Maritime Monday 178

The following is posted by Fred Fry:

Welcome to this 178th edition of Maritime Monday.

You can find Maritime Monday 128 here. (Published 22 September 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 amazing flickr account of diario portuario / Cesar Neves who is located in Brazil:

* PRIDE PORTLAND *

* SANTA ISABEL – TAKEN IN CSN TERMINAL – ITAGUAI – BRASIL *

* DEEPWATER MILLENNIUM – Taken in jacuecanga harbour – angra dos reis – brasil *

* MSC ANTARES – Msc antares run agroud in the island jurubaiba – mangaratiba – brasil *

* ABUSADO *

* GUANABARA BAY *

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This Week’s Items:

EagleSpeak has “Strait of Malacca: Piracy off Singapore“.

gCaptain has “U.S. Seafarers Already Seeing Affects of Proposed Changes to Jones Act“.

Should the proposals by the US Customs and Borders Protection (CBP) first issued in July 2009 be implemented, they would radically change the interpretations of rules for vessels transporting specialised equipment used by the offshore oil and gas industry and revoke foreign flag exemptions to the Jones Act including pipe and cable-laying, diving support work.

The Journal of Commerce has union needs clashing against everyone else’s in “ILA’s Employers Won’t Yield on Technology“.

James Capo, chairman and CEO of United States Maritime Alliance, said he was disappointed by rejection of what management considered a “fair and very generous offer.” But he said employers won’t yield to ILA demands to halt the introduction of labor-saving technology at ports.

“Our members are adamant that they are not going to allow the ILA to basically veto technology. If that happens, we’re all dead,” Capo said. “We cannot and will not agree to that position, ever.”

The ILA demanded a freeze on introduction of new technology during the contract extension. The ILA’s executive vice president, Harold Daggett, who plans to seek the union presidency in 2011, was especially vocal on the issue, saying he wanted to prevent the spread of automated terminals like the one APM Terminals opened two years ago in Hampton Roads.

Flags of Convenience asks “Arctic Sea cargo flown back to Russia?” given the size and number of Russian transports needed to bring the crew and pirates back to Russia. I don’t think so as if that was the case, they would not be bringing the ship back to Russia. Then again, maybe the intention was to fly un-manifested cargo back to Russia…

The Old Salt Blog has breaking news: “Superferry 9 sinks in southern Philippines“.

Rescuers transferred 900 of the 968 passengers and crewmen to two nearby commercial ships, a navy gunboat and a fishing boat, he said. A search was under way for the missing, who may have drifted in life jackets or been rescued and not yet listed as survivors.

The ferry left the southern port city of General Santos on Saturday and had been scheduled to arrive in Iloilo city, in the central Philippines, . There were no signs of possible terrorism, Tamayo said.

War is Boring has “French Propose “Stupidity Tax” for Pirate Victims“. We need more of this. Too bad people keep getting told that nothing is their fault. At least the French have put adventurers on notice that being caught by pirates is your fault.

Sea * Fever has must-see video: “Top Gear’s Car Boat Challenge Part 2 – Driving to France (from England!)“.

NY TUGMASTER’S WEBLOG has photos: “Shipyard, uh boy……“

Springbored’s Springboard asks “Support A Non-Smoking Navy?“

ShipGaz has “Green light for mixed crews on Finnish ships“.

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Watts Up With That? has “Finally, a sea level rise NOT blamed on global warming“.

Casco Bay Boaters Blog has a “Slide Show: Trap Day on Monhegan“.

CargoLaw has photos and the story of the accident and near disaster between the M/V MSC Nikita & M/V Nirint Pride. (Is it just me or does it seem that MSC gets into these sorts of situations all too often? Leave a comment on what you think.)

The Merchant Marine Express has “Departing Africa“.

The channel buoys which usually blink at night, in orchestrated fashion between paired sets, were now less than reliable, as half the marker’s bulbs burnt out offering only a blip on radar revealing to us the evidence of their existence. And with high tide as the primary determining factor for when all shipping ‘traffic’ were to commence passage through the river, most all inbound or outbound traffic passed by precariously close to one another, and to us, at some point during the passage. The pilot usually tasked to conn a vessel in and out of dangerous and unknown regions such as this, was late in boarding as the point of embarkation was pushed further and further, deep into the snaking channel.

Helsingin Sanomat has the latest (which is not much) in “NBI: no knowledge of alleged weapons cargo on Arctic Sea“.

