California Coast News

The U.S. Coast Guard published an interim rule on December 27, 2021, to implement Congressionally-mandated requirements for fire safety on “covered small passenger vessels” (CSPVs), as defined by 46 U.S.C. 3306(n). Congress adopted the statutory mandate in response to the fire and loss of 34 lives onboard the dive boat CONCEPTION off the California coast on 02 September 2019.The USCG has identified a need to clarify the reference in 46 CFR 175.110(c) with respect to fire detection…

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is recommending new notification alarms and procedures for potential incursions on pipelines and a change to an anchorage off the California coast following a crude oil release in 2021 caused by ship anchors damaging an underwater pipeline.NTSB investigators determined that the oil leak, which began on October 1, 2021, in San Pedro Bay, resulted from an anchor strike on the pipeline that occurred eight months earlier, when anchors…

U.S.-based offshore wind developer Vineyard Offshore on Monday announced it has named Alicia Barton as the company’s new CEO, starting in January.Barton will take over for Lars T. Pedersen, who has led the company since it was founded in 2022 and before that led the team developing Vineyard Wind, the first commercial-scale offshore wind project in the United States, now under construction.“I had the pleasure of working with Alicia during the very early days of the Vineyard Wind project and know she brings an outstanding mix of skills and talent to Vineyard Offshore,” Pedersen said.

Naval architecture and marine engineering firm Glosten and Siemens Energy have selected Ballard Power Systems and Chart Industries as primary equipment vendors for their design of what will be the first hydrogen-hybrid research vessel in the world. The vessel, nominally known as the CCRV, is currently in the design phase and will be owned and operated by UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography (Scripps). Ballard Power Systems will provide the fuel cells which will help power the vessel…

The captain of a dive boat that caught fire and sank off the California coast in 2019, killing 34 people on board in one of the state's deadliest maritime disasters, was found guilty on Monday of a federal charge of seaman's manslaughter.Jerry Boylan, 70, was convicted by a U.S. District Court jury in Los Angeles on a single charged count of "misconduct or neglect of a ship officer" under a federal homicide statute dating from steamboat accidents in the early 1800s.The felony conviction…

U.S.-based Pacific shipping company Matson announced it has adjusted its sailing routes to help reduce the risk of whale strikes off the coast of California.Shipping channels into and out of San Francisco Bay and the Los Angeles/Long Beach port complex transit federally protected national marine sanctuaries. These sanctuaries –Monterey Bay, Greater Farallones, and Cordell Bank national marine sanctuaries–are destination feeding areas for threatened and endangered humpback and blue whales from late spring through the fall.In 2015…

US Coast Guard helicopter aircrews medically evacuated four separate passengers off three different cruise ships, off the southern California coast, during a 24-hour period beginning Friday night.A 47-year-old woman, reportedly suffering from a progressive acute illness, was hoisted off the cruise ship Carnival Panorama, which was 100 miles south of San Diego. The cruise ship and an MH-60 Jayhawk aircrew from Coast Guard Sector San Diego rendezvoused 100 miles south of San Diego.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has adopted a U.S. proposal to increase protections for endangered blue, fin and humpback whales off the California coast. The proposal takes effect this summer and expands areas that vessels should avoid to give whales more space, and extends vessel traffic lanes west of, in and around NOAA’s Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary.The Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council's Marine Shipping Working Group originally recommended the modifications in 2015. NOAA partnered with the U.S.

Northern California has some of the strongest offshore winds in the U.S., with immense potential to produce clean energy. But it also has a problem. Its continental shelf drops off quickly, making building traditional wind turbines directly on the seafloor costly if not impossible.Once water gets more than about 200 feet deep – roughly the height of an 18-story building – these “monopile” structures are pretty much out of the question.A solution has emerged that’s being tested in several locations around the world: wind turbines that float.In California…

The United States on Tuesday is set to kick off the first sale of offshore wind development rights for waters off the coast of California, expanding the nascent domestic industry to the Pacific Ocean.The auction is a major milestone in the Biden administration's push to put wind turbines along every U.S. coastline as part of its climate change agenda. Projects developed in the area could one day power 1.5 million homes, according to the Department of Interior, and are a key part of California's efforts to wean its power sector off fossil fuels by 2045.The sale also puts the United States…

Bellingham, Wash. shipbuilder All American Marine, Inc. (AAM) announced it has been awarded a contract to build an new 74’ patrol vessel for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW).CDFW manages California's diverse fish, wildlife and plant resources, and the habitats upon which they depend, and its Law Enforcement Division protects California natural resources and provides public safety. The agency will use the new aluminum catamaran for patrolling state and international waters along the California Coast.The 74’ x 27.5’ (OAL) twin engine…

President Joe Biden's administration on Tuesday said it would hold the first-ever sale of offshore wind development rights off the coast of California on Dec. 6, a big step forward in expanding the nascent U.S. industry to Pacific waters.The announcement is the latest in a government push to put wind turbines along U.S. coastlines, creating a new domestic jobs engine that is also designed to help wean the nation off fossil fuels and combat climate change.The sale, which the Department of Interior had said it planned to hold before the end of this year…

