Wall Street Journal News Radio host Michael Castner discusses the actions of the Costa Concordia’s Captain, Francesco Schettino, with Rob Almeida.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Earlier this week Ben Strong from Amver and his co-host Admiral Jim Watson of the United States Coast Guard sat down for their second episode of Quaterdeck, a maritime industry podcast, where they discussed last weeks CMA Shipping conference, piracy, and social media in the maritime industry.

You can listen to the full podicast HERE, or download the full transcript HERE, but we’ll give you some highlights below.

On last weeks CMA Shipping 2011 exhibition held in Stamford Conn.:

Benjamin: I would have to say if there was a dominant theme at CMA this year was definitely a piracy issue. There was a significant presentation on piracy; Admiral Cook was on a panel with that. Mr. Douglas Stevenson from the Seamens’ Church Institute was on that panel. Clay Maitland from the Marshall Islands Registry was there as well.

On the USCG’s response to piracy:

Ben: A lot of times, I think people, there’s a misconception perhaps that, as the United States Coast Guard, that we limit our sphere of responsibility to our coast, and that’s not necessarily the case, particularly as it relates to piracy, is it, Admiral?

Admiral Watson: Not at all. The wake up call was the Maersk Alabama Case, which of course, involved a US flag vessel with US merchant mariners was on there. But we’re interested in piracy just because it is an international crime. It definitely affects all of us who depend on maritime transportation system. Our economy is very dependent on international trade, most of which goes on ships. So, we’re dealing with the situation in Somalia right now, which happens to be a very highly trafficked area in the global marine transportation system.

So, the United States is taking actions, and the Coast Guard in particular, I think has stepped out right after the Maersk Alabama case with a modifications to maritime security directives that were in place for shipwards security measures as well as engagements with other agencies in the federal government as well as our activities at IMO and with international shipping associations.

Talking to Brett Keil of The Maritime Executive magazine and Maritime Executive Group on LinkedIn, now with over 12,000 members, on how social media is being used in the maritime community:

Ben: Tell me a little bit about your social media group that you have.

Brett: We started back in 2007. It was an effort to build our circulation – you’re short staff, new company, just launched a magazine in tough times. We didn’t have the wherewithal to hire somebody to find a bunch of new people read our magazine. Also, the LinkedIn site had just began, so I saw a lot of people I know, not in the maritime actually utilizing the site. A lot of graduate students, professionals using it as a network, so I thought, “What a great way to get in front of my clientele.” So I randomly start searching, saw a handful of my clients and people that we’ve written about on the covers, invited them to connect. They were open to connecting and it gave me the idea to start a group. Protect their name, form a group where we can have viable discussions, we can discuss articles. Good for branding for us, but really just to get the word out, what’s going on in the maritime community, and build our circulation, and it’s been strong.

Ben: So you found that social media has been good for you, how would you say social media as being embraced by the entire maritime sector?

Brett: The older generation, they’re skeptical about it, just like online banking and everything else. A lot of magazines are not active on it, it’s too transparent for them. It threatens them because that’s their whole model. That’s their audience, they don’t want to reveal. We will get it a different way, like for transparent, you see all these people in trade shows anyway, there’s no reason to hide that. The beauty of it is we could show people that don’t go to trade shows that read our magazine, that’s our target reader. The fleet superintendent in a foreign country, a guy working in Romania, from Germany, or a regional expat in Brazil or a US guy working on a pipeline in Alaska. Those are the kinds of people we want to target, and they spend the most time on social media, whether they’re held up in their hotel room or on a cabin of a boat, they’ve nothing to do with their time other than reach out to their family and then go on these kinds of sites.

Good job guys!

Listen: An Editor-to-Editor Podcast for JOC.com

The full transcript can be found at the Journal of Commerce HERE.

Recently, gCaptain’s own John Konrad hooked up with his old podcasting partner Peter Mellow of Sea-Fever to bring to us Weekly Leader podcast episode 68.  In this episode, they had the opportunity to interview Lloyd’s Lists Shipmaster of The Year, Captain Alwin Landry, who was the master of Tidewater Marine’s OSV Damon Bankston which was tied up to the Deepwater Horizon when it exploded on April 20th.  Due to the efforts of Captain Landry and his crew, they were able to rescue all 115 survivors.

