cargo shipping

Millions of containers cross the oceans every year. But not everything arrives as planned.

The United Nations over the last decade has logged an increasing number of crew members abandoned by shipowners around the world. That’s left sailors aboard months and sometimes years without pay.

2021 was a big year for the global shipping industry. A new report from finds that the ships that carried imports for 18 of the U.S.’s largest retail, fashion, tech, and furniture companies emitted about 3.5 million metric tons of greenhouse gases in 2021, about as much as the annual climate pollution from 750,000 passenger cars.

Fortunately, it doesn't happen very often in the Pacific Northwest that ships collide with whales. But when it does, it's upsetting, tragic and the whale probably dies. Three separate teams have developed smartphone-based systems that can alert commercial mariners to watch out or slow down when there are whales nearby. A recent ride-along on a big container ship demonstrated that real-time whale alerts are still a work in progress.

Big ships entering and leaving Puget Sound will be asked to temporarily slow down to reduce underwater noise as part of a two month Quiet Sound trial. Washington state hope the speed reduction helps the Pacific Northwest's critically endangered southern resident orcas.

There's a contract negotiation involving more than 20,000 employees at West Coast ports that could up-end shipments of just about everything Americans use on a daily basis.

A small non-profit in the San Juan Islands has taken the lead in an international campaign to protect the Salish Sea from adverse effects of…

A labor dispute at the Port of Portland has brought container shipping from there to a halt. That means lentil and chickpea farmers are having a difficult time getting their crops to foreign markets.

A popular gift now for Chinese New Year is a box of red apples from Washington. But Northwest shippers say a labor dispute at West Coast ports is…

A federal mediator has been appointed to help facilitate collective bargaining between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific…