CARIBBEAN MARITIME UNIVERSITY

The impact of MARINE TRANSPORT on …..

Faculty of Shipping and Logistics

RM602: Research Methodology

Completed in partial…..

To

Michele Mcfarlane

By

Aliyah-Kay Wilson ID

Ariel Simon ID

Rushawn Mchayle ID 2015

Adreen Vassell ID

April 2022

Introduction

Background to the problem

The sea is one of our planet’s most un-concentrated regions, with many unseen creatures and secrets. Research over the past couple of years indicates that this stupendous human intruding, with plastics expected to dwarf fish by 2050, is undermining living space. Compound defilement of the seas and the unloading of millions of huge loads of unmanaged trash into the seas every year, as far as we might be concerned, largely unsalvageable hurt marine life (source)

Regardless, marine transportation antagonistically influences the marine environment, including air pollution, ozone-draining substance spreads, balance water releases containing prominent maritime species, recorded use of antifoul ants, oil and engineered spills, dry mass cargo releases, and rubbish, lowered racket tainting. Transport strikes on marine megafauna, risk of a boat laying out or sinking, and residue contamination of ports during package or boat berthing (Zhang et al., 2019). Hence, the premise of examining what marine vehicle means for the sea is the mortality of ocean or sea-going species brought about by marine contamination, which is created by synthetic substances like pesticides, herbicides, composts, cleansers, oil, modern synthetic substances, and sewage.

The relevance of climate change in the global development agenda demands new models for formulating public policies. The transport sector is the one with the greatest and fastest growth in greenhouse gas emissions and its inclusion in the mitigation initiatives is of vital importance to achieving the agreed goal of limiting climate change to 2º centigrade (Tillig et al., 2021). Concerning maritime transport in Europe, the SECAs (Sulphur Emission Control Areas) are areas where polluting sulfur emissions produced by burning marine fuels are strictly controlled. They are exclusive control zones for SOx and were created following the acid rain problems in northern Europe due to excessive atmospheric pollution (Manasbay et al., 2021).

One of the factors that will condition maritime transport in the future may be the fight against climate change, which will affect the efficiency of trade routes. Climate change is one of the great current challenges for freight traffic, which will have to adapt as much as possible and fight against the negative consequences. We must not forget that since it is a global problem in terms of causes and effects, the fight must also be at an international level.

Problem Statement

How does Marine Transportation Affect the Ocean?  This is really vague. Try to provide a more focused statement on the impact on a particular aspect of marine life in the ocean

Research Question

In order to successfully carry out this research, specific questions will be used to guide the researcher.

The researcher will be guided by the following questions:

1. Your study is not to answere these questions. You can this information from a lit review
2. What are the impacts of  marine transport on the…… of the  ocean?
3. How do the measures that are …in place affect the degree of the impact of marine transport on ……  eg the coral reef

Suggestion: What is the impact of marine transportation on the ocean flora and fauna?

How effective are the measures to protect ocean flora faunafrom the effects of marine transport?

Place above RQPurpose

The purpose of this research is to determine the impacts that maritime transportation has on the oceans.

Significance of Study

The information acquired in this research will be beneficial for aiding the researchers understanding of sea transport and the effects of it. Likewise, the findings of this research will provide insight on how climate change affects sea transport. This research will lead to an improve understanding of greenhouse gasses, marine pollution and fuel consumption and how they affect the marine environment. The findings gathered from this research can better improve the way we transport goods across waters protecting the marine environment.

At least 3 stakeholders must be identified to benefit from your research

Operational Terms  Support with sources

• Climate Change – a change in global or regional climate patterns, in particular a change apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels.
• Logistics – Logistics refers to the overall process of managing how resources are acquired, stored, and transported to their final destination.
• Macro-waste – waste produced by human activity, floating on the surface or immersed, transported by sea currents or by rivers to the coast and deposited on beaches.
• Marine Pollution – Marine pollution is a combination of chemicals and trash, most of which comes from land sources and is washed or blown into the ocean. This pollution results in damage to the environment, to the health of all organisms, and to economic structures worldwide.
• Marine Transportation -Marine transportation involves waterways and ports that move goods (e.g., agriculture, oil and gas, cars, clothing, appliances) and people (e.g., on ferries, cruise ships, sightseeing vessels).
• Pollution – the presence in or introduction into the environment of a substance which has harmful or poisonous effects.