Have a listen below to Captain Landry’s interview where he provides some details on what happened that fateful night.

Weekly Leader Podcast Episode 68

Link to Podcast:

Weekly Leader Podcast 60 | Captain John Konrad, gCaptain.com on the Deepwater Horizon sinking

This week Peter invited his old maritime podcast partner, Captain John Konrad of gCaptain.com to talk about his life as a drill rig captain and the BP oil spill. Also, Wally Bock’s look at the best leadership on the independent business blogs and some podsafe music. sea-fever.org

Fellow blogger and podcasting partner, Peter A. Mello, of Sea-Fever.org and Messing About in Ships had the distinguished honor last week of interviewing USCG Commandant Admiral Thad Allen in his other podcast, Weekly Leader.

Peter tells us on his blog:

In 2006 United States Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen was joined by investor Warren Buffett, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Proctor & Gamble Chief Executive Officer Arthur Lafley, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and 12 other impressive individuals in being named by US News & World Report as one of America’s Best Leaders. Today Admiral Allen leads nearly 100,000 enlisted, reservist, civilian and auxiliary men and woman who fulfill the Coast Guard’s mission “to protect the public, the environment, and U.S. economic and security interests in any maritime region in which those interests may be at risk, including international waters and America’s coasts, ports, and inland waterways.”

Check out Sea-Fever.org for more info including show notes from episode 5 of Weekly Leader.

Weekly Leader HOMEPAGE

For more be sure to read Mass Maritime Cadet Christiaan Conover’s interview with the Admiral (Part 1 and Part 2) then visit his official iCommandant blog and twitter pages.

Update: Click here to read gCaptain’s interview with Admiral Thad Allen

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Episode 36 of the maritime podcast Messing About In Ships with Sea-Fever.org‘s Peter Mello and our very own John Konrad.

Download MP3: Messing About In Ships Episode 36 April 1, 2009

In this Episode:

• Interview with Ben Strong from Amver (Twitter @amver) about the 2009 Connecticut Maritime Association Shipping Conference in Stamford, CT.
• Music: The World The People Together by The Dandy Warhols and Invisible by Wendy & Lisa (Podsafe Music Network)

Subscribe Via iTunes HERE

Coming Soon – Shownotes @ Messing About In Ships blog

Download MP3: Messing About In Ships Episode 35 March 19, 2009 (61 minutes)

Subscribe Via iTunes HERE

Interview

This week Peter Mello interviewed Nick Jaffe (Twitter @bigoceans) about his solo sailing adventures and sponsorship challenge from the social media / online crusing guide BlueMapia. Please register (for free) for BlueMapia and plot a few points of interest on their online cruising guide to help raise some sponsorship for the remainder of Nick’s adventure.

Nick’s Boat:

News Items

USNS Impeccable Story

• Impeccable Article
• Chinese Fishing Vessel / Navy Incident FAQ
• Video Explanation
• Charlie Rose Interview With Admiral Mullen

Hawaii SuperFerry

• All gCaptain Hawaii Superferry Blog Articles
• Maritime Executive Magazine – Joe Keefe’s Superferry Article

Interesting Items:

• Maritime Terms Quiz!
• Heidi Cool’s Web Development Blog

Twitter Links:

• Heidi Cool On Twitter
• gCaptain On Twitter
• SeaFever On Twitter

Events:

• Seatrade 2009
• CMA’s Shipping 2009 – Visit us at Booth 108

Music: Wave Over Wave by The Great Big Sea and So Far Down by David Usher

Santa Maria Shipping – Short Sea Shipping

This week John interviews Stas Magaronis, President of Santa Maria Shipowning and Trading about green and short sea shipping and the marine highway. Music: Radioghost by Norwegian Recycling from Mashuptown.com

Subscribe Via iTunes HERE

Download MP3: Messing About in Ships episode 34, March 12, 2009

Shownotes @ Messing About In Ships blog

(64 minutes)

Download MP3: Messing About In Ships podcast episode 32

Subscribe Via iTunes HERE

This episode features initial thoughts on US Airways Flight 1549 incident (Sea Fever Coverage HERE) and an Interview with AMVER. ]]> http://gcaptain.com/interview-with-amver-mais-podcast-episode-32/?5820/feed/ 0