Local Police News

The U.S. Coast Guard has rejected comments by a Chinese diplomat that its recent boardings of Chinese fishing boats in the Pacific Islands alongside local police are illegal, saying the joint patrols are at the behest of Pacific nations to protect coastal fisheries.Reuters reported last month that six Chinese fishing boats were found to be violating Vanuatu's fisheries law after being inspected by local police who were on board the first U.S. Coast Guard boat to patrol the waters of the Pacific Islands nation.China's Ambassador to New Zealand Wang Xiaolong…

Seventeen people were injured when a Bulgarian cruise ship crashed into a concrete wall in a sluice on the River Danube in the northern Austrian town of Aschach an der Donau, local police said on Saturday.Some 160 passengers were aboard the ship traveling from Bavaria in Germany to the Austrian city of Linz, a spokesperson for police in the nearby town of Eferding said.Eleven of the injured were taken to hospital and the ship was able to continue onwards after the accident, the spokesperson said.It was not immediately clear how serious the injuries were, the spokesperson said.Local media said

The U.S. Coast Guard and Kiribati police boarded two Chinese fishing boats during a patrol against illegal fishing in the Pacific Islands nation's vast exclusive economic zone this month but found no issues aboard, a coast guard official said.The United States is seeking a bigger role for its coast guard in helping remote Pacific Islands nations monitor millions of kilometres of ocean - a rich tuna fishing ground - a move that also boosts surveillance as a rivalry with China over security ties in the region intensifies.Reuters reported on Friday that Chinese police are working in Kiribati…

Chilean authorities said on Wednesday they were investigating a violent heist in Chile's main seaport where thieves stole several shipping containers filled with copper belonging to state-owned giant Codelco.Juan Carlos Catalan, the local prosecutor, said in a statement that ten armed men entered the San Antonio port early on Tuesday morning, attacked workers and stole 13 containers, 12 of which had copper."There was one guard and four workers that (the assailants)tied up and beat and left locked up…

Greenpeace said it prevented on Thursday a tanker from unloading Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) at Finnish state-owned Gasum's terminal in Nynashamn on Sweden's east coast.The environmental campaigning network in a statement called on the Swedish government to immediately stop the import of Russian fossil LNG.It said a Greenpeace vessel and activists in kayaks outside the loading dock had prevented the LNG tanker Coral Energy from docking, while other activists had climbed into the cranes used to unload the gas."The fact Russian fossil gas is still allowed to flow into Sweden…

Environmental activists who shut the largest U.S. energy export port for a day to protest climate change agreed to pay police, fire and court costs to settle state criminal charges, officials said on Friday.Greenpeace members halted shipping in September 2019 by dangling on ropes from a bridge over the Houston Ship Channel to bring attention to climate change concerns during a presidential debate in the city.Felony charges of disrupting critical energy infrastructure were later dismissed by a Houston grand jury.

A hybrid-electric tour vessel caught fire off Norway's southern coast on Thursday, and while the flames have been extinguished, local authorities fear the situation could deteriorate in the days ahead.Authorities said the fire broke out in or near starboard battery compartment and engine room aboard the 24-meter catamaran MS Brim, operated by Brim Explorer, on Thursday afternoon, while the vessel was west of the island Nordre Søster off Fredrikstad in Østfold. There were no passengers on board…

A Panama-flagged ship boarded by Somali police is safe and underway, the EU Naval Force said on Saturday, after conflicting reports two days earlier about whether it had been hijacked by Somali pirates.The Aegean II had originally altered its course due to a damaged hull and after local police had boarded it, "there had been certain incidents on board the vessel", the EU force said in a statement."At this point, it cannot be classified as a maritime security incident, but a more detailed investigation is in progress…

Ferries resumed crossings between Germany and Denmark after a brief halt on Wednesday following a threat made to local police by phone, Danish police said. The police said in a statement that it had searched and cleared the first ferries at the Danish ports Rodby and Gedser and allowed them to resume operations. Ferry routes between Denmark and Sweden, which had also been suspended due to the threats, were resumed shortly after, the police said. Ferry operator Scandlines said Wednesday it has evacuated all its ferries in the Danish town Rodby and suspended ferry traffic between Denmark and Germany due to security reasons following a telephone threat.

