Salmon Swim Up Seine Once Again
Salmon are returning to the Seine after an absence of almost a century as water in the river that runs through Paris has become cleaner in recent years, French scientists said.
Once numerous in the river, Atlantic salmon disappeared from the Seine in the early 20th century, partly due to pollution from Paris sewers. But scientists celebrated an improvement in water quality in the Seine that has tempted the protected species back to Paris.
“There has been a turning point. The improvement in water quality has meant that salmon have returned to the Seine,” Charles Perrier of the National Institute for Agronomic Research told Reuters. The National Federation for French Fishing estimated that about 1,000 salmon are present in the Seine.
Mr. Perrier said some salmon returning from the sea to breeding grounds lose their way and are drawn by higher oxygen levels and decreased household waste in the Seine. In contrast with the Thames in Britain and the Rhine in Germany, salmon have returned to the Seine naturally, without efforts to reintroduce them into river waters.
Canadian Surveillance Plane on Lookout for Russian Subs off East Coast
The Canadian Air Force has sent a surveillance plane to keep tabs on two Russian attack submarines cruising off the East Coast in a patrol that harkens back to the Cold War. The nuclear-powered subs were first spotted in international waters off Georgia on Aug. 5, raising eyebrows, but no sharp response from either the United States or Canada.
Defence sources say it’s believed the Akula II Class submarines have since moved north, and remain outside of Canadian and American territorial limits, which extends 12 nautical miles into the ocean. It’s unclear whether Canada took the initiative to have a CP-140 Aurora patrol plane watch the vessels, or whether there was a request from the U.S. Northern Command which tracks submarines.
The Russian patrol comes as the navy prepares to conduct an anti-submarine exercise in the Arctic this month.
It also comes just a few days after Defence Minister Peter MacKay criticized Moscow over a planned exercise to drop paratroopers on the North Pole this summer.
American officials say Moscow did not notify them about the submarine excursion – the first of its kind since the end of the Cold War.
It is another sign of stepped up Russian military activity, which has included several flights by strategic bombers that have brushed up against Canada’s Arctic border – but not crossed over.
Last February, Canadian fighter jets scrambled to intercept an approaching Russian bomber less than 24 hours before U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Ottawa. As with other cases, the long-range Bear bomber did not enter Canada’s airspace but the two CF-18 fighters had to order the plane to “back off.”
The Arctic, with its prospective mineral wealth and ill-defined borders, has become an area of intense competition among Canada, Russia, the United States, Denmark and other countries.
The Kremlin caused a stir this year by declaring it was creating a special military force to protect its oil and natural gas interests in the Arctic – a plan that Russian Ambassador Georgyi Mamedov claimed was twisted out of context by Western governments.
Last year, the Russian navy conducted an exercise with Venezuela in the Caribbean, in what was the first deployment of Russian ships to the Western Hemisphere since the Cold War.
Offshore spend to rebound after 2009 and 2010 lows
Despite the global recession, offshore spend is expected to grow strongly – from $578 billion (bn) Capex and $379bn Opex over the last five years to $807bn Capex and $549bn Opex over the period to 2013. Exploration for fresh oil & gas supplies and development of existing and newly found accumulations from ever more demanding reservoirs in new extremes of environment, are expected to drive offshore industry spends.
These headline forecasts appear in the new, fully updated edition of the ‘World Offshore Oil & Gas Production and Spend Forecast 2009-2013′ released earlier this week by Douglas-Westwood and Energyfiles. With the offshore sector responsible for both the highest cost and highest technology element of spending in the oil and gas industry, the report delivers a comprehensive quantitative analysis of offshore oil & gas production and gives a detailed forecast of global spending.
Sourced from data in the ‘Energyfiles Global Databases’, the report shows that in 2008 offshore oil production was nearly 10bn barrels (bbls) or 34% of total production, whilst offshore gas production had risen to nearly 6bn bbls in oil equivalent terms, equaling 29% of all gas production (they stood at 9bn bbls and under 4bn bbls equivalent respectively back in the year 2000). Higher oil prices – which are double what they averaged five years ago – stimulated investment leading to equipment and personnel shortages as demand soared. Costs increased for most consumables and services, especially high technology services, more than ever in 2005 to 2007.
