International News

A New Zealand surf fisherman thought he was plucking a doll out of the sea, but instead saved a toddler from drowning.

A Norwegian non-profit commissioned a series of humorous videos to promote sober boating. WATCH

Working from speeding boats and helicopters, the Italian Coast Guard uses Newfoundland dogs to rescue people from the water. READ

An Indonesian teenager survived being adrift at sea for 49 days after his fishing raft broke from its mooring. He was rescued by a ship near Guam, 1,200 miles away.

A Swiss company debuted the world’s first ocean-going solar super yacht design at the Cannes Yachting Festival. The vessel will use solar power as its principal propulsion source and an innovative hull design to minimize wave action and seasickness. READ MORE

The news has been filled with frightening stories about great white sharks off the coast of Massachusetts, but now large, harmless basking sharks off the coast of France are making headlines. READ MORE

Political and economic crises are causing a massive uptick in pirate activity from Venezuela to Nicaragua and Haiti.

More builders are getting in on the electric boat movement, but a Finnish electric propulsion maker, which has been installing its electric saildrives in various manufacturers’ boats, is now getting into the game with its own stunning motorboat. WATCH

Apparently, manta rays can fly. It took less than two minutes for a helicopter to airlift a nearly 900-pound manta ray with an 11.4-foot wingspan from a Bahamas aquarium to the nearby ocean. WATCH

The Dutch city of Amsterdam has teamed up with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to develop autonomous boats, called Roboats, to deliver people and goods via its canals. WATCH

Launched on April 28 this year, Russia’s 474-foot long Akademik Lomonosovis the world’s first floating nuclear power plant. Capable of producing 70 megawatts of power, the ship is currently making its way across the Arctic Ocean to Eastern Russia.

For those boat operators who do not relish the thought of docking a yacht, Volvo Penta may just have invented a dream solution, advanced self-docking technology that will allow a yacht to dock itself. WATCH

A German World War II U-boat captain, who brought warfare to America’s doorstep in 1942 and who was the last of the “Aces of the Deep,” died on June 9 at the age of 105. READ MORE

Hawaii’s erupting Kilauea volcano has destroyed more than 600 homes and smothered hundreds of acres of land in lava since early May. But what happens to marine life when that lava enters the sea?

Drones have completely changed the way the Volvo Ocean Race is covered. This Volvo Ocean Race drone video compilation shows footage that was unattainable in the pre-drone era and is worth a look. WATCH

At the height of World War II, moviegoers paid about 30 cents each for tickets to “The Sullivans,” the story of five brothers from Waterloo, Iowa, who served aboard the USS Juneau in the 1942 Battle of Guadalcanal.

Love to sail, don’t mind cold weather or the occasional polar bear, and have an urge to get away from it all? Then the 1910 Dutch schooner Noorderlicht may be just your ticket as she cruises the Arctic waters around Spitsbergen, halfway between the Norwegian mainland and the North Pole. READ MORE

Two competitive sailors, one a billionaire, the other a yacht designer, have teamed up to create a revolutionary all-electric propulsion system for performance yachts that makes sailboat racing even greener. They want to develop the technology further, so that it can be applied to larger vessels and other boating markets. WATCH

The seven Volvo Ocean 65s that set sail from Itajaí, Brazil, on April 22 are nearing the finish line in Newport, Rhode Island. Find out who won, and how the rest of the fleet finished, by reading here.

Researchers believe as much as 12.7 million tons of plastic waste is dumped into our oceans each year and that 95 percent of it comes from only 10 rivers, eight of which are in Asia. Find out more about these rivers and what is being done to clean them up by reading here.

Leg 8 of the 2017-2018 Volvo Ocean Race got underway off Itajaí, Brazil, yesterday bound for Newport, Rhode Island. The 5,700-nautical-mile-long run takes sailors around the eastern end of Brazil, through the doldrums and across the Equator and then through the western Atlantic Ocean to Newport.

The ferocious Southern Ocean can bring the best sailors to their knees. Watch as crewmembers aboard a Volvo Ocean 65 struggle to maintain control of their boat as they blast through heavy seas on a reach.

Coral reefs are more than just pretty underwater seascapes for divers to enjoy. They also provide vast habitats that support commercial and recreational fishing in the United States to the tune of more than $100 million. This video explains why. WATCH

More than 100 years after RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, all that remains of the more than 1,500 people who perished is their shoes and other personal belongings. This video explains why. WATCH