Maritime Monday 125

Welcome to this 125th edition of Maritime Monday.

You can find Maritime Monday 75 here. (Published 10 September 2007)

You can find last week’s edition here .

You can find links to all the previous editions at the bottom of this post. You are encouraged to participate using the comment link/form at the bottom of the post. If you have photos or stories to tell, do email me at [email protected].

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This Week’s Photos:

This week’s photos come from the website of Sweden’s Broström Group:

Broström is one of the leading logistics companies for the oil and chemical industry, focusing on industrial product and chemical tanker shipping and marine services.

Broström supplies the oil and chemical industry with complete, global transport solutions with a strong focus on quality and safety. Broström’s 1,200 employees are active throughout the world.

BRO ANTON

BRO ELLEN

BRO GALAXY

BRO CECILE

BRO JOINVILLE

Their homepage can be found here.

Lloyd’s List has “AP Moller unleashes $569m bid for Brostrom“.

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This Week’s Items:

EagleSpeak has the US Navy’s establishment of a “Gulf of Aden Maritime Security Zone” including a chart of the route that merchant shipping should take through the area as it will be patrolled by ‘Combined Task Force 150’ so at least theoretically, help wouldn’t be too far away, provided that your quick enough to call for it. Information Dissemination, which covers fleet operations, notes that the current rules of engagement will limit the effectiveness since only surface vessels can shoot back with anything other than a camera. That is a rule that should quickly be changed.

Also be sure to check out EagleSpeak‘s weekly series “Sunday Ship History: Big Storm Bravery“.

gCaptain has “VTS Photo Gallery – A look inside maritime vessel traffic services worldwide.“.

gCaptain has “Interesting Ship of The Week – SEABEE: Heavy Lift Barge Carrier“.

Japan Probe has “‘Bullying’ in the SDF: Court rules that superior’s insults caused sailor’s suicide“.

New York Daily News has “Staten Island ferry crash haunts my dreams, paralyzed victim says“. He was one of the persons ashore injured in the crash.

Russian News & Information Agency has the latest propaganda with “Russia ‘could destroy NATO ships in Black Sea within 20 minutes’“. Unfortunately for us, we need to wait for them to shoot first, giving them an advantage if they decide to blindside us. They also have a photo presentation: “Russian Navy modernized“.

The Monitor has the results of a study on the effects of fatigue on seafarers in “Who needs a drink when you are working 14hrs a day“. Among other things, the report ‘found that risks were particularly high where a two-watch system was used’.

Kiwi At Sea has “Maritime bloggers beware” as he was forced to choose between his current job and blogging with the end resulted in packed seabags and an early discharge. I am sure many of the maritime bloggers are self censoring when it comes to dealing with confidential information. On the other hand, blogging makes it more likely that sensitive/embarrassing news might be exposed, hopefully resulting in businesses being more open to disclosure, if for no other reason than to avoid negative information coming out in an uncontrolled manner. Anyway, this is one of the things you have to put up with when sailing. While the company pays you only for the 8-12 hours a day (7 days a week, including mandatory overtime) you are working, they tell you how to behave 24 hours a day. Like having a beer when you get home from work? Good luck doing that on most ships these days. More coverage at MarineBuzz. More: Things could be worse!

globeandmail.com has “Billed as unsinkable, a tiny ship is tossed“. The ship was the UGLY TOO and despite being ‘unsinkable’, sank.

Bob Couttie’s Maritime Accident Casebook has a new series, Ships of Shame. This month profiling the Lebanese-Flag MV SUNLIGHT BEY.

Sea * Fever has the latest edition of “Messing About In Ships Podcast Episode 29“.

Robin Storm – In Search of Severe Weather has “Harnessing the Tides“, in Maine.

Deep Water Writing has lots of photos giving a “Virtual tour” of his ship.

The BBC has “Manila ferry blast suspect held“.

Skipper’s Scrivenings has ‘Mercy is the largest ship to visit Chuuk since the Yamato anchored here in 1943.’. (Chuuk used to be know as ‘Truk’. Many Japanese ships were sunk there in 1944.)

US Navy Newsstand has “Fleet Commander Orders Bataan Underway” in case of possible need in hurricane relief.

The Official Blog of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation has “MARAD Administrator Sean Connaughton: Celebrating Progress” as he notes the removal of the 75th obsolete ship from the Ready Reserve Fleet for recycling since January of 2001.