MarineBuzz has Royal Malaysian Navy’s first submarine in “Weekend View: Welcome Ceremony for KD Tunku Abdul Rahman“.

MarineBuzz also has “ASA to Sponsor Conference: Wrecks of the World – Hidden Risks of the Deep (WOW)“. (ASA = American Salvage Association)

Within My Means discovers “S.S. Lane Victory–WWII Cargo Ship” while filming a TV shoot at the vessel.

AllAfrica has “Africa: Developing Countries Brace for Tougher Fishing Regime” as the EU toughens regulations on fish imports to fight overfishing.

FIS has selfishness from Malta in “Government prepares to fight tuna ban“.

Malta makes a yearly EUR 100 million from the tuna trade, claims an unpublished tuna industry report. The document is expected to help the national government fight off the international bluefin tuna trade ban proposed by the European Union (EU) when it is published within the next few weeks.

Despite the country’s relatively small fleet in relation to those of other tuna-fishing Mediterranean nations, Malta is a major player in the tuna trade network. Out of the region’s tuna farms, Malta’s Azzopardi Fisheries is the biggest.

Irish Examiner has “EU ponder scrapping fish catch limits“.

“Every vessel would receive an allowance in days at sea, which the vessel owners would manage throughout the year.

“The idea here is that the skipper can land all catches. This would be interesting for mixed fisheries since it would greatly reduce discards. It would also take away any reason to falsely declare catches and would be easier to control.”

The BBC has “Fish fears after sea farm escape” as some salmon swim through a hole in a net in Scotland.

Mercury News has “San Francisco Bay’s last commercial fishery closes“. No commercial herring from the Bay for the first time since the 1870’s.

Tugster has “Sixth Boro Sailing Barges“. He has many more related posts on the Dutch barges arriving in New York as well as the recent tugboat races. So be sure to hit his hompage and scroll through the million pictures he has posted.

Information Dissemination has “Naval War Warning in the Black Sea“.

The order appears to be a reaction to a Georgian court sentencing a Turkish ship captain to 24 years in jail for sailing his freighter to Abkhazia without Tbilisi’s consent. Georgia has been siezing ships attempting to trade with Abkhazia, basically applying a blockade on the territory, requiring ships to get permission before trading.

Maritime Compass has “Garbage Patch updates: Project Kaisei & SETI“.

Never Sea Land has a statue photo in “Today’s mermaid of La Paz“.

Breakbulk Industry News has “Ro-Ros for Clunkers” and “First ro-ro cargo loaded at APM Terminals Virginia“.

BarentsObserver has “Seals to work on Shtokman field“.

Seals could be especially useful on large depths at the Shtokman field, where diving could be both dangerous and expensive. The animals being trained at Murmansk Marine Biological Institute learn to detect leakages from gas and oil pipes.

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Marine Log has coverage of the Arctic Modular Vessel design in “Ship trains for the Arctic?” and includes a neat graphic of how the bow section might work depending on the conditions.

HELLENIC SHIPPING NEWS has “Supertankers May Halt Oil Trading, Frontline Says“.

Supertanker owners may start refusing cargoes within the next three months unless rates return to a profitable level, said Frontline Ltd., the biggest operator of the ships which carry almost half the world’s oil. Ship owners are contributing $942 a day toward fuel costs to ship Middle East crude, according to the London-based Baltic Exchange. Rates have been below operating costs since July. Should the losses persist, some owners may choose to idle their ships, according to Jens Martin Jensen, Singapore-based chief executive officer of Frontline’s management unit.

Marenostrum has the photo: “US LINE C2 Discharging Tractors“. Be sure to check out all his other posts for the week. Lots of photos and illustrations!

AMVER Blog has “Recent Arctic Rescue Underscores Need For Amver“.

Towmasters: the Master of Towing Vessels Assoc. Forum has “The 26-Foot Long Towing Vessel, Assistance Towing & Recreational Boaters From Hell: What License?“

A recent e-mail asked this question: “Is the operator (captain) of a vessel 26 feet in length or less engaged in towing, whether it be towline or pushing, required to hold an appropriate license?” That’s a good question, and probably one that many people wonder about, and it was understood as referring strictly to commercial towing vessels.

Steeljaw Scribe has “Postcards from Deployment: Deployment Stress“.

CG Blog has updated rules concerning tattoos in “Nows the time to go get new ink!“

Maritime Information Centre has “Russian government building mega shipyard in Primorsk“.

Naval Open Source INTelligence has “India-Russia To Ink A New Deal For Renovating Admiral Gorshkov“.

