We are not winning the Battle of the Red Sea

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Trouble in the Seas...

In the last week, Houthi forces killed a merchant mariner, sunk a commercial ship and forced a crew to abandon another in flames. The attacks come as the Houthis continue to escalate its eight-month campaign against commercial traffic in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

The Houthis attacked MV Verbena, a Ukrainian-owned, Polish-operated bulk cargo carrier and Liberian-flagged MV Tutor, leading to both crews abandoning ship after the damage caused fires and flooding. Tutor sank following missile damage led to flooding, while Verbena’s crew abandoned the ship after it could not put out fires caused by the Houthi strike. Aircraft from the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, as well as another commercial ship, helped evacuate the crews.

The group says its will not slow its assault on merchant ships unless Israel ends its attacks in Gaza.

Comparative data from Marine Traffic suggests that the Houthi attacks have led to a 79.6 percent drop in drybulk carriers going through the Suez Canal in June 2024 versus June 2023. The recent attacks and sinking of Tutor is expected to lead to an additional rise in insurance costs for companies planning to send ships through the Red Sea.

Central Command continues to work with partners to degrade the Houthi abilities, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters Tuesday.

“We’re very focused on ensuring that these kinds of attacks are degraded, that the Houthis will continue to understand that there’s going to be a price to be paid for essentially preventing freedom of navigation in this vital international waterway, and it’s just completely unacceptable,” Ryder said.

Central Command conducted a number of strikes on Houthi equipment, with near daily attacks on Houthi weaponry.

“And I would say that really, it’s the Houthis that have failed to deter the United States and the international community from continuing to operate in the Red Sea. You know, they’ve conducted over 190 attacks, the vast majority of which have been knocked down, thanks to U. S. and international efforts to help safeguard shipping and the lives of mariners through operations like Operation Prosperity Guardian,” Ryder said.

But while the Pentagon says the U.S. is degrading the Houthi abilities, they continue to be able to attack ships, Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told USNI News in a statement this week.

“The United States has continued to destroy Houthi offensive capabilities in Yemen, but the terror group continues to have sufficient means to threaten shipping. This offers insights regarding the size of the terror group’s arsenal and suggests that the Houthis continue to enjoy a supply of arms from its patron in Tehran,” Bowman said in the email. “An effort to destroy capabilities in Yemen that does not devote sufficient attention and resources to interdicting weapons shipments from Iran to Yemen is not unlike the homeowner cleaning up puddles but ignoring the hole in the roof.”

Bowman said that a majority of vessels that continue to travel through the Red Sea are able to do so safely, in part because of the Navy and Operation Prosperity Guardian.

“But the Houthis only need to succeed every now and then to achieve their objectives,” he said.

Based on the Marine Traffic data, the Houthi attacks are having a measurable difference in the Suez Canal traffic. While the Houthi attacks are the main cause to the drop, the reasons could be due to timidness from the companies worried about the Yemeni group as well as rising insurance costs making it cost adverse to go through the Suez.

The DIA report found that 65 countries have been affected by the Houthi strikes with 29 major shipping companies also hampered by the attacks. Companies, such as Maersk, chose to go around the Cape of Good Hope, at the tip of South Africa, instead of going through the Red Sea in order to avoid strikes, causing up to $1 million in fuel costs and additional transit times of one to two weeks. This also led to a delay in humanitarian aid to countries like Yemen, according to the report.

The Houthi attacks are not helping Palestinians but instead hurting the Yemeni people, Ryder said Tuesday.

The report listed these effects as of February, making it unclear how many companies are still transiting around Africa.



Maersk, which had sent ships around Africa, has resumed sending ships through the Red Sea, as recently as this month, as the Houthis claimed to have targeted a Maersk ship on June 5, according to USNI News’ timeline.

Swiss company MSC has also continued to send ships through the Red Sea, with the Houthis targeting a number of MSC ships, according to USNI News’ timeline.

