Ukraine, 34 other countries and the European Commission have asked the IMO Council, meeting in London this week, to condemn attacks on ships and ports around Odesa in the north-western Black Sea. Ukrainian figures show 23 seafarers and maritime workers were killed in July 2026 alone.
Australia has completed its first green ammonia bunkering at Port Hedland in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, on the Indian Ocean coast. A two-hour ship-to-ship transfer on 2 November fuelled the 300-metre Mineral Europa, described as the world’s first ammonia-powered bulk carrier, before it loaded iron ore for China.
New Zealand’s Transport Accident Investigation Commission has published its report on a May 2025 boiler blowback aboard a Malta-flagged bulk carrier berthed at Bluff, on the South Island. Three engine-room crew were injured while air-lancing soot. Investigators found equipment faults, soot build-up, missing face protection and fatigue.
Russia’s Ministry of Transport has put forward a draft law that would bar foreign-flagged ships over 40 years old and Russian ships over 50 from its seaports. Foreign ships over 30 would need yearly checks by the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping. The draft is open for public consultation.
Somali pirates have hijacked the Iranian fishing vessel Azini about 185 nautical miles east of Bandarbayla, off Somalia’s Puntland coast. EU naval forces warn the ship, with 21 Iranian fishermen and two Somali guards on board, could be used as a mothership to attack merchant vessels.
The UAE-owned offshore tug Selat Storm was hit by a projectile in the Strait of Hormuz, north-west of Oman’s Musandam Peninsula, on 1 November. A passing ship relayed its mayday, and a security firm said it was partially sinking. The condition of the crew has not yet been reported.
US Central Command chief Admiral Brad Cooper says the main shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz, between Iran and Oman, have been cleared of Iranian sea mines. Iran’s IRGC rejects the claim, and ships were still being attacked in the area the same week.
Japanese classification society ClassNK has released the second edition of its Guidelines for Cyber Security Management System for Ships. Rebuilt around ISO/IEC 27001 and 27002, it sets clear audit criteria and maps them to vetting schemes such as SIRE 2.0, RISQ, TMSA and DryBMS.
Three people, including an Indian national, are now confirmed dead and two remain missing after the Prospector 5 jack-up rig sank off Mayumba, Gabon, in the Gulf of Guinea. Gabon has ordered a technical investigation into the rig’s stability during preload operations.
The Tanzanian-flagged cargo ship AS Dream sank on the evening of 30 October about 90 nautical miles west of Paphos, Cyprus, in the eastern Mediterranean. All ten crew were picked up by the passing container ship MSC Hannah III and landed safely at Limassol.
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and CMB.TECH have named three ammonia-fuelled Capesize bulk carriers at CSSC Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding in Qingdao, China, described as the first of their kind. The first ship is due in early 2027, and MOL is preparing safety procedures for handling the toxic fuel.
Underwater archaeologists working off Adrasan, on Türkiye’s Antalya coast about 30 km west of Kekova Island, have recovered thousands of plates, bowls and trays from a ship that sank about 2,100 years ago. The cargo was packed so carefully that much of it survived unbroken.
The IMO, Peru’s maritime authority DICAPI and Spain’s Jovellanos Centre have held a five-day regional workshop in Lima, Peru, on ships’ routeing and ship reporting systems. It trained Latin American officials to prepare routeing proposals that help reduce collisions and groundings along the region’s coasts.
The ro-pax ferry MV Virgen de Peñafrancia II listed heavily about 10 metres from Real Port in Quezon Province, on the east coast of Luzon in the Philippines, early on 30 October. All 40 passengers and 18 crew were evacuated safely, and oil-spill booms were laid as a precaution.
The Liberian-flagged container ship Contship Jet has sunk about 21 nautical miles southeast of Shabla, near Cape Kaliakra in Bulgaria’s Black Sea waters, after three sea drones struck it on 28 October. All 18 crew, 14 Filipinos and four Ukrainians, had already been rescued and taken to Varna.
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