Maritime Monday 166

The following is posted by Fred Fry:

Welcome to this 166th edition of Maritime Monday.

You can find Maritime Monday 116 here. (Published 23 June 2008)

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 Amsterdam’s Waterland Terminal:

A multi-purpose, stevedoring- and terminal operating company in the port of Amsterdam, existing since 1947.

Waterland Terminal handles various cargo’s in three covered berths, suitable for the loading and discharge of vessels up to about 7500 tons and on one open berth with Ro-Ro facilities.

The terminals are designed for modern cargo handling. The well-maintained warehouses provide an optimal location for your cargo. Waterland Terminal stands for quality, flexibility and reliability.

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Their homepage can be found here.

The Journal of Commerce has “Video: Amsterdam’s Waterland Terminal survives the downturn“.

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This Week’s Items:

EagleSpeak has amazing attack photos in “Somali Pirates: View of the Attacked“.

gCaptain has “Maritime Jobs – 101 Tips To Find A Dream Job At Sea“.

gCaptain also has “Lifeboat Incident Video – Dropped From The Falls“. It is a good example how accidents happen quickly with little time to react. And this is a piece of equipment meant to save your life. As you can see, it can just as easily take it.

Kennebec Captain has “Lifeboats and Car Ships – unsafe at any height.“

Houston Ship Pilot/Photographer OneEightteen has “America’s Port is Houston“.

Despite the PR claims of Los Angeles, Houston is the #1 port in the US and has been since 2004. By a factor of three…. about 21,000 ship visits in Houston in 2008 as opposed to a little over 7,000 in LA.

Towmasters: the Master of Towing Vessels Assoc. Forum has “Still Licensed For Life! Now I Miss The F.C.C. Even More…..” as he explains how you can get a new license with no expiration date, for free. I need to go check mine.

BitterEnd has photos of the new passport-style license with “Capt. Simpson’s new Merchant Mariner Credential“. Interesting in that it references the ‘Seafarers’ Identity DocumentsConvention (Revised) 2003 of the International Labour Organization’ given that the US refused to sign that Convention. Worse, the document does not appear to be in compliance with that Convention.

Casco Bay Boaters Blog has “Cummings Introduces Maritime Education Bill“.

MarineBuzz has “Essential Dry Docking Course by Lloyd’s Register” and “Black Box: Locating Flight Recorder of Air France Flight 447 in Atlantic Ocean“.

Information Dissemination has “UN Resolution For Military Embargo Passes“. Lets see who answers the call to inspect North Korea’s shipping. I would say that the US should, given that the North already hates and is threatening us.

US Naval Institute Blog has Maersk’s “Stephen Carmel At USNI/AFCEA Joint War Fighting Conference 2009” where he discusses a number of transportation issues.

In thinking about how to disable a port we tend to go to the large big bang attacks such as that noted above. In some areas it is much easier. First and foremost we return to the idea of IT. Modern automated ports are an intricate ballet of big machines and 20-ton boxes, all choreographed by computers. If the computers stop working, or data integrity becomes suspect, the terminals stop working. It really only takes a couple talented hackers and access to the Internet to disable a container terminal, no need to get anywhere near it.

Bob Couttie’s Maritime Accident Casebook has “Free Anti-Piracy Chart Launched“.

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Helsingin Sanomat has “Divers find Soviet submarine sunk in Ã…land Sea in 1940“.

Puget Sound Maritime has “Future unclear for ferry weather service forecasters and boaters say is critical” and “Coast Guard District 13 and “Social Media”” dealing with a false man overboard report.

Post-Gazette has “Mediator tackles mariner dispute“.

Essentially, the mariners contend their service during World War II was equal to the service of the military branches so they should be recognized on the front of the monument. The World War II committee members counter that the mariners were not military veterans so they shouldn’t be on the front of the memorial. Merchant mariners were given veteran status administratively through federal legislation during the 1980s.

During the session for the general public, most speakers supported the World War II committee’s decision about plaque placement.

The disagreement between the sides has been particularly acrimonious. They even argue over the national World War II monument in Washington, D.C. Though the Merchant Marine is mentioned on the front of that monument, some committee members argue that the mention is on a section of the monument that is not integral to the monument itself and therefore doesn’t amount to equal billing.

The Globe and Mail (Canada) has “Thinning ice already increasing traffic in Northwest Passage – Ottawa not doing enough to ensure Canadians control commercial shipping there, experts say“.

Marine Conservation News has “Grocery Stores Stop Selling Marlin“.

Wegmans, quite possibly the best grocery store in the US, has decided to stop selling Marlin, swordfish, and billfish in all of their 72 stores in response to the Take Marlin Off the Menu campaign.

CNET News has “First floating wind turbine buoyed off Norway“.

Radiojamaica has “Canisters with ganja & ammo found on ships“. Attached to the hull actually.

Lloyd;s List Newsroom Blog has “Bankers in distress“.

There is a growing body of opinion, for example, that suggests that banks are increasingly using the fall in asset values to trigger a withdrawal from financial commitments on newbuilding orders.

Using minimum value clauses as a means of reducing, legitimately, the banks’ exposure to newbuilding contracts will be an influence on the number of cancellations shipbuilders are sustaining, and thus on the future level of shipping capacity and freight rates.

