News

The 'Silver Ray', which was on a return leg to Fort Lauderdale, was coping with an outbreak of a gastrointestinal illness that affected 5.5% of guests, and will undergo a “super-sanitizing” upon the return to Port Everglades. The ship has 681 passengers onboard. Cruise ships are required to notify the CDC if more than 3% of guests or crew members report symptoms. The 'Silver Ray’s 16-night cruise to Lima, Peru, began on Jan 5, 2025, calling at ports in Ecuador, Columbia, and Aruba, and transiting the Panama Canal. The ship has already intensified cleaning and sanitizing methods, which appears to have limited the spread of the illness, but Silversea will bring a special cleaning crew onboard upon arrival at Port Everglades. As a result of the enhanced cleaning, the embarkation for the next voyage, departing on Jan 20, will be delayed until 4 p.m. The all-aboard time is 6 p.m.

The 'Mermar', which has become subject to new U.S. sanctions, docked at the port of Longkou in Yantai on Jan 5, 2025,and started unloading Russian oil at a port operated by Shandong Port Group. The tanker became the first to do so in Shandong province since the penalties were announced. The vessel was carrying 80,000 metric tons (600,000 barrels) of Russian ESPO Blend crude, which was loaded on Jan 6 in the Port of Kozmino on Russia's east coast. The area is home to multiple independent Chinese refineries, which have been major importers of Russian crude. Industry officials will be closely watching the situation, eager to see how rigorously the measures will be enforced. The sanctions include a grace period exempting cargoes loaded before Jan. 10 and unloaded before March 12, but the industry halted some shipments while it assessed their risks. The US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said the 'Mermar' had called at a Russian port where oil has consistently traded well above the $60 price cap imposed by the West to try to curb Russia's oil revenues. The tanker is part of the shadow fleet that Russia has so far used to circumvent sanctions. Its registered owner, the Merluza Group, has also been subject to restrictions under the new measures. The vessel is managed by Hong Kong-based Ocean Anemone Shipmanagement and insured by Russia-based Balance Insurance. The ship had insurance coverage from New Zealand's Maritime Mutual until May 2025, but changed insurers in November 2024,. Before the announcement of the US sanctions, the Shandong Port Group had banned US-sanctioned tankers from calling at its ports in the eastern Chinese province. The list of 183 US-sanctioned vessels includes 68 ships registered under the Panama flag. In this regard, the Maritime Authority of Panama (AMP) reported that it began to cancel the registrations of those vessels identified by the OFAC.

The scheduled call of the “Norwegian Star”at the Piedra Buena dock in Puerto Madryn on Jan 16, 2025, at around 6 a.m. advanced to Jan 15 at midnight due to a passenger's health problem which required urgent medical attention. Given this situation, the action protocolwas activated to facilitate the care that the condition required. The planning outlined for the visit of the “Norwegian Star”, including the excursions that were carried out in the usual way, and at the times that were already assigned, remained unaffected. The shipcast off at 4 p.m. to continue its journey north, where it will end the trip that began last week.

The 'Life Star' has been detained in the port of Fos-sur-mèr by the Dirm Méditerranée ship security center on Jan 14, 2025. The deficiencies noted by the Port State Control inspectors were not known at this stage. The vessel, which arrived in Fos on Jan 13 from the Lebanese port of Chekka, is moored at Fluxel berth 0, which accommodates small oil tankers.

The 'Vasiliy Shuksin' loitered above undersea communication cables in the Pacific for weeks, as concerns were growing over potential Russian sabotage. The vessel had left the port of Vostochnyy on Dec 8, 2024, and stopped for a short period of time in South Korea, before it loitered off Taiwan's coast on Dec 19 amid growing fears among NATO members that the Russian President Vladimir Putin could target underwater cables and critical infrastructure that are vital to global communication systems. The vessel was aimlessly criss-crossing the area near Taiwan's Fangshan undersea cable landing station for 3,5 weeks for no apparent reason, before returning to Russia on the morning of Jan 14. The Taiwan Coastguard continued to monitor the situation.The vessel began its return to Russia a day after Ray Powell, director of the Stanford University-affiliated maritime analyst group SeaLight, initially raised the alarm about its activities. The ship, however, did not head southward to Vietnam as it previously self-reported, but straight back north to its home port of Vostochnyy. It has sailed 3,000 kilometers to loiter off southwest Taiwan for 3.5 weeks, without seeking to enter any Taiwan port and for no apparent reason, before returning to Russia. Report with photos: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/a-russian-ship-loitered-over-undersea-cables-for-weeks-in-the-pacific-what-it-means-7477149