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Hudson River News

26 Feb 2024

Officials Urge EPA to Remove Toxic 'Forever Chemicals' from the Hudson River

(File photo: EPA)

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand earlier this month stood with local leaders and environmental advocates at Albany City Hall to demand that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) take additional action to clean up polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) “forever chemicals” in the Hudson River.PCBs are toxic manmade chemicals that can linger in water and soil for decades. Exposure is associated with a variety of serious health conditions, including cancer.From 1947 to 1977, General Electric dumped 1.2 million pounds of PCBs into the Hudson River north of Albany.

15 Feb 2024

Let’s Set Some Standards for Micro Cargo

It almost boggles the mind that the success of the ISO container is effectively based on only one standard: 8 feet wide. The 8 foot standard (basically railroad car and truck widths, which are mythically reported to be related to the width of two horse’s asses)
Copyright Jim Mills/AdobeStock

As zero carbon cargo efforts are progressing, it is becoming more apparent that the lowest hanging fruit is in the last few miles. This is where a large amount of carbon is expended in delivering small parcels to stores and consumers’ doors.This is particularly apparent in dense pack cities like New York City, where delivery vans clog streets and water crossings. The NYC Economic Development Commission recently issued a Request For Expression of Interest in waterborne micro cargo delivery.

28 Dec 2023

Workboat Power: Alternatives Join Diesel to Power Current—and Future—Vessels

Crowley’s new electric tug eWolf is being built by Master Boat Builders for scheduled delivery in 2024. (Image: Crowley)

Analysts and commentators are quick to point out that fossil fuels will power maritime equipment, and indeed dominate the fueling marketplace, well into the future. However, they will do so alongside new fuels, and new technologies, that will be introduced to the maritime sector in the coming years. In its September, 2023 report “Beyond the Horizon: View of the Emerging Energy Value Chains”, the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) explains that, “During the recent 80th meeting of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 80)…

13 Dec 2023

‘America’s Fireboat’ Heads to Quonset Point for Renovation Work

(Photo courtesy Fireboat Fire Fighter Museum)

Preservation efforts are underway to renovate an 85-year old vessel known as “America’s Fireboat”.Designed by noted naval architect William Francis Gibbs and built in 1938 at United Shipyards on Staten Island, the vessel Fire Fighter would go on to serve a long and storied career before being decommissioned and eventually transferred to The Fireboat Fire Fighter Museum in 2013.The iconic fireboat is undergoing extensive renovations to return the vessel to her original glory, the museum announced this week. Escorted by the U.S.

28 Jul 2023

New York Quarry to Provide Rock for Empire Wind Offshore Projects

Credit: Great Lakes Dredge & Dock (File Image)

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation has signed the first ever subcontract for rock procurement for a U.S. offshore wind farm with Carver Sand & Gravel LLC (“Carver”), a U.S. quarry in the state of New York.Through this subcontract, Great Lakes will use rock produced in the State of New York to provide scour protection for offshore wind turbine foundations, and substations at Equinor and BP's Empire Wind I and Empire Wind II wind farms. The rock will be quarried locally, transported to the quayside on the Hudson River…

17 Jul 2023

Port Liberte Ferry Service Relaunched

(Photo: New York Waterway)

City-run ferry operations have been relaunched from Jersey City’s southernmost coast in an effort to close transit gaps and create more affordable and efficient transportation options for low- and middle-income residents outside of the downtown area. Ferry service from and to the Port Liberte terminal shut down at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in February 2020. Jersey City Mayor Steven M. Fulop's administration recently acquired the ferry terminal to take an active role in subsidizing ferry rates for residents traveling to and from New York City.

18 Oct 2023

'Hydrogen Hubs' to the Fore

Image courtesy ABS

The path to decarbonization is defined by partnership and fueled by government funding. This month we examine the players, partnerships, and evolution of Hydrogen Hubs in the Gulf of Mexico.The Green Shipping Challenge, organized by the United States and Norway at COP 27 held in late 2022, brought about dozens of announcements on maritime decarbonization. Among these was a joint statement from the Blue Sky Maritime Coalition (BSMC) – a consortium of North American shipowners and…

17 Apr 2023

2023 US Shipbuilding Report

Philly Shipyard is currently building MARAD’s National Security Multi-Mission Vessels, which will serve as training ships for the nation’s state maritime academies. (Photo: Philly Shipyard)

Much has changed since Marine News’ 2022 shipbuilding report published in March last year, and business opportunities in certain market segments continue to grow. But the shipyards that are looking to cash in are still facing many of the same challenges.For example, many American shipyards and their partners throughout the shipbuilding supply chain are still finding it difficult to attract and retain the workers they need. If you’re a skilled craftsperson looking for a job in shipbuilding, you’re in luck, because there are plenty of openings at shipyards across the country.