“But 2008 saw the beginnings of financial turmoil,” notes report author Dr Michael R. Smith of Energyfiles. “High prices and economic decline reduced energy demand. Global oil demand, standing at around 85mm bbls per day in 2007, declined in 2008 and will decline even further in 2009 – the first time this has happened for two consecutive years since 1983. Oil prices had risen at unprecedented rates from a low of $13 per bbl (for Brent in 1998), to an average of $85 per bbl in 2008. But the average figures show only part of the picture. The spot price for Brent crude spiked at $143.95 on the July 3 2008 and had tumbled back to $36 by the end of the year. “The price volatility immediately led to uncertainty and project delays so that in 2009 we have a period of across-the-board cost deflation. Global upstream oil and gas budgets for 2009 have reportedly been cut by 21% with more than 20 planned large projects being postponed. On the other hand the biggest oil companies only planned, on average, to cut spending by 5%.”
The report examines these cut-backs, projecting them to be short-lived. Continued steady increases in oil and gas production, after the declines of 2009, will, after 2010, once again drive all industry offshore annual expenditure up from over $240bn in 2008 to nearly $340bn in 2013.
“Last year I commented that to attain such growth the industry will have to look and spend in every far-flung part of the world” reflects Dr Smith. “Nothing has changed that view and new deep and very deepwater project approvals in Angola, India and China for example are a testament to this. But different economic circumstances and an unparalleled volatility in price and fiscal conditions, allied to continuing political uncertainty in many of the world’s major producing regions, as well as the increased impact of new environmental strategies – in both developed and undeveloped countries – has made the assessment of project risk even more tricky.
“Historically, global economic recessions have led to declining energy demand,” says Dr Smith, “but the resultant lower prices have soon led to a recovery in demand and then prices, especially as OPEC has acted to rein in output to tighten supply. Thus in early 2009 the supply/demand balance for oil had already stabilised, despite the worsening recession. Our analysis points to stability within the offshore industry in 2010, whilst in 2011 a return to growth is forecast. Many more challenging and expensive projects must be brought onstream – and most of the high technology sectors of the offshore industry remain equipment and people resource-constrained.”
New Hull Coatings for Ships Cut Fuel Use, Protect Environment
New hull coatings being developed by the United States Office of Naval Research (ONR) are showing promise in reducing the build-up of marine crustaceans – namely barnacles – on ships´ hulls, optimizing vessel performance and dramatically reducing fuel costs.
The Naval Surface Warfare Center estimates that biofouling reduces vessel speed by up to 10 percent. Vessels can require as much as a 40 percent increase in fuel consumption to counter the added drag. For the Navy, that translates into roughly $1 billion dollars annually in extra fuel costs and maintenance to keep its ships free of barnacles, algae and other debris.
For the coating, researchers are currently looking at two non-toxic substances. The first one combines texture and antimicrobial properties to repel microorganisms. The other, a mixed-charge compound, would prohibit proteins and cells from binding to a ship’s exterior.
Marine growth adds weight and increases drag reducing a vessel´s fuel efficiency – not good in an era of soaring fuel costs. This increases fuel consumption and green house gas emissions. ONR-sponsored biofouling prevention coatings provide an environmentally safe alternative for protecting naval ship hulls, which could also benefit the commercial shipping industry.
High-performance naval warships and submarines rely on critical design factors such as top speed, acceleration and hydroacoustic stealth. Previous biofouling prevention methods used toxic coatings, or biocides, to clear barnacle colonies from the ship exteriors. Although effective in the short-term, biocides exact a heavy environmental burden.
By studying the environment, researchers are learning from nature how it beats the “crusty fouler” naturally.
Australia Begins Search for Submarine Designers
On August 6th, Australian Defence Minister Sen. John Faulkner announced a call for tenders in the near future to carry out a design study for the Royal Australian Navy’s Future Submarine project, code-named Sea 1000. The 12-boat program is expected to be the most expensive defense procurement undertaken by Australia, with estimates ranging up to 20 billion Australian dollars ($16.8 billion).
The 2009 defense white paper, published in May, revealed that the Navy’s six Collins-class boats will be replaced by about 2025 by 12 conventional submarines. The white paper calls for the Future Submarine to be more capable than the current 3,500-ton Collins-class boat, with greater range and patrol endurance, and armed with land-attack cruise missiles as well as heavyweight torpedoes.
