2/15/2023 0 Comments Ships waiting to port mapOur ability to quantify the extent of human activities modifying the seafloor and therefore measure the severity of the impact to marine ecosystems is limited by a paucity of high-resolution bathymetry data 11, 35, 36. The impact of anchoring may be an unreported but significant contributor to the environmental footprint of the shipping industry which already includes the spread of invasive species, the production of greenhouse gas emissions, as well as air, water, and noise pollution 11, 34. Although anchoring practices are limited to a narrower and shallower depth range (10–80 m water depth) than most bottom trawlers, they occur more frequently and more intensely (deeper seabed penetration). Like bottom trawling, the ecological and biological impacts of anchoring is a function of the footprint of equipment type used, the seabed substrate 28, 30, the frequency of anchoring practices and the ecosystem resilience 26, 31, 32, 33. Bottom trawling can modify seafloor topography 22, destroy benthic habitats 20, 27 and modify ecosystem processes 28, 29. The physical footprint of anchoring is likened to that of bottom trawling, the most widespread human impact on global continental shelves 20, 25, 26. Physical damage to the seabed by ship anchors is increasingly considered a threat to the health of benthic communities 11, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, due to physical destruction and associated changes in sediment type and ecosystem function 24. Concomitant anchorage use is becoming a more dominant, but unreported and unquantified, impact of the shipping industry on the global seabed 15. The global pandemic has shone a spotlight on surging marine port congestion 1, 13, 14. The short-term deployment of anchors has been referred to as a “hidden cost” of the shipping industry 11 due to the associated, and mostly unaccounted for, seabed damage 11, 12. While the economic fallout of the pandemic on the global shipping industry is well reported 1, 8, 9, 10, the associated environmental impacts due to intensifying anchorage use have been little considered. Marine ports around the world have been experiencing unprecedented bottlenecks in traffic, with no relief in sight 6, 7. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of ships have been reported waiting on anchor outside heavily congested ports 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. As seaborne trade is projected to quadruple by 2050, the poorly constrained impacts of anchoring must be considered to avoid irreversible damage to marine habitats. Seafloor damage due to anchoring has far-reaching implications for already stressed marine ecosystems and carbon cycling. Scaled-up globally, this provides the first estimates of the footprint of anchoring to the coastal seabed, worldwide. The calcuated volume of sediment displaced by one high-tonnage ship (> 9000 Gross Tonnage) on anchor can reach 2800 m 3. We present the first characterisation of the footprint and extent of anchoring in a low congestion port in New Zealand-Aotearoa, demonstrating that high-tonnage ship anchors excavate the seabed by up to 80 cm, with the impacts preserved for at least 4 years. Intensified by the pandemic, the commonplace anchoring of high-tonnage ships causes a substantial geomorphologial footprint on the seabed outside marine ports globally, but isn’t yet quantified. There did not appear to be any direct guidance to hold up cargoes, but some customs departments were waiting until they had received official instructions from the central government on whether to start collecting the hefty new import tariffs on hundreds of products, the sources said.With the COVID-19 pandemic came what media has deemed the “port congestion pandemic”. imports through customs, said an official at a company in the coastal city, which handles customs clearance for importers. The port of Shanghai had put on hold clearing some U.S. products worth a similar amount, including soybeans, pork and cotton, but it had not officially confirmed on Friday that they had taken effect. News of the hold-ups came as Washington imposed tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese imports from 0401 GMT on Friday.īeijing had said it would retaliate with punitive measures on U.S. Some major Chinese ports delayed clearing goods from the United States on Friday, four sources said, potentially disrupting imports worth billions of dollars as the world’s top two economies head towards an outright trade war.
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