Mediterranean rescuers accuse Europe of 'leaving migrants to drown'

From CNN by Barbie Latza Nadeau

Calm seas, desperate migrants and ruthless human traffickers all played a role in a record-breaking weekend of maritime rescues in the Mediterranean Sea between Italy and Libya.
But even as the rescue vessels race against time to save lives, another battle is brewing with accusations from the European Union's border control agency Frontex against nongovernmental organizations like Doctors Without Borders and the Mobile Offshore Aid Station, or MOAS, that run so-called charity rescue ships.



Frontex says the charity rescue vessels create a pull factor for migrants and traffickers; the NGOs say they are out there in the absence of an EU strategy to save lives at sea and a lack of initiative to provide a safe corridor option for migration and asylum.

 Here is a map of Frontex’s patrol area compared to where the shipwrecks happen.

source : Frontex Triton Analytical Report December 2016

On Sunday evening in Italy, the Italian Coast Guard estimated the number of those rescued since Friday was approaching 7,000, though that number will surely grow as a steady stream of rubber dinghies and rickety wooden fishing vessels were still being spotted off the coast of Libya.
At least 20 cadavers, including that of an 8-year-old boy recovered during rescue operations, were also brought to Sicily and the Italian mainland with the survivors.

The migrants and refugees were rescued by Italian Coast Guard boats, passing merchant ships and more than a dozen NGO charity ships that have filled the vacuum created when Italy's Mare Nostrum search and rescue program ended in 2014 because of budget concerns.
The Mare Nostrum project cost Italian taxpayers €9 million ($9.5 million) a month, according to the Italian Navy.
The charity ships, which rely on donations, have estimated operating costs of around €11,000 ($11,666) a day, charities say.

European authorities and charity ships face a daunting task.
Since the beginning of the year, 32,750 migrants and refugees have arrived on European shores, not including those rescued this weekend, according to UNHCR. In 2016, the total number topped 355,000.
Frontex has two programs at sea.
The Sophia program is designed to destroy smuggler's ships after rescues are complete and to train the Libyan Coast Guard to stop boats from leaving.
The Triton program enlists member states to provide assets for search and rescue operations.
Over the busy weekend, Frontex says the Norwegian Siem Pilot, currently on rotation for Frontex's Triton program, rescued more than 500 of the nearly 7,000 people pulled to safety.

In March, Italian prosecutor Carmelo Zuccaro from Catania launched an investigation into the funding of the charity ships, essentially accusing them of colluding with the traffickers.
"I am convinced that it is not always the operational center that calls on the NGOs," he told a parliamentary committee in Rome in March.
"We also need to investigate the evolution of the phenomenon and find out why there has been such a noted proliferation of these ships and how they deal with such high operational costs without having a return in terms of economic profit."
No charges have been filed but Zuccaro told CNN he would seek to sequester the charity ships if he found just cause to do so.
The NGOs have accused Zuccaro of starting the investigation on behalf of Frontex as an attempt to remove them from the sea.
Zuccaro says he is not acting on behalf of Frontex, but that he is concerned that the rescue vessels are creating an open border into Europe as thousands of irregular migrants reach Italy each year.
With this weekend's rescues, the number to reach Europe this year so far has topped 40,000, according to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
When reached for comment about Zuccaro's legal case, Frontex did not provide a comment.
The NGOs, on the other hand, have not minced words.

"We are surprised at the timing of these allegations, more than a year after we and others have been in service," said Sophie Beau, co-founder and vice-president of SOS Mediterranee, which runs the Aquarius rescue boat together with Doctors Without Borders.
"We know exactly what will happen if we are not out there. More people will die. We know we need to be out there, we have to be out there."
In a press release, MOAS co-founder and director Regina Catrambone agreed.
"Every day people continue to risk their lives while we, as civil society, stand witness. We must continue to call on European governments to act so that people, such as those rescued by us today, do not die, not in Libya nor in the Mediterranean Sea."

Those frustrations are echoed by the other NGOs, with many of the rescue operators tweeting accusations directly against the European Union and Frontex.
Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, tweeted, "EU 'leaving migrants to drown' say rescuers who saved 2,000 in single day."
And "How many lives could have been saved in the last two years if the #EU had conducted a proactive search and rescue operation? #WhereIsFRONTEX"

Two of the charity ships, each filled beyond capacity after rescuing scores of migrants from rubber dinghies and unseaworthy wooden fishing vessels, made May Day calls to the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center run by the Italian Coast Guard in Rome to ask for assistance on Sunday.
The Iuventa rescue ship operated by the German NGO Jugend Rettet reported navigational failure under the weight of the migrants and the German NGO Sea Eye also reported difficulty due to overcrowding.
"#Iuventa and @seaeyeorg are unable to move due to the high amount of people on board and nearby us in rubber boats!
We need help by #MRCC" the Jugend Rettet tweeted.
It reported having as many as seven pregnant women on board.
Italian Coast Guard confirmed that vessels were headed to the area to assist offloading some of the migrants.

