As we all know, the emissions from the combustion engines are one of the critical topics of the international maritime shipping industry, now that the importance of protecting the natural environment is given the attention it deserves. There are two types of emission control, first one being the improvement of combustion in the low-emission marine diesel engines, and the second dealing with the EGC, standing for the exhaust gas cleaning, obviously the latter one referred to as aftertreatment.

The book presents the participants of the industry with the easy-to-follow material related to the contemporary control of the emissions from the marine diesel engines. Different technologies of emission control have been covered, and in fact this book Is the very first one to touch this problem in such detailed manner.

In addition, the authors tried to tie the essentials to the practical applications, which is definitely the most difficult part of developing and implementing the control of emissions. Make sure you have familiarized yourselves with the content and you will be better prepared to protecting the environment and compliance with the applicable provisions of MARPOL convention.

The present volume was intended by its author to serve as an introductory textbook for the university students. The content does, to the possible extent, stick to the general Global Navigation Satellite Systems in order to provide readers with the understandable descriptions of the major reference systems commonly in use today, as well as the satellite signals and orbits; in addition, the math models applied for the data processing and transformation, have been covered in detail.

However, the book features impressive coverage of the individual navigation systems, such as the GPS, including their signal structures and space/control segment. But please note that the primary focus is places on the GNSS. The material is arranged in fourteen chapters, supplemented with the index, acronyms list and references.

Having started with a good historical background of the navigation systems, their introduction and development, main systems in use and their characteristics, you will then proceed with the time and coordinate systems, satellite orbits and so forth, to cover all required aspects and get a good knowledge of the subject.

A single oil spill can cost millions of dollars in cleanup expenses, provoke harsh regulatory responses and increase monitoring and limits on bunkering operations.

For the vessel, the most critical part and where most spills occur is in the topping off stages of the transfer. It's usually very dramatic, even a minor amount of oil in the water can spread over a huge area and create a very visual effect. Safe bunkering practices require proper procedures, safety awareness, constant attention and regular training.

Safe bunkering practices protect both people and the environment. They require good communication, a well-trained crew and compliance with local, state, federal and international laws. Best practices for safe bunkering start with the person in charge, also known as the PIC.

This individual must be a credentialed master, mate, engineer or tankerman. A PIC is a person in charge. There's one for the receiving vessel and one for the delivering vessel and the PICs are the two designated people who are formally on each side in charge of that vessel's transfer at that time.

The first task of the PIC is to identify and share with the crew the vessel's oil transfer procedures. Transfer procedures should be prominently displayed for quick and easy reference by all on board. Oil transfer procedures include the location of all pipelines, valves, vents and overflows, the numbers and duties of those people assigned to the transfer operation, all relevant procedures before, during and following oil transfer, detailed steps for communication among the bunkering team, steps for topping off the tanks and steps for initiating an emergency shutdown.

You have a written oil transfer procedure in the United States that's required by the port state and then of course the vessel needs to follow that written procedure because that's basically a work plan of how you do the job. The pre-loading plan should include descriptions of the tanks and their capacities, the current level and type of oil in the tanks, expected final oil level and percentage at completion, the sequence of filling and the monitoring procedures. It's important to stress to the crew that monitoring is more than simply observing the filling procedure.

Here is the second part of the two-volume set by the world-recognized expert Thomas Colvin, where the readers will find everything they need to know about building the steel boat, particularly the stage starting when the bare hull is already available, and up to the happy moment of launching. Now that the hull is constructed, it is high time to concentrate on the other aspects of boatbuilding, starting with the insulation and heating, and in some cases refrigeration.

Having completed this chapter, the reader will move on to the ones addressing joinery and rigging. Needless to say, that the lifesaving equipment is of utmost importance, that is why there is a separate chapter devoted to the liferafts. The ballasting and deballasting operations have been covered, as well, to ensure safety.

The reader will find valuable instructions related to the finishing and painting the boat hull. Finally, once everything else have been prepared and checked, it is the time for launching, and this process has also been covered in detail, to make sure nothing has been missed. The author even goes as far as covering the business and commercial aspects of the boatbuilding.

