Turkish Coast News

Rescue crews are searching by air and sea for six crew members missing from a Turkish-registered merchant vessel that sank in the Marmara Sea off northwest Turkey on Thursday.It was reported that the 69-meter general cargo ship Batuhan A started to sink at 6:30 a.m. local time due to bad weather and sea conditions, according to the Turkish Coast Guard. The 1,090 dwt vessel was said to be carrying dry cargo from Marmara Island to Gemlik and crewed by Turkish nationals.The Coast Guard said it deployed two ships (TCSG-313…

Turkish coast guards were searching for nine missing crew members of a Ukraine-bound commercial ship that sank close to Turkey's southern province of Antalya. The Guinea Bissau-flagged ship had sailed from Turkey's Iskenderun port for Ukraine's Izmail port, the coast guard said. Five crew members were rescued by helicopters and other ships passing by the area, it said in a statement. The ship had in total 14 crew members of Syrian origin and sunk some 37 km off the coast of Antalya province. The coast guard did not say what caused it to go down.

The first grain ship to leave a Ukrainian port under a deal brokered last month will not arrive in Lebanon on Sunday as planned, the Ukrainian embassy in Lebanon said.The Razoni left Odesa on the Black Sea early last Monday carrying 26,527 tonnes of corn and was set to dock on Sunday in the northern Lebanese port city of Tripoli, according to Ukrainian officials and Lebanese port authorities.But the Ukrainian embassy in Lebanon told Reuters on Sunday the ship was "having a delay" and "not arriving today," with no details on a new arrival date or the cause of the postponement.Shipping data on MarineTraffic.com showed the Razoni off the Turkish coast on Sunday morning.The vessel's bill of lading…

Four ships carrying Ukrainian foodstuffs sailed from Ukrainian Black Sea ports on Sunday as part of a deal to unblock the country's sea exports, Ukrainian and Turkish officials said.The four bulk carriers were loaded with almost 170,000 tonnes of corn and other foodstuffs, Ukraine's sea ports authority said on Facebook.The resumption of grain exports is being overseen by a Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) in Istanbul where Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish and U.N. personnel are working.The United Nations and Turkey brokered the deal last month after U.N. warnings of possible outbreaks of famine in parts of the world due to a halt in grain shipments from Ukraine that had squeezed supplies and sent prices soaring.On Saturday…

A superyacht linked to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich docked in the Turkish tourist resort of Bodrum on Monday, after skirting the waters of European Union countries which have sanctioned the oligarch over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.Abramovich was among several wealthy Russians added last week to an EU blacklist, and EU governments have acted in recent days to seize yachts and other luxury assets from them.World governments are seeking to isolate President Vladimir Putin and his allies over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which the Kremlin calls a "special military operation".Last week, Abramovich flew into Moscow after leaving Istanbul in his private jet.

Sanmar Shipyards has delivered another vessel in its Delicay tug series—this time to its own fleet.Like its sister tugs, the the 25.3m x 12m x 6.1m Delicay Vlll is a Z-drive tractor tug built to Canadian naval architects Robert Allan Ltd’s exclusive to Sanmar TRAktor-Z 2500SX design, created in partnership with the Turkish tug-builder and operator for both harbor ship handling and towing duties.Built at Sanmar Shipyards Altinova, the tug is powered by 2x 2100kW main engines, giving it a speed ahead of around 12 knots and 75 tonnes of bollard pull.

The Turkish drillship Yavuz has left the area where it was operating southwest of Cyprus and reached the Turkish coast, Refinitiv Eikon shipping data showed on Monday, in a move that may help ease tensions in the eastern Mediterranean.Cyprus' internationally recognized Greek Cypriot government has long been at odds with Turkey, which began drilling for oil and gas near Cyprus last year.The Yavuz vessel first began operations east of Cyprus in July 2019. Its latest operations to the southwest of the island, were most recently extended until Oct. 12 in a move which Greece described as provocative.The ship tracking data showed Yavuz as being near the port of Tasucu in Turkey's Mersin province on Monday morning…

P&O Maritime Logistics (P&OML), the marine services arm of global port operator DP World, has taken delivery of a Sanmar Shipyards-built tug for the DP World managed Berbera Port on behalf of Somaliland Port Authority (SPA). The M JEEX (ex. Dogancay XXV) arrived Berbera Port under P&OML management and crew on September 10, 2020. The delivery follows a previous purchase from Sanmar, the EGAL (ex. Dogancay XXVI), delivered in the summer of 2018.Powered by a pair of Caterpillar 3212B diesel engines (two 1…