MOAS also tweeted messages about its rescue ship Phoenix after spending the night watching a number of packed rubber dinghies whose passengers the ship was unable to assist because of its own overcrowding.
"Hour 40 of ongoing rescues & crisis management for #Phoenix crew.
They are still waiting for help to arrive; and we have lost all words #Med"
The voice that is often missing from the discussion is often that of the migrants themselves. On Sunday, 649 people rescued in a number of operations by the MSF Prudence arrived in Reggio Calabria.
Among them were men with gunshot wounds from traffickers and women who were tortured, according to rescuers at the scene.
At the port, a group of teenage Nigerian boys who had arrived as unaccompanied minors by way of sea rescues earlier this year waited at the shore to see if their missing family members were among the arrivals.

 Alireza Pakdel, Grand Prix of the World Press Cartoon, Lisbonne, 2017

When asked if the charity boats made a difference in their decision to make the dangerous crossing, they had no idea what was meant by the question.
"The gun to my head made the difference," a young man called Caleb said after describing how he was forced onto a rubber dinghy late one night and losing sight of his father.
"We don't have a lot of choices. We are just lucky we got out of Libya alive."

Links :

• CNN : Rescuers battle rough seas to save hundreds of stranded migrants
• The Guardian : NGO rescues off Libya encourage traffickers, says EU borders chief
• The Intercept : Abandoned at sea / New evidence undermines EU report tying refugee rescue group to smugglers /  
• IBTimes : More than 100 migrants feared dead crossing Mediterranean, 2,000 rescued
• RT : German boat sends out SOS after taking on too many migrants in Mediterranean
• The Economist : Merciless sea, the number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean keeps rising
• DailyMotion : Fishers of men 
• GeoGarage blog :2016 deadliest year in the Mediterranean / Mediterranean migrant deaths reach record level in 2016 / Fire at sea (trailer) : shows horror of refugee crossings / A wintry sea seems a safer bet than life at home for ... / Refugee rescue app pulled from App Store after it is ... / European Union authorizes military action against people ... / Migrants can't be left to die in the seas of Europe / SAR crisis in the Mediterranean – commercial vessels ... / The millionaires who rescue people at sea / Lampedusa, the Italian Island thousands are dying to reach /

Dramatic footage of free diver and killer whales in the Arctic

Dramatic footage of free diver and killer whales in the Arctic. from buendiaphotography.com

During the shooting of a documentary in arctic Norway, we got up close and personal with killer whales.

Rather than ferocious killers, orcas are gentle and inquisitive, at least when it comes to human encounters.

Hundreds of orcas and humpback whales gathers in the Tromsø region in the period of November to January, to feed on the overwintering herring.
This one minute video resumes what the photographer and filmmaker David Gonzalez Buendia (buendiaphotography.com) captured in one single week, in the making of a documentary about orcas in the wild using the expedition sailing vessel Barba as a platform.

1st European contact with Easter Isle

Jacob Roggeveen (1659 – 1729) was a Dutch explorer who was sent to find Terra Australis, but he instead came across Easter Island (called Easter Island because he landed there on Easter Day).
Jacob Roggeveen also encountered Bora Bora and Maupiti of the Society Islands and Samoa. 

Jacob Roggeveen and the Easter Island

(see SciHi blog)

 5 April, Easter Sunday, 1722 by Dutchman Roggeveen
Isla de Pascua (named 'isla de San Carlos') de la expedición de González Ahedo en 1770
map from State Library of NSW
 Somaglia collection of manuscript sea charts of the Pacific Ocean and South America, highlighting the Spanish expeditions to colonise Easter Island and Tahiti / [Joseph de la Somaglia, collector] ; Joseph Manuel de Moraledo, Juan de Hervé, Joseph Camacho y Brenes, Joseph Francisco Badaraco, Thomas López y Chaves [cartographers]

Plan of Isla de San Carlos, discovered on the 15th of November 1770, by el capitán de fragata Don Felipe Gonzáles de Aedo

source : Memoria Chilena

Log of the Resolution 1772-1775 Easter Island
UK National archive

 Rapa Nui
The Moai of Easter Island

Easter island today in the GeoGarage platform (UKHO chart)

 Isla de Pascua o Rapa - Nui [material cartográfico]
by el Instituto Hidrográfico de la Armada de Chile

Easter Island, captured by Sentinel-2A a few days ago, on 7 April 2017.
Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui, is a Chilean island in the south-eastern Pacific Ocean, at the south-easternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle, and it is also one of the most remote inhabited places in the world.

