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Entries by Kelly Franklin

SkyTruth’s New Report Finds 750+ Oil Slicks in Mediterranean Sea Revealing Chronic Pollution Problem

April 16, 2024 in /by

Greece, Home of ‘Our Ocean Conference’ Which Started Yesterday, Had Highest Number of Slicks in Its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)

A new report released yesterday at the Our Ocean Conference in Greece by SkyTruth identified 757 oil slicks covering 1.9 million hectares in the Mediterranean Sea between July 2020 – January 2024. Most of these slicks were discharged from vessels in transit. The data comes from our platform, Cerulean, the first free, digital tool that uses AI and satellite imagery to track ocean oil pollution and its potential culprits.

New Free, User-Friendly Platform for Tracking Marine Biodiversity Protection is Now Available Online

April 14, 2024 in /by

Open-Source Tool from SkyTruth and Bloomberg Ocean Initiative Aims to Make Global “30×30” Conservation Goal More Accessible, Transparent, and Actionable

Today at the Our Ocean Conference a new digital platform was unveiled, making it easier for anyone to track progress on protecting the ocean’s biodiversity. The “30×30 Progress Tracker” is the first free, public, interactive platform designed for the general public to see how well the world is doing on enhancing ocean protection globally in line with the goal of protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030 (“30×30”).

100 days after the MT Princess Empress sank in the Philippines, oil leaking from the tanker could still be seen from space

August 8, 2023 in /by

In the early hours of February 28, the MT Princess Empress — an oil tanker following a common shipping route in the Philippines — encountered rough seas and strong winds while en route from Limay, Bataan to Iloilo City.

The ship started to take on water and suffered engine trouble as the waves tossed it around in the waters off Oriental Mindoro. After putting out a distress call, the captain and 19 crewmembers were rescued from the sinking tanker by a nearby cargo ship. The unmanned Princess Empress continued to drift toward Balingawan Point in Naujan, where it finally submerged about 14 km (9 mi) from shore.

Tankers Falsify AIS Tracking Positions to Hide Entry into Russian Black Sea Ports

May 31, 2023 in , /by

Amid efforts to enforce an oil price cap and prevent the looting of agricultural products, four tankers were detected disguising their routes in the Black Sea

In late February, as the world marked the one-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine—the impetus for U.S. and NATO allies to impose new price caps on Russian crude and refined oil products—four tankers broadcast elaborate false tracks in the western Black Sea, our analysis finds. Their real locations were hundreds of miles away.