Lloyd’s Register’s Chief Operations Officer Mark Darley shares his perspectives on the maritime industry

Since introducing the EU’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) in 2005, the EU say the scheme has helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power and industry plants by 27%. With large ships (gross tonnage of 5,000 and higher) now in the scheme, the EU hopes to see similar success in the shipping industry.

The ocean is taking up ever-increasing levels of carbon dioxide and the resulting ocean acidification seriously threatens ocean health. Back to Blue, an initiative of Economist Impact and The Nippon Foundation, calls for governments to implement action plans.

In 2023, we made many new discoveries - truly amazing life hidden deep - and not so deep - beneath the waves. Here are just a few of them.

In 2021, divers off the Turkish Aegean coast first observed dark stinging sponges dying in great numbers. Researchers have now sampled three species of pathogenic Vibrio bacteria, previously known to infect unrelated marine animals, from diseased and dying sponges. Evidence suggests that vibriosis may be a secondary illness that affects already weakened sponges, but is not necessarily the primary agent of the novel disease.

Taxonomist Keider Neves shares his experiences of going deeper to see a world that few have ever seen and make new discoveries

Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, has completed initial testing of a ‘weather service’ for water quality in the Spencer Gulf in South Australia – which provides much of the country’s seafood – with plans to use the technology in local seafood farms.