American Coast News

An emerging technology to fish for lobsters virtually ropeless to prevent whale entanglements is exciting conservationists, but getting a frigid reception from harvesters worried it will drive them out of business and upend their way of life.Injuries to endangered North Atlantic Right Whales ensnared in fishing gear have fueled a prominent campaign by environmental groups to pressure the industry to adopt on-demand equipment that only suspends ropes in the water briefly before traps are pulled from the water.The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch…

U.K.-based equipment and engines manufacturer Rolls-Royce said it has received U.S. EPA Tier 4 certification for its mtu propulsion systems based on its Series 4000 M65L 16-cylinder diesel engines.EPA Tier 4 regulations are considered the most stringent emissions standard for marine applications, requiring the propulsion system to have very low particulate and nitrogen oxide emissions throughout its lifecycle."This means we have climbed to the king's class of emissions regulations with our engines for yachts and commercial vessels…

Owners anchoring ships rather than fix at low rates. W. Australia-China capesize rates hit over two-month low. Freight rates for large capesize dry cargo ships on key Asian routes are likely to hold steady as ship owners resist charterers' attempts to push rates lower amid a dearth of cargo, ship brokers said. "We are reaching a floor, particularly in the Pacific. It's got to the point where owners just won't fix their ships," a Singapore-based capesize broker said on Thursday. "Charterers are seeing a bit of resistance - owners are anchoring ships," the broker added. That came as spot charter freight rates for an 180,000-deadweight tonne capesize vessel slipped below $4 per tonne for a voyage from Western Australia to China on Wednesday. That is the lowest since mid-May.

Alfa Laval’s new PureNOx Prime solution for water treatment in Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR), will be part of EGR systems on five very large ethane carriers (VLECs) to be operated by United Ethane Carriers (UEC). This order from MAN Diesel & Turbo comes only a short time after PureNOx Prime was introduced to the market. UEC, a joint venture between Jaccar Holdings and Hartmann Group for the commercial management of ethane carriers, will be the operator of five VLECs to be built for ship owner JHW Engineering & Contracting.

Container shipping firms' annual costs have risen by a total $500 million due to new sulphur emissions regulations that have forced vessels to use higher cost fuel, the OECD said in a report on Thursday. Rising fuel costs will further hurt an industry already stung by overcapacity, low demand and falling rates. From January 2015, ships entering Emissions Control Areas from the Baltics to the North American coast had to switch to ship fuels with less than 0.1 percent sulphur content, from 1 percent, as part of a campaign to combat marine pollution. An even lower cap of 0.50 percent is planned for 2020 and it could add annual total costs of around $5 billion to $30 billion for the container shipping industry, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report said.

A mini-submarine carrying $200 million worth of cocaine was intercepted by authorities in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. The Customs and Border Protection air crew from Corpus Christi was involved in the arrest of four people aboard a mini-submarine headed for the U.S. that authorities say was carrying 5.5 tons of cocaine worth nearly $200 million. The seizure occurred March 3 in the Pacific Ocean off the Central American coast. Customs officials had spotted the vessel from a plane. A video of theinterdiction is available here. “It was painted blue to make it difficult for our guys to track it from the sky, but we have a lot of training doing this,” said Customs spokeswoman Yolanda Choates.

China will introduce tough controls on ship emissions at three key port areas from January to reduce sulphur dioxide which results in acid rain, causing respiratory difficulties and sometimes premature death, said the Ministry of Transport. If strictly implemented the move would force oil suppliers to increase the supply of cleaner marine fuel, industry experts said. The ministry gave no details on how the new emissions rules would be enforced or penalties for non-compliance. The new rules will apply to merchant ships navigating or anchoring in the waters of Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta and the Bohai Bay rim, with a goal to cut sulphur dioxide by 65 percent by 2020 from the 2015 level, according to a document issued by the Ministry of Transport.

The Coast Guard has confirmed several reports it has received stating that main engines may not attain the expected speed when using ultra low sulfur fuel oil. The Coast Guard has revised its list of recommendations to vessel owners and operators about the importance of establishing effective fuel oil changeover procedures to comply with MARPOL Annex VI emission regulations. Ensure fuel oil switching is accomplished outside of busy traffic lanes and the ECA. Generally the ECA is 200 nm from the North American Coast and 50 miles from the U.S. Caribbean coast (e.g., the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Anticipate that there may be many technical challenges for operators when beginning to use ULS fuel oil as a matter of routine and compliance.