An explosion on a speedboat carrying 35 foreign passengers and four crew members  in Bali, Indonesia  has left two people dead and 18 other tourists injured. According to the local police, the boat was ferrying tourists from Bali to Lombok and exploded enroute, leaving two people dead and 13 others injured. According to AFP, an Austrian woman was killed along with a second female foreigner, whose nationality was still being verified. Two German citizens were injured while nationals from Britain, France, Italy, Portugal, Ireland and Spain were also among the passengers. It appeared to be an accident with the explosion occurring in the fuel tank. Indonesia has a poor maritime safety record and regularly suffers fatal boat accidents.

Hundreds of people were rescued from a smoldering passenger ferry ship that caught fire off Puerto Rico on Wednesday, the U.S. Coast Guard said. The Coast Guard and local police brought ashore all 512 passengers and crew from the American Cruise Ferries vessel that was burning about two miles (3.2 km) off of San Juan, Puerto Rico's capital, the Coast Guard said in a statement. Rescue crews worked for hours to remove passengers and ferry employees, the last of whom disembarked just after 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT), the Coast Guard said. They were transported to San Juan.

A passenger ferry with hundreds of passengers caught fire off Puerto Rico on Wednesday, and the U.S. Coast Guard and local crews were rescuing people aboard, officials said. U.S. Coast Guard and local police were helping more than 500 passengers and crew members on the American Cruise Ferries vessel burning about one mile off of San Juan, Puerto Rico's capital, the Coast Guard said on Twitter. Some 50 people remained on the boat and awaited rescue by about 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT), the Coast Guard said. No deaths or injuries were immediately reported. The cause of the fire was not known. Smoke billowed from several parts of the large white ferry as an inflatable orange rescue slide was activated, images posted by Puerto Rico police on social media showed.

The Coast Guard oversaw the refloating of a barge and tugboat Sunday near Absecon Inlet. The 77-foot Miss Katie experienced a loss of power Saturday and ran aground north of the Absecon Inlet, and the 135-foot barge drifted and ran aground on the south side of the north jetty. Personnel from Coast Guard Station Atlantic City arrived on scene Saturday, but due to weather conditions, salvage operations for the tug and barge were suspended. "Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay's Incident Management Division oversaw salvage and pollution prevention operations of the tug and barge today on Brigantine Beach, New Jersey," said Lt. j.g. Terry Plank, the federal on-scene coordinator representative. "Both the tug and barge were successfully removed from the beach and jetty respectively.

The horrific explosions in the Chinese port of Tainjin illustrated vividly just how volatile port operations can be. But safety issues are only one facet of risk in the complex world of shipping ports. From piracy on the high seas to data thievery in port, players all along the shipping value chain need to be on constant alert for the dangers that nature and human actions can present. Political unrest, theft, smuggling and corruption all figure in to the risk picture that ship owners, brokers, and cargo owners have to consider when planning and executing port calls.

Greece appealed to its European Union partners on Tuesday to come up with a comprehensive strategy to deal with a growing migrant crisis as new data showed 21,000 refugees landed on Greek shores last week alone. That number is almost half Greece's overall refugee intake in 2014 and brings total arrivals this year to 160,000, even as it struggles with a debt crisis that has forced it to accept a third international bailout. The influx of refugees, mainly from Syria, has strained an already ill-prepared reception system in Greece that relies heavily on volunteers, forcing thousands to camp out in filthy conditions and triggering sporadic clashes and brawls.

Migrants desperate to get off the Greek island of Kos fought each other on Saturday while nearby a passenger ship chartered to house and process refugees lay empty 24 hours after it had arrived. Outside the island's main police station, about 50 migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran threw stones and exchanged blows as tempers boiled over in the intense mid-summer heat. Riot police stood by without intervening. The migrants have little chance of getting aboard the ship, the Eleftherios Venizelos, as priority is being given to Syrians, who are treated as refugees as they are fleeing their country's civil war and have greater rights under international law than economic migrants.

