‘Boaty McBoatface’ Robotic Submarine to Visit End-of-life Oil and Gas Fields
The UK National Oceanography Centre (NOC) has secured funding from the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), which will take robot submarine ‘Boaty McBoatface’ around end-of-life oil and gas fields. The Autonomous Techniques for infraStructure Ecological Assessment (AT-SEA) project, led by the NOC will trial the concept of using submarines like Boaty for high-tech, low-impact monitoring to pick up any potential environmental impacts at these sites, NOC said.The NOC has received £670…
India Plans Deep Dive for Seabed Minerals
In the 1870 Jules Verne classic "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", underwater explorer Captain Nemo predicted the mining of the ocean floor's mineral bounty - zinc, iron, silver and gold.India is catching up with that only now, as it prepares to unearth treasures down below, aiming to boost its economy.The floor of the world's seas is scattered with vast beds of black potato-shaped polymetallic nodules comprising copper, nickel, cobalt, manganese, iron and rare earth elements.These natural goodies are key to making modern gadgets…
Coast Guard to Commission Coastal Patrol Boat
The Coast Guard Cutter Pompano, an 87-ft. Coastal Patrol Boat, will be commissioned into service in a ceremony at Coast Guard Station Gulfport on December 14 at 10 a.m. The Pompano, homported in Gulfport, is a new Marine Protector Class vessel capable of performing search and rescue, law enforcement, fisheries patrols, drug interdiction, and alien interdiction duties up to 200 miles offshore. Key speakers at the ceremony include Mississippi Rep. Ronnie Shows, and the Eighth Coast Guard District Commander, Rear Adm. Roy J. Casto. Lt. Daniel Jones, commanding officer of the Pompano, will lead a crew of 10. The Marine Protector Class is designed to replace the aging 82-ft. Point Class cutters.
Maritrans' Double Hull Process Receives Patent
Maritrans Operating Partners L.P., a subsidiary of Maritrans Inc., has obtained a patent on its proprietary process for rebuilding single hull tank vessels with internal double hulls. Together with M. Daniel Jones of the Houston-based naval architecture firm Schuller & Allan, Maritrans developed an innovative double-hull manufacturing process to rebuild single-hulled tank vessels with the double hulls required by the federal Oil Pollution Act of 1990. The unique process utilizes computer-assisted design for fabricating modular internal hull sections. In 1998, Maritrans used the process to complete the rebuilding of the 10,549 gross-ton tank barge Maritrans 192 (formerly Ocean 192), which marked the first large single hull tank vessel to be rebuilt with a double hull to meet OPA's mandate.