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The Guardian has “Sending waste to China saves carbon emissions“.

Now the counterintuitive conclusions of the report from the Waste Resources Action Programme (Wrap) suggest that the advantage of recycling over landfilling is so great that it makes environmental sense to ship waste right round the world if it can be used again.

Well the US is already reclaiming methane from some garbage dumps and has finally figured out how to recycle used tires, so at what point will it become profitable to mine our garbage dumps for raw materials and fuel?

BarentsObserver has “The last radioactive lighthouses get solar technology” as Norway pays to clean up some more of Russia’s nuclear mess.

Lloyd’s List has “DP World eyes Indian projects after doubling first-half earnings “.

Lloyd’s List Newsroom Blog has “Piracy: act now“.

BitterEnd has “Train Wreck“. It all starts with a request to deliver a wrench to a boat that needed one, located two hours away.

blue water: news of my escape pisses off the tug company he has been working for lately as he is called back to sea early for the other company he was working for. They tempted him back with the promise of a permanent third mate’s job, once he gets his license. See “the conundrum“. Do promises mean anything in this current job market? Back in 1994 promises didn’t mean…

Tugster has photos of New York’s “Tug Race 2008“. More coverage at gCaptain.

Wired has “Georgian Navy’s Cruel Fate“.

Cryosphere Today has daily images and animation of the ice cover, or lack of it, at the polar regions.

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euobserver has “Transport in the European Union“.

More than 500 airports, 190,000 km of railways, 200,000 km of motorways. 35,000 km of waterways and 1200 seaports caters for the European Union’s half a billion people every single day. The transport sector accounts for some €1000 billion – or over 10 percent of the EU total gross domestic product (GDP) – and employs 10 million people.

But the increase in traffic in the last few decades has created serious congestion problems in urban areas across the bloc, which in turn cause health problems and delays that could at the present rate cost the 27-member bloc one percent of its GDP by 2010 and therefore dent Europe’s economic competitiveness on the global market.

MarEx Newsletter has “Transportation Safety Board of Canada Investigation into Capsizing of L’Acadien II Continues“.

Malta Today is investigating allegations of massive fraud and theft as tons of illegally-caught tuna is landed in Malts for shipment to Japan in “Fishy is as fishy does – How Malta’s multi-million euro tuna ranching industry is driving the Mediterranean bluefin tuna to the brink of extinction. By Raphael Vassallo“, “IS AZZOPARDI ABOVE THE LAW? – No action taken by Attorney General over inquiry into the illegal reflagging of fishing boats, that found “false information” was tendered by fishing magnate’s company” and “Big fish in a small pond” as the paper prepares to fight multiple libel lawsuits.

According to Japanese export statistics, Malta exported in one year close to 12 million kgs of tuna to this country. But experts and wildlife conservation organisations claim that the Maltese tuna farming industry can only physically ranch, and therefore produce, 6 million kg of tuna.
Answers supplied by fisheries minister George Pullicino of how Malta could have realistically farmed such an enormous amount of tuna have been published, but still opens up his ministry and this government to some serious allegations of possible involvement in an international tuna laundering racket: allegations which this newspaper is informed are now being examined by the European Commission, as well as by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT).

IceNews has “Norway introduces tough new commercial fishing laws” requiring ‘all fish caught within its waters to be landed at an official fishing port. The regulations will state that all boats, regardless of nationality, must take their catch back to a proper port in a bid to discourage wasteful dumping of fish when boats do not have a quota’.

An Unofficial Coast Guard Blog has news from South Korea in “Coast Guard Steps Up Defense of Disputed Islets“. Japan also sees the islands as theirs, they are just lack possession of them at the moment.

Neptunus Lex has budget cuts for the Royal Navy in “The 1000- 979-ship Navy“. One commenter points out that the Royal Navy has almost as many active Admirals as they have large vessels.

Information Dissemination has “Five Good Reads – Submarine Edition“.

The Maritime has “Plan on navigating the Northwest Passage? Plan again” as Canada gets ready to assert more influence in the region.

MarineBuzz has “Royal Navy Sailors Test Positive for Cocaine“.

All At Sea has a look back in “Cruising Tales: Brainless Boating Invades the US Virgin Islands“.

Physorg has “Methane gas oozing up from Siberian seabed: Swedish researcher“.