U.S. Coast Guard and police boats cleared a way through protesters in kayaks at a Seattle-area port on Tuesday so a drilling ship could head for the Arctic on behalf of Royal Dutch Shell. The Noble Discover is the second drilling ship Shell has sent to the area in recent days. The activists, who have staged frequent demonstrations during the past two months against Royal Dutch Shell's oil exploration in the Chukchi Sea off mainland Alaska, said 21 protesters in kayaks took to the waters just beyond the Port of Everett north of Seattle where the oil rig launched for sea. The activists had entered the safety zone around the Noble Discover and were intercepted by small boats of the U.S.

Traffic was halted through the Channel Tunnel linking Britain and France on Tuesday after striking French ferry workers set fire to tires, while Britain's Foreign Office warned of migrants trying to get into vehicles queuing to enter the tunnel. British television showed large crowds of migrants trying to board waiting lorries, while others were held back by riot police. Around 400 workers blockaded the port of Calais to protest restructuring at its MyFerryLink division, the Syndicat Maritime Nord union said. Shipping was halted early in the day, the Calais port authority said. Both Eurotunnel and Eurostar later suspended their services because of the disruption.

U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Sector Puget Sound investigating officers initiated civil penalties, Friday, against four individuals who entered an established safety-zone around a Shell-contracted vessel in Bellingham during Memorial Day weekend. Cody Erdman, Chiara D’Angelo, Paul Adler and Matthew Fuller were cited in accordance with Code of Federal Regulations for entry into or staying in a federally-regulated safety zone between May 22 and 24. USCG officials can seek a maximum civil penalty of $40,000 for each entry into the zone or day the individuals violated the zone. The final penalty will be determined by the Coast Guard Hearing Office in Arlington, Va. Hearing officers will be assigned and provide the individuals an opportunity to refute the charges or provide evidence on their behalf.

Last September, an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) unsettled much of the U.S. maritime industry when he dismissed with prejudice a U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) action to revoke a Merchant Mariner’s Credential (MMC) despite his finding that the mariner’s urine had tested positive for cocaine. The case is referred to as USCG v. Hopper, SR-2014-14. American Maritime Safety, Inc. (AMS) considered the Hopper outcome to be a bad decision, both because it imposes harsh evidentiary consequences…

Malaysia detained more than a thousand Bangladeshi and Rohingya refugees, including dozens of children, police said, a day after authorities rescued hundreds stranded off the coast of Indonesia's western tip. There has been a huge increase in refugees from impoverished Bangladesh and Myanmar drifting on boats to Malaysia and Indonesia in recent days after Thailand, usually the initial destination in the region's people smuggling network, announced a crackdown on the trafficking. Over 100 refugees from these countries were found wandering around in southern Thailand last week, apparently after they were abandoned by the smugglers. An estimated 25…

Presiding over busy waterways and airspace that serve as unofficial highways of an inhospitable state twice the size of Texas, the federal government has a looming presence over Alaska and its famously live-and-let-live residents. And Uncle Sam considers marijuana illegal over every inch. This poses unique hurdles for entrepreneurs hoping to capitalize on an Alaska move to legalize recreational marijuana, and who seek to grow and process products to be marketed across the state, much of which is accessible only via transport links policed by U.S. agencies and governed by federal law. To get around such obstacles, some investors say they plan to launch location-specific seed-to-sale businesses…

A Cuban migrant drowned after a makeshift vessel with four passengers overturned in rough seas off the Cayman Islands on Saturday afternoon, local officials said. The three other Cubans, all in their 20s and 30s, made it to shore clinging to two inner tubes with the help of local surfers and were taken into custody, local officials said on Sunday. The dead man was identified as Manuel Marino, believed to be in his 50s, Cayman officials said. The three survivors were identified as Dailer Perez Arresoitia, 27, Diosul Alarcon Barrero, 37, and Lety Sanchez Fonseca, 33, all from Santa Cruz del Sur in the eastern province of Camaguey. Local police had been watching the 18-foot wooden sailboat off the coast of Grand Cayman during the day.