Deep Blue seas offer compelling tales of free diving and marine adventures on the one hand and of shipwrecks and salvage in rough weather encounters on the other. Although the seafarers always hope for fair winds and calm seas, nature is bound to show them her tantrums too. Rough weather situations have been a part and parcel of every seafarer’s voyages, even if they receive pre-weather warnings to re-route the ships alter speed and courses.

Be it the tropical depressions, typhoons, cyclones, hurricanes or the monsoon storms, they are all capable of hitting the vessels in open sea, giving them little or no time to react. The Tropical depressions occur often in middle latitudes and may often develop and travel in any direction whereas tropical storms are mostly found to follow predicted paths in both hemispheres.

The monsoon doesn’t appear overnight; it builds up over several days of pre-monsoon showers followed by an intense period of rainfall and storms. The high seas and strong westerly winds during the monsoon season tend to push ships inshore especially towards the west coast of India, due to which the ships tend to sail closer to the coast. Eventually it becomes difficult for the ships to navigate through the monsoon, as they are more prone to technical issues like temporary loss of engine power or steering, which the ships can’t do much about, and often arrive at a disastrous end.

There are multiple shipwreck cases of the Indian Navy Ships, Coast Guard Ships or the ONGC barges, wherein seafarers were rescued under tough circumstances, battling with waves as high as three stories, along with intense winds. Looking at the history of shipwrecks in the recent past we find that as many as 42 vessels have sunk at the country’s west coast in monsoons in between 2006-2011.

In extreme weather conditions some 188 seafarers were rescued from onboard accommodation ONGC barge Papaa 305; 135 personnel onboard were rescued from GAL constructor, and 220 people onboard were rescued from support station-3.

THREAT TO COASTAL ECOLOGY

Shipwrecks not only lead to loss of lives and assets to the shipping companies, they come with their own hazardous consequences by disturbing the coastal ecology. The oil and paint of the ships which are made of heavy compounds, can harm the ocean life and can also enter the food chain through fish and mollusks. When the vessel starts leaking, its oils gets mixed with the seawater and start polluting and affecting the marine life.

The wrecked ships lying underwater tend to change the wave patterns, leading to local soil erosion. Due to reduction of the size of the beach, sparse sandy beaches are formed like the Candolim Beach in Goa. The Beach was eroded by the grounded ship named MV River Princess, which had drifted from anchorage during a storm, and has several thousand tons of its wreckage underwater. It is unfortunate to know that since the cost of removing a sunken ship is more than its scrap value, the wrecks are often not cleared. However, to prevent any mishaps, the shipping authorities mark the locations of the sunken ships to make sure that ships stay clear of the location.

According to lead author Anja Katzenberger from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich, Germany (LMU), climate change is making Indian monsoon seasons more chaotic and for every degree Celsius of warming, monsoon rainfalls will likely increase by about 5%.

It’s high time that the maritime transport industry acts on tackling carbon emissions by bunker fuels, which are a byproduct of crude oil refining, which actually takes a heavy toll on the environment. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) estimates that carbon emissions from shipping could increase by 50%-250% by 2030, if not curbed on an urgent basis. As this momentum builds, there is a clear window of opportunity to create a greener future for international maritime transport.

The positive side of the story is that in the times when the ocean temperatures are rising and warm water is destroying the reef habitats, the shipwrecks and sunken remains are acting as artificial reefs. Acting as a blessing in disguise, the wrecked ships are providing a refuge to marine life and fish, which breed in the remains, hopefully adapting to climate change with every new gen!

Marex Media