16 Feb 2023

2023 Shipbuilding Report: US Passenger Vessels

Casco Bay Line selected the Senesco to build a double ended hybrid electric ferry to replace an existing diesel boat. (Image: EBDG)

With travel and tourism nearing pre-2020 levels, and transit systems benefiting from a return to work, passenger vessels have seen renewed activity. In its year-end review, John Groundwater, Executive Director of the Passenger Vessel Association (PVA), which advocates for the sector in Washington, D.C. wrote: “As we are nearing the end of the calendar year, we are delighted to report that our industry, and our members, are reporting far and wide that they have experienced very…

25 Jan 2023

Onshore Funding for US Offshore Wind

© Ian Dyball / Adobe Stock

Most of the media coverage of offshore wind development in the United States focuses on the leases of the offshore areas where the wind turbines will be located. However, equally important is the landside dimension of these projects, including the manufacture, installation, maintenance and operation of the turbines. Several awards made in the last two rounds of funding under the Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP) show how offshore wind now offers an additional direction of port development for which funding is available.

04 Jan 2023

American Cruise Lines Installs Starlink Satellite Internet

(Photo: American Cruise Lines)

American Cruise Lines announced on Wednesday that it has added Starlink satellite internet to its 2023 fleet of riverboats and small cruise ships. The new high-speed Starlink Wi-Fi will be complimentary on all 2023 cruises, ensuring seamless connectivity and faster upload speeds nearly everywhere the company’s small ships are cruising throughout the country—from Glacier Bay Alaska to the sunny Florida Keys; from the Napa Valley wine country to the historic Hudson River; and from…

27 Dec 2022

Harlem Rocket to Collaborate with Raymarine

The Harlem Rocket, a new high-speed boat tour on the Hudson River along the famed Harlem and Upper Manhattan waterfront set to launch in the Spring of 2023, announced a sponsorship and collaboration with Raymarine. The Harlem Rocket, to be launched from the West Harlem Piers, will feature guidance systems produced by Raymarine.“We are so happy to add Raymarine to our growing list of founding supporters and collaborators for the Harlem Rocket, the first phase of the Harlem Gateway Waterfront Initiative,” says Garry A, Johnson, founder and CEO of Paradise Express Ferry and HarlemRocket LLC.

24 Nov 2022

Sail Freight: Fair Winds or Grassroot Sustainability?

(Photo: Hudson River Maritime Museum)

Climate change advocates and seafarers recently gathered for a small conference at the Hudson Valley Maritime Museum in Kingston, N.Y., to discuss the shipping industry’s struggle to achieve sustainability and environmental compliance.The setting, the hamlet of Rondout, N.Y. (within Kingston), holds significance as it was, ironically, a Hudson River port once considered the largest coal port in the world (yes, the world). In 1828, the opening of the Delaware and Hudson Canal enabled coal to be delivered from Pennsylvania to New York City.

03 Nov 2022

NYC's First Zero-emissions Passenger Ferry Slated for 2024 Launch

(Image: Green City Ferries)

A newly announced zero-emissions electric ferry scheduled for launch in 2024 will be the first to service New York City as the marine industry continues to make strides to decarbonize its operations.The high-speed passenger vessel is the result of a partnership between local operator New York Cruise Lines and Stockholm-based Green City Ferries AB (GCF). It will be operated by New York Cruise Lines subsidiary New York Water Taxi on the Hudson River between Brooklyn and Manhattan.The newbuild, a Beluga24 catamaran developed by GCF, will have a capacity of 147 passengers and 28 bicycles.

13 Apr 2022

The New 'New York'

(Photo: Sandy Hook Pilots Association)

When it came time to replace their 50-year-old station vessel New York, the Sandy Hook Pilots Association thought long and hard, weighing their options to determine the best possible solution. They traveled the country, to Houston, San Francisco and up to the Columbia River, and even to Europe—the Elbe River in Germany and Rotterdam in the Netherlands—to ride with other pilots in search of an answer.“We looked at everything from SWATH (small-waterplane-area twin hull) boats to helicopters to big boats in Europe…

30 Aug 2021

Circle Line Relaunches Bear Mountain Cruises

(Photo: Circle Line)