A crewman from a cattle ship that capsized enroute from New Zealand to China has died after being pulled unconscious from water by the Japanese coastguard on Friday, while it emerged the vessel had a history of mechanical issues.The unidentified man was only the second crewman to be found. The search is still on for the remaining 41 crew members after the ship carrying 6,000 cattle capsized in the East China Sea on Wednesday.Rescuers also found a life jacket and cattle carcasses in the area where the Gulf Livestock 1 is believed to have sunk after it sent a distress call amid strong winds and heavy seas whipped up by Typhoon Maysak.Gulf Livestock 1…

Turkey's coastguard said on Monday it had rescued 35 migrants and was searching for four more missing from a boat found half sunken in the Aegean Sea.The Turkish coastguard quoted the rescued migrants as saying that Greek coastguards had slashed their rubber dinghy, taken away their fuel containers and pushed them back towards Turkish waters. A Greek coastguard spokesman denied the allegations."The migrant boat never entered Greek territorial waters," the Greek spokesman told Reuters.

Turkey said on Friday that an Iranian tanker at the centre of a confrontation between Washington and Tehran was headed to Lebanon after changing course several times, although Beirut said it was not informed of the plan.According to Refinitiv tracking data, the Adrian Darya, formerly called Grace 1, made a U-turn on Friday and headed for Turkey's Iskenderun port - 200 km (124 miles) north of Syria's Baniyas refinery, the tanker's suspected original destination.However, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the tanker, which was carrying 2 million barrels of oil when released at Gibraltar, was headed to "the main port in Lebanon."On the sidelines of a forum in Oslo…

Iranian tanker Adrian Darya, at the centre of a dispute between Washington and Tehran, has changed course away from the Turkish coast, Refinitiv ship tracking data showed on Thursday.The tanker, formerly called Grace 1, was released from detention off Gibraltar in mid-August after a five-week standoff over whether it was carrying Iranian oil to Syria in violation of European Union sanctions.A Turkish official told Reuters earlier on Thursday that the Iranian tanker had not entered Turkish waters. The tracking data showed the ship was currently between the coasts of Turkey and Cyprus, heading west.On Monday, IRIB news agency quoted an…

At a signing ceremony held at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) offices in Ankara, Turkey, Vladimer Gvilava, chief of mission IOM in Turkey, and Boran Bekbulat, Damen sales manager Turkey, signed a contract for the building and delivery of nine Damen SAR 1906 search and rescue boats for the Turkish Coast Guard Command.Financed by the European Union, these 19-meter boats will be in addition to the six vessels of the same class ordered in 2016, which were delivered to Turkish Coast Guard Command the following year.

Seven people, including five children, were killed on Friday after a boat carrying migrants sank off the northwestern coast of Turkey, the Turkish coast guard said, adding that five others were being sought.The boat, off the coast of the Ayvalik district in the Balikesir province, was carrying a total of 17 migrants, the coast guard said. Five were rescued.In a statement, the coast guard said search and rescue operations including four boats and two helicopters were being carried out to find the four migrants and one suspected migrant smuggler.Turkey became one of the main launch points for migrants taking the sea route to European Union territory in 2015, many fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East and Africa.

Four people, including a baby, died early on Tuesday morning when a dinghy carrying migrants sank off the northwestern coast of Ayvacik in Turkey, the Turkish coast guard said.A search and rescue operation ended after the coast guard retrieved the 11 other migrants who were onboard, the coast guard said. Reuters video footage showed the surviving migrants, including at least one child, were later rushed wearing blankets aboard ambulances.The boat was carrying Iranian and Afghan migrants, Hurriyet newspaper reported, citing security sources.Turkey became one of the main launch points for migrants taking the sea route to European Union territory in 2015, many fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East and Africa.

