Community Service News

The U.S. Coast Guard on Monday commenced Operation Coal Shovel, a domestic icebreaking operation to maintain commercial vessel traffic from southern Lake Huron to Lake St. Clair, to the St. Clair / Detroit River system, and into Lake Erie and Lake Ontario including the St. Lawrence Seaway.U.S. and Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers work together in these waterways as conditions worsen throughout the winter to ensure the ability to conduct search-and-rescue, exigent community service, and the facilitation of navigation to meet the reasonable demands of commerce.Both the U.S.

The U.S. Navy’s controversial USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) class of guided missile destroyers raises the legitimate question of whether a ship is too transformational, or not transformational enough.While the Navy Fact File states that DDG 1000 is the “largest and most technologically advanced surface combatant in the world,” it’s a program that has been in existence for many years. It began as the SC-21 (Surface Combatant for the 21st century) research and development program in 1994, which included the “arsenal ship” concept.

Four more defendants have been sentenced for their roles in a test score-fixing scheme at a U.S. Coast Guard exam center, U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans announced.On December 8, Alonzo Williams, who plead guilty to being an intermediary in the scheme, was sentenced by the Honorable Barry W. Ashe to 40 months incarceration to be followed by three years of supervised release.Quang Tran, Harry Johson and James Carr, who each plead guilty to unlawfully receiving an officer-level mariner license…

PACCAR Winch has been recognized locally and nationally for their ongoing commitment to providing an outstanding work environment for veterans. From community outreach to employee programs, the company is dedicated to recruiting, developing, and celebrating veterans.On November 10, PACCAR Winch was recognized as a recipient of the 2021 HIRE Vets Gold Medallion Award for the third year in a row from the U.S. Department of Labor. The Honoring Investments in Recruiting and Employing…

Crowley Maritime Corp. awarded Thomas B. Crowley Sr. Memorial Scholarships to four California State University Maritime Academy (CMA) cadets at the Containerization and Intermodal Institute’s Connie Awards last night in Long Beach, Calif.The recipients earned the scholarships based on their academic achievement, financial need and their interest in pursuing careers at sea.Spencer Hoffman, a third-year student from Loomis, Calif., is currently a junior studying marine transportation. He serves as a cadet ambassador for the academy.

$1 Million Will Go to Projects that Support Cleanup of Marine Pollution, Preservation of Aquatic Life, and Restoration of Shorelines around Newark Bay.A shipping company based in Italy today admitted discharging oily waste and other pollutants into the sea and then lying about it, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito and Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark announced.The company, d’Amico Shipping Italia S.p.A., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton in Newark federal court to an information charging it with violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships.

The crew aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Steadfast (WMEC-623) returned home Friday to Astoria after a 60-day counternarcotic patrol in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.While patrolling international waters off the coast of Mexico and Central America, Steadfast’s law enforcement boarding teams intercepted and stopped eight separate vessels suspected of smuggling illicit drugs. The eight boardings resulted in the discovery and seizure of approximately 13,123 pounds of cocaine worth…

The crew aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Steadfast (WMEC-623) returned home Friday to Astoria after a 60-day counternarcotic patrol in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. While patrolling international waters off the coast of Mexico and Central America, Steadfast’s law enforcement boarding teams intercepted and stopped eight separate vessels suspected of smuggling illicit drugs. The eight boardings resulted in the discovery and seizure of approximately 13,123 pounds of cocaine worth more than $200 million wholesale. The 210-foot cutter deployed to the Eastern Pacific Ocean in support of the Joint Interagency Task Force South with the primary mission of detecting and interdicting illegal drug traffickers.

Task Force 70 Public Affairs (NNS) - The Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group arrived in Busan for a port visit, Oct. 21. The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) with embarked staff of Commander, Task Force (CTF) 70, Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 15 staff and Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5, and the guided-missile destroyers USS Stethem (DDG 63) and USS Chafee (DDG 90) pulled into Busan after participating in Maritime Counter Special Operations Force Exercise (MCSOFEX) 2017. The focus of the bilateral training exercise was to increase the readiness of U.S. and Republic of Korea (ROK) forces and maintain stability on the Korean Peninsula. Shuttle tankers differ from “standard” crude oil tankers.

A fishing vessel company that operated in and around American Samoa was convicted and sentenced for maintaining false and incomplete records relating to the discharge of oil and garbage, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey H. Wood of the Environment and Natural Resources Division and United States Attorney Channing D. Phillips. The company, Yuh Fa Fishery (Vanuatu) Co. Ltd., owned the F/V Yuh Fa No. 201, the vessel that was responsible for the pollution. Yuh Fa Fishery (Vanuatu) Co. Ltd., admitted that its engineers failed to document the illegal dumping of oily bilge water into the waters of the South Pacific Ocean without the use of required pollution prevention equipment. The Chief Engineer onboard the F/V Yuh Fa No.

The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70), Ticonderoga class guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain (CG 57), Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer (DDG 108), along with embarked Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 1, Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 2, and Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 1 arrived in San Diego June 23, following a five-and-a-half-month deployment to the Western Pacific. Carl Vinson, Lake Champlain, Wayne E. Meyer and embarked air wing and staffs departed San Diego for a regularly-scheduled deployment with the Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group as part of the U.S. Pacific Fleet-led initiative to extend the command and control functions of U.S. 3rd Fleet into the Indo-Asia-Pacific region, Jan.

Princess Cruise Lines Ltd. was sentenced to pay a $40 million penalty – the largest-ever for crimes involving deliberate vessel pollution – related to illegal dumping overboard of oil contaminated waste and falsification of official logs in order to conceal the discharges. The sentence was announced by Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey H. Wood for the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, and Acting U.S. Attorney Benjamin G. Greenberg for the Southern District of Florida in Miami. The sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge Patricia A.

