Bounty News

In 2001, George Burkley, a maritime educator, wrote a look-ahead article for Maritime Reporter and Engineering News, presenting the benefits and real-world payoffs from using simulators in maritime education. In the late 1990s, new tech and software advances were creating scenario programs that moved a student closer and closer to the realities demanded by, well, reality. “The future is here, and we are ready to simulate it,” Burkley concluded.Burkley is now executive director at the Maritime Pilots Institute in Covington, La.

National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA) Vice President for Government and Political Affairs Tim Charters issued the following statement after the introduction of the Conservation of America’s Shoreline Terrain and Aquatic Life (COASTAL) Act:“It is vital that American offshore energy production promote equity for the states immediately adjacent to these offshore areas. By amending GOMESA and establishing a revenue sharing program for Alaska, the COASTAL Act will ensure that these states receive continued benefits from their participation in offshore energy production…

In the 1870 Jules Verne classic "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", underwater explorer Captain Nemo predicted the mining of the ocean floor's mineral bounty - zinc, iron, silver and gold.India is catching up with that only now, as it prepares to unearth treasures down below, aiming to boost its economy.The floor of the world's seas is scattered with vast beds of black potato-shaped polymetallic nodules comprising copper, nickel, cobalt, manganese, iron and rare earth elements.These natural goodies are key to making modern gadgets…

My Friend the Sea is a story about growing up at sea, set against the background of ships and the beauty of the oceans. It's a tale of ambition, adversity and dealing with prejudice. Packed full of adventures and stories of traveling the world on ships, visiting far off lands, and meeting all manner of people, including eccentric distant relatives in Australia, a drunken captain, another who was a tyrant, and natives in Fiji, plus shipboard romances, a mutiny, and a growing need for the author to change the way he lives.I am a doctor…

More than 6,000 Sailors assigned to Carl Vinson Strike Group ships and units departed the U.S. West Coast, Jan. 4-5, for a regularly scheduled deployment to the Western Pacific. The deployment marks the second time the Carl Vinson Strike Group will operate throughout the Indo- Pacific region under U.S. 3rd Fleet's command and control. The strike group became the first in recent history to demonstrate the command and control construct called Third Fleet Forward when units completed a six-month deployment last year. Ships deploying from U.S. 3rd Fleet to the Western Pacific traditionally shifted to U.S. 7th Fleet after crossing the international dateline. The Third Fleet Forward construct expands U.S.

For as long as there has been a need to transport cargo there has been a maritime industry. Throughout that history both owners and mariners have worked to devise ways of saving costs, making faster transits, and carrying more cargo. In 1819 the Steam Ship Savannah made maritime history by being the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean, sounding eight bells for the traditional cargo carrying tall ship. Although that eight bell sounded for quite some time, the future of shipping arrived with Savannah. In 1911 M.S.

The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70), Ticonderoga class guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain (CG 57), Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer (DDG 108), along with embarked Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 1, Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 2, and Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 1 arrived in San Diego June 23, following a five-and-a-half-month deployment to the Western Pacific. Carl Vinson, Lake Champlain, Wayne E. Meyer and embarked air wing and staffs departed San Diego for a regularly-scheduled deployment with the Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group as part of the U.S. Pacific Fleet-led initiative to extend the command and control functions of U.S. 3rd Fleet into the Indo-Asia-Pacific region, Jan.

Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 1, including Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70), Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 1's Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer (DDG 108), and aircraft from Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 2, began routine operations in the South China Sea, Feb. 18. Prior to their operations in the South China Sea, ships and aircraft from within the strike group conducted training off the islands of Hawaii and Guam to maintain and improve their readiness and develop cohesion as a strike group. The strike group recently enjoyed a port visit to Guam and after departing the Marianas, conducted operations in the Philippine Sea.

Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 1, including Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70), Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 1's Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer (DDG 108), and aircraft from Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 2, began routine operations in the South China Sea, Feb. 18. Prior to their operations in the South China Sea, ships and aircraft from within the strike group conducted training off the islands of Hawaii and Guam to maintain and improve their readiness and develop cohesion as a strike group. The strike group recently enjoyed a port visit to Guam and after departing the Marianas, conducted operations in the Philippine Sea.

U.S. federal regulators on Monday approved construction of Dominion Resources Inc's liquefied natural gas export project in Cove Point, Maryland. Cove Point is the fourth U.S. LNG export project to get the green light to begin construction from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. It will be able to export up to 5.75 million metric tons of LNG a year when fully operational. Dominion's facility is one of about two dozen projects that hope to ship a growing bounty of domestic natural gas to countries in Asia and Europe. The Cove Point site, a little more than an hour's drive southeast of Washington, D.C. on Chesapeake Bay, boasts four large storage tanks and a pier built in the 1970s to import LNG from Algeria, underscoring just how much U.S. market dynamics have changed.

The head of the State Department's office in charge of energy diplomacy will step down in August after playing a key role in getting countries such as China, India and Japan to cooperate with Western sanctions on Iran, officials said on Friday. Carlos Pascual became an important player in Washington's effort to place tough new sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear program soon after the bureau of energy resources was launched in 2011. The State Department said Pascual had decided to return to private life. He traveled to countries in Asia, Europe and the Middle East with officials from the Departments of Treasury and Commerce to ease the way for sanctions that slashed oil production from one of OPEC's top crude producers.

The U.S. Coast Guard informs it has released its report of investigation of the October 2012 sinking of the tall ship 'Bounty', during which one crewmember died and another remains missing and is presumed dead, off the coast of Cape Hatteras, N.C. The findings in the report conclude that a combination of faulty management and crew risk assessment procedures contributed to the sinking. Specifically, choosing to navigate a vessel in insufficient material condition in close proximity to an approaching hurricane with an inexperienced crew was highlighted. As a result of the investigation, the report recommends that the Coast Guard review the existing policy for attraction vessels, including vessel manning and operating status.

Argentina state oil producer YPF said on Sunday it had made a discovery of 'tight gas' in the western Argentine province of Mendoza. The find by the Paso de las Bardas Norte xp-37 exploration well has a potential 25 million barrels equivalent of recoverable resources, the company said in a statement. There was also "important potential" for oil, it added. Tight gas is a type of hydrocarbon found in reservoirs formed by rocks of low permeability. Gas production infrastructure is already in place in the area, allowing for immediate production, said YPF. YPF, which was nationalized in 2012, saw its production of hydrocarbons jump last year, thanks in part to its vast Patagonian shale oil and gas formation Vaca Muerta. A U.S.

Argentina has won the "geological lottery" with its 1,000-foot-thick Vaca Muerta shale oil and gas field in Patagonia, a spokesman for Chevron said on Thursday, as the U.S. energy giant increases its investments in the country. The company and state-owned oil firm YPF announced plans last month to invest an additional $1.6 billion to develop Vaca Muerta. "The shale play in Argentina is unique because of the rock. Its thickness. Argentina has kind of won the geological lottery," Chevron spokesman Kent Robertson told Reuters on Thursday during a trip to Argentina's capital, Buenos Aires. Shale formations often resemble layer cakes, with shale squeezed between layers of unproductive rock.

Coast Guard Sector Guam has levied fines against the South Pacific Tuna Corporation for eight separate violations of Title 46 United States Code, Section 8304 for using unlicensed foreign personnel to illegally fill the roles of chief mate and chief engineer on U.S. flagged vessels. Crewmembers from Sector Guam determined in March 2012 that the violations had taken place on five of the company’s 14 purse seine vessels while conducting dockside vessel safety examinations in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia. The safety examinations are required by specific legislation for the U.S.

