Thursday, August 20, 2026
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bulker on fire after attack

Russia and Ukraine Continue Targeting Shipping with Claims of Nine Strikes

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Indonesia drug arrest

Indonesia Makes 2.6 Ton Drug Bust on Tanzanian Ship with False ID

Published Aug 19, 2026 7:14 PM by The Maritime Executive

Indonesian authorities are reporting one of their largest ever drug busts, completed on Monday night, August 17, on a small general cargo ship coming from Malaysia and suspected of operating under a false ID. They took 10 people, all Myanmar nationals, who were aboard the ship into custody and seized the vessel for further inspection. The authorities reported they were acting on intelligence and formed a joint operation with customs to intercept the vessel while it was in the waters...

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NightTrain

Drawing on LASH Heritage, BlackSea Builds Carrier for Floating ISO Boxes

Published Aug 19, 2026 7:03 PM by The Maritime Executive

The American autonomous-boat builder Blacksea Technologies has reinvented the Cold War concept of the Lighter Aboard Ship (LASH) vessel, reduced its scale and applied it to contested logistics. Its new autonomous-vessel design, NightTrain, retains the core concept of a self-lightering vessel for shallow-water deliveries, but it is built to carry watertight, floating ISO containers in place of 40-tonne barges. The LASH idea was developed in the 1960s as an alternative to containerized freight and breakbulk. A militarized variant, the Cape...

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Finnish icebreaker design

Finland Selects Helsinki Shipyard to Build First Next-Generation Icebreaker

Published Aug 19, 2026 6:33 PM by The Maritime Executive

The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency selected Helsinki Shipyard to build the first of its new generation of icebreakers. The yard, which is already building large icebreakers for the United States and Canada, won a shipyard competition for the project to replace the world’s oldest active icebreaker, Voima, which Finland commissioned in 1954. The authority reported in early 2025 that it had completed the design process for the new vessel, which had to be able to handle the harsh conditions in...

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offshore oil and gas services

Malaysia’s ALAM Maritim CEO Briefly Detained in Corruption Investigation

Published Aug 19, 2026 4:54 PM by The Maritime Executive

Malaysia’s offshore services firm for the oil and gas industry, ALAM Maritim Resources, confirmed reports that its CEO was briefly remanded earlier this week by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission as part of an ongoing investigation. The company said that Datuk Azmi has resumed all executive roles and leadership responsibilities and that the day-to-day business operations, financial position, and strategic government remain stable and unaffected. The company reported in a stock exchange filing on Monday, August 17, that its Group Managing...

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Offshore

The South African lease area covered part of the Orange Basin, a geological region where Shell has had success on the Namibian side of the boundary line, above (Press handout courtesy Odfjell)

Top Court Ends Shell's South African Wild Coast Offshore Lease

Last Friday, oil major Shell lost a long-running court battle over its offshore oil and gas exploration plans for a frontier region off South Africa's "Wild Coast," an unspoiled stretch of coastline that provides habitat for migrating humpback whales. Environmental groups (including Greenpeace) began suing Shell back in 2021 in an attempt to stop seismic surveying off the Wild Coast, asserting that it would be harmful to whales and to commercial fishermen. Shell countered that its plans were compliant with...

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Shipbuilding

NightTrain

Drawing on LASH Heritage, BlackSea Builds Carrier for Floating ISO Boxes

The American autonomous-boat builder Blacksea Technologies has reinvented the Cold War concept of the Lighter Aboard Ship (LASH) vessel, reduced its scale and applied it to contested logistics. Its new autonomous-vessel design, NightTrain, retains the core concept of a self-lightering vessel for shallow-water deliveries, but it is built to carry watertight, floating ISO containers in place of 40-tonne barges. The LASH idea was developed in the 1960s as an alternative to containerized freight and breakbulk. A militarized variant, the Cape...

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Environment

Clear offender: a Chinese distant-water fishing vessel caught with illegal drift net gear at a position off Japan, 2008 (USCG file image)

Study: Wealthy Countries Fuel Illegal Fishing in Poor Countries

Consumers in wealthy nations are fueling a rampant illegal fishing trade that has become a multibillion-dollar industry, and the majority of the catch originates in the waters of poor countries, according to a comprehensive study from Canada’s University of British Columbia. Fishing is a socioeconomic lifeline for most coastal communities across the globe, with about 3.5 million fishing vessels plying the world’s oceans, providing livelihoods and food for millions. But the world seems to have resigned itself to being unable...

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Business

offshore oil and gas services

Malaysia’s ALAM Maritim CEO Briefly Detained in Corruption Investigation

Malaysia’s offshore services firm for the oil and gas industry, ALAM Maritim Resources, confirmed reports that its CEO was briefly remanded earlier this week by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission as part of an ongoing investigation. The company said that Datuk Azmi has resumed all executive roles and leadership responsibilities and that the day-to-day business operations, financial position, and strategic government remain stable and unaffected. The company reported in a stock exchange filing on Monday, August 17, that its Group Managing...

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