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Hunting News

08 Mar 2024

TDI-Brooks' Retrofitted Vessel Arrives to US for Offshore Wind Work

RV Nautilus (Credit: TDI-Brooks)

TDI-Brooks' latest dynamic positioning vessel, the RV Nautilus, has reached the shores of the East Coast of the United States ahead of work for offshore wind sector.After undergoing a six-month retrofit in Las Palmas, the 2000-built vessel will be put to work to provide support for offshore wind projects and various other subsea needs.With the length of 75-meters, the DP2 vessel is equipped with advanced technology, including a Geomil Manta-200 CPT that can be deployed through the mid-ship moonpool.The system can penetrate the soil up to 40-50 meters…

30 Jan 2024

TDI-Brooks' New Vessel Ready for Work

(Photo: TDI-Brooks)

TDI-Brooks' newest vessel R/V Nautilus (formerly known as Nautical Geo) is ready to go to work following a 6-month retrofit period in Las Palmas.The DP2 vessel is currently enroute to the U.S. East Coast to provide support for offshore wind operations. It is expected to be fully prepared for the first offshore wind program by early March.Built in 2000, the 75-meter-long vessel is equipped with the newly-acquired Geomiil Manta-200 CPT, which can be deployed through the mid-ship moonpool.

17 Jan 2024

Hunter Group Signs Charter for Eco-Design VLCC

© Jouni Niskakoski / Adobe Stock

Norwegian shipowner Hunter Group has entered into a three-year back-to-back charterparty for an eco-design and scrubber fitted Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) with an internationally renowned counterparty.Delivery of the 2016-built vessel is expected to take place during March/April 2024.The company will charter the vessel in at a fixed rate of $51,000 per day, before subsequently chartering the vessel out on a floating index-linked spot rate contract."This agreement is yet another…

13 Dec 2023

Why the Indian Ocean Could be China's Achilles' Heel in a Taiwan War

© Igor / Adobe Stock

Every day, nearly 60 fully loaded very large crude-oil carriers sail between the Persian Gulf and Chinese ports, carrying about half of the oil that powers the world's second-largest economy.As the vessels enter the South China Sea, they ply waters increasingly controlled by China's growing military, from the missile batteries and airfields at its bases on disputed islands to its stealthy Type 055 destroyers.But when crossing the Indian Ocean, joined by others headed to China from Africa and Brazil…

23 Oct 2023

US Navy Taps Bollinger to Build Four More Mine Countermeasure USVs

(Photo: Bollinger Shipyards)

The U.S. Navy has awarded Bollinger Shipyards a contract to build four additional Mine Countermeasures Unmanned Surface Vessels (MCM USV). This brings the total number of vessels under contract up to seven, with options for up to 18 more vessels.“Bollinger is honored to be entrusted by the U.S. Navy to continue building the Mine Countermeasures Unmanned Surface Vessel program,” said Ben Bordelon, president and CEO of Bollinger Shipyards. “Our skilled workforce is second to none. We are proud to support and protect the men and women of the U.S.

15 Sep 2023

Iceland Suspends Whaling Ship over Animal Welfare Violation

Iceland has suspended the operations of one of its two whaling vessels for taking too long to kill a fin whale, the authorities and the boat's owner said on Friday.The government two weeks ago ended a two-month pause in whaling that had been imposed after a report concluded that killing whales took longer than Iceland's animal welfare law allowed.Although it imposed stricter regulations and surveillance in order to limit the whales' suffering, there were nevertheless protests from animal welfare campaigners and Hollywood stars including Leonardo DiCaprio.An inspection carried out on Sept.

10 Aug 2023

TDI-Brooks Adds 75m DP2 Ship to its Fleet

Image courtesy TDI-Brooks

TDI-Brooks increases its vessel capacity by adding a 75-meter DP2 vessel,  R/V NAUTILUS to its fleet, a ship that can offer a variety of offshore assistance with subsea services, construction aid, exploration, production, ROV and diving support, and scientific marine research and survey mapping, along with military support.This vessel is currently about 60% through its retrofit period in Las Palmas, scheduled to complete its shipyard period in late September 2023 and then transit to Trinidad for several geotechnical coring projects.