Limitation of Research

The following are factors or conditions that are beyond the control of the researcher in conducting the research:

1. Based on the time frame for conducting the research, not all the questionnaires that were given to participants initially may be returned on the time specified.
2. Because of the difficulty reaching professionals in this area of study not all the info we wanted was gathered.

Delimination of the Research 

The following are factors or considerations that may affect the research. However, these factors or considerations may be controlled to some extent by the researcher.

• Due to the time and cost factors involved in conducting the research, the researcher will focus only on members of Montego Bay port.

Chapter 2

Literature Review

From the last decades of the 20th century, parallel to the great changes that have taken place in the transport system on a global scale (linked to new forms of production, marketing, and consumption), the environmental variable has gained greater prominence in urban planning and construction of transportation works (Tillig et al., 2021). Currently, there is a comprehensive bibliography referring to the debate on the sustainability and environmental implications of transport, concerning the development of infrastructure works and the displacement in the different existing means, as shown below. The following are ways in which marine transportation affects the ocean;

1. Marine fuel and sulfur

Bunker fuel is essentially a residual fuel, defined as any liquid that remains after obtaining higher value products from oil distillation. There are numerous types, and all these products differ considerably in quality (which affects both polluting emissions and the operation of ship engines) and in price, but also in the service they provide, the operation of load, regulations, etc. (Manasbay et al., 2021).

The cheaper fuel gives rise to greater corrosion and erosion in machinery so that the engines that use them are exposed to greater and more serious breakdowns and cause higher maintenance and repair costs (Tillig et al., 2021). On the other hand, lighter fuels allow the use of less sophisticated lubricants and do not require such large investments, but their acquisition cost is much higher. For economic reasons, the shipping company tends to use less expensive fuels that have an acceptable performance as displacement energy, and that is precisely the most polluting (Pirotta et al., 2019).

The problem of sulfur in marine fuels is particularly serious and complex, and two international standards have been established for its presence in fuel: one, in general, limits the sulfur content to 4.5% m/m5 of the fuel used on board; and another for ships that navigate through the so-called DRY zones where the maximum limit of sulfur content is 1% m/m. In the coming years, these limits will be even stricter.

1. Consumption and speed

Fuel consumption in maritime transport is hugely variable, depending fundamentally on the size and type of ship, the speed of travel, and the power of the auxiliary groups necessary onboard. No need to remember that harmful emissions into the atmosphere increase if consumption increases.

Finding the ideal economic speed in the operation of a ship is a complex task in which other elements intervene in addition to the price of fuel and freight income. Nevertheless, this speed leads to optimal exploitation on every trip. Assuming a fuel oil price of US$300/ton and freight rates of over US$35,000/day, the optimal speed is around 14 knots for a vessel.

However, for a slightly higher price of fuel oil of US$325 and freight rates of less than US$/22,500 per day, the optimum speed drops to 12 knots since an increase in service speed of only a couple of knots produces a disproportionate increase in speed. In fuel consumption. It is clear that the increase in the speed of the ship implies a much higher increase in fuel consumption and, inevitably, more significant pollution depending on the type of fuel used.

1. Marine pollution and cruise liners

According to the Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics, a stopover liner pollutes as much as a million cars in terms of fine particles and nitrogen dioxide emissions. In addition, they can legally dump raw sewage into the ocean, just 5km from shore, and leave trails of sewage, trash, toxic chemicals, and air pollution in some of the oceans’ most sensitive spots. A liner is 800,000 liters of sanitary water, 10,000 liters of gray water, 50 tonnes of solid waste, and 7.5 million liters of liquid waste (O’Donoghue et al., 2021).

