A Republic of Korea Coast Guard vessel alongside the U.S. Coast Guard cutter USCGC Boutwell. Photo: USCG/Wikimedia Commons

A South Korean court handed down a 30-year prison term Thursday to a Chinese fisherman for the killing of a Korean coast guard officer late last year.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for Cheng Dawei, a 43-year-old fishing boat skipper, who reportedly confessed to stabbing Cpl. Lee Cheong-ho with a glass shard after an assault team boarded the Chinese vessel on Dec. 12.

The coast guard arrested the captain and eight crew members after they resisted warning calls and the boarding of the ship, which was trawling for fish and crab about 85 kilometers southwest of South Korea’s Socheong Island.

The incident marked the most serious confrontation between Chinese fishing crews and the South Korean coast guard since the drowning death of another coast guard officer in 2008. The captain of the Chinese ship in that case was sentenced to seven years in prison and ten other crew members were given jail terms.

The leaders of China and South Korea held talks a few weeks after last December’s incident and China said it would work to educate its fishermen.

But in an indication of China’s increasing assertiveness over territorial issues and the potential for further clashes at sea, China’s foreign ministry responded to the court ruling Thursday by questioning South Korea’s definition of its maritime boundary.

“The two countries have not demarcated the exclusive economic zones on the Yellow Sea and China does not accept the South Korean application of its law on exclusive economic zones to make such a verdict,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said at a daily press briefing.

“China will continue to follow closely the development of the case and will provide necessary assistance to Chinese citizens concerned to protect their legitimate rights and interests,” Mr. Liu said.

Following the incident, Seoul said it would beef up the defenses of its coastguard against illegal fishing, including issuing more firearms to officers.

During 2012, the South Korean coast guard said its arrests and detentions of Chinese fishing boats were up about 25% to about 500. In some cases, Chinese fishing crews have lashed their boats together to provide a stronger defense against boarding by coastguard officers.

(This story has been posted on The Wall Street Journal Online’s Korea Real Time Report blog)

Copyright © 2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

Papp reported the State of the Coast Guard as “ready to meet mission demands, but facing real challenges.”

Papp charted the course ahead for the Coast Guard, and announced the release of his Commandant’s Direction, which contains four priorities; Sustaining Mission Excellence, Recapitalizing and Building Capacity, Enhancing Crisis Response and Management, and Preparing for the Future.  Papp also highlighted the Service’s accomplishments during his first eight months in command.

Noting that the Coast Guard has recently experienced unprecedented personnel losses Papp told his Service, “I fear that our focus on reorganization and expanding missions post 9/11 has taken the edge off our skills across the service.” He stressed that the Coast Guard needs to focus on “training to proficiency.”

Papp proclaimed 2011 as “The Year of the Coast Guard Family,” announcing a renewed focus on improving housing, child care development centers and military family support programs.

Papp also discussed recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and challenged the Service stating, “I need…every Coast Guardsman to create command climates that foster retention.  The repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell will require your leadership – and I’m counting on you to exercise it…You must value your shipmates, no matter what their background.”

Discussing U.S. strategic interests in emerging Arctic waters Papp said, “If we are serious about protecting our Arctic national interests and resources, then we must make the investment to do so.”

Papp stressed the Coast Guard’s need to continue recapitalizing its fleet saying, “Unless we continue to update our ships, planes and boats, and improve our shore stations, we will not be able to maintain an acceptable level of readiness to perform our missions.”

Papp assumed the duties of the 24th Commandant of the Coast Guard May 25, 2010.  He leads the largest component of the Department of Homeland Security comprised of 42,000 active-duty men and women, 8,000 civilians, 8,200 reservists, and 31,000 volunteer auxiliarists.

The Commandant’s Direction is available for download HERE and a transcript of the State of the Coast Guard address is available for download HERE.

Source: USCG

A Coast Guard rescue vessel sits in the middle of the Delaware River. The barge that hit a duck boat can be seen behind it. (Michael Bryant / Staff Photographer)

Philadelphia

Two tourists remain missing tonight after a city-owned barge hit an amphibious duck boat as it plied the Delaware River off Penns Landing.