Russian submarines and spy ships are aggressively operating near the vital undersea cables that carry almost all global internet communications, raising concerns in America, reports Reuters. The US intelligence officials feel that the Russians might be planning to attack those lines in times of tension or conflict, says the report. From the North Sea to Northeast Asia and even in waters closer to U.S. shores, there is increased Russian activity along the known routes of cables that carry the lifeblood of global electronic communications and commerce. The New York Times reported that US spies had noticed Russian submarines and spy ships acting suspiciously near cables in the North Sea, north-east Asia and off the American coast.

The first U.S.-based  floating liquefied natural gas vessel (FLNGV) moved closer to reality after engineering giant Bechtel agreed to design and engineer the project. Bechtel has been selected by Delfin LNG, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fairwood Peninsula Energy, to perform front-end engineering and design for the floating FLNGV to go into service at Port Delfin. Port Delfin is a proposed deepwater port and floating LNG facility that will be located approximately 50 miles off the coastline of Cameron Parish, Louisiana. Delfin LNG’s project will be the first offshore floating natural gas liquefaction facility in the United States, Bechtel said in a statement on Tuesday.

Bechtel announced it has been selected by Delfin LNG, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fairwood Peninsula Energy Corporation, to perform front-end engineering and design for the first U.S.-based floating liquefied natural gas vessel (FLNGV) to go into service at Port Delfin. Port Delfin is a proposed deepwater port and floating LNG facility that will be located approximately 50 miles off the coastline of Cameron Parish, La. Delfin LNG's project will be the first offshore floating natural gas liquefaction facility in the United States. Upon the final investment decision, Bechtel is expected to design, build and commission the FLNGV. Frederick Jones…

Container shipping company CMA CGM Group announced its Gulfbridge service upgrade, and its Hispaniola feeder service optimization. To adapt the group’s offer to its clients’ demand, CMA CGM decided to improve its Gulfbridge service by decreasing its transit times to Colombia. The service first rotation will start on April 29, in New Orleans, with the vessel Frisia Loga. 2,500 TEUs capacity vessels will call ports in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea and East and West South American coast calls through its Kingston transshipment. To complete its regional coverage, the CMA CGM Group uses feeder services. Those services dispatch the containers transported on the main services via transshipment ports. Calls frequency will be increased. Transit times from Kingston will be reduced.

Debris from Japan's 2011 tsunami will continue to litter the North American coastline over the next three years, with everything from refrigerators to lumber and sports balls still floating offshore in the Pacific, an expert said on Tuesday. About one million tons of debris was still lingering in the Pacific Ocean four years after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, the most powerful ever recorded in Japan, set off a series of massive tsunami waves that devastated a wide swathe of Honshu's Pacific coastline and killed nearly 20,000 people. It also damaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, leading to a series of explosions and meltdowns in the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl 25 years earlier.

The U.S. Coast Guard issued a marine safety alert today to remind vessel owners and operators to establish effective fuel oil changeover procedures during efforts to comply with MARPOL Annex VI emission regulations. The USCG said that several recent incidents of fuel leakages during changeovers prompted the alert. The USCG cited multiple unspecified incidents involving substantial machinery space fuel leakages that occurred while vessels were switching fuel oil to ultra low sulfur (ULS) fuel oil to ensure compliance with MARPOL Annex VI, Regulation 14.3.4. The new regulations, which came into effect on January 1, lowered maximum fuel sulfur content from 1.0% to .10%.

According to Petrobras, production at Cascade and Chinook fields hit 40,000 barrels per day (bpd) on March 4, 2014, a new output record for these oilfields. Cascade has 3 wells in operation and Chinook 2 wells. The record levels were achieved by bringing on stream two new wells, Chinook-5 and Cascade-6, contributing a further 28,000 bpd to the previous output of 12,000 bpd. Cascade and Chinook are located some 260 km south of the Louisiana coast and 24 km apart, at a water depth of 2,500 meters.

