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Fundy News

10 Aug 2023

Mark's Epic Journey: 268 Days 1643 Hours, 6,800 Miles in a Kayak

Photo courtesy Mark Fuhrmann

After 268 days in his kayak, 1643 hours of paddling and a journey of almost 6,800 miles, 65-year-old Mark Fuhrmann has completed his epic “Reverse the Bad” charity expedition across Canada and the United States.In doing so, he becomes the first person to solo kayak the ‘Greater Loop’ circuit, beginning (and ending) in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and traversing the Great Lakes, the Illinois, the Mississippi, the Tennessee and Tombigbee Rivers, before hitting the Gulf of Mexico and heading up the Atlantic Coast.A smiling…

19 Jun 2023

Algoma Orders Two Tankers from Hyundai Mipo

(Photo: Irving Oil)

Algoma Central Corporation announced it has placed an order with Hyundai Mipo Shipyard in South Korea to build two 37,000 DWT ice class product tanker vessels for a total investment of CA$127 million (about US$96.2 million).These new ships will be entered on long-term time charters to Irving Oil under Canadian flag, servicing the energy company’s refinery in Saint John, New Brunswick, with deliveries to ports in Atlantic Canada and the U.S. East Coast.Delivery of the new vessels is expected during the first quarter of 2025.

09 Jun 2023

North American Lobster Industry Confronts 'Ropeless' Traps After Whale Entanglements

© norrie39 / Adobe Stock

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…

11 May 2022

Renewable Energy: First Floating Tidal Power Delivered to Nova Scotia Grid

Photo courtesy Sustainable Marine Energy Ltd.

Sustainable Marine said it has successfully harnessed the tidal currents in Canada’s Bay of Fundy, delivering the first floating in-stream tidal power to Nova Scotia’s grid.Nova Scotia has allocated circa 30MW of capacity via demonstration permits and berths at FORCE (Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy) for developers to demonstrate their energy generation prowess. “Achieving ‘first power’ to the grid from our new platform in Grand Passage signals a real inflection point for our business,” said Jason Hayman, CEO, Sustainable Marine.

10 Dec 2021

Fishing Boat Design: New Crab Boat from Gaspé Yard

Image courtesy NAVANEX /Cummins

With the regulated catch quotas of contemporary fisheries, design versatility for a fishing boat can be important. A new 19.8 x 7.3-m (65 x 24-ft.) combination crab trap and groundfish trawler designed by NAVANEX for building by Chantier Naval Forillon, both of Gaspé, Quebec, Canada is a fine example of this. Owners, Listuguj Mi’gmaq Government, anticipate accepting delivery in April of 2022.The steel-hulled vessel will have a raised fo’c’sle design with an aluminum pilot house. When crab fishing, the clear, aft deck will be capable of carrying up to 150 collapsible, 100-pound crab pots.

01 Oct 2021

Academia’s Climate Change Challenge is Far from Academic

Mesobot, an underwater robot capable of tracking and recording high-resolution images of slow-moving and fragile zooplankton, gelatinous animals, and particles, is providing researchers with deeper insight into the vast mid-ocean region known as the twilight zone. © Evan Kovacs/©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Highlighted in Marine Technology Reporter's MTR100 is the work and technology ongoing in the halls of academia. The most recent report released by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change emphasized our warming planet, an expected announcement for many in the scientific community. Faced with the confirmation that human activities have caused an increase in global temperatures, research has turned to seeking answers in the planet’s natural systems. How does each part of the global carbon cycle work and how may it be impacted by the changing climate?

01 Apr 2021

Riding the Tides: Interview with Jason Hayman, CEO, Sustainable Marine Energy

“In developing a floating system, the real challenge is dealing with the huge loads through the mooring system. To give you an idea, two of our turbines produce the same thrust as an F-35 fighter jet on full afterburner. So you take our new six-turbine platform, and that's like taking three F-35s, telling the pilots hit full throttle, and putting that on a leash.”
Jason Hayman, CEO, Sustainable Marine Energy

Harnessing the power of the tides is not for the squeamish, with the roster of trials and failures long and distinguished. Jason Hayman and his Sustainable Marine Energy crew are putting their tech to the test in one of the harshest spots on the planet, the Bay of Fundy, as his discussed with Marine Technology TV.Jason, to start, how did you come to a career in the offshore renewable energy field?I suppose my interest got piqued back in about 2003. I went to a lecture at the University of Newcastle and they had a wave energy crowd there and a tidal energy developer.

12 Jan 2021

SMM's Offshore Dialogue: The Value Of Wind And Water

Alfred-Wegener-Institut_Michael Gutsche (CC-BY 4.0)_Polarstern MOSAiC Expedition

At the SMM Hamburg's Offshore Dialogue online conference on February 2, international experts will discuss current trends in the offshore wind farms segment, technical challenges facing tidal and wave energy conversion, and innovative ocean monitoring technologies."About 70% of our planet is covered by water. The Earth's oceans play a key role in shaping the global climate. The more important it is to gather and evaluate as much information as possible about the composition of this ecosystem and how it changes.