A spokesman for Faulkner said the request for tenders announced by Faulkner and his deputy, Greg Combet, the defense materiel and science minister, is designed to assess whether Australian companies have the capacity to design such a submarine. The request also will help the government’s defense procurement agency, the Canberra-based Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO), determine the feasibility of establishing an indigenous submarine design capability in Australia.
“My interpretation of their announcement is exactly that,” said Graham Bulmer, acting CEO of the Collins-class builder, ASC Pty Ltd., Port Adelaide. However, he said, the wording of the announcement is ambiguous, and until the request itself is released, Bulmer declined to speculate on what ASC’s response might be.
At present, there is only one company in Australia recognized as a submarine design authority, and that is ASC, which established in 2007 a research and development subsidiary, Deep Blue Tech, to carry out self-funded research and development for the next generation of submarines. Bulmer said he couldn’t say whether ASC or Deep Blue Tech might respond to the request.
This is the second stage of a two-part process that began earlier this year, when a team of Navy and DMO officials visited submarine construction yards in the U.S. and Europe to assess design and technology options.
The request is a tacit acknowledgement that there is no submarine available off the shelf that meets the Navy’s needs, said Terry Roach, vice president of the Submarine Institute of Australia, a Canberra-based group comprising many former Navy submariners. Roach himself is a former Navy submarine captain and former director of the Navy’s Submarine Warfare Systems Centre here.
The institute published a paper last year setting out the key design factors for the Future Submarine project and urged the government to invest in the R&D required to support the design, construction and sustainment of a new fleet of submarines.
The Navy has unique requirements for range, submerged endurance, speed, stealth and payload. The Navy/DMO study tour this year confirmed that no existing conventional submarine can meet these requirements, Roach said Aug. 7. In addition, the Navy has a close strategic relationship with the U.S. Navy, with whom it collaborates on the development of the AN/BYG-1 submarine combat management system and the Mk48 Mod. 7 heavyweight torpedo.
To maintain that vital relationship and protect sensitive U.S. technology, Australia must have a secure, indigenous design and project management capability, rather than working with a European designer, Roach said. All that points toward ongoing investment in indigenous submarine design capabilities.
The domestic design study forms part of the initial definition phase of Project Sea 1000, which is due to end in December. It will be used to shape the design, procurement and production process for the Future Submarine, Roach said.
Phase 1A of the Future Submarine project, the concept design process, is due for Cabinet approval in 2010 or 2011, with the preliminary design stage, Phase 1B, due to get underway between 2011 and 2013. The detailed design for the Future Submarine in Phase 1C will get underway in 2013.
The construction of the first submarine in Phase 2 of Project Sea 1000 will commence afterward.
Icelandic Fleet Experiencing Excellent Herring Catches
The Icelandic trawler fleet has recently reported that it is enjoying one of its best herring fishing periods for years, with record catches and fish of a very high quality.
HB Grandi, one of the country’s largest pelagic fishers, said the herring had been “exceptionally heavy” in recent days. The is particularly welcome after the Icelandic government’s decision to halt mackerel fishing. The company has at least three ships with a total of around 5,000 tons on board – and there should be a lot more to come in the next couple of weeks.
Company spokesman Arnthór Hjörleifsson, said boats have been fishing in an area where the proportion of mackerel in catches is lower. He said: “We had practically no mackerel at all towards the end of the trip. The herring suddenly started moving quickly eastwards, leaving the mackerel behind. The herring are excellent right now. The fish are fat, with practically no feed in them and just right for processing.
HB Grandi’s skippers have been saying that there has been very little feed in the herring for an unusually long time.
Trying to avoid catching too much mackerel can present skippers with a headache at times. The total proportion of mackerel cannot exceed 12 per cent until the middle of September.
There are also reports that the huge mackerel shoals are preying on capelin with the result that stocks are at a low point. It is feared this could have a serious impact on Iceland’s capelin fishery.
Russian Subs Patrolling off U.S. East Coast
Two nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines have been patrolling off the Eastern seaboard of the United States in recent days in a rare mission that has raised concerns inside the Pentagon, The New York Times reported this past Tuesday.
While the submarines had not taken any provocative action beyond their presence outside U.S. territorial waters, officials expressed wariness over Russia’s motivation for ordering such an unusual mission, the newspaper said.