Macro-waste is essentially made up of plastics and their residues (from 60 to 95% depending on the site), mainly packaging (plastic bags, bottles, etc.); there are also glass containers (bottles, flasks) and metal (drink cans, etc.); fabrics, leather or rubber objects. The waste collected both in inland waters and at sea or on the coast is not all abandoned on-site; they are of multiple origins and provenances, and their biodegradability takes much longer than one might think (Mendenhall, 2018; Pirotta et al., 2019).

Macro-waste is mainly concentrated at locks (canals), at the mouths of river and river estuaries, along banks, or on most coastlines. Strong swells and high tides scatter and accumulate them along the shores and on the beaches according to the currents and movements of the sea, regularly aggravating pollution and dirt (Mendenhall, 2018). In addition to the pollution of banks and coasts, a large part of this waste is transported by ocean currents to end up ending up in areas where it accumulates, constituting veritable underwater dumps, with consequences for wildlife and flora, in addition to the health impacts, which one can easily imagine (O’Donoghue et al., 2021).

1. Prices and purchases

Sulfur restrictions in marine fuels imply the need to use more distillate types, and therefore there is a considerable increase in the cost of supply. If we take the example of a handy-size vessel of about 30,000 deadweight tons, which consumes between 20 and 23 tons of fuel oil daily during navigation, for US$435/ton, it represents a cost of about US$9,000/ton. Day, a figure much higher (close to double) than that of the fixed operating costs of the ship itself, known by its acronym OPEX (OPerational EXpenditure), and which include the costs of crew, maintenance, and repairs, insurance, administration, etc.

The fuel purchase process constitutes a very important part of the operation of the ship since, in many cases, it becomes the most relevant expense. This is due to the enormous amount of oil needed to feed naval engines, which must be added to the strong fluctuations in the price of crude oil that have occurred in recent decades, which have been reflected in great volatility in the prices of marine fuels. Therefore, knowing how to choose the optimal product, the most convenient port and supplier, together with the most suitable speed for navigation, are key to optimal vessel operation.

Management in the purchase of different fuel types for ships has acquired such importance that the inclusion of certain clauses in time charter policies is recommended, in which mode the charterer (time charter) is responsible for taking fuel. The aim is to protect the ship-owner from possible fines and claims for damages caused as a result of the use of inappropriate fuel under current regulations.

Regulation 18 of Annex VI of MARPOL (International Maritime Organization, 2005) establishes that each Fuel Delivery Note to the ship must specify the exact sulfur content in the supplied fuel and that a statement signed by the ship must be attached. Supplier’s representative for the record, along with a representative sample. In general, suppliers expressly exclude liability in their conditions of sale and state that the buyer should select exactly what his vessel requires.

Regulations

For decades, the shipping industry has benefited from weak regulations that allowed it to pollute without paying, mainly in international waters. However, this trend has changed in recent years, and the regulations already echo the control of atmospheric emissions from the combustion of petroleum derivatives used in maritime transport (Alvelid et al., 2021). The new ECA term is broader than that of SECA since it takes into account the emission of sulfur into the atmosphere and other pollutants: SOx, NOx, CO2, and particles. From now on, these ECAS zones are considered when talking about controlled emission areas that affect air quality (Komissarova & Krasova, 2020).

Before the implementation of an ECA, it is necessary to issue an application to the IMO. For an ECA application to be approved, the need to prevent, reduce, and control SOx, PM, and/or NOx emissions from ships must be demonstrated. The specific criteria appear in Appendix III Annex VI of MARPOL (International Maritime Organization, 2006).

Currently, the dependence on oil in transport is almost total. Therefore, the alternative of using biofuels (bioethanol and biodiesel) in maritime traffic hardly deserves consideration because ships cannot burn only alternative fuels and because of the secondary risks that this entails, derived from the necessary cultivation of raw material. Other more interesting options, such as solar or wind energy inside ships, are also being developed with some success as a complement to the use of oil, but not as a substitute (Alvelid et al., 2021).

The ECA specifications can be met in three ways: fuel switching to a low sulfur fuel or liquefied natural gas, applying exhaust after-treatment systems, and the use of conventional fuels.