03 Mar 2020

Salvors Building Protection Barrier Around Golden Ray Wreck

A Weeks Marine crane prepares to drive a pile using a vibratory hammer on February 26, 2020, near St. Simons Island, Ga., as part of the construction of the environmental protection barrier (EPB) around the motor vessel Golden Ray. (Photo by Tyler Drapeau)

Salvors are continuing work to remove the wreck of a South Korean car carrier vessel that ran aground and overturned near Brunswick, Ga. in September 2019.Last week, unified command contractors started driving the first of 70-80 piles that will be used to hold an environmental protection barrier (EPB) in place around the MV Golden Ray wreck in St. Simons Sound, the unified command response team said in a statement.The pile-driving work is being performed by Weeks Marine during daylight hours only and is expected to last about a month, said the unified command for the St.

21 Jan 2019

Schottel Merges Tidal Units to Sustainable Marine Energy

Schottel, the manufacturer of propulsion and steering systems for ships and offshore applications, has made a strategic decision to merge its tidal energy businesses into Sustainable Marine Energy (SME), including UK subsidiary TidalStream Ltd and Canadian subsidiary Black Rock Tidal Power Inc (BRTP)."Following the successful collaboration between SME, Schottel Hydro and Black Rock Tidal Power to develop and demonstrate the PLAT-I floating tidal energy system, with deployments in Scotland and in Canada, Schottel has made a strategic decision to merge its tidal energy businesses into SME," said a press statement from Sustainable Marine Energy.The provider of tidal energy technology anchor solutions for marine current turbines said that  Schottel  has transferred all its tidal energy assets…

18 Sep 2018

Canada to Study Shipping's Environmental Impact

(Photo: Eric Haun)

The Government of Canada is acting to preserve and restore marine ecosystems that are vulnerable to increased marine shipping and development.Transport Canada has awarded a contract to ESSA Technologies Ltd. under the Oceans Protection Plan to look at methodologies and tools to assess the cumulative impacts of marine shipping on coastal marine ecosystems.Transport Canada’s national cumulative effects assessment framework for marine shipping will identify regionally specific tools…

16 Aug 2017

Detyens Sees Uptick in International Repair Work

Photo: Detyens Shipyards, Inc

International vessels have been trading in the Port of Charleston, S.C. for centuries. While Charleston is the sixth largest container port in the U.S., it is also home to Detyens Shipyards, Inc (DSI). In the past several years, DSI has seen an increase in the number of dry dock inquiries and bookings from International vessel operators. “In the last two quarters, we’ve dry docked eight internationally owned and operated vessels,” explained Peter Browne, Vice President of Estimating.

07 Apr 2016

Canada Commits $51.9 Mln to Ferry Services

MV Fundy Rose (Photo: Bay Ferries Ltd.)

The Canadian Government has committed $51.9 million to support Atlantic Canada ferry services, announced Canada’s Transport Minister Marc Garneau. The funding, announced as part of Budget 2016, will support operations, maintain and repair ferry assets and dispose of the MV Princess of Acadia, which was taken out of service in July 2015 and replaced by the MV Fundy Rose. The funding has enabled the one year extension of contracts for interprovincial ferry services in Atlantic Canada…

24 Sep 2015

Riding Waves & Tides to a Cleaner Energy Future

The European Way The Meygen tidal stream energy project is currently under construction off the coast of Scotland. By the early 2020s, MeyGen Limited intends to deploy up to 398MW of offshore tidal stream turbines to supply clean and renewable electricity to the UK National Grid. (Credit: Atlantis Resources Ltd.)

When one thinks of offshore renewable energy, one usually thinks of offshore wind. For the first time progress is being made in the U.S. to develop offshore wind resources. The first steel foundation jacket has been placed in the ocean floor to support the Deepwater Wind project off the coast of Block Island, Rhode Island. (See www.dwwind.com/press/#/1). But recently, progress is also being made in the development of tidal and wave energy resources closer to shore, which are known as marine hydrokinetic or MHK resources.

28 Jul 2015

Hawboldt Secures Cape Sharp Tidal Winch Deal

A third Nova Scotian company has secured a multimillion dollar contract with the Cape Sharp Tidal project, which has potential to be the first grid-connected tidal array in the world. Hawboldt Industries of Chester, Nova Scotia has been awarded a $4.7-million contract for the design and manufacturing of three heavy lift winches to be used on the OpenHydro deployment and recovery barge. Cape Sharp Tidal is a partnership between OpenHydro – a DCNS company – and Emera Inc. to develop a tidal industry in Nova Scotia. “We’re pleased to award another contract to a Nova Scotia company after a competitive tender,” said James Ives, OpenHydro Chief Executive.