The Houthis first attacked commercial ships connected to Israel, expanding to those with ties to the U.S. and United Kingdom following coordinated strikes by the two countries, in partnership with other nations. The Yemen-based group then began to attack any ship going to or from Israel, as well, before declaring they would attack nearly any commercial ship transiting through the Red Sea, as well the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea, USNI News previously reported. The Houthis have also claimed they would target some ships in the Mediteranean Sea.

Houthi spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yahya Sare’e posts every couple of days on the site with an update, usually including operations that target a number of ships. Sometimes Central Command releases match up with the Houthi claims. Other days, the Houthis list ships that go unmentioned by Central Command.

Houthi Attacks Causing More Damage in the Red Sea

Four mariners dead. Two commercial ships sunk. One ship and 25 mariners still held captive. Global supply chains distorted. Where is a strong military response to this high seas threat?

Shipping Industry Calls for Action After Tutor Sinking in Red Sea


Here's a video showing the 2 hits by Houthi kamikaze uncrewed surface vessel (USV) that sunk the MV Tutor:
https://x.com/mercoglianos/status/1803637524838920472



Another dire effect of the Houthi and Iranian missile campaigns in the Red Sea will be a shortage of mariners willing to sail. This could have profound long-term negative effects on global commerce.

Trauma From Red Sea Attacks Adds to Seafarer Shortage

ATHENS, June 19 (Reuters) – When a missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi Islamists landed near his ship in the Red Sea, Costas Rassias vowed to stop sailing through the perilous waters.

“I froze,” said the Greek 34-year-old second class marine engineer, describing the close call. “I weighed what was more important – my life, or a better income?”

As attacks on merchant ships by the Iran-backed Houthis persist, traumatized seafarers are refusing to sail through the Red Sea, according to interviews with more than 15 crew members and shipping industry officials.

That’s another staffing headache for an industry already facing a shortage of seafarers worldwide, with ranks having shrunk after COVID kept seafarers on board for months and the war in Ukraine posed dangers in the Black Sea.

“Seafarers are less and less keen to willingly sail through that region and it is becoming a bigger challenge now,” an industry source with knowledge of the crisis said.

Container ship sailings through the Red Sea dropped 78% in May compared with a year ago, analysis from logistics platform project44 shows, as companies choose to go around Africa, raising costs and extending voyages.

“My answer is very clear: No,” said Rassias, when asked if he would go back again. He is a member of Greece’s marine engineers’ union PEMEN.

“We urge our members not to give in to pressure, to put their safety and lives first and demand not to work in war zones at any cost.”

ROCKETS FLY

Charles Watkins, CEO and clinical psychologist at Mental Health Support Solutions, has met 40 seafarers from two ships that sailed through the Red Sea. Many have experienced trauma and some are considering leaving the trade.

“There can be sleep disturbances, nightmares, they can be easily startled, they can be stressed, they can develop a sudden urge not to eat anything anymore,” Watkins said.

Most ships have deployed armed guards on board to help defend crew during potential attacks, but crew themselves are rarely trained or equipped for conflict.

“The majority of merchant ship crews have no military training whatsoever,” said John Pavlopoulos, head of Sea Guardian, whose armed guards have made thousands of crossings through the area. “The slightest explosion disconcerts them, stresses them out.”

Boris Basenko, Ukrainian captain of the Greek-owned bulk carrier Zografia which was struck by a rocket this year near Yemen, said he doubts he will sail again through the region.

“Rockets fly into my home city every day but I was caught by a rocket a few hundred miles away” from Ukraine, he said. “Almost everyone from my crew at that time did not want to return to the Red Sea.”

Johnrhez Balboa, a 26-year-old engine cadet from the Philippines on his first nine-month stint at sea, was aboard the first vessel to pass through the Red Sea last December after another ship, the Galaxy Leader, was hijacked. His crew maintained a “pirate watch,” scanning the water for hijackers.