The present work by Thomas Colvin is deservedly treated as one of the best textbooks on the steel boatbuilding. It gained world popularity among the boat and yacht lovers. The publication in fact consists of two volumes, offering interested readers professional insight and shared real-life experience of the author. According to the numerous reviews provided by the readers during the past forty years, this is a truly must-have one.

The first of the volumes is dealing with the boatbuilding stage from the plans and drawings, and up to the moment where the bare metal hull of the future boat is ready. The author starts with brief introduction and instructions on how the book shall be used in order to get the maximum of it, and then gives general information about the plans normally used in steel vessel constructions. After that you will find valuable information related to the materials used in shipbuilding, and necessary equipment.

The basic scantlings have been covered in detail as they form the foundation of the proper design and subsequent construction of any vessel. The rest of the chapters are covering the ship strength, preparation of the templates, associated costs, plating, framing, welding and so many other aspects of the steel boatbuilding.

AIS, standing for the Automatic Identification System, in its latest enhanced version allows identification and tracking from other ships and also from shore stations. A broadcast AIS improves safety and solves the limitations of radar because of its ability to see a ship behind a bend in a channel or behind an island and to identify it.

It also helps the commander to predict the exact position of a meeting with other ships in a river or archipelago and to avoid meeting at a narrow river bend for instance. Autonomous and continuous AIS means that two or more vessels coming within reach of VHF radio range automatically transmit all the AIS data to each other. The equipment is the same for both ships and shore stations and the system can handle several thousand AIS messages per minute.

The AIS transponder consists of a GPS receiver giving position, speed and time information to a computer. The computer then uses a VHF radio to exchange the information data with other AIS stations. This technique is called self-organized time division multiple access and needs only one radio channel for sending and receiving.

A unique method is used so that the messages won't become garbled. An AIS transmitter uses a time slot of only a few hundredths of a second to send its own data. At the same time, it reserves another time slot for the next message.

All AIS equipped ships and shore stations repeat the same procedure. AIS technology which was partly developed and tested in Sweden is now an approved international standard. The Swedish coast will be covered by more than thirty shore stations.

The information provided by the AIS will include call sign and name, length and beam, type of ship, location of position fixing antenna on the ship, ship's position with accuracy indication, time and universal time coordinated UTC, course over ground, speed over ground, heading, navigational status for instance at anchor, ship's draft and hazardous cargo if required by the authority concerned, and destination and estimated time of arrival.

The main idea of David Marley, the author of the present publication, was to assist all parties of the contemporary international maritime shipping industry, with getting more practically useful information on the piracy issues, threats and actual situation. The information and all materials contained in this book was developed on the basis of the historical factors considered important enough.

Of course, the book opens with the brief historical background, shedding some light on the real roots of the maritime piracy. After that the author starts dealing with the real problems of today's piracy, proposing some solutions to these problems and analyzing them. Apart from the general information, the author covered some of the issues specific to the United States.

The publication will be of great practical interest not only to all mariners but actually to anyone involved in the industry and caring about the human safety and security onboard ships. Needless to say that this is critically important today, maybe more than ever in the history.

It is a known fact that the UNCLOS 1982 convention established a clear regulatory frame for the Law of the Sea basing on two major concepts, first of them being the zonal analysis. The subject concept considers division of the seas into several juridical zones, each of them covered by the set of rules. In turn, the second concept implies the so-called topical analysis, within which the rules are set for the main activities taking places on the seas.

However, the entire framework is a sort of incomplete and has some areas remaining for improvement. That is why it continually develops and improves to make sure that all newly introduced challenges are met at all times. The author of the present monograph explored all of the above issues in order to offer readers a good professional insight into the legal developments.

The analysis starts from the essential principles that governs the jurisdiction internationally. The volume will definitely be very useful to all people interested in the directions to which the today’s Law is heading. The readers will have better understanding of the basic compromises of the UNCLOS, which is important before you dive deeper into any analysis and/or investigation.