19 Jun 2023

Fourteen Suspects Arrested in Pakistan Over Greece Boat Disaster

© Hellenic Coast Guard

Pakistani authorities have arrested 14 people in connection with the alleged trafficking of several migrants who drowned last week after their overloaded boat capsized in the sea off Greece, police said.Hundreds of people, including from Pakistan, are thought to have died when the vessel capsized and sank in one of Europe's deadliest shipping disasters in recent years.The Pakistani government has ordered a high-level inquiry to investigate the human trafficking network thought to be involved…

16 Jun 2023

Dealing with the Whale in the Bight

Image courtesy Abby van Hemmen

This is going to be about whales, but it will actually be an engineering discussion rather than a nature discussion. Let’s start with an easy truth. Whale deaths due to offshore wind activities is utter nonsense. It has no basis in fact, and is a total fabrication by truly malicious characters.There, now let’s get into more interesting stuff. Whale deaths caused by humans is a complex issue that will never be solved completely, but, with careful adjustments, can be reduced. There is a possibility that occasionally there are whale COVID style epidemics that cause unusual levels of mortality…

31 Jan 2023

UK Navy Buys Mine-hunting ‘Mother Ship’

(Photo: U.K. Royal Navy)

A specialist ship purchased by the U.K. Royal Navy to support mine-hunting operations has arrived in Plymouth.When deployed, the vessel will be based at Naval Base Clyde and used as a mother ship tp support the safeguarding of U.K. waters from the threat of mines at sea, operating a range of uncrewed systems that will help keep personnel at a safe distance under Project Wilton.Purchased from Norway's Island Offshore, the the 96.8-meter-long vessel – currently named Island Crown…

30 Jan 2023

IMO Targets Subsea Ship Noise with New Draft Guidelines

Copyright Coffeemill/AdobeStock

Draft revised Guidelines for the reduction of underwater noise from commercial shipping to address adverse impacts on marine life have been agreed by the IMO Sub-Committee on Ship Design and Construction (SDC 9), which met January 23-27, 2023.The draft guidelines recognize that commercial shipping is one of the main contributors to underwater radiated noise (URN) which has adverse effects on critical life functions for a wide range of marine life, including marine mammals, fish and invertebrate species…

26 Jan 2023

Mark Heward Named Director at MITAGS

Mark Heward (Photo: MITAGS)

The Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies (MITAGS) announced that Mark Heward has joined its team as Director. Heward came aboard with MITAGS in October 2022, after retiring from a 22-year active service career in the Royal Navy.“We are thrilled to welcome Mark Heward aboard as the Director of MITAGS. Mark’s underway time, leadership, management and training experience together with being fully STCW qualified and his continuing education experience are a rare combination,” said Eric Friend, MITAGS Executive Director.

05 Jan 2023

Saab Receives Order for Life Extension of Swedish Mine Countermeasures Ships

(Photo: Saab)

Saab has signed an agreement with FMV on the life extension of two Koster-class mine countermeasures ships. The order value is SEK 350 million. The contract also includes options for FMV to order measures regarding the remaining three ships in the Koster-class. The total value of the options are SEK 270 million.The contract with FMV means that Saab will carry out life extensions of two Koster-class mine countermeasures ships. The modernization involves an exchange of systems for life extension and enhanced capabilities to ensure continued operability.

09 Dec 2022

Navy Veteran Joins MITAGS as Director

Mark Heward, Director of MITAGS - ©MITAGS

The Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies (MITAGS) said Friday that Mark Heward had joined as Director of MITAGS.Heward came aboard with MITAGS in October 2022, after retiring from a 22-year active service career in the Royal Navy.Eric Friend, MITAGS Executive Director, said: "We are thrilled to welcome Heward Heward aboard as the Director of MITAGS. Mark’s underway time, leadership, management, and training experience, together with being fully STCW qualified…

21 Nov 2022

Are Unmanned Surface Vessels the Key to a 500-Ship U.S. Navy?

Photo courtesy Jack Rowley

In an era of great power competition, navies – by virtue of their ability to span the globe and effectively deliver combat power – are likely to be the sine qua non of military power. This leads, naturally, to the tendency to count numbers of ship hulls when comparing the strength of navies. Lost on no one is the fact that the size of China’s Navy now exceeds that of the U.S. Navy, and the gap in ship numbers is growing.During the Cold War, while the quality of their ships might not have been equal to that of the U.S.

