Water transport

A ship that ran aground off Turkey's northwestern Çanakkale province was pulled off seabed on March 20.

Kemet Star, a Panama-flagged cargo vessel, had run aground near Bozcaada island on March 18.

Turkish teams carried out underwater work on damage assessment and feasibility to drag the ship off the seabed.

With no damage ascertained, the freighter was towed to safety.

Koper – A new centre for maritime traffic control and management in crisis situations was inaugurated in Koper on Friday in what is a project that is expected to greatly improve navigation safety in the Slovenian territorial waters and decrease risk of accidents by as much as 70%.

Turkey on Feb. 24 marked the anniversary of 1942 Struma disaster, which killed hundreds of people when a vessel carrying Jewish refugees was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine in the Black Sea.

In a statement, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said commemoration ceremonies have been annually held in Istanbul's Sarayburnu district on Feb. 24 since 2015.

Coastal shipping sources consider the decision of Italy's Grimaldi group to add two more ships to the Greece-Italy line as a "declaration of war."

On Friday the Italian group announced it was doubling the number of ferries on the Adriatic route, with two of them sailing from Ancona to Patra and the other two from Ancona to Igoumenitsa.

The Piraeus Court of First Instance found five people guilty on Wednesday in the criminal trial of 11 Greek nationals over the deadly fire that broke out on one of the garage decks of the Italian-flagged Norman Atlantic passenger ferry on December 28, 2014.

Greek shipowners invested a total of more than $9 billion in new and secondhand vessels in the last 12 months.

Military exercises were announced for Monday via a new NAVTEX

Seismic vessel Oruc Reis entered Greek territorial waters on Thursday afternoon and is moving westward, within the area outlined by the Navtex issued by Turkey's navy on Monday.

The ship is accompanied by the auxiliary vessels Ataman and Cengiz Han and Turkish Navy ships. which in turn are monitored by the Greek Armed Forces.

A new marina that can accommodate up to 202 yachts, including superyachts, is planned for Elounda, site of several hotel resorts on the island of Crete.

Part of the Elounda hills project, it will have a land area of 28,540 square meters, including service buildings for yacht passengers.

A cruise ship that has sailed away from the U.S. is due to arrive in Turkey later this month to bring its 36 Turkish employees back home, who have been stuck in the vessel amid the coronavirus pandemic.