Copyright: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2017),

processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.
see also NASA picture

Links :

• YouTube : Expedition to Easter island / The Hidden Secret of the Statues on Easter Island
• David Rumsey collection : La Perouse, Jean-Francois,  Easter Island. 1799. Exploration Book. / other (Princeton Univ)/ others / other  

ESA helps faster cleaner shipping

Ocean-surface currents

From ESA

With around 90% of world trade carried by ships, making sure a vessel follows the fastest route has clear economic benefits.
By merging measurements from different satellites, ESA is providing key information on ocean currents, which is not only making shipping more efficient but is also helping to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Globcurrent data set - Ocean dynamics 2.0

Shipping companies forecast ocean currents down to a depth of about 15 m to route their vessels through favourable currents and avoid those that might hinder a voyage.
Reliable forecasts are essential for making sure that goods arrive on time and that ships use as little fuel as possible.
The problem is that forecasts might not always be accurate.

Globcurrent V1 (2015): 

Geostrophic + Ekman @ 15m depth overlaid over ODYSSEA Sea Surface Temperature

Combining satellite measurements such as sea-surface height and temperature, surface winds and gravity, along with measurements taken in situ, can yield a unique view of ocean-surface circulation.

ESA’s Globcurrent project has merged measurements to build a picture of daily global ocean surface currents over the last 24 years.
Shipping companies can use this information to understand general circulation characteristics of particular regions.
Building on Globcurrent, a near-realtime product would then allow them to choose the most reliable forecast for a given time and location.

Based in Marseille, France, CGM-CMA is a leading worldwide shipping company.

Through more than 200 shipping lines, the company operates on every one of the world’s seas.

The company is using satellite data from ESA’s Globcurrent project to optimise shipping routes.

Ocean scientists therefore teamed up with CGM-CMA, a worldwide shipping group, to optimise routing using Globcurrent data.

Fabrice Collard from Ocean Data Laboratory said, “The lack of confidence in ocean-circulation models has hindered ship routing.
“Today, Globcurrent can help assess which forecast products are the most reliable for a given local area. This, in turn, helps shipping companies choose a particular route that would make use of favourable currents.”

Ship track overlaid on a sea-surface temperature map from ESA’s Medspiration project and surface current streamlines from ESA Globcurrent project.

Patrice Bara from CGM-CMA remarked, “Reducing container vessel fuel consumption is an important challenge, especially when trying to cut down on emissions that contribute to global warming.
“Based on our experience with the Europe–Asia route, using existing ocean forecast products gives us a 0.4% cost saving. However, Globcurrent could help us achieve savings of up to 1.2% on fuel consumption.
“It is extremely important for us to assess the reliability of model forecasts against Globcurrent products in near-real time and to achieve our first target of reducing emissions of carbon dioxide by 180 000 tonnes a year.”

The western Mediterranean Sea has a variety of features that can be used to optimise ship routing.

Part of the challenge is to extract high-level features of interest such as water-type boundary fronts and significant currents of interest for a particular ship voyage.

This image shows sea-surface temperature overlaid with Globcurrent streamlines.

The white broken line shows the planned passage of a ship that takes advantage of ocean-surface currents.

Craig Donlon, ESA ocean scientist, added, “The importance of ocean surface currents cannot be overstated for those working on the ocean.
“Helping European industry to fine-tune their ship routing operations with Globcurrent brings not only financial savings but also the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“Now Globcurrent has been demonstrated, the operational generation of products will be transferred to the Copernicus Marine Environmental Monitoring Service in the coming months.
“ESA will continue the fundamental task of scientific research and development to maintain and evolve the new system to take full benefit of the Copernicus Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 satellites, and in the future Sentinel-6.”

Links :

• GeoGarage blog : The Messina Rise cortex 
• YouTube : Overview of the ESA-funded GlobCurrent project

Your ship has probably been cyber attacked

From eMaritimeGroup by George Ward

You have either been hacked... or just didn’t know you have been hacked.

I predict that the first catastrophic maritime cyber incident will not be the result of a direct attack on a safety critical specific piece of equipment.
It will be the result of an infection on a random PC, perhaps an unassuming email to a crew member, whose PC is either connected to the vessels internal super highway or he transmits the infection internally whilst it lies dormant.
Crypto locker, or Ransomware software (used by thousands of hackers), are easily available to download on the dark web, neither of which may necessarily attack the equipment they infect; they can lie dormant and infect connected equipment when nobody expects.
You have been warned.

 With the increasing use of systems with embedded software on ships and mobile offshore platforms, cyber security is becoming critical not only for data protection, but also for reliable operations.

Information security agencies are reporting that up to 97% of the attacks are actually consisting of tricking users via social engineering techniques.

To address this awareness risk, DNV GL’s Maritime Academy developed an e-learning course for your crews and shore staff to raise awareness concerning cyber security, about threats and countermeasures, addressing your cyber security management system by encouraging the crew’s good cyber hygiene.

You will learn to understand the importance of your Cyber Security role as a user of IT & OT (Operational Technology) systems and how to protect yourself and your organisation against cyber security threats.

Cyber-attack is the current buzzword, known by some as an industry killer and even as the potential cause of the next world war, but thought by others to be a myth.
So where does the maritime industry stand in all of this?

In the main, but certainly not universally, the maritime industry has a dismal record in its slow and painful transition from paper and analogue methods of shipping to new innovative technologies when compared to industry rivals like aviation.
But why is this, and how could it affect cyber security in the maritime arena?
Or have some seafarers not even evolved enough to be talking about it yet, let alone implementing new cyber procedures on board ship.
We have all met “that Captain” who is nervous about the machines on his ship.

While the maritime industry doesn’t seem to have been strategically targeted in terms of the vessels themselves, there is now plenty of talk of accidental or naive seafarers accepting a generic phishing email that goes on to attack their computers.

Major corporations like Google and Yahoo have release statements stating they were deliberately hacked.
The question is what will be first for the maritime industry, the deliberate or strategic hacking of an individual ship, or the shipping corporation as a whole.
There has been a call for cyber specialists to come and give answers to the potentially very real dangers facing the industry that could not only damage reputations, but cause disruption to trade worth billions of pounds to the industry.
Not all is lost though, as long as we can move the industry forward to cope with the digital world we live in today.

Cyber security was a hot topic in 2016 – however now we are in 2017, and the seafaring community are becoming more aware of what can potentially happen.
There is a real threat for cyber activists to start gaining and changing sensitive shipping data from our onboard equipment.
Such as changing the vessels route to cause a grounding, gaining access to digitally controlled engine rooms and causing alarm mute whilst an engine fails or even catches fire due to a manual overload by the hacker.

With more and more companies looking for insight into how to stop attacks from occurring, the main area of concern is the lack of security awareness by both companies and employees as they have been taken aback by the swift rise in the industry’s threat level from cyber security; almost nonexistent just a few years ago to today’s high alert.
It is expected that shipping companies and independent vessels could be next on the list for major cybercrime activity as it is as yet mainly unexplored territory for hackers who are only now starting to realize its huge potential as a target.
Attacks now have the capability to obtain sensitive ECDIS, AIS and GPS data, to name but a few, so it is vital that the correct procedures and processes are in place to stop the worst from happening.

see a live attack on standard maritime equipment

The scary part; 51 percent of U.S. adults suffered some kind of data security incident between December 2015 and December 2016.
In 2015 there were 781 reported major company data breaches in the U.S. alone due to cyber-attacks which combined cost companies $400 billion.
These are only the reported data breaches. Sadly there is often an element of sweeping under the carpet in all industries.
This total will continue to rise if the maritime industry, where the proportion of those of digital native age is far lower, do not adapt to ever changing technology and the major security threats it brings with it.
Overall, the predicted cost of cyber-attacks in 2019 is estimated at a colossal $2.1 trillion.

The issue, alongside a lack of awareness by employees and users of operating systems, is the development speed of technology.
This digital age of super computers, 4D printing and nano technology is like no other and is proving to be self-accelerating, i.e. one technology is put into operation while the next generation, more powerful and innovative, is being produced, thereby creating an always expanding, developing and aggressive cycle.
But, due to the speed of production, this process can lead to an unstable, unsecure and untrusted platform, as it is not able to keep up with ever changing threats.
After years of this development, technology companies are starting to adapt to the issue by developing and applying software updates weekly which try to manage security flaws within the software, while changes to future developments can help manage the constantly increasing cyber-crime threat; until the next global threat takes place or takes over.

