Sandwiched between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, the Strait of Hormuz is the only sea passage connecting the Persian Gulf to the open ocean. In other words, it is the lifeline of the Arab world, the most notable among them being Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.
Although the narrowest point in the strait is just 33km wide, the shipping lanes in both directions are only 3km wide.
If you’ve been following maritime incidents, you’d know that this Strait is in the frontline when it comes to the battle between Iran and the United States. So much so that the United States Fifth Fleet, based in Manama, Bahrain, is responsible for protecting maritime shipping lanes in this region.
To date, IMO is the only organization worldwide that has adopted energy efficiency measures that are legally binding across the world. IMO also regulates the emission standards for ships, which are more strict in areas designated as Emission Control Areas (ECAS). As the MARPOL Annex 6 regulations restricting air pollution, another of IMO’s measures, is progressively setting more exacting standards, the shipping industry is looking for alternatives; such as ships powered by distillate fuels, using scrubbers, alternate fuels such as LNG, Hydrogen, or ammonia, even nuclear powered or completely battery-powered ships are a possibility. However one of the most feasible possibilities in the short to mid future is LNG.
Are you spending more time at home than you would like to? Make the best out of it. We felt like returning something to our users. Therefore we dropped the daily time limits for Open Users. Open Users (free accounts) can use the FleetMon Explorer beyond 15 minutes per day. Feel free to track your favourite vessels all day every day until 1 June – no costs involved.
We made the display of the vessel tracks even more precise and introduced a new modus for the last track of a selected vessel. If the vessel is on its journey for more then 24h FM Explorer will recall the traveled route to the last port visited.
The new feature will give you more insight with just a single click.
detailed display of vessels track in FM Explorer
category colors in vessels name labels in FM Explorer
Colorful labels with the name of every vessel names
are making your monitoring live easier :-) Read more…
after quiet some loops and changes over the last weeks, we are now starting the BETA test of the new version of Fleetmon with our supporters and all AIS sharers. There will be access for this group after login (selected users). We are planning to release the new version asap. Eager to hear your opinions and feedback :-)
We went to Hamburg this week for exhibiting our Fleetmon software on Europas biggest fair for the Cruise Ship business. The Seatrade 2009 had 250 companies from around 50 contries showing their services.
Also our iPhone App Fleetmon :mobile had lots of interest. Owners, Agents and suppliers love to have informations available on the road about the journey of a vessel. We had talks to people from all over the world. Seatrade is a nice international fair and meeting place of people in the Cruise, Ferry, Rivercruise and Superyacht industries.
As a result of our presentation all users of Digital-Seas can look forward to the extensions of new AIS covered destinations in the world.
site: www.seatrade-europe.com
We are very excited about our new piece of software for mobile Phones called MobTrack.
It could well support us shipspotters by tracking locations and store positions right into our images.
Putting it on your mobile will give you the opportunity to show your live movements on a web-Page. And when I say live, I mean real-live (ok 3 sec delay between sending and showing). We set up a page to demonstrate the functionality and to download the software for JAVA phones. Free for all, the DS principle.
For the time of Beta-Testing I will also show my tracks to everyone, after that phase, we will introduce buddylists. See and try it: www.digital-seas.com/mob
We are very excited about our new piece of software for mobile Phones called MobTrack.