ThisIsLondon has “Pictured: Divers discover amazingly preserved shipwreck of HMS London on bottom of Thames“.

dukestudy.org has “Seagulls: A Study in the Magic of Flight“.

The Philadelphia Enquirer has “Court rules Aker ships are ‘made in USA’“. At issue was the amount of foreign-made parts used

Hellenic Shipping News has “Morgan Stanley warns on bulker cancellations“.

Free Ship Plans has ““Hermes” Tugboat Plans“.

THE PRIVATE ISLANDS BLOG has “Towan Island, Cornwell UK“.

The European Union and their blasted rules have struck again. This time they’ve managed to make Newquay in Cornwall, England lose its claim to being the world’s smallest island.

Her Captain’s Voice has “Indian Navy: A Helping Navy more than a Fighting Navy“.

WebUrbanist has “14 Amazingly Beautiful and Historic Lighthouses From Around the World: Part Seven in an Eight-Part Amazing Houses Series“.

WebUrbanist also has “How to Subvert Your House: Buying, Designing and Building Cargo Container Homes“.

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Haight’s Maritime Items has:

USN – maritime security patrol area established in Gulf of Aden – The US Naval Forces Central Command issued a news release stating that it directed establishment of a Maritime Security Patrol Area (MSPA) in the Gulf of Aden. Coalition warships will patrol the area and aircraft will fly in the airspace above. The MSPA is being established in support of the IMO’s ongoing efforts to suppress piracy. (8/22/08). – Dennis Bryant Holland & Knight homepage (Used with Permission)

AND:

Canada – extension of jurisdiction over Arctic waters – The Office of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a media release stating that the Government of Canada will extend its jurisdiction over Arctic waters. Legislation will be introduced to amend the Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act so as to regulate ships operating within 200 nautical miles of the nearest Canadian land. Regulations will be established to require mandatory reporting from all ships destined for Canadian Arctic waters. (8/27/08). – Dennis Bryant Holland & Knight homepage (Used with Permission)

Fairplay Daily News has:

Iranian port ops on block – Nearly half of Iranian port and container terminal operator Tidewater will be sold as a block on the Tehran Stock Exchange.

Fairplay has learned that the sale is due to take place on the 3 September and will involve 96M shares, representing 44.5% of the company. About 91M shares will be sold through the Tehran Stock Exchange, with the other 5M shares to be offered to Tidewater employees.

The estimated target price is $1.05 per share, although the final price will be set via auction. The target price implies an overall valuation for Tidewater of $227M.

To participate, interested investors must deposit $3M with Melli Bank of Iran before 2 September (Melli Bank is subject to international sanctions). The successful buyer must pay half of the sale price initially, with the remainder paid in six-month installments over the next three years.

Tidewater handles 40% of Iran’s port operations and 93% of its container movements. It reported profits in the 2007-8 financial year of $50.5M – Fairplay Homepage (Used with Permission)

AND:

CROATIA has announced that its six government-owned shipyards will be sold before 2009. – Economy minister Damir Polancec said a draft of a tender for the yards has been drawn up by the ministry and the privatisation fund. Croatia decided to sell after talks with the European Commission, news reports indicated.

But union officials were perturbed by the speed of the initiative.

Zvonko Segvic, speaking for the Independent Union of Workers at the largest yard in Croatia, Brodosplit, warned: “We will not accept this without there being a significant social aspect to the proposal.”

Ozren Matijasevic, the head of the Croatian Association of Trade Unions, voiced concern that jobs might be lost in a privatisation.

“The 10,000 employees at the shipyards throughout Croatia will now be worried about keeping their jobs,” Matijasevic added.

Opposition leader Ljubo Jurcic from the Social Democratic Party earlier warned that privatising the yards could endanger up to 42,000 jobs tied to the industry.

“Private investors will only be concerned about their own interests and not the sector as a whole,” he predicted.

The yards are: Brodosplit in Split, Brodotrogir in Trogir, Kraljevica in Kraljevica, Maj in Rijeka, Uljanik in Pula and Viktor Lenac in Martinscica, near Rijeka. – Fairplay Homepage (Used with Permission)

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Submissions for future editions:

Please submit articles for inclusion in next week’s edition using the following submit form at Blog Carnival. You are also welcome to email stories and photos to [email protected] for inclusion in future editions as well as suggest areas of coverage.

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Previous Editions: As linked below or click on the tag ‘Maritime Monday’ for all gCaptain editions.

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