Philly.com – Police divers were searching for a 16-year-old girl and a 20-year-old man, both tourists from Hungary, who were among 37 women and children plunged into the water.

The unaccounted for passengers are feared to have been caught in the wreckage of the duck boat which sank in 40-feet of water.

Thirty-five passengers survived with minor injuries and were recovered by police, fire, and Coast Guard vessels.

The crash, at 2:39 p.m., occurred off Columbus Boulevard near Chestnut Street. A Coast Guard Lt. Commander said there was no record of a distress call from the duck boat.

• more »
• image gallery (30 photos) »

Permanent joint maritime policing legislation proposed

By Robert Matas

Vancouver, BC — From Friday’s Globe and Mail

Canadian and U.S. authorities are talking about extending cross-border security measures that were implemented for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and were to end with the closing of the Winter Games.

The RCMP and the U.S. Coast Guard have jointly patrolled the waters off Vancouver since the beginning of the month, boarding nearly 200 vessels and interviewing about 500 people in their efforts to maintain security, RCMP Sergeant Duncan Pound of the border integrity program said in an interview.

Almost every small craft in the vicinity of the maritime border has been contacted to confirm the legitimacy of its voyage. Although some arrests on outstanding criminal warrants have been made and some vessels have been sent back to port for not being safe, none of the incidents involved a threat to Olympic security.

keep reading »

On the ground in Haiti, search-and-rescue teams and aid workers have used collaborative tools, text messaging and GPS technology to map out and coordinate relief efforts. Out in Port-au-Prince harbor, U.S. Coast Guard teams are using similar tools to restore Haiti’s shattered main seaport.

The Coast Guard cutter USCGC Oak is currently at anchor near the port terminal in downtown Port-au-Prince. Among other things, the Oak deployed a Maritime Transportation System Recovery Unit, a team that is helping the Haitian Port authority get things up and running at the port. In some respects, it’s the maritime equivalent of the Air Force special operations team that helped restore air traffic control at Haiti’s main airport.

• keep reading »

photo sent by Justin. O. Vandenheuvel; USCG Cutter Oak

As of Monday, the Coast Guard has evacuated 662 Americans from Haiti.

By Susan Schept - NavyTimes

Although doing medevacs and ferrying Americans out of the danger zone is a top priority, the Coast Guard has another important task — restoring the ports of Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haitien. The ports are littered with submerged cranes and shipping containers, preventing ships loaded with medical supplies, food and personnel from being unloaded.

“Everyone realizes that it is of critical importance to get relief back in,” said Cmdr. Mike Glander, the commanding officer of the buoy tender Oak, which arrived Sunday evening in Port-au-Prince.

On Monday, the Oak used one of the few small usable piers to unload 62,880 bottles of water and medical supplies, such as IVs, splints and medicine. The Oak will assist a Catholic Relief Services barge Tuesday to unload supplies at the same fragile pier.

“We will be working very slowly and carefully, one container at a time,” Glander said. “It’s going to be a very slow operation.”

In addition to the Oak, the Coast Guard has deployed four cutters and a number of helicopters and planes to respond since the quake hit Jan. 12. The medium-endurance cutters Tahoma and Mohawk, along with the Haitian coast guard, were able to escort the 270-foot barge Crimson Clover to port Sunday to deliver food supplies. Tahoma conducted soundings of the sea bottom along the south pier in Port-au-Prince harbor to prepare for the delivery to Catholic Relief Services.

An 11-person specialized seaport operations team aboard the Oak is concentrating on assessing the damage to the port.

Keep reading on NavyTimes »

See also: Ocean Carriers Begin to Deliver Food Aid to Haiti »

The Journal of Commerce Online reports:

Crimson Shipping barge is first commercial vessel to arrive since quake

The 278-foot house barge Crimson Clover arrived Sunday night at Port-au-Prince, the first commercial vessel to reach the port since the Jan. 12 earthquake.

The barge is just the beginning of the second wave of Haiti relief, delivering shipload quantities of food aid to augment the 24-hour airlift government and nongovernment agencies have relied on for the past week.