“We were afraid and anxious,” he said “Guarding our ship was scary.”

Mariners have support if they choose not to go, said John Canias, head of maritime operations with the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), the leading seafarer’s union.

The nearly 360,000 seafarers covered by an ITF agreement worldwide have the contractual right to refuse to sail in designated war zones and demand repatriation at the shipowner’s expense. In April, one such zone in the Red Sea, known as a “warlike operations area,” was expanded at ITF’s request, Canias said.

“Many shipowners are now more reluctant to sail through the area as they simply don’t want to put seafarers’ lives on the line,” he said.

GROWING DEMAND

Over 80% of global trade is shipped by sea and an estimated 1.8 million seafarers service ships, with growing shortages of qualified mariners.

Some 18,000 additional officers would need to join each year to meet demand, according to the most recent seafarer workforce report published in 2021. Thousands of higher level officers are needed to service the 80,000-strong ocean-going fleet.

Some Greek captains have already requested to be transferred to other vessels to avoid the Red Sea, a union official said. At least four Greek companies have in recent months decided not to cross the area, company officials said.

“We don’t like to profit off the pain of others. We won’t send our ships there,” said George Logothetis, executive chairman of privately owned U.S.-headquartered Libra Group.

Other companies are reviewing each case separately, weighing the risks for crews and vessels.

Rene Kofod-Olsen, CEO of V.Group, one of the world’s biggest ship management and crewing companies, said their managed fleet’s crossings have declined since the beginning of the conflict.

He said in the instances where their ship owner clients have opted to sail through, “we give our seafarers the opportunity to not proceed and we can change crew.”

So we got Hamas mucking up life in the ME along with Iranian regime & their 9 proxy armies; Houthis missile/drone pirates in the Red Sea, the Chinese causing trouble in the South China Sea, and Russia/Ukraine in the Black Sea (mines & drones). Mega Trillion$ at stake in the disrupted sea trade routes. We had better start becoming a self-sustaining country like we once were or things are going to get rough on the home front.


Let's not forget our favorite ego billionaire to the rescue...


Short answer: No.

by Captain John Konrad (gCaptain OpEd) For over a decade, gCaptain has championed a cleaner, more responsible maritime industry. Rooted in Silicon Valley, we’ve fervently supported startups tackling our biggest challenges. Today, environmental responsibility permeates the industry. Although maritime startups remain underfunded, they are finally gaining traction with private equity and venture capital. As an environmentalist, I should be thrilled by these developments, especially with Bill Gates spearheading new plans for the electrification of shipping. Yet, I am deeply worried.

As the first digital-only publication to reach a global audience, I have urged executives for decades to embrace new ideas and technologies.

“Approximately 90% of the world’s goods travel by sea, emitting over a billion tons of CO2 every year,” said Gates in a video posted to LinkedIn. “That’s why I’m so excited about Fleetzero’s breakthrough battery technology, which will help decarbonize ocean freight at an affordable cost and accelerated pace.”

While I appreciate Bill Gates’ entry into shipping, as an environmentalist, I believe his approach is flawed not just because electrifying ships would require mining massive amounts of rare earth material and copper but because the underlying ESG premise is flawed.

Ships are ten times more efficient than trucks and a hundred times more than planes. To decarbonize effectively, we must shift more than 90% of cargo onto the water. This requires more vessels consuming more energy, not less. Faster ships that compete with planes and numerous feeder vessels moving cargo inland are key. The latter can be hybrid-electric, but the former necessitates diesel or nuclear power.

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ESG confidently assures a just and balanced future, where shipping holds a crucial position. Yet, it’s essential to remember that no passenger is safe aboard a ship that’s sinking from a Houthi missile, Russian mine or Chinese Coast Guard water-cannons.

Lengthy piece if interested: Green Shipping In Conflict: The Clash of ESG, Venture Capital, and Red Sea Attacks