Reports on safety incidents, updates, and rescue operations. To encourage safer operations, we gather facts, dates, and lessons learned. Espect updates that are written about all parties affected and information for people who are at risk at sea regarding inspections, casualty and injury reports, crew safety, and best practices.
22 articles
FeaturedTwenty-two seafarers are missing after the Panama-flagged bulk carrier Ocean Winner sank in the Bay of Bengal. A major search and rescue operation is underway.
Kemal Can Kayar|1 min read|Aug 27, 2026
Russia and Ukraine have increased attacks on each other's commercial ships and ports in the Black Sea area, disrupting grain exports and raising concerns about global grain supplies. Ukraine's ports in the Greater Odesa region handle about 90% of its grain shipments, but the country has exported only about 500,000 tons of grain since the start of August.
Kemal Can Kayar|1 min read|Aug 24, 2026
A Panama-flagged bulk carrier has sunk off the coast of eastern India, leaving 22 crew members missing. The Indian Coast Guard and Navy are conducting a joint search operation.
Kemal Can Kayar|1 min read|Aug 23, 2026
Strikes on Azov and Black Sea terminals have knocked out more than 97% of Russian and Ukrainian grain export capacity, forcing buyers in Cairo, Ankara, Dhaka and Jakarta to look at longer, costlier voyages from the Americas and Australia.
Kemal Can Kayar|1 min read|Aug 20, 2026
Three China-linked VLCCs have reversed course inside the Strait of Hormuz as the threat picture in the Gulf deteriorates. A laden VLCC does not U-turn casually, and the market is pricing that signal into war-risk premia and Middle East freight rates.
Kemal Can Kayar|1 min read|Aug 19, 2026
Two bulk carriers were struck by projectiles in separate incidents while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, killing one seafarer and injuring another. The attacks push the confirmed crew death toll past 15 for the year and drag dry-bulk operators into a war-risk theatre that until recently was almost exclusively a tanker problem.
Kemal Can Kayar|1 min read|Aug 18, 2026
Nine workers were killed after being exposed to toxic gas while dismantling an LNG carrier at a shipbreaking yard in Bangladesh. The accident occurred at the Ferdous Steel shipbreaking yard in Chattogram, where workers were breaking down the LNG carrier Rasi. The incident highlights concerns over safety conditions at South Asian recycling facilities, despite some yards being certified as compliant with international conventions.
Kemal Can Kayar|1 min read|Aug 17, 2026
The Strait of Hormuz has stopped behaving like a shipping lane and started behaving like a bargaining chip, and the projectiles landing on hulls are leverage over the one stretch of water the global economy cannot route around.
Kemal Can Kayar|3 min read|Aug 16, 2026
A vast oil spill in the Gulf is quickly becoming one of the world's worst in years after being allowed to spread almost unchecked for weeks. The slick off the coast of Oman from a grounded tanker carrying Russian crude had reportedly reached the mainland by Wednesday.
Kemal Can Kayar|2 min read|Aug 12, 2026
Abu Dhabi's state oil company says fifteen of its vessels have been struck by missiles and drones while transiting the Strait of Hormuz since the conflict began, three of them this week, with one seafarer dead and twenty injured. Full transits have fallen to roughly four percent of pre-conflict levels.
Kemal Can Kayar|2 min read|Aug 9, 2026
The US and Iran each claim authority over the Strait of Hormuz, but the ships tell a different story, with six of nineteen recent transits crossing with their tracking switched off. A strait where a third of movements go dark is neither open nor closed, but run at the crews' and insurers' discretion.
Kemal Can Kayar|2 min read|Aug 3, 2026
A day after a drone struck a gas tanker at Egypt's Damietta, Cairo has opened an investigation while the attack's disruption to LNG imports bites into supply at the height of summer demand. Saudi Arabia has floated a multinational coalition to guard Red Sea shipping and energy routes.
Kemal Can Kayar|2 min read|Jul 31, 2026