Island Coast News

First responders and volunteers from Trinidad and Tobago on Tuesday sought to contain an oil spill detected last week in the Caribbean country's waters and clean areas of Tobago island's coast already affected by the incident.Trinidad and Tobago's coast guard first spotted the spill on Feb. 7, about 6 kilometers off the coast of Studley Park, the chief secretary of Tobago's national assembly, Farley Augustine, said in a press conference on Sunday.Barriers have been installed to contain the spill…

Taiwan's defence ministry said on Monday that a Chinese carrier group led by the Shandong was about 120 nautical miles off the southeast of the island's coast, the same ship that took part in China's war games around the island earlier this month.Taiwan previously reported that the Shandong, commissioned in 2019, had sailed into waters in the Western Pacific through the Bashi Channel that separates the island from the Philippines ahead of a meeting between President Tsai Ing-wen and U.S.

Paris-based offshore cable making and installation company Nexans has won a contract with Ørsted and Eversource to install and protect the export cable link for the Revolution offshore wind farm in the U.S.The project will connect the wind farm to the onshore grid and help Connecticut and Rhode Island states achieve ongoing commitments to develop offshore wind.Located more than 15 miles south of the Rhode Island coast and 32 miles southeast of the Connecticut coast, the 704 MW Revolution Wind Farm will address both states’ energy needs…

The Coast Guard is responding to a 6.5 magnitude earthquake and seismic activity off the south and southwest coasts of Puerto Rico.All the ports in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands remain open until further notice. Currently, there is no ongoing maritime search and rescue as a result of the registered seismic activity.Coast Guard Sector San Juan and Air Station Borinquen have activated their Incident Management Teams, which remain in close communication with local and federal…

Coast Guard and partner agencies are responding to a vessel fire near Santa Cruz Island Monday.At approximately 3:15 a.m., Coast Guard Sector Los Angeles-Long Beach watchstanders overheard a mayday call via channel 16 of an engulfed 75-foot commercial diving vessel with 38 people aboard.Crews from the Coast Guard, Santa Barbara Fire Department, Ventura County Fire Department and Vessel Assist responded. The fire department crews were fighting the fire when the vessel sank 20 yards off shore in 64 feet of water.Five people were evacuated aboard a good Samaritan pleasure craft Great Escape.Currently, 33 people aboard the vessel are unaccounted for.Watchstanders launched two Coast Guard Station Channel Islands Harbor 45-foot Response Boat-Medium crews…

The U.S. Coast Guard and good Samaritans came to the rescue of three people Monday after their vessel capsized near Blount Island.  Coast Guard watchstanders in Jacksonville were notified via VHF-FM marine band radio channel 16 at 6:03 p.m. by a good Samaritan aboard the motor vessel Grand Mercury reporting three people in the water and a capsized 15-foot boat. A Coast Guard Station Mayport 29-foot Response Boat – Small boatcrew launched, arrived on scene at 6:25 p.m. and rescued one person from the water while the crew of the tugboat Sewells Point rescued two others. The Coast Guard boat crew transferred the three people to EMS at Blount Island and no injuries were reported. The Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department towed the capsized vessel to the Arlington Road Public Boat Ramp.

Gulfstream Shipbuilding won a contract through the United States Department of Homeland Security for a passenger/vehicle ferry to service the New York and Connecticut waters. This 118 x 27 x 10.75 ft. crew boat-style vessel will be capable of transporting passengers, freight and vehicles in and around the waters of the Eastern Long Island Sound and Gardiner’s Bay. The vessel has an expected delivery date of April 2017. “Gulfstream Shipbuilding is not only familiar with the Eastern Long Island Sound waters…

The Coast Guard and Jamestown Police Department rescued a 60-year-old man Sunday off Fort Wetherill, Rhode Island after he fell off his sailboat. At approximately 12:20 a.m., Coast Guard Station Castle Hill received a call from Jamestown Police reporting a man in the water who had been clinging to his boat for about two hours. A police officer was on the scene in his kayak, but could not get the man to safety. During the rescue attempt, the police officer fell from his kayak, and it was lost under the sailboat. A 45-foot response boat crew launched from the station and arrived on scene. It was dark and visibility was poor, so the crew deployed one mk 127 flare to illuminate the area.