A cargo ship sank in rough waters off Turkey's Black Sea coast on Monday, killing six crew members including its captain, officials and media reports said.Seven other crew members were rescued  by Turkish Coast Guard teams after a Panama-flagged vessel sank in the Black Sea off Turkey's northern Samsun province.According to a statement released by the Interior Ministry, coastguard teams were dispatched off 77 miles Samsun after receiving a distress call from the Volgo Balt 214.Thirteen crew members, including eleven Ukrainians, two Azerbaijan nationals were on board the Volgo Balt 214 vessel, according to reports.Ukraine's Ambassador to Turkey, Andreii Szbiha, wrote in a Tweet: "weather conditions drowned a commercial ship. Of 13 crew members, 11 were citizens of Ukraine.

At least 48 migrants were killed when their boat sank off Tunisia's coast and 67 others were rescued by the coast guard, officials said on Sunday, one of the worst migrant boat accidents in recent years.The boat went down near the southern island of Kerkenna, a tourist spot, in the night to Sunday, the defence ministry said in a statement. The victims were Tunisians and other nationalities, it said, without giving details.The rescue operation was suspended late on Sunday but will resume on Monday morning, officials said.Human traffickers increasingly use Tunisia as a launch pad for migrants heading to Europe as Libya's coast guard, aided by armed groups…

Damen – in cooperation with the Turkish Coast Guard, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and engine manufacturer MTU – said it has completed full scale roll-over testing of its Search and Rescue Vessel 1906 with running engines, in Antalya, Turkey. According to Damen, its SAR 1906 has been an example of technological and academic cooperation since the vessel’s conception. The design itself is the result of close collaboration between Damen and the Royal Netherlands Sea Rescue Institution (KNRM), Delft University of Technology, De Vries Lentsch Naval Architects.

Four people drowned when a fishing boat carrying migrants sank off the Turkish coast in the Marmara Sea on Friday, the coast guard said in a statement.   The boat sank off the northwestern province of Kocaeli shortly after calling for help. The statement said 38 migrants were rescued. The coastguard was seeking 15 to 20 others and was being assisted by two helicopters, planes and commercial boats.   The origin of the migrants and their destination was not immediately clear.   Reporting by Gulsen Solaker

The captain of a Turkish freighter said on Monday that the Greek coast guard had fired on his vessel after he refused an order to dock at a port on the Greek island of Rhodes. Turkey said the action was "disproportionate" and showed no regard for human life. "There is no justification ... for firing on an unarmed commercial ship carrying freight between two Turkish ports," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Sami Kalkavan, captain of the M/V ACT, told the broadcaster CNN Turk that the Greek coast guard had ordered him to dock in Rhodes, which is some 15 miles (24 km) from the Turkish coast, for inspection. He said that when he had failed to comply, the coast guard had opened fire, putting 16 bullet holes in his ship.

Traffic in Turkey's Bosphorus Strait, an important international shipping lane for oil and grain, was suspended on Monday after a minor collision between two bulk carriers, shipping agent GAC said. There were no immediate reports of casualties. GAC said a 114-metre vessel identified as M/V Forward collided with 224-metre carrier Wadi Alkarnak at 1413 pm (1113 GMT) around the middle of the Strait, following a rudder malfunction. One of the vessels had already left the strait but shipping traffic had since been closed, GAC said. The Turkish coast guard could not immediately be reached for comment. The Bosphorus is one of world's most important chokepoints for the maritime transit of oil…

Damen has signed a contract with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Ankara, Turkey for the supply of six, state-of- the-art Search and Rescue (SAR) vessels for delivery in 2017. The boats are being financed by the European Union and will be operated by the Turkish Coastguard (TURCG), to support the refugees and migrants rescue operations. The award-winning Damen SAR 1906 is a state-of- the-art SAR craft and is the result of a five-year R&D programme initiated by Damen in partnership with the Royal Netherlands Sea Rescue Institution (KNRM), Delft University of Technology and De Vries Lentsch Naval Architects. The SAR 1906 is an all-weather, self-righting vessel with an aluminium hull and a composite wheelhouse.

Three Turkish Coast Guard personnel were killed on Wednesday after their vessel collided with a bulk carrier in the Bosphorus strait, forcing officials to temporarily suspend traffic in the busy shipping lane. Their vessel capsized after colliding with the Tolunay, a Cook Island-flagged bulk carrier, which was sailing toward the Black Sea, shipping agent GAC said. Four members of the Coast Guard were in hospital, a spokesman at the Istanbul governor's office said. The collision occurred at 8:40 a.m. (0540 GMT) at the southern end of the strait, it said, adding that traffic was halted until 2:30 p.m. and has resumed. More than three percent of the world's crude supply…