Collision off Singapore strait and other main maritime stories of August 2016

Shipping is a big industry. It is most international among all the industries of the world. And it is moving at some pace now. For the seafarers it is important to keep abreast with all the happenings of the industry. But due to the amount of the information, the shipping news is so scattered  that it can be hard to keep the pace. We thought to solve that by presenting the essence of a month's main shipping activities across the globe. Here is what happened in the month of August 2016. Drug Trafficking If you thought drug trafficking has hardly anything to do with shipping, you would be wrong. This month saw the sentencing of captain and chief mate of a tug boat to 22 and 20 years in jail respectively by the Glassgow high court. Drugs worth 664 Million US Dollars (3.2 tonnes of cocaine) were recovered from the tug boat which amounts to the biggest in Britain. The arrest was made in the high seas beyond the territorial waters of Britain with the help and permission of Tanzania where the boat was registered. This also authenticate a report that said drug smugglers are taking to high seas to avoid increasing boarder patrol. As per the United nation, Columbia has been the main source of cocaine into Europe. The cocaine is mostly trafficked in Europe through sea.