“Any time the Russian Navy does something so out of the ordinary it is cause for worry,” a senior Defense Department official who has been monitoring reports on the submarines’ activities told the newspaper.
The U.S. Navy was able to track the submarines as they made their way through international waters off the American coastline, the official told the newspaper. “We’ve known where they were, and we’re not concerned about our ability to track the subs,” the official added. “We’re concerned just because they are there.”
One of the Russian submarines remained in international waters on Tuesday about 200 miles off the coast of the United States and the second sub made a port call in Cuba in recent days, the newspaper said, citing Defense Department officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Defense Department officials declined to speculate on what weapons might be aboard the two submarines. A Pentagon spokesman had no immediate comment on the report.
Soviet Aircraft Carrier Turns Into India’s White Elephant
When Russia gave India a retired Soviet aircraft carrier five years ago, New Delhi was delighted – little realizing the vessel would turn into a costly white elephant.
Russia, India’s longtime weapons supplier, said in 2004 it would give the country the 44,570-ton Admiral Gorshkov as a “gift”, provided Delhi paid a Russian shipyard $974 million to refurbish the carrier. Since then, the price has skyrocketed for fixing up the 27-year-old ship, which was decommissioned after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In 2007, Russia demanded $850 million more, citing cost escalations. Then, six months ago, Russia startled India with another demand – this time for $2.9 billion dollars. It also pushed back the ship’s delivery by four years to 2012 – a year after India must mothball its last remaining aircraft carrier, the British-origin INS Viraat.
Now India’s national auditor has waded into the row, saying the navy could have paid less for a new carrier.”At best, the Indian navy would be acquiring, belatedly, a second-hand ship with a limited lifespan by paying significantly more than what it would have paid for a new ship,” it said in its military spending report.
The Russian price hikes have sparked outrage, forcing India’s Defence Minister A.K. Antony to assure parliament this week that fresh negotiations were once again under way. “At present, the price escalation is in the negotiation stage and nothing has been finalised,” Antony said, but he conceded India was paying “a substantially huge price” for the vessel’s refit.
New Delhi has already paid hundreds of millions of dollars in advance to Russia’s state-run Sevmash shipyard. “It’s no doubt giving India a severe headache but we’re stuck with it because if we pull out now, we don’t get back a penny,” said retired Gen. V. N. Sharma, a former chief of India’s million-plus army.
India must also dig deeper into its pocket for tens of millions of dollars extra to equip the vessel with Sukhoi-30 fighter jets and Russian missiles, officials say. Russia’s state-run defence export agency Rosoboronexport, which is handling the deal, has rejected suggestions that it is short-changing India. “Every step in the process of the refit of the aircraft carrier is monitored by the Indian navy’s technical team and they have never raised objections,” spokesman Vyacheslav Davidenko was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India.
The shipyard refitting the vessel has insisted that the cost escalations are due to Indian demands for features not included in the original contract. Minister Antony says New Delhi, which is trying to build an aircraft carrier of its own, was forced to turn to Russia as no other country would give India a tactical vessel of such a size. Russia, which accounts for 70 percent of India’s military hardware, has up to $9 billion worth of defense orders from New Delhi in the pipeline.
General Sharma said he believes the Russians “grossly miscalculated when writing up this contract in 2004″. But retired Rear Adm. Raja Menon, who was associated with the project, said he believes Russia is seeking to get as much out of India as it can. He said Moscow is in the habit of arm-twisting its traditional weapons buyers. “Russia’s track record is very poor in this regard and this time the nation has to take a call on this,” he said. “In other contracts too they had escalated costs and thought they could get away with it again,” Menon said.
The Admiral Gorshkov is a modified Kiev class aircraft carrier of the Russian Navy, originally named Baku. The ship was laid down in 1978 at Nikolayev South in Ukraine, launched in 1982, and commissioned in 1987. The delay in commissioning was largely caused by software bugs in the new command and control system. The ship was renamed Admiral Gorshkov after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, as the city of Baku was now in independent Azerbaijan. Sergey Gorshkov was responsible for the expansion of the Soviet Navy during the Cold War.
In 1994, following a boiler room explosion, the ship was docked for a year of repairs. Although she returned to service in 1995, she was finally withdrawn from service in 1996 and offered for sale.