Conclusion

Maritime traffic is growing due, among others, to factors such as new markets, passage routes (canals and straits), or the local and global economic and political situation. A constant increase in global maritime traffic is expected in the coming years because it is the most suitable mode of transport for large-scale transport (Manasbay et al., 2021). Despite the current economic crisis that has slowed down this trend in recent years in Western countries, there is also an increase in trade thanks to emerging countries such as China, India, Russia, South Africa, and Brazil, which substantially modify world trade of import and export, opening new commercial routes, while other existing ones progressively lose importance, as well as the growing expansion of production networks on a global scale (O’Donoghue et al., 2021).

From the perspective of climate change, transport represents a sector with particular relevance. It is responsible for an important part of global emissions. The dynamics of its emissions show it as the sector with the highest growth and the most accelerated. Cargo and passenger transport is one of the urban activities that generate the most environmental pollution (Komissarova & Krasova, 2020).

Chapter 3

Research Methodology

In this section the researcher will showcase the methods that will be used to gather data for this research.

Research Design

It is planned to adopt a qualitative descriptive design for this investigation. Description study tries to correctly and methodically characterize a population, situation, or event to make conclusions. The descriptive research strategy is necessary and suitable since it examines all of the study variables’ accessible parts discussed in detail. The descriptive research design aids in answering the questions of “how, when, where, and who” posed in the specific study under consideration. The research tools for this mixed-methods descriptive qualitative research included questionnaires and structured interviews, which were used in conjunction.

Populationmust be described using a source

Sampling techniquemust be described using a source, an advantage and a disadvantage must be highlighted

Sample must be described using a source, an advantage and a disadvantage must be highlighted

           The study methods were I am understanding that you have done the study already or is itbtaht you are looking at a study that was done? used to reach the geographically dispersed target group of disaster investigators and shipping agents. The research employs non-probability, prioritizing student subjective assessment above probabilistic random selection. Non-probabilistic sampling is used because accessing accident investigators on seas is challenging. Because the target group is not widely spread, probability sampling techniques like essential random sampling, systemic random sampling, or randomized stratified sampling cannot be used. Considering the participants’ data and ethical requirements, the participants filled out the questionnaire online. The sampling procedure matched?? the research design This is a proposal

All data gathering instruments must be described using a sources, an advantage and a disadvantage must be highlighted

Data Collection

This research will use quantitative data collection method to gather data you said it is qualitative in the first paragraph to this section

This research will use various instruments and procedures to collect data. These include:

• Interviews
• Questionnaires

Data will be collected from the sample through the use of questionnaires and interviews, as well as observation.

            Questionnaires will be given to online personnel and is estimated to take 4-8 minutes to complete. The questionnaire will consist of 15 questions both open-ended and close ended questions so we can get a broader understanding of the information provided. Information collected will be confidential so they aren’t required to provide their names, they will only be required to state their age, years of service with their employer and job position which will be a part of the 15 question questionnaire that will be provided.

            An interview will be done to get an understanding of the negative externalities that sea transport brings about. 

Data Presentation     

           Data for the study will be presented in tables, graphs, and summary statistics in this part. To demonstrate correlation or contrast, charts, tables, and graphs will be employed in the study. When it comes to data presented in this study, factors play a crucial role. Graphs and charts, which can be readily made using data analysis tools like Excel, will be utilized to convey results. Readers may also readily understand them. Because of the potential for different interpretations and conclusions that summary statistics might provide, they will be used in this investigation.

Data Analysis

In this quantitative research, the researcher will use data analysis techniques that will provide quantifiable, objective, and easily interpretable results.

This research will be conducted on a topic that is crucial to the research area. Hence, the researcher will be making inferences based on findings. In order for the researcher to make inferences using the finding the research will be analyzed using inferential statistics. Inferential statistics examine the differences and relationships between two or more samples of the population and allow the researcher to make generalizations based on the sample

Ethical consideration

              In this research the researcher will give consideration to the overall research principles and those that are specific to the research. The researcher will use voluntary

participants and informed consent to conduct the research. The general research principles will be followed to ensure that all participants are willingly choosing to take part and that they have been fully informed about any potential risks and the procedures of the study It will be ensured by the researcher that the prospective participants are free from any form of intimidation. The potential participants will be given a written letter of the intended study and will be asked to sign and return them to indicate that they participated freely in this research.