Some maritime software manufacturers have used a physical security method of locking out their systems in order to intercept physical security threats altogether, however this ironically increasing the complication of applying security software updates.
This restriction can complicate a shipping company’s decision to have an integrated bridge system due to issues with syncing and communication between different software manufacturers, also meaning only specialized engineers and trained software technicians are allowed to apply updates, causing additional issues.
Restrictions like these could mean that your system is 80 percent more susceptible to cyber threats.

First off, the solution is simple; but it will cost you, which no one likes to do unless it’s necessary. Only some companies feel that cyber security is important enough to invest into it.
Nevertheless you will watch multiple companies become complacent and unconcerned about the real threat in the water, until it becomes a reality, and the organization comes grinding to a halt.
In reality, if you spend as much on coffee as you do on cyber security measures, you will be hacked.
It is alleged that almost every company in the World has already been hacked, or if not, will be soon.
FBI director James Comey had the following to say on Chinese hackers: “There are two kinds of big companies in the United States. There are those who've been hacked by the Chinese and those who don't know they've been hacked by the Chinese.”

This is the world as it is and therefore we need to change with it, not be 10 steps behind.
First, we know the industry is struggling from sector to sector, but cyber attacks will only make it worse, so the first move is ensuring everybody is educated in cyber security awareness.
Preferably starting from the top and working down so the entire seafaring community can spot a cyber-attack and know what action to take in response.
Experienced educational companies (such as ECDIS Ltd, DNV GL, Maritime Training, NCC Group, JWC Int.) exist that offer in-depth, classroom based courses in the subject of cyber security.

Crewless ships might be the target of cyberattacks
Platform supply vessels – Autonomy means more potential routes for infection

(Courtesy of Rolls-Royce)

Countless companies are missing the correct procedures when it comes to security.
A robust IT security policy is highly recommended, as this allows employees and users of all IT equipment to be clear as to how company data and information should be used on IT equipment.
It’s not just small companies either that struggle in this war against cyber activists.
Large corporations are also at major exposure risk, primarily due to not having a dedicated IT and security team.
It is recommended that a company appoints a cyber security chief to implement and respond to all cyber security related issues or system flaws that may be found.
This is so one person has ultimate responsibility for implementing and maintaining all cyber security measures within the company thus ensuring consistency of approach.

Cyber security attacks are incorrectly thought of as attacks that occur just over the internet due to the wrong security measures being taken; however lack of physical security can also be a major factor in the cause of industry changing attacks.
During the twentieth century a majority of attacks occur due to people not taking the correct measures to keep our IT equipment safe, another reason why we need everyone to be aware of what’s coming.
It really is as easy as someone to come into your reception and ask you to print off a copy of their CV from a USB stick, which is actually infected with multiple viruses, this could ultimately allow someone else complete control of your businesses entire network and therefore most likely, thereby destroying it.

In summary, cyber security isn’t an issue we can ignore, it may not be heard of yet as giving direct threats towards our vessels but this will come in time when noticed by any cybercrime activists who either want to damage the industry or cause major damage to infrastructure or even human life.
It can be averted.
Many, if not all, shipping companies have some form of internal networked server that allows for all of their computers to communicate and send and save files between them, and therefore also connect to the internet, so with the improper procedures in place it could be easy for anyone keen to infect an auxiliary piece of equipment that connects to the primary.
Think of the random software updates that happen every day, for example to an engine room sensor test, or to the bridges digital anemometer that may appear non safety critical, but they are connected to safety critical systems.
We often concentrate and develop robust procedures purely for the few safety critical pieces of equipment, but the attack will take place on a tertiary system that is connected to it.

Links :

• PassengerShip : Cyber aware, but cyber prepared?
• Edgylabs : U.S. Navy asked you to “Hack our ship,” strengthens Cyber Defense
• Matine Electr. & Com : Shipping unprepared for five stages of a cyber attack / Cyber incidents in shipping much more prevalent than expected  
• NauticExpo : Crewless Ships—the Dangers of Cybercrime
• The Diplomat : Cyber Threats to Navy and Merchant Shipping in the Persian Gulf
• Marsh : The risk of Cyber-attack to the maitime sector 
• Safety4Sea : Maritime Cyber Security White Paper
• GeoGarage blog : Combatting maritime cyber security threats