QFC Orders 79-meter Freezer Trawler
Norwegian naval architecture firm Skipsteknisk announced it has secured a design contract from fishing company Qikiqtaaluk Fisheries Corporation (QFC) operating out of Iqaluit on Baffin Island in Canada for itsnew state-of-the-art freezer trawler.The new multi-species factory freezer trawler Saputi II will have a carrying capacity of 800 tons of shrimps or 1,200 tons of turbot. The vessel is of ST-118 design and will have a length of 79 meters and a beam of 17 meters.The trawler will be built with heavy ice-class and designed for operation in severe climatic conditions in the Bay of Baffin…
Far North Deployment for Coast Guard Cutter
US Coast Guard Cutter Juniper deploys to far Arctic region for joint operations. The Newport, R.I., based Coast Guard Cutter Juniper is deploying to the Arctic to conduct maritime safety and security exchanges with the Canadian navy and coast guard along with elements of the Danish navy. During the deployment, Juniper will participate in various elements of Operation Nanook. The operation is in the northernmost region of the high Arctic in the vicinity of Baffin Island and areas off Greenland’s west coast, approximately 2,300 miles northeast of Juniper’s homeport.
Icebergs across the North Atlantic
From the first voyages across the North Atlantic, icebergs have been a major threat to shipping interests. The most famous disaster was the sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912. On her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, the vessel struck an iceberg approximately 400 nautical miles south of Newfoundland, Canada. Less than 3 hours later the Titanic sank beneath the surface, taking with her over 1500 passengers (http://www.titanicuniverse.com/). There were many other ship-iceberg accidents before the Titanic.
Canada to Monitor NW Passage Traffic
Sea traffic in the famed Northwest Passage will soon be monitored by underwater listening devices to be installed by Canada to bolster its disputed claim over the Arctic. Canada's military will start keeping tabs on trespassers -- ships and submarines -- in the region as early as mid-2008, said public broadcaster CBC. The detection technology is to be installed at Gascoyne Inlet on Devon Island, near one of the main arteries of the passage that links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the CBC said, citing unnamed sources. Canada is at odds with Russia, Denmark, Norway and the United States over 460,000 square miles of Arctic seabed. Each nation is claiming overlapping sections of the sea floor, believed to hold 25 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas reserves.