19 Oct 2022

Chile Uses High-tech Buoys to Protect Migrating Whales

(Photo: Fundacion MERI)

A smart buoy that can "hear" the ocean and monitor climate change is part of a new effort to help endangered whales avoid ship collisions on their journey from Antarctica to the equator.The buoy was installed in the Gulf of Corcovado, some 1,100 kilometers (684 miles) south of Chile's capital, in early October and is the first of many planned by the Blue Boat Initiative, a project designed to protect whales and monitor marine ecosystems.The area is teeming with marine life and…

29 Sep 2022

Solstad Offshore Wraps Transition of All Fleet Connectivity to Marlink

Credit: Marlink

Maritime satellite communications company Marlink said Thursday that it had secured overall responsibility for the provision of hybrid network connectivity to the Norwegian offshore vessel owner Solstad Offshore. In January 2020, Solstad Offshore renewed its connectivity contract with Marlink, committing 65 offshore vessels to Marlink’s high-throughput  Ku-band VSAT service. The remaining 25 ships will now be migrated to Marlink’s smart hybrid network, with an upgrade to bandwidth…

14 Jul 2022

Harland & Wolff to Restore HMS Quorn Mine-hunter

HMS Quorn - Defence Imagery via Wikimedia Commons - OGL v1.0 License

Harland & Wolff's Appledore site in the UK's southwest has won a £55 million (around $65 million) contract to regenerate a former Royal Navy mine-hunting vessel, HMS Quorn. "On behalf of the Lithuanian Government, the Defence Equipment Sales Authority (DESA) awarded the contract that will see HMS Quorn renovated and restored, bolstering NATO maritime capability in Europe," the UK Ministry of Defence said Thursday."Supporting ambitions to bolster British shipbuilding, laid out in the National Shipbuilding Strategy Refresh, the regeneration will support 100 jobs at the south-west shipyard.

02 Jun 2022

Harland & Wolff Returns to Action with First Newbuild Order

© Shawn / Adobe Stock

The historic Belfast shipyard Harland & Wolff announced it has secured its first newbuild order since being bought out of administration in 2019.The shipyard, best known for having built the Titanic, is returning to action after being purchased by London-based InfraStrata. The yard said on Wednesday that it was awarded an initial contract worth approximately £8.5 million to build 11 barges for U.K.-based waste management and recycling company Cory, setting in motion the yard's…

01 Jun 2022

Harland & Wolff Buys Former HMS Atherstone Mine Hunter

HMS Atherstone - Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0

Harland & Wolff said Wednesday it had acquired the former HMS Atherstone mine hunter from the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) for an undisclosed fee."The former HMS Atherstone is a mine hunting class vessel that is no longer in service. The company has acquired this vessel with a view to refurbishing it for non-military uses, discussions for which have already commenced with interested parties," Harland & Wolff said.Harland & Wolff is involved in a competition run by the MOD regeneration program for the former HMS Quorn (M55).

26 Apr 2022

Marine Design: Ulstein Takes Aim at Zero Emission Cruise Ops with Ulstein Thor

ULSTEIN THOR and ULSTEIN SIF with an autonomous surface vehicle underway. Image courtesy Ulstein

Ulstein today unveiled a vessel concept that it claims is capable of making the vision of zero emission cruise operations a reality. Dubbed Ulstein Thor, the 149m 3R (Replenishment, Research and Rescue) design will feature a Thorium Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) to generate vast amounts of clean, safe electricity. This enables the vessel to operate as a mobile power/charging station for a new breed of battery driven cruise ships.Ulstein believes Thor may be the missing piece of the zero emissions puzzle for a broad range of maritime and ocean industry applications.

12 Apr 2022

Marlink's Secure IT Management for Socatra Tankers

Credit: Marlink

Smart network company Marlink has extended its service provision to France-based tanker company Socatra providing high-speed connectivity as well as secure IT management.Socatra provides solutions for deep-sea and inland oil transportation."[Socatra] recognized the need to improve the performance and quality of IT systems, which posed a risk to compliance and operational performance and required a comprehensive approach to upgrading hardware and software on board the vessel," Marlink said.According to Marlink…

24 Jun 2021

Final Autonomous Minehunting Boat Delivered to UK Royal Navy

(Photo: UK Royal Navy)

The British Royal Navy said it has taken delivery of its third and final autonomous minehunting boat.RNMB Hebe, named after the ancient Greek goddess of youth, joins sister vessels Harrier and Hazard as part of the Royal Navy’s crewless minehunting program Project Wilton. Together, the three vessels are key components in the future of minehunting operations for the navy. The boats are capable of working in different configurations – manually, remotely or autonomously – to detect…