Reuters - U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said on Wednesday the administration considers geopolitical concerns such as the crisis in Ukraine when reviewing applications for liquefied natural gas exports, but it does not have authority to determine where those exports go. Some lawmakers have called for the Obama administration to use the nation's natural gas bounty as leverage as it negotiates with Russia over the unrest in Ukraine. Speaking at IHS CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, Moniz also said the oil industry needs to do a better job making the case in support of lifting the decades old ban on U.S. crude oil exports. (Reporting by Ayesha Rascoe; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has determined that the probable cause of the sinking of tall ship 'Bounty' was the captain's reckless decision to sail the vessel into the well forecasted path of Hurricane Sandy, which subjected the aging vessel and the inexperienced crew to conditions from which the vessel could not recover. Contributing to the sinking was the lack of effective safety oversight by the vessel organization. On October 29, 2012, the tall ship Bounty sank off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, while attempting to transit through the forecasted path of Hurricane Sandy.

For the second consecutive year, a surge in grain movements led to a strong finish for the St. Lawrence Seaway. The St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation (SLSMC) announced today that the Seaway closed for the season on January 1, 2014, with the eastbound vessel Orsula transiting the St. Lambert Lock in Montreal at 1:29 p.m. The last vessel to exit the Welland Canal was the CSL Laurentian, which transited Lock 8 at 3:38 p.m. the same day. Consequently, both sections of the Seaway were open for 286 days, given an opening date of March 22. A relatively late harvest in the Prairies producing record breaking volumes led to a delay in the movement of grain.

American rescuers and a Chinese seafarer have been presented with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Award for Exceptional Bravery at Sea 2013, during a special ceremony held on November 25, 2013 at IMO Headquarters in London. Aviation Survival Technician Second Class Randy J. Haba and Aviation Survival Technician Second Class Daniel J. Todd of the United States Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, were nominated by the Government of the United States…

A water-based homage to the classic "Ghost Chips" road safety TV advertisement has won this year's Bounty Hunter Fishing Tournament video competition, which was sponsored by Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) and PlaceMakers Big Angry Fish. Naomi Willis of Cambridge won $3,000 for her “very creative and funny” on-the-water take-off of the “Ghost Chips” advertisement. MNZ Education and Communications Manager Pania Shingleton said while many of the videos had a humorous tone, particularly “Ghost Rod”, the safety message was a deadly serious one. "The main target is to get more people wearing lifejackets and reduce the number of recreational boating deaths in New Zealand,” she said.

The 2013 IMO Award for Exceptional Bravery at Sea will be awarded to two rescue swimmers from the United States of America, for saving the lives of 14 crew members from the tall ship HMS Bounty, and, posthumously, to a seafarer from China who died trying to save the life of a ferry passenger. The IMO Council, meeting for its 110th session in London, decided that the 2013 award will go to Aviation Survival Technician Second Class Randy J. Haba and Aviation Survival Technician Third Class Daniel J. Todd of the United States Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, nominated by the Government of the United States, for saving the lives of 14 crew members from the tall ship HMS Bounty, during Hurricane Sandy. The Council also agreed to bestow the 2013 Award posthumously on Mr.

Circling the world five times as part of her famed 30,000-mile circumnavigation voyages, the tall ship Picton Castle has often been called upon to deliver critically-needed goods, including medical supplies and thousands of pounds of donated books and educational materials, to remote island communities. For Captain Daniel Moreland, founder of the award-winning sail training program, these impromptu cargo missions are valuable teaching moments – an opportunity to learn how to safely load…

The same NOAA weather and climate satellites that accurately tracked Hurricane Sandy’s path in October also played a key role in rescuing 263 people in 111 emergencies in the United States and surrounding waters in 2012. Since NOAA’s seven operational satellites circle the globe or sit above the United States, they also carry instruments to detect distress signals from emergency beacons carried by downed pilots, shipwrecked boaters and stranded hikers. In addition to their role in weather prediction…