, special award for maritime excellence and lifetime achievement award for maritime contribution. These were handed over for their uniqueness. The award ceremony held last year saw the largest ever convergence of all maritime communities from around the world. The awards are particularly designed to highlight and honor various marine corporate and the outstanding videos they have made.
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US Federal efforts needed to prevent and respond to terrorist attacks on energy commodity tankers

Tankers bring 55 percent of the nation's crude oil supply, as well as liquefied gases and refined products like jet fuel.

This supply chain is potentially vulnerable in many places here and abroad, as borne out by several successful overseas attacks on ships and facilities. The supply chain faces three main types of threats; suicide attacks such as explosive-laden boats, 'standoff' attacks with weapons launched from a distance, and armed assaults. Highly combustible commodities such as liquefied gases have the potential to catch fire or, in a more unlikely scenario, explode, posing a threat to public safety. Attacks could also have environmental consequences, and attacks that disrupt the supply chain could have a severe economic impact. Decisions about the need for more response capabilities are hindered, however, by a lack of performance measures tying resource needs to effectiveness in response.

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Carbon cap and trade ‘not enough’

Capping and trading carbon emissions will not be enough to fight output of the gases blamed for warming the planet, Ken Newcombe, managing director of Goldman Sachs' US carbon emissions desk said.

The cap and trade programmes have huge potential in the US, the world's largest energy consumer. However, the government research and development budgets should also be boosted to complement cap and trade's potential to spur innovations and investments in carbon-cutting techniques. Capturing carbon dioxide emissions at coal and natural gas-burning power plants for permanent burial underground is one unproven technology that is expensive, while other technologies, such as cutting vehicles emissions, may also need research funds. The US Congress is considering several bills that would aim to cut emissions by capping them and creating a market to trade credits representing them. So far, the centre of global climate trade has been based in Europe, which ratified the Kyoto Protocol and set up mandatory emissions trade. Billions of dollars worth of emissions credits have traded hands in Europe, but red tape has also delayed trade in carbon offsets, or investments in emissions reductions in developing countries.

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Container terminal set for expansion

The Jakarta International Container Terminal (JICT) will expand its 72-hectare container yard by 12.4 hectares to increase its storage capacity by 57 percent to 55,000 ton equivalent units.

The leading container terminal at Tanjung Priok port in North Jakarta will also procure some capacity handling equipment, build a road access to the unfinished Jakarta outer ring road and add its existing four entrance gates by 24 and its four exit gates by four with a total investment of US$150 million. JICT was targeting to handle a total of two million TEUs this year from 1.8 million TEUs handled last year. After the completion of the expansion, the company would be able to serve three million TEUs per year. This terminal is aimed to keep up with the growing demands in the future and to become a world-class container terminal. JICT is a joint venture company owned 51 percent by Hutchinson Port Holdings and 49 percent by state-owned company PT Pelabuhan Indonesia (Pelindo) II and the maritime employees cooperative. Up to 60 percent of import-export, activities in the country are carried out through the Tanjung Priok port.
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Australia to help resolve whaling standoff

Australia offered to help resolve a two-day standoff between Japanese whalers and protesters who climbed aboard a harpoon boat in frigid Antarctic waters by sending an Australian vessel to pick the activists up.

The proposed assistance — which would allow a resumption of Japan’s interrupted whale hunt as well as the harassment activities of its staunchest opponents — underscores the high stakes contest fought each year in the remote and dangerous seas at the far south of the world. Australia would send a ship to pick up the two activists from the anti-whaling group the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society who have been on the Japanese harpoon boat Yushin Maru 2 since they leaped aboard uninvited. The Australian boat would then return the activists to a Sea Shepherd ship, the Steve Irwin. Japan put its hunt on hold after Australian Benjamin Potts (28) and Giles Lane (35) of Britain jumped from a rubber boat onto the Japanese ship’s deck after a high-speed chase.

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