In January 2004, Russia agreed to sell the Admiral Gorshkov to the Indian Navy. The carrier will be re-named the INS Vikramaditya.
Arctic Visitors Will Be ‘met by Canadians,’ says Minister of Defence
Defence Minister talks tough in face of Russian plans to drop paratroopers on North Pole this spring
Canadian Defence Minister Peter MacKay says the Canadian government is closely watching Russian plans to drop paratroopers in the Arctic next April.
“Any country that is approaching Canadian airspace, Canadian territory, will be met by Canadians,” Mr. MacKay said Friday in Halifax after an announcement on an international security conference planned for November.
Mr. MacKay didn’t give any specifics on what Canada will do in April but he said Canada is prepared to protect its borders. “We’re going to protect our sovereign territory and we’re always to meet any challenge to that territorial sovereignty.”
A Russian general announced plans last week to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the first parachute drop at the North Pole by sending paratroopers to the same site. The proposed parachute drop, reported last Wednesday by the Norway-based Barents Observer and Russian media, is described by a top Russian general as a “peaceful” mission – but one that also symbolizes the “protection of national interest in the northern direction.” Insisting that the operation will not stoke military tensions in the Arctic, Gen. Vladimir Shamanov is quoted as saying: “We do not intend to engage in [sabre-] rattling, we only intend to make a peaceful visit to the North Pole.”
Tensions with Russia over Arctic territory have increased since a Russian scientist placed a Russian flag on the floor of the ocean under the North Pole in 2007. At the time, Mr. MacKay said countries couldn’t go around planting flags and claiming territory like they did in the 15th century.
In February, Canada sent fighter jets to intercept a Russian bomber flying towards Canadian airspace. Mr. MacKay says there have been no recent intrusions of Russian bombers. “We have scrambled F-18 jets in the past and they’ll always be there to meet them,” he said.
In recent years, countries have become more interested in the resources buried under Arctic ice and the frozen territory is hotly contested. Many countries have beefed up their military presence in the Arctic. Russia, Canada, Sweden, Finland and Norway are increasing Arctic forces or increasing training for existing forces.
International experts say the military build-up indicates that nations with territory in the resource-rich Arctic believe that armed conflict in the high north is a very real possibility. They also say the militarization could make it much harder to protect the Arctic’s fragile environment.
Canada, the United States, Norway, Denmark and Russia have agreed to abide by international law while scientists map the Arctic seabed.
China Delivers Frigate To Pakistan Navy
On July 30 China delivered the first of four state-of-the-art frigates commissioned by nuclear-armed Pakistan from top ally Beijing, a naval spokesman said.
“The first F-22P Frigate, PNS Zulfiqar, constructed for the Pakistan Navy at the Hudong Zhonghua Shipyard in Shanghai was delivered to Pakistan last Thursday,” said Lt. Cmdr. Shakeel Ahmed. In keeping with contracts signed between China and Pakistan in 2005, the frigates will be equipped with anti-submarine helicopters, surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles and other defense systems.. A second is almost complete and undergoing sea trials, while the third and fourth are under construction.
Pakistan had been negotiating with China for the supply of 4 frigates since the late 1990s. The contract was signed in April 2006 with the conclusion of negotiations for financing and technology transfer. The first ship was expected to be delivered in 2008 but this has been delayed to 2009, with the remainder by 2013. The first three are being built by China while the last is under construction in Pakistan by Karachi Shipyard and Engineering Works (KSEW). The $750 million contract, finalized last year, also includes 4-6 Harbin Z-9EC helicopters as well as ammunition for the frigates
“The F-22P frigates will not only enhance the war fighting potential of the Pakistan Navy but will also strengthen the indigenous ship-building capability of the country,” said Ahmed. The announcement came two days after Pakistan hit out at India, branding its rival’s first nuclear-powered submarine “detrimental” to regional peace and vowing to take “appropriate steps” to maintain a “strategic balance”.
Relations between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan have plummeted since Islamist gunmen killed 166 people in Mumbai last November, attacks that New Delhi blamed on banned Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). India recently launched the first of five planned submarines by naming the 6,000-tonne INS Arihant.
China is Pakistan’s strongest ally and Islamabad relies heavily on Beijing for its defense needs. Many Chinese companies operate in Pakistan and China is involved in the construction of a deep-sea port at Gwadar on the Arabian Sea.