New York Cruise Lines' Circle Line is relaunching its annual Bear Mountain Cruises on the Hudson River.The eight-hour round-trip excursions take passengers from New York City to Bear Mountain and back, launching Saturdays and Sundays from September 18 through October 31, plus Columbus/Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Monday, October 11.The 50-mile cruise up the Hudson includes sights of Hook Mountain, the Hudson River Palisades, the George Washington Bridge, and the Mario Cuomo Bridge…

12 Apr 2021

A Favorable Fetch for US Offshore Wind

© Fokke / Adobe Stock

Offshore wind caught a favorable gust with the 2020 election of Joe Biden, and the following breeze from the early 2021 reconfiguration of the U.S. Senate toward Democrats. Though widely touted as a growth engine for maritime businesses (as well as shoreside trades), the latter years of the Trump administration seemed to see delay after delay.The class society DNV has been involved in offshore wind since its outset in the early 1990s, and now has 2,000 energy experts working in its efforts supporting this power source.

03 Mar 2021

Oil Spill Response Vessel Converted Into a Pilot Station

(Image: JMS Naval Architects)

JMS Naval Architects informs conversion work is nearly completed of the former oil spill response vessel OSRV Maine Responder to a pilot station vessel for Sandy Hook Pilots Association of Staten Island, N.Y. The conversion work contract was competitively awarded to Feeney Shipyard of Kingston, N.Y.The Sandy Hook pilots have been piloting ships in the New York harbor for more than 300 years. They operate a pilot station boat by Ambrose Light year-round and in all weather conditions.

16 Sep 2020

GLDD Reports $118.8 Million in New Dredging Contracts

(Photo: Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation)

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation has secured several major dredging awards totaling $118.8 million, the U.S.' largest dredging services provider announced on Wednesday.The awarded deepening, coastal protection, and maintenance dredging work includes projects in South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana and New York.The Post 45 Contract 4 Charleston Lower Harbor New Work Dredging Project (Capital, S.C., $52.9 million) consists of maintenance and new work dredging of material from the Charleston Lower Harbor to Hugh Leatherman Terminal.

07 Aug 2020

Sandy Hook Pilot Killed in Boarding Accident

(Photo: Sandy Hook Pilots Association)

A Sandy Hook Pilots Association captain died from injuries suffered during a boarding accident on Wednesday.Capt. Timothy Murray reportedly fell from a pilot ladder while boarding a tanker inbound to the Port of New York & New Jersey at approximately 10:30 p.m., the pilots association said in a statement. Murray was evacuated to a local hospital, where he died from the injuries.The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating the incident.The Sandy Hook Pilot Associations provide pilotage services to vessels entering or departing the Port of New York/New Jersey…

30 Mar 2020

Coast Guard Corrals Wayward Buoy in Long Island Sound

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Oak (WLB-211) sits at anchor. The Newport, Rhode Island-based buoy tender maintains 144 Aids to Navigation (ATON) that guide mariners into some of the oldest and busiest ports in the U.S., including Boston, Massachusetts; Portsmouth, New Hampshire; and Portland, Maine. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Emily E. Torsney)

Built to guide mariners through safe waters, the Valiant Rock Lighted Whistle Buoy 11 was dangerously adrift in the Long Island Sound.When ferry operators traveling between Orient Point and Fishers Island, New York, first reported the buoy off station on Jan. 17, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Oak (WLB-211) was already underway but foul weather kept the cutter from removing it.This was the beginning of a two-week saga that would involve several Coast Guard units. Like the Loch Ness monster of the Long Island Sound, the 35-foot-tall green buoy was occasionally seen but hard to catch.

22 Apr 2020

USNS Comfort Docks in New York

The Capt. Brian A. McAllister leads the way for the USNS COMFORT into NY Harbor as she passes the Statue of Liberty on March 30, 2020. (Photo Credit: Max Guliani)

The U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) arrived in New York Monday to support COVID-19 response efforts in the epicenter of America's coronavirus outbreak.The ship will serve as a referral hospital for non-coronavirus patients currently admitted to shore-based hospitals, and will provide a full spectrum of medical care to include general surgeries, critical care and ward care for adults. This will allow local health professionals to focus on treating COVID-19 patients…

11 Feb 2020

Vessel Inspections: It's All About Safety

USCG marine inspectors at Marine Safety Unit Portland inspect a tug in Portland, Ore. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Paige Hause)

With the announcements that New York Waterway, a ferry operator running 32 boats around New York and New Jersey waters, had been largely shut down by the U.S. Coast Guard just prior to Thanksgiving, 2019, the reactions ranged from surprise to outright shock. There was also a great deal of grumbling, as commuters, the major customer group, endured delays on New York Waterway’s extensive network across the Hudson River, bringing New Jersey commuters into New York’s business districts.So, what happened?

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