Reuters – New fuel rules for ships entering low sulphur zones around northwest Europe and North America next year could trigger a price spike in European gasoil, whilst refiners will struggle to offload unwanted fuel oil. From January 2015, ships entering "Emission Control Areas" (ECAs) in the Baltic, North Sea and English Channel and around the North American coast, will have to switch from low sulphur fuel oil (LSFO) with 1 percent sulphur content to 0.1 percent gasoil, in a crackdown on marine pollution.

New fuel rules for ships entering low sulphur zones around northwest Europe and North America next year could trigger a price spike in European gasoil, whilst refiners will struggle to offload unwanted fuel oil. From January 2015, ships entering "Emission Control Areas" (ECAs) in the Baltic, North Sea and English Channel and around the North American coast, will have to switch from low sulphur fuel oil (LSFO) with 1 percent sulphur content to 0.1 percent gasoil, in a crackdown on marine pollution. Industry experts believe shipowners will opt for gasoil rather than using exhaust filter systems known as scrubbers or alternative fuels such as liquefied natural gas (LNG), because of high investment costs, long payback times, and the lack of suitable port infrastructure.

UK's Oceans TV announce that Royal Caribbean International has extended satellite TV channel agreements for two of the cruise line's ships. The first agreement covers the provision of a wide package of satellite TV channels for Serenade of the Seas whilst it cruises in European and Middle Eastern waters in Winter and Spring 2013. Channels include BBC World News, BBC Entertainment and CNBC Europe for English speaking passengers. Italian cruise lovers can watch Rai News, Rai 1 and Mediaset Italia; TF1 and AB1 are available for French passengers whilst TVE Internacional and RTL Schweiz can be viewed by Spanish and German speakers respectively. The second agreement is for the supply of the TV Globo International satellite TV channel onboard Splendour of the Seas.

The United States Coast Pilot, with one of the Nation’s longest publishing records, like fine wine, improves with age. The United States Coast Pilot®, originally called the American Coast Pilot, has been published for over 200 years. This set of sailing directions for U.S. coastal waters has kept millions of mariners safe from perils at sea. Recently, NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey unveiled yet another improvement to the nine-volume set geared to modern mariners who need updated information as soon as it becomes available.

1789-An act of Congress provided for the registering and clearing of vessels and the regulation of the coastwise trade, thus laying the foundation of American navigation laws which, until 1912, embodied the marine policy of the United States. 1894-An armed guard of Revenue Cutter Service personnel were placed on the Pribiloff Islands to protect seals. 1938-The Coast Guard assumed responsibility for the Maritime Service. 1939-The armed forces of Nazi Germany invaded Poland, beginning World War II. 1942- On 1 September 1942 Joseph C. Jenkins was given a temporary promotion to warrant officer (Boatswain); becoming the first African-American warrant officer in the Coast Guard.

In 1988, Congress enacted the Abandoned Shipwreck Act (Pub. L. 100-298, 43 U.S.C. §§ 2101-2106), in an effort to give states more authority to protect the historical provenance of abandoned shipwrecks in state waters. It was one of the more controversial laws Congress passed that year because it pitted treasure salvors and divers, on the one hand, against states and historic preservationists on the other. In the end, the states won passage of the legislation, but some twelve years later, the question remains whether the Act has had the intended effect. Two significant decisions since 1988 have called into question the law's stated Congressional policy. First, a description of the Act itself.

The U.S. Navy will unveil a new maritime strategy next month that will address the demands of a globalizing world, a top military official said Sept. 27. Vice Adm. John G. Morgan Jr., Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information, Plans and Strategy (N3/N5), spoke to a group gathered at the Ronald Reagan Building for a conference on National Security Strategy and Policy. He told the audience that during the International Seapower Symposium next month in Newport News, Va., the Navy will present a new maritime strategy to some 91 heads of allied navies, Marines and coast guards. The doctrine, which took some 16 months to complete, is the Navy's first attempt to document a seapower strategy since the 1980s.

For the second year in a row, two communications systems and two navigation products from KVH Industries, Inc. have earned "best product" awards from The National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA). TracVision 3, a new 1999 system based upon last year's award-winning TracVision II, was voted Best Satellite Television System, and Tracphone 25 was again named Best Satellite Telephone System. The company's new Azimuth GyroTrac was named Best Gyro Compass and the Azimuth 1000 was once again voted Best Electronic Compass. TracVision 3 is unique in that it combines proprietary orientation sensor and antenna pointing technologies to deliver impressive satellite tracking performance.