22 Mar 2015

French Coast Braced for Giant Tide

Towns on France's North Atlantic coast braced for their first giant tide of the millennium on Saturday as the full moon and this week's solar eclipse combined to create an ocean surge not seen since 1997. At the picturesque Mont Saint Michel island where some of the biggest tides in the world occur, visitors gathered to watch the tide disappear out of sight, exposing areas of beach and rock visible only every 18 years. The next peak tide is not due until 2033. France's National Hydrographic Service was expecting to measure more than 14 metres (15.3 yards) between low and high water around the famous Abbey-topped rock off France's north-west coast. Average tides in the area measure 8.7 metres.

09 Jan 2015

Canada’s Ferry Industry Sets Course for Success

A Canadian Ferry underway in light ice conditions. (Courtesy of CFOA)

Our country’s past and its future are fundamentally linked to the transportation of people, vehicles and goods over our lakes, rivers and sea. Ferries have always been an integral part of Canada’s transportation infrastructure. Today, the geo-political relevance, the economic impact and the environment footprint of ferries continue to show that the sector is a crucial part of Canada’s infrastructure. Nationally, nearly 50 million people and more than 18 million vehicles travel on Canada’s ferries each year.

21 May 2014

FORCE Expands Tidal Energy Project Team

Nova Scotia's efforts to harness the power of the highest tides in the world are accelerating this year, and more people are joining the project to help ensure its success. Today, speaking to industry, science, and government representatives at the Nova Scotia Energy Research and Development Forum, Tony Wright, general manager of FORCE (the Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy), announced two new staff members and two new volunteer board members have joined the team to help realize the clean energy potential in the Bay of Fundy.

05 Jun 2013

NOAA Proposal Aims to Extend Reduced Whale Ship Strikes

A right whale skim feeding with NOAA Ship Delaware II in the background.

NOAA Fisheries is seeking comments on its proposal to make permanent the rules it implemented five years ago to reduce the number of collisions between ships and North Atlantic right whales. Right whales are among the most endangered species in the world, and are highly vulnerable to ship collisions. The rules, part of NOAA's long-standing efforts to recover right whales, are currently scheduled to expire in December 2013. NOAA's proposal to make them permanent, which includes a 60-day public comment period, was filed at the Federal Register today.

04 Nov 2011

Siemens Ups Stake in Offshore Renewables

British tidal energy company, Marine Current Turbines Ltd, announced that Siemens is increasing its share in the company to 45%. “With this increase in its stake, Siemens is strengthening its activities in ocean power generation. We will actively shape the commercialization process of innovative marine current power plants,” said Michael Axmann, CFO of the newly founded Solar & Hydro Division within Siemens’ Energy Sector. Marine Current Turbines (MCT) has evolved from a pioneer to a technology leader in horizontal axis marine current turbines and now has 25 employees. In February 2010 Siemens acquired a minor stake in the Bristol-based company and thus entered the marine tidal current market. Financial details of today’s announcement are not disclosed.

24 Sep 2013

Whale Rescuers of Bay of Fundy

To the rescue!: Photo courtesy of CWRT

The Campobello Island Whale Rescue team disentangles whales caught in fishermen's gear and nets around the Bay of Fundy off the east coast of Canada. Campobello Whale Rescue Team began after Mackie Greene witnessed a fin whale wrapped in fishing gear while leading a whale watching trip. Since then he and his team have worked with over 20 whales, risking their lives driving a Zodiac up next to animals that can be 40 to 70 or more feet long, and cutting through the lines entangling them.

18 Sep 2012

Tidal Energy System Contract For OceanWorks

Image credit OceanWorks

OceanWorks International contracted by the Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy (FORCE) to establish project cable termination in the Bay of Fundy, Canada. The project contract includes the design, manufacture and integration of the subsea instrumentation, shore station, and commissioning. FORCE is deploying four power cables to connect prototype in-stream tidal turbines to a dedicated electrical sub-station. By providing this infrastructure, it is lowering the 'barrier to entry' for turbine manufactures to test their equipment in one of the most demanding tidal environments.

19 Sep 2012

OceanWorks International Contracted for FORCE Tidal Energy System

OceanWorks International has been awarded a contract by the Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy (FORCE) to instrument a cable termination for a ground breaking tidal energy project in the Bay of Fundy. The project includes the design, manufacture and integration of the subsea instrumentation, shore station, and commissioning. FORCE is deploying four power cables to connect prototype instream tidal turbines to a dedicated electrical sub-station. By providing this infrastructure, FORCE is lowering the ‘barrier to entry’ for turbine manufactures to test their equipment in one of the most demanding tidal environments. The planned deployment will take place in Atlantic Canada’s Bay of Fundy, which is renowned for having the highest tidal range in the world.