Coast Guard crews rescued two fishermen from a sinking vessel 10 miles south of Newport, Rhode Island, Monday. At approximately noon, the two person crew of the 38-foot fishing boat More Misery notified watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England in Woods Hole, Massachusetts that they were taking on water and needed help. An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod and two 45-foot Response Boat-Medium crews from Coast Guard Station Castle Hill and Coast Guard Station Point Judith were launched. The Station Castle Hill crew arrived on scene and successfully transferred the two fishermen aboard. Shortly after, Coast Guard crews began dewatering the More Misery and safely towed it back to Newport.

Sri Lanka and India exchanged the fishermen who were detained in each other's jails for trespassing into their territorial waters. A total of 15 Indian fishermen, who were in the custody of Sri Lankan authorities, reached Karaikal, while Indian Coast Guard handed over 10 Lankan fishermen and two of their boats to the Island's Coast Guard. According to an official release, Coast Guard ship ICGS Rajdhwaj received the Indian fishermen from Lankan authorities near the Indo Lankan Maritime Boundary Line and handed them over to fisheries officials at Karaikal. The ship also handed over 10 Lankan fishermen and their two boats, which were released from Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh.

The U.S. Coast Guard informs that the casino boat 'Escapade' is moored at its homeport and is no longer aground in Calibogue Sound near Tybee Island, Georgia. Watchstanders at Coast Guard Station Tybee Island were notified the Escapade had ran aground with 94 passengers and 31 staff and crewmembers aboard during the ship’s maiden voyage. Coast Guard crews from Station Tybee Island, Coast Guard Air Station Savannah, Georgia, and the Coast Guard Cutters Tarpon and Maria Bray worked together to take off 118 passengers and non-essential crew and staff from the Escapade. The 174-foot vessel subsequently freed itself under its own power when high tide came without the help of commercial salvage boats and transited to its homeport at Bull River Marina in Savannah…

The U.S. Coast Guard responded to reports of a disabled tug 18 miles east of Block Island, Rhode Island, Sunday. Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, were notified at approximately 3:30 p.m., Sunday, of an engine fire aboard the 126-foot tug Viking. The vessel’s on board fixed fire-fighting system was able to extinguish the fire, leaving the vessel disabled with 10 people aboard. The owner of the tug dispatched two relief tugs to the scene. The Viking was able to restore their engines and are transiting to Buzzards Bay under escort by the tug Sebine. None of the ten people aboard the tug were injured, and no pollution was released as a result of the fire.

Earlier this month, Dennis Nixon was named director of the Rhode Island Sea Grant, one of 32 programs that make up the National Sea Grant College Program, which is administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Nixon spends much of his life near the ocean. As a longtime Jamestown resident, Nixon is never more than minutes away from Narragansett Bay. As associate dean of the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography, he is just as close to the waves when he’s in his office. Nixon has been teaching at the University of Rhode Island for 37 years.

Coast Guard Station Eaton’s Neck, N.Y., receive a new 45-foot Response Boat-Medium (RB-M) rescue boat. The new boat, a 45-foot Response Boat-Medium (RB-M), was issued to replace one of two aging 41-foot utility boats at the station. The RB-M is an aluminum, self-righting, high-speed, multi-mission capable boat, able to respond rapidly to Coast Guard missions, or conduct planned patrols and training. The primary roles of the RB-M are search and rescue and maritime law enforcement. Plans for a second RB-M to replace the remaining utility boat are in the near future.

NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson conducts sea floor surveys to keep shipping safe along Long Island coast. NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson continues today on a three-month survey of the sea floor off the coast of New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island, as part of a multi-year effort to update nautical charts for Block Island Sound and keep large ships and commerce moving safely. In addition to supporting marine navigation, data acquired by the 208-foot hydrographic survey vessel will also support a seafloor mapping initiative by Connecticut and New York.

Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom Co. said two repair ships will soon start fixing undersea cables damaged last week by an earthquake off the island's coast that resulted in a major disruption to telephone and Internet links across Asia. The two ships will take two to three weeks to complete their task, said a senior official at Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan's largest telecommunications company, the International Herald Tribune reported. One of the ships is Japanese registered and sailed to Taiwan from Japan. The other, British registered, sailed to Taiwan from the Philippines, he said. Both are specially equipped to repair undersea cables and had to complete other repair work before setting out for Taiwan. The Dec.