John Trestrail, agent for Crimson Shipping of Mobile, Ala., said the company’s Crimson Clover was expected to start today to discharge more than 100 20-foot containers at Port-au-Prince. »

USCG Haitian Relief Updates on PierSystem.com »
(complete list of assets and missions)

gCaptain’s photo of the week is a helicopter shot of LNG Tanker Lokoja (IMO# 9269960). Built by the Korean shipyard Daewoo in 2006 she is owned by BW Gas and chartered to Suez LNG.

What makes this the photo of the week is both the amazing perspective and the photographer himself. gCaptain believes every mariner has a specialty, hobby or interest that makes him unique and we love to showcase their work. This is a great example because, like our friend OneEighteen’s best work, Carlos Ferreira, the photographer, took this shot while performing his everyday duties at sea. Carlos also happens to have a day job that every mariner deeply appreciates, Rescue Captain aboard Spain’s Rescue Helicopter “Pesca 2″.

For more of Carlos’ amazing photos CLICK HERE.

Our friend Richard Rodriguez of the BitterEnd Blog had an excellent post titled VTS – Working with large vessels, that gives Puget Sound boaters tips on communicating with the numerous large ships transiting to and from port.

The post had me thinking about my frequent dealings with Vessel Traffic Services worldwide like the time we entered the Singapore Straights and our Captain ordered, despite loud protests, the deck crew to finish chipping paint on the Flying Bridge. The result… the mate on watch missed a few critical calls from the local vessel controllers and they basically shut down the port for 20 minutes to give us plenty of sea room…. and a $25,000 fine!

Once my mind was past reminding me of few sea stories to tell at the next CAMM meeting I started to realize that I had no idea what the VTS stations I have been calling look like. So here they are:

United States:

The Volpe Center recently implemented a vessel communications and tracking network for the Saint Lawrence Seaway. The network, based on the automatic identification system, promises improved safety, security, and efficiency throughout the Seaway. Above, the new system in use at the Eisenhower Lock vessel traffic control center in New York. (Photo courtesy of Mr. Kam Chin)

New York, NY – Seaman Operations Specialist Jason Dailey, sector operator at the Vessel Traffic Center at Coast Guard Activities New York, Staten Island, N.Y. monitors vessel traffic in the New York Harbor. USCG photo by PA2 Mike Hvozda.

BM2 Erin de la Cruz, a controller at Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) Houston, monitors the tracks of numerous ships and barges as they make their way along one of largest concentrations of heavy industry and maritime traffic in the world.

At LOOP‘s Marine Terminal, vessel traffic controllers maintain a 24-hour watch over all vessel traffic in the LOOP controlled safety zone. Similar to air traffic controllers, they monitor radar and maintain continual radio communication with tankers.

NorControl VOC 5060 system as installed and operating at the
Marine Exchange’s Vessel Traffic Center, which runs VTS for
Los Angeles/Long Beach Harbor in partnership with the U.S. Coast Guard

Europe:

Monitoring vessel traffic in the South West Lane. The three screens to the right of the picture provide the operator with live radar coverage of vessel traffic throughout the Dover Strait

The Vessel Traffic Service Centre in Bremen

London

Horten Norway

Asia:

The Chief Executive, Mr Donald Tsang, visiting the Hong Kong Marine Department to better understand their work in vessel traffic control, marine rescue and co-ordination, as well as ship registry and safety inspections.

VTS Hong Kong

Singapore

Vessel Traffic Service Links;

• World VTS Guide
• International VTS consultants
• VTS – Wikipedia
• VTS Videos

It was a little less than a month ago that I mentioned the newly found blog of Vice Admiral Papp, the Atlantic Area Commander, where it was noted that he was on a trip visiting our folks on the other side of the pond who are pulling duty as part of Patrol Forces Southwest Asia (PATFORSWA). Well it just so happens that two days before he left I’d requested an interview with him, however, that had to wait until his return. Though it would have been nice to be blogging from afar…

Anyway, from what I’ve figured out the official party went to the Azores, Naples, Kuwait, Bahrain, back to Kuwait, Northern Arabian Gulf, Umm Qsar (Iraq), Valletta (Malta), and back home… wow. From the photos alone I’d say they made it to every single one of our Coasties out there showing the support of LANTAREA. I’ll be posting more of the photos as part of our Coast Guard Image series in the near future.

Click HERE for the full interview.