Wood Group PSN Inc., a Nevada corporation headquartered in Houston, was ordered to pay $9.5 million in two separate cases involving its conduct in the Gulf of Mexico. Specifically, Wood Group PSN was ordered to pay $7 million for falsely reporting over several years that personnel had performed safety inspections on offshore facilities in the Gulf of Mexico in the Western District of Louisiana, and $1.8 million for negligently discharging oil into the Gulf of Mexico in violation of the Clean Water Act after an explosion on an offshore facility in the Eastern District of Louisiana, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeff Wood of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana Stephanie A. Finley, and U.S.

Two Greek shipping companies were sentenced to pay corporate penalties totaling $2.7 million after being convicted for obstructing justice, violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS), tampering with witnesses and conspiracy. Each company was ordered to pay part of its penalty to Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary in recognition of the threat posed by illegal discharges of oily waste to the marine environment. The case stems from an inspection of the M/V Ocean Hope, a large cargo ship, conducted by the U.S. Coast Guard at the Port of Wilmington, N.C. in July 2015. During that inspection, senior engineers for the companies tried to hide that the vessel had been dumping oily wastes into the ocean for months.

Hannah Wistort, Webb Institute class of 2017, is the 2016-2017 recipient of Crowley Maritime Corporation’s Thomas B. Crowley Sr. Memorial Scholarship. Webb’s scholarship selection committee chose Wistort for her academic excellence and leadership skills. Wistort, who is from Niskayuna, N.Y., has been involved with many student organizations and community projects. She is a member of the Webb Leadership Committee, which organizes community service and outreach projects for students.

A Washington resident has been fined for interfering with the safe operation of a Washington State Ferry (WSF) passenger vessel by shining a laser at the ferry’s master and chief mate. Mark Raden of Freeland, Wash. was aboard the WSF Kitsap transiting between Mukilteo and Clinton on October 22, 2015 when he pointed the high-powered blue laser at the WSF Tokitae, striking the vessel's master and chief mate in the eyes and endangering the 106 passengers on board. A U.S. Coast Guard Hearing Officer assessed a $9,500 civil penalty on December 27 2016.

On Thursday, December 22, the President of CMA CGM Corporate Foundation, Mrs. Naïla Saadé, handed over the 2016 Prize of the Corporate Foundation to Mrs. Nora Joumblatt, founder and president of the NGO “KAYANY” at CMA CGM head office in Beirut. Founded in 2013, the Lebanese NGO “KAYANY”, which means “my existence”, aims at providing schooling and psychosocial support to the most vulnerable Syrian children refugees in Lebanon. Since its inception, “Kayany” has been a key player in administering free and accessible schooling to over 3,000 boys and girls, aged between 6 and 14. These children had no access to education and were out of school for more than three years.

The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Mackinaw returned to Chicago on December 3, 2016 as this year’s “Christmas Ship” loaded with 1,200 Christmas trees. Each year, the Coast Guard partners with the Chicago Christmas Ship Committee to participate in the two-day event depicting the annual Chicago tradition from the early 1900s, combining the trip with the cutter's annual aids-to-navigation mission as part of Operation Fall Retrieve. This annual operation affects 1,233 lighted and unlighted buoys and beacons throughout the Great Lakes.

The Dennis & Phyllis Washington Foundation, in conjunction with Seaspan, announced today a multi-year, multimillion dollar investment in the future of British Columbia’s marine industrial sector. The commitment totals $2.9 million and includes a three-year, $900,000 donation by the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation to three institutional trades training programs in Canada. This donation has been given in support of the Industrial and Regional Benefits Policy program under the National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS).

United States District Court Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi accepted the guilty plea of Doorae Shipping Co., LTD, a South Korean maritime operations company, and sentenced the company to pay a fine of $275,000, and a term of three years of probation for the failure to maintain an accurate oil record book, in violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships. According to the Information to which Doorae pled guilty, the operation of a marine vessel, such as the B. Pacific, a petroleum oil tank ship registered under the flag administration of the Marshall Islands, and operated by Doorae, generates large quantities of waste oil and oil-contaminated waste water. International and U.S. law requires that these vessels use pollution prevention equipment to preclude the discharge of these materials.

Environmental regulations for ships are getting more stringent, but automated sensor technology could help ship operators remain in compliance. The recent agreement signed in Paris, at the UN Climate Change Conference, will require all industries to keep reducing their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Although there was no specific mention of shipping, the aim of keeping global temperature rises below 2ºC this century will require the industry to play its part – as it is responsible for about 2% of global CO2 emissions.

Two German shipping companies that owned and operated the Motor Vessel (M/V) Nils B, pleaded guilty today to an environmental crime in federal court in San Diego before the Honorable Jan M. Adler, announced Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden and United States Attorney Laura E. Duffy. W. Bockstiegel Reederei GmbH  & Co. KG (which operated the vessel) and W. Bockstiegel GmbH & Co. Reederei KG MS “NILS B” (which owned the vessel), pleaded guilty to one felony violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships for failing to accurately maintain an oil record book for the M/V Nils B. In doing so, the firms failed to disclose that oil contaminated water had been discharged into the ocean from the vessel without the use of pollution prevention equipment.

An American tuna fishing company that regularly unloaded its catch in American Samoa, was convicted and sentenced today for discharging oil into the South Pacific and for maintaining false records, announced Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden of the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips for the District of Columbia. The company, Pacific Breeze Fisheries LLC, owned the Fishing Vessel F/V Pacific Breeze, a tuna purse seiner that was responsible for the pollution. Pacific Breeze Fisheries admitted that its engineers failed to document the illegal dumping of oily bilge water into the waters off American Samoa without the use of required pollution prevention equipment.