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Lloyds List has coverage of Nor Shipping 2009 on their site “Lloyds List Live“. Last year had the controversy, which was covered in the gCaptain Forum “Painted Girls Not Welcome“. The issue from last year seems to have blown over as the Lloyd’s List gallery included the following photo of the event:

The Maritime Executive has a dose of reality with “On the Back Burner (Again)“.

Looking back on last November’s contentious and prolonged presidential and congressional elections, I can’t help but remember the impassioned zeal with which one candidate or another would bestow his or her support for the maritime industries and the collective waterfront. That was then; this is now. Fast forward to the dog days of summer and you’ll hear a different tune altogether. In a depressingly similar theme that has played itself out time and time again, the maritime agenda is quietly being pushed to the back burner as more pressing issues take up every inch of newspaper print and television coverage. As this happens, you shouldn’t be surprised. You should not be happy about it, either.

Bryant’s Maritime Blog has “F/V owner fined $500,000 for illegal fishing“. The name of the vessel is MARSHALLS 201.

The US Coast Guard issued a press release stating that the owner of a foreign fishing vessel paid a fine of $500,000 for illegally fishing in the US Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) around Howland and Baker Islands in the central Pacific. (6/10/09).

Tugster has photos “River Day 5 Gunnery“.

BreakBulk Industry News has “Heavy lift vessels call Bay Bulls Marine Terminal on Canada’s Atlantic Coast“.

Deep Water Writing has “Photo’s from my last hitch“.

AP has “$50M in stimulus will help fish farmers buy feed“.

OSAGE BEACH, Mo. (AP) — The United States is about to spend $50 million in stimulus money on fish food to help fish farmers who have been struggling since feed prices jumped 50 percent last year.

How much you want to bet that the price increase can be traced back to Government stupidity related to try and ‘fix’ something else.

Mail Online (UK) has the amazing photo “Pictured: Giant blue whale floats belly-up after being killed in a tragic collision with a ship“. Actually, they are guessing that it was a ship that hit it. Guess it is also possible that the whale just died of natural causes?

Lighthouse News has “East Hampton Taking Over Montauk Lighthouse“. Apparently the lighthouse is in danger from the sea.

Animal Planet has a deleted scene from Whale Wars: “Whale Wars: Ice Threatens the Rudder“. Maybe they should rename the ship ICEBERG HUNTER. Pretty shocking how the hull flexed as it was fed a steady diet of ice. Just as shocking how none of the senior officers were anywhere near that space to check on the amount of damage being received. And can’t the ship still float with a flooded rope locker? They also have an interesting way of keeping the crew busy in hunting down their gumby suites.

Terra Daily has “Cousteau-inspired adventure to explore ocean for decade“. Wasn’t this a movie?

Theo Spark has video: “The Hovercraft is 50 Today…….“

IceNews has “Sale of Icelandic whale meat in turmoil“. The Japanese don’t seem to want it anymore.

Freaque Waves looks at “‘Wave piercing’ boat design“.

HollandAmericaBlog has shipyard photos: “Nieuw Amsterdam — The Assembly Continues“.

Steeljaw Scribe has “Remembering USS Liberty: 8 June 1967” listing some of the issues still debated.

The Stupid Shall Be Punished has the background behind “Wear Your Dolphins To Work Day: April 9, 2010“.

Tims Times has problems with culture in “No blame“.

Greenpeace has “An Inconvenient Tuna“.

Here in the UK, bluefin tuna has suddenly become the posterboy for overfishing, largely thanks to the new film The End of the Line.

The BBC has a video report “Could tuna disappear from the sea?” and “European tuna fishing ban“.

The Times of Malta has “UNHCR award to Turkish ship in migrants’ rescue“.

“The award is given to those individuals who help refugees in difficult conditions and make their lives easier. We hope that the behaviour of captain Asik and owner Erdogdu will be a good role model,” Gaude was quoted as saying by Turkish media.

The ship picked up the migrants off the Italian island of Lampedusa, and a diplomatic storm then developed as Italy refused to allow them in, and so did Malta.

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Fairplay Daily News has:

Starving crew’s ship arrested – A GERMAN cargo ship was arrested in the Norwegian port of Larvik today after reports that its crew had not been paid for two months and were living on fruit and vegetables.

Kormorant’s owner and skipper, Klaus Jules from Rostock in Germany, was ordered to pay the crew by Norwegian authorities.

When he refused, authorities placed under arrest the 650dwt ship, which was carrying a cargo of sand.

International Transport Workers Federation inspector Truls Hellenes, who boarded the ship, told Fairplay today: “The captain has refused to negotiate, and I am about to arrest the ship.

“Its three crew members have been taken off and put up in a hotel. They have not been paid for two months and have been living on fruit and vegetables.

“The captain even turned off the electricity,” Hellenes added. – Fairplay Homepage (Used with Permission)

AND:

Why African competition lags – AN AFRICA report by economists has concluded that weak transport infrastructure, including ports, is a major factor preventing the continent from becoming more competitive.

The report – compiled by the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the World Economic Forum – was prepared for the World Economic Forum on Africa, which is under way in Cape Town.

Inland transport costs should be addressed via advances in infrastructure and deregulation, it found. A road transport network to move goods inland from ports – acting to link stronger economies such as Nigeria and South Africa – could increase trade by $250Bn in 15 years, the report found.

That would stimulate shipping demand, but such a network remains a distant prospect, the economists noted. – 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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