              The confidentiality and anonymity of the participants will be protected in this research, they won’t be asked to use their real names or any other form of identification. The researcher will not share information between participants and will use procedures in place to protect the data and names of the participants. The participants will also be made completely aware of what will be done with the findings of the research and its publication.

Reliability and Validity 

The reliability or validity will be demonstrated in this research. The researcher will be repeating parts of the research in order to establish the reliability of the findings. The researcher will ensure consistency and dependency of a measure These will be demonstrated in the research by the use of the triangulation table as seen below. Each research sub-question will be answered using the three data collection instruments, the data analysis methods, and a pilot test-retest of the questionnaires and interview questions. The researcher will use these approaches to examine the research for any uncertainty and misconceptions in the instruments and procedures. This will ensure that the methodologies used to conduct the research will capture the intended data.

A pilot test was carried out on a population of 4 participants. The questionnaire was the instruments used for the pilot test. The below are the findings showing the uncertainty and misconceptions in the instruments and procedures.

Table 1

Instruments and Procedures use in the Collection of Reliable Data

Sub-Questions	Source 1	Source 2	Source 3
What can be done to lessen the negative impacts that marine transport causes on the ocean and marine life?	Observation of the airport passenger and baggage operations	Reports from local and international maritime authorities	Report and news release from Jamaica maritime authority
2.What are the negative impacts that marine transportation has on the ocean?	Questionnaires for relevant port personals	Journals, reports and news articles	Report from travel agencies and ocean travel predictions
3.How will these suggestions help marine life and the ocean?	Interview with a maritime Industry Authority	Reports from local and international maritime industry councils	Reports and articles on water transport and marine life

Findings of the Pilot Test 

1. Participants were reluctant to fully participate in the interview by refusing to answer questions.
2. The questionnaire’s questions had technical terms that needed to be defined
3. Participants were reluctant to give response to open ended questions
4. The busy setting of port and terminal activities made it hard to find participants to make up the sample size.

References

Alvelid, C., Schmidt, D., Ljunge, J., Gutke, J., Pai, R. R., & Muthukrishnan, S. K. (2021). A sustainable marine transport sector.

International Maritime Organization. (2005). MARPOL amendments: Amendments adopted by MEPC resolutions. 99(48), MEPC. 111 (50), MEPC. 112 (50), MEPC. 115 (51), MEPC. 116(51) and MEPC. 132 (53) with unified interpretations. International Maritime Organization.

Komissarova, V. V., & Krasova, E. V. (2020, October). The Scrubbers on the Marine Transport Vessels: Technical, Economic and Environmental Characteristics. In 2020 International Multi-Conference on Industrial Engineering and Modern Technologies (FarEastCon) (pp. 1-7). IEEE.

Manasbay, A., Beisengaliyev, B., Turekulova, A., Kurmankulova, N., & Turekulova, D. (2021). Impact of the Marine Transport System and Public Administration on the Environmental Protection. Journal of Environmental Management & Tourism, 12(3 (51)), 654-667.

Mendenhall, E. (2018). Oceans of plastic: a research agenda to propel policy development. Marine Policy, 96, 291-298.

O’Donoghue, C., Geoghegan, C., Hynes, S., Farrell, N., O’Leary, J., & Tsakiridis, A. (2021). Impact Assessment Modelling for the Ocean Economy: A Review of Developments. Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics, 8(2), 9.

Pirotta, V., Grech, A., Jonsen, I. D., Laurance, W. F., & Harcourt, R. G. (2019). Consequences of global shipping traffic for marine giants. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 17(1), 39-47.

Tillig, F., Ringsberg, J. W., Psaraftis, H. N., & Zis, T. (2020). Reduced environmental impact of marine transport through speed reduction and wind-assisted propulsion. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 83, 102380.