A federal judge in Los Angeles on Friday dismissed the criminal indictment against a dive boat captain charged with manslaughter in the deaths of 34 people when the vessel caught fire and sank off the California coast three years ago.The 75-foot (23-meter) Conception caught fire while most of those onboard were sleeping, killing 33 passengers and a crew member. It is considered one of California’s worst maritime disasters.U.S. District Judge George Wu said in a ruling that the indictment…

California on Wednesday set ambitious new targets for offshore wind development, saying turbines along its storied coastline would power some 25 million homes by 2050.In a unanimous vote, the five-member California Energy Commission (CEC) adopted a goal of 3,000 to 5,000 megawatts (MW) of offshore wind by 2030 and 25,000 MW by 2045, the agency said in a statement.California has among the most aggressive climate change goals in the country, but its foray into offshore wind has lagged that of East Coast states like New York…

UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography today announced that naval architecture and marine engineering company Glosten has been selected as the naval architect for the university’s new California coastal research vessel. The new vessel will feature a first-of-its-kind hydrogen-hybrid propulsion system.Selected after participating in the university's request for proposal process, Glosten will provide the preliminary design, contract design and detailed design for the research vessel to be operated by Scripps Oceanography.“This vessel will be the first of its kind…

The Biden administration on Thursday proposed auctioning five areas off the coast of California for offshore wind development, a critical milestone in expanding the nascent U.S. industry to Pacific waters.It is the latest in a government effort to put wind turbines along every U.S. coastline, with a goal of generating 30 gigawatts of power by 2030. President Joe Biden has said the new industry will create jobs and combat climate change.The announcement comes on the heels of two successful auctions this year in Atlantic waters that, combined, generated more than $4.6 billion in high bids.

A Singapore-flagged containership went adrift after losing engine power off the coast of California, the U.S. Coast Guard said.The crew of the 564-foot Wan Hai 176 told Coast Guard Sector San Francisco watchstanders that the ship started drifting as the result of mechanical problems on Friday. The ship has 21 people on board, and no injuries have been reported. The Coast Guard, California Department of Fish and Wildlife Office of Spill Prevention and Response and Marin County…

Mobile, Ala. shipbuilder Austal USA, part of Australia's Austal Group, hosted a christening ceremony for the future USS Santa Barbara (LCS 32) Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ship at the company’s Gulf Coast shipyard today. Ship sponsor Lolita Zinke performed the ceremonial bottle break over the bow of the Santa Barbara, the 16th LCS designed and constructed by Austal USA and the third U.S. Navy ship to be named after the California coast city.Zinke, wife of former U.S. Congressman and former U.S.

Democratic members of Congress from California seized on the oil spill off the state's coast to promote federal legislation to ban all offshore oil drilling, as investigators searched for what caused the pipeline to burst.About 3,000 barrels (126,000 gallons) of crude oil spilled into the Pacific Ocean, killing wildlife, soiling the coastline, and forcing officials to close beaches in several cities in Orange County, just south of Los Angeles. The spill follows dozens of incidents in the Gulf of Mexico following Hurricane Ida, which slammed into the U.S.

A section of the oil pipeline that burst off the Southern California coast was displaced 105 feet (32 meters) across the ocean floor, officials said on Tuesday, fueling speculation that a ship's anchor may have caused the environmental disaster.The revelation came as the U.S. Coast Guard and drilling company Amplify Energy Corp came under further scrutiny about the time it took to respond to the spill, amid reports that mariners first reported seeing oil in the water on Friday night…

More oil from a massive offshore spill landed on the southern California shore on Monday, with beaches closed and dead fish and birds washing up on shore as officials investigated whether a ship anchor striking a pipeline could have triggered the leak.Crews dressed in white coveralls and helmets raced against an approaching storm as they cleaned damage from 3,000 barrels (126,000 gallons) of oil that spilled into the Pacific Ocean in recent days from a pipeline connected to an…

A large oil spill off the southern California coast left fish dead, birds mired in petroleum and wetlands contaminated, prompting local officials to call it an environmental catastrophe.The U.S. Coast Guard, heading a clean-up response involving federal, state, and city agencies, said on Sunday there was an around-the-clock investigation into how the spill occurred.An estimated 126,000 gallons, or 3,000 barrels, had spread into an oil slick covering about 13 square miles of the Pacific Ocean since it was first reported on Saturday morning…

An injured crew member was medevaced from a U.K.-flagged containership more than 46 miles west of San Luis Obispo, Calif., on Friday.The captain of the 1,060-foot Hyundai Jupiter contacted 11th U.S. Coast Guard District command center watchstanders requesting assistance for the ailing mariner who reportedly suffered injuries from a 16-foot fall.Watchstanders launched a Coast Guard Air Station Sacramento C-27J Spartan aircraft and a Coast Guard Air Station San Francisco Forward Operating Base Mugu MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew to assist.Once on the scene…