Fleet Management Ltd News

The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has launched a video titled ‘An Adventurous Spirit’, signifying the start of a global campaign to address the seafarer shortage.‘An Adventurous Spirit’ is the result of collaboration between ICS and its network of members to produce a resource that the shipping industry can use in its recruitment efforts. The 10-minute video was produced using first-party testimonials gathered from current seafarers who shared insight into what their roles entail…

Vroon takes delivery of 'MV Sicilian Express', the last in a series of four bulkers built at COSCO Dalian Shipyard, China. MV Sicilian Express is a 92,500-dwt post-panamax bulk carrier, and her Chinese crew sails under the Gibraltar flag. Responsibility for management of the vessel has been awarded to Fleet Management Ltd. of Hong Kong. Vroon BV, located in Breskens, The Netherlands, operates and manages a diverse fleet of approximately 160 vessels.

At the 150th Annual Meeting of the Members of ABS, three industry leaders were elected to the ABS Council. Following the Annual Meeting, the ABS Council met and elected industry leaders to both its Marine and Offshore Technical Committees. Individuals serving on the ABS Council and the Technical Committees help guide the class society in fulfilling its mission of promoting the security of life, property and the natural environment. “Classification represents the concept of self-regulation for the marine and offshore industry,” said ABS President and CEO Christopher J. Wiernicki.

The owners and operators of a container ship that slammed into the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in 2007 and spilled thousands of gallons of oil into San Francisco Bay have sued the Northern California pharmacists they claim negligently dispensed prescription drugs to the pilot of the Cosco Busan, according to news in 'The Washington Post'. The ship’s owner, Regal Stone Ltd., and operator Fleet Management Ltd. Alleged in court papers filed in San Francisco Superior Court Friday that the pills “recklessly” provided by pharmacists at a Longs drug store in Petaluma, Calif. had so clouded pilot John Cota’s judgment and dulled his reflexes that they led to the crash.

Oil Spill Proceeds Of Settlement to Fund Projects and Restore Natural Resources Largest Oil Pollution Act Settlement in History of the Law. Federal, state and Bay-area officials announced a comprehensive civil settlement with the owners and operators of the M/V Cosco Busan, resolving all natural resource damages, penalties and response costs that resulted from the ship striking the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in 2007, and subsequent oil spill in the San Francisco Bay. The event killed thousands of birds, impacted a significant portion of the Bay’s 2008 herring spawn, spoiled miles of shoreline habitat and closed the bay and area beaches to recreation and fishing. The U.S.

WASHINGTON – Prem Kumar, also known as Premakumaran Krishnan, a citizen of India, has been added to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) fugitive list for failing to surrender to federal law enforcement authorities after he was indicted for his role in an illegal ocean-going vessel wastewater discharge case. Illegally discharging wastewater into the ocean threatens aquatic life and can lead to fish kills, contamination of fish and shellfish, and may have long-term ecological effects.

ABS Nautical Systems, one of the leading providers of integrated fleet management software for the maritime industry, announced another year of record growth in 2010. ABS Nautical Systems signed 83 new clients with a combined total of 1053 vessels overall. In the month of December, 18 new customers were signed – a number that roughly equates to a new contract signed daily. New clients signed across the globe include Chevron, Reederei Offen, Hapag-Lloyd, Donnelly Tankers Management, Nereus Shipping, Fleet Management Ltd., NAVSEA and Arab Maritime Petroleum Transport Company. ABS Nautical Systems opened new offices in Vancouver and Shanghai in 2010 to better serve each region, and will be announcing three additional openings in the spring of 2011.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, federal prosecutors told a judge that the pilot of the container ship that struck the Bay Bridge in November 2007 ignored basic safety precautions, lied to licensing authorities about his prescription drug use, and should be sentenced to 10 months in prison, the maximum recommended by his plea agreement. Capt. John Cota's lawyers asked for a two-month sentence, the minimum term in the plea agreement, and argued that prosecutors were making the 61-year-old pilot a scapegoat in "an accident with many causes." Their papers were filed Friday with U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, who is scheduled to sentence Cota this Friday. A court probation officer has recommended a $30,000 fine – which Cota's lawyers accepted – and a three-month sentence.

John Joseph Cota, a California ship pilot, pleaded guilty on March 6 to negligently causing the discharge of approximately 53,000 gallons of oil into San Francisco Bay in violation of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, a law enacted in the wake of the Exxon Valdez disaster. Cota, who piloted the M/V Cosco Busan when it hit the San Francisco Bay Bridge on Nov. 7, 2007, also pleaded guilty to violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act for the death of protected migratory birds. If the plea terms are accepted by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston, Cota will be sentenced to serve between two and ten months in prison and be fined between $3,000 to $30,000.

The National Transportation Safety Board determined on Feb. 18 that a medically unfit pilot, an ineffective master, and poor communications between the two were the cause of an accident in which the Cosco Busan container ship spilled thousands of gallons of fuel oil into the San Francisco Bay after striking a bridge support tower. On November 7, 2007, at about 8:00 a.m. PST, in heavy fog with visibility of less than a quarter mile, the Hong Kong- registered, 901 ft container ship M/V Cosco Busan left its berth in the Port of Oakland destined for South Korea. The San Francisco Bay pilot, who was attempting to navigate the ship between the Delta and Echo support towers of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge…

California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. filed a lawsuit today on behalf of the California Department of Fish and Game Office of Spill Prevention and Response, State Lands Commission and State Water Boards against the owners, operators and pilot of the M/V Cosco Busan, the shipping vessel that spilled more than 53,000 gallons of oil into San Francisco Bay. “This was a preventable accident that had tragic consequences,” Attorney General Brown said. On November 7, 2007, the Cosco Busan, piloted by John Cota, hit the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge’s Delta Tower. The crash caused approximately 53,569 of gallons of oil to spew into San Francisco Bay and spread to the Pacific Ocean and along Bay Area shorelines.

Two Coast Guard small boats set a security zone around the 900-foot container ship Cosco Busan. The ship hit the San Francisco Bay Bridge Nov. 7, 2007 spilling an estimated 58,000 gallons of oil into the bay.(U.S. City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed suit in San Francisco Superior Court, under the State's Lempert-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act and other state laws, against the parties responsible for the November 7 oil spill incident in the San Francisco Bay. In that incident, the M/V Cosco Busan, a 65,131-ton, 900-ft.