Houston Ship Pilot/photographer OneEighteen has the photo “B&W Cranes“.

Taken in the port of Galveston, Texas. I like the sense of depth one gets from the way the cranes fade in the distance.

HAWSEPIPER: The Longest Climb has “Lazy Sunday“.

Many of the guys that are in my position on new barges don’t have much to do when they’re not actually moving cargo- they need no capital improvements, and maintaining new equipment isn’t a full-time job like it is here. So, when guys raft up to us, or walk by on the dock, they stop to talk, and some laugh at seeing me out there on deck alone after dinner, rolling out paint or scrubbing oil sludge residue out of the containment system. The younger guys don’t believe that it’s part of their job. The older guys nod and tell me that my barge is looking better than it has in years.

Theo Spark has a photo illustrating why it is important to know your exact air-draft in “Close………….“

Royal Caribbean Cruise Line’s Chairman’s Blog has an “Oasis Picture Tour“.

Lighthouse News has “Canadian Lighthouse Keepers Being Removed“.

Hunt of the Sea Wolves has “U.S. to base Reapers in Seychelles to fight (kill) Pirates“. Using unmanned aircraft to fight piracy is not a new idea. However, the problem has been a lack of aircraft given that most of them were already in use in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nice to see that this new asset will be deployed in the fight against pirates.

China Law Blog has an evaluation of trade-offs in outsourcing your product overseas in “On The Demise Of China Manufacturing…..Kidding!“

1. His company pays its US employees $8 an hour. It was paying its China employees 50 cents an hour.

2. He had quality issues in China. He has pretty much zero defects in the United States.

3. His shipping costs from the new US base are considerably less, though he expects costs to run about $2.50 more per piece.

Arctic Focus has “NDP not happy with Harper’s silence on American Arctic fishing moratorium“. (NDP = New Democratic Party, Canada)

Freaque Waves covers an article published in Scientific American in “Hunt for freaque waves“.

intheboatshed.net has “‘Feature vessels’ at the PSP Southampton Boat Show“.

Tradewinds has the latest installment of its video series “Casualty File“.

GreenPeace has “The Tale of the Broken Freezer at Sea“.

Her Hae and Jia Yu Fa, two Taiwanese longliners (pictured below) were caught RED-HANDED by the Esperanza trans-shipping in the high seas between Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). They had shark fins on-board as well.

Mr. Boat Blog has an amazing photo: “That’s a big turtle!” Anyone know the story behind the photo?

Chaotic Synaptic Activity has the latest edition of his series: “Monday Maritime Matters“.

The Monitor has more boats for the Canadian Coast Guard in “VicShip moves ahead, 47 feet at a time“.

YouTube has the summary on “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch – Good Morning America“. (Found via Mr. Boat Blog)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLrVCI4N67M

The US might have been a problem in the past, but now the real pollution is coming from Asia and perhaps central and South America as well. The world basically shamed the US into being kinder to the environment. Well we responded. Too bad the rest of the world ignored their own lecturing.

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Fairplay Daily News has:

Idled ships now 9% of box fleet – BOX SHIP lay-ups amounted nearly to 10% of the world’s container fleet by the end of August, AXS Alphaliner reported today.

The internet resource of shipbroker Barry Rogliano Salles said a total of 1.27M teu was laid up at the end of last month, or 9.9% of the fleet.

Most strongly hit in the box shipment slump were vessels of 1,000-3,000teu. Also, many carriers are expected to return chartered tonnage upon expiry dates of timecharters, said Alphaliner.

It predicted that box shipping will be cut back more from already-reduced levels throughout September and October. – Fairplay Homepage (Used with Permission)

AND:

Why Riverdance foundered – A SERIES of human errors – not a giant wave – led to a ferry’s foundering near Blackpool in January 2008, an MAIB inquiry has found.

A report, released yesterday, criticised the ro-ro’s owners’ safety checks, saying they were “deficient in a significant number of areas”.

Other reasons behind the Seatruck Ferries ship’s foundering were that it was slow-sailing in stormy conditions – which affected its balance – and that the weight and steadiness of its cargo had not been calculated before it left Warrenpoint in Northern Ireland.

In addition, vent flaps had been left open during the crossing on the main weather deck, allowing water to flow into the ferry once it began to roll. Its ballast also had not been adjusted to counter the conditions.

MAIB also ordered Seatruck Ferries to perform safety reviews. Some earlier indications had been that a giant wave caused the casualty. – 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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