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How The X-Press Pearl Disaster Could Have Been Avoided

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  SPLASH: The X-Press Pearl Disaster X-Press Pearl by Carlos Luxul author of The Ocean Dove The X-Press Pearl  sank on June 2 in what is now referred to as the worst maritime ecological disaster in Sri Lanka’s history. The wreck is close to shore, too close, and it won’t be long before the effects of the ship’s fuel and other pollutants are felt, along with the cocktail of cargoes (some hazardous) from close to 1,500 containers the ship was carrying. The world watched with horror. Neighbouring governments rushed to offer assistance. Brave salvage teams did what they could. Concerned maritime and environmental organisations wrung their hands – and the blazing ship filled our TV screens. For the general public, it was just another accident at sea, just another example of the nasty, polluting shipping industry carrying out its business, a business dominated by shady shell companies in far away places that don’t play by the rules. That’s the public’s perception, but they want their consum
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The Suez Canal Legal Fight

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SPLASH : The Suez Canal Legal Fight Ever Given by Carlos Luxul author of The Ocean Dove As the saga of the Ever Given in the Suez canal rumbles on, one thing has struck me: why haven’t we heard anything about a class-action law suit against the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) from a collective of the frustrated shippers and receivers?   I haven’t seen the manifest but with around 20,000 TEU s on board, it stands to reason that many of t he world’s leading corporations are likely to have been caught up in this - and while they may have a lot of power individually, they will have even more as a consortium.   While I’m no lawyer, it seems to me that the SCA is already guilty of flouting certain international laws and conventions. They are also making arbitrary and unreasonable claims against the ship’s ownership structure and, more specifically, the innocent parties caught up in it - the beneficial cargo owners. All this suggests there are solid grounds for action. Surely there’s an int
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Location: Egypt
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Nave Andromeda - Terror Alert on the UK Coast

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  questions must be asked and lessons learned Nave Andromeda It sounded dramatic and the media duly ramped it. The essential ingredients were all in the mix - a ruthless band of shady foreign hijackers (surely terrorists if not mere pirates?), a shady foreign tanker under a shady Liberian flag, and a SpecialForces operation. But when the facts were revealed there was no injury, no loss of life and no damage to property, and neither the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth nor Southampton were subjected to an apocalyptic attack. The drama proved to be nothing more than a woeful tale of human despair in the all too familiar shape of lost souls seeking a better life. We should be grateful for the professionalism of the special forces, but we must also question why it happened at all. Firstly, there are questions about the timescale of the military response and, secondly, there are questions about why stowaways were still on a ship that was a few miles from British shores when it had visited both
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FSO Safer - A Ticking Time Bomb

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Two major shipping publications recently published an article I wrote about the factors surrounding a impending maritime disaster. As an author of a plausible oceanic catastrophe, The Ocean Dove , I am fascinated by political agendas that act against humankind. Read it in full below or click on the links... SPLASH : FSO Safer - a ticking time bomb HELLENIC SHIPPING NEWS : FSO Safer - a ticking time bomb   FSO Safer   A ticking bomb Carlos Luxul , author of The Ocean Dove TheOcean Dove focuses on a new kind of danger arising from abuses of shipping’s loose regulatory framework. Thankfully it’s a novel, and while the disaster scenario in its climax is rooted in plausibility and could so easily happen, I sincerely hope it doesn’t. Meanwhile, back in real life, a disaster is just waiting to happen and the world seems powerless to stop it. Perhaps powerless is not the right word. The world certainly possesses the power. What it lacks is the will. The Ras Isa oil terminal  sits a
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Location: Coldrum Ln, West Malling ME19, UK
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