SOUTH AFRICA: South Africa’s national ocean- climate science programme, the Southern Ocean Carbon - Climate Observatory (SOCCO), has received funding from Schmidt Sciences to join a global interdisciplinary team for research on the global carbon cycle’s influence on climate change.

SOUTH AFRICA: Newcomer to the South African landscape, Global Fuel Supply, together with Blue Energy Partners has officially opened an office in Cape Town as the company continues to focus on an African expansion strategy that included the acquisition of a bunker barge for Angola last month.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Delivering the keynote address at the Blue Forum, held on the margins of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW) 2026, Dr Patrick Herminie, President of the Seychelles, last week called for collective global action, urging governments, financiers, and innovators to work together through cooperation, innovation, and sustained investment to build resilient, inclusive, and sustainable water and ocean systems.

TANZANIA: The Dar es Salaam Maritime Training Academy (DMTA) has requested accreditation to teach basic maritime courses as part of the country’s impetus to increase basic skills in the maritime transport sector.

SIERRA LEONE: Providing improved seismic data in Sierra Leone’s offshore basins, TGS has successfully completed the Sierra Leone Fusion 3D (Vision) multi-client reprocessing project.

SOUTH AFRICA: The Department of Transport released four separate pieces of draft regulations during the last week of December focusing on fishing vessel construction, fisher welfare and radio installations.

SOUTH AFRICA: The South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) is investigating an incident that resulted in the successful evacuation of 21 crewmembers from a fishing vessel that caught fire and grounded near Cape Recife Lighthouse off Port Elizabeth yesterday.

The global shipping industry is systematically squandering opportunities to slash fuel costs and emissions, not because solutions don't exist, but because perverse incentives and fractured organisational cultures make inefficiency the rational choice, according to a hard-hitting new report from the Global Maritime Forum.