Marine Salvage News

Boluda Towage – one of the divisions of Boluda Corporación Marítima that focuses its activity on port, coastal, and offshore towage, as well as maritime salvage – has acquired the towage company Resolve Salvage and Fire (Gibraltar) Ltd.Resolve Salvage and Fire, owned by Resolve Marine Group, provides towing and marine salvage services as well as in engineering and maintenance projects for marine installations and construction. Two divisions are part of the sale: the company's harbor towing operations and fleet were sold to Boluda Towage Europe…

The American Salvage Association (ASA) announced that Mike Dean has been appointed Executive Director. In this role, Dean is responsible for providing strategic leadership and direction to the organization and ensuring that ASA’s mission and objectives are achieved. He oversees day-to-day operations, financial management, government affairs, working committees and ASA staff. Dean reports to ASA’s president, Joseph Farrell, III and works closely with ASA’s Executive Committee.Dean is an industry veteran…

The Great Lakes Towing Company (GLT) has hired Salvadore Menoyo for its business development team.Sal has been named Vice President-Special Projects, reporting to Joe Starck, President of GLT. He will be based in Jacksonville, Fla. and use his extensive experience and expertise to identify, develop and manage new business opportunities on the East Coast, including the Gulf and Puerto Rico. In this new role, Menoyo will work with internal and external customers and build relationships with partners and other prospects to bring value and growth to the company.Menoyo…

Marine salvage, rescue, emergency response and specialized services company Resolve Marine announced the formation of a government relations departmentRetired Navy Capt. Gregg Baumann has been appointed government program manager to lead the effort from the Washington D.C. area. In this newly created role, Baumann is responsible for developing strategy and objectives to grow the company’s government services business, with a primary focus on the United States and Canada. He will also oversee government business development and project mobilization and de-mobilization…

Marine salvage, rescue, emergency response and specialized services company Resolve Marine announced that Deputy CEO Joseph Farrell, III has been appointed Chief Operating Officer. In the combined role he oversees all operations and administration including emergency response, projects, Alaska, shared resources, HSEQ, strategy and M&A, finance, government relations, human resources, marketing, and alternative investments.Farrell, III, was appointed Deputy CEO in April 2022 and brings 17 years of field operations and business experience at Resolve Marine…

Multiple agencies are responding to prevent any potential environmental damages after a tug partially sank at its moorings on the Kinnickinnic River in Port Milwaukee.The Coast Guard said its watchstanders at Sector Lake Michigan were notified by the National Response Center at 11:27 a.m. on Monday that the vessel Michigan, part of an articulated tug and barge (ATB) unit, began taking on water and partially sank in 26 feet of water.Photos shared by the Coast Guard earlier this week show the stern of the 115-foot-long tug submerged while its bow remains above the waterline…

Marine salvage and emergency response company Resolve Marine announced on Friday that it has appointed Joseph Farrell, III as deputy CEO, a transition role to CEO.Farrell has more than two decades of field operations and business experience at Resolve Marine. After serving as a naval architect and project manager where he worked on and led high-profile salvage projects around the world, he was appointed director, business development with oversight of the company’s Alaska and compliance divisions…

Massachusetts offshore wind developer Mayflower Wind announced it has hired Will Cotta as its supply chain manager.Cotta, who has experience working with the Mass Clean Energy Center and the offshore wind industry, is charged with growing Mayflower’s supply chain in the New Bedford and Fall River area as well as across Massachusetts.“Will has the knowledge, insights and experience that enables him to make sure that offshore wind development is done in a manner that is fully compatible with existing ocean uses and with environmental stewardship in mind.

A 2019 fire on board a laid up towboat was likely caused by a catastrophic engine failure, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found.The Susan Lynn was docked and in layup at Tom’s Marine & Salvage yard on the Barataria Waterway in Lafitte, La., when the blaze broke out in the engine room on the morning of October 8, 2019, causing an estimated $1,350,000 in damages to the 56-year-old vessel.The fire was extinguished by local firefighters after the vessel’s watchman could not contain the fire and evacuated the vessel.

Marine salvage and emergence response group Resolve Marine said it repositioned its response tug Makushin Bay from Dutch Harbor, Alaska to Kodiak, Alaska where the growing need for maritime and response services will provide local vessel operators and owners with rapid response and cost efficiencies.Stationing the salvage and emergency response vessel in Kodiak with a 24/7 manned crew will improve response time and marine services along Alaska’s south coast, the company said.

A 738-foot bulk carrier that ran aground near Sewell’s Point in Norfolk, Va. was refloated during high tide on Friday morning, the U.S. Coast Guard said.It took seven tugs to refloat the Panamanian flagged Hong Dai, which grounded late Wednesday night with 22 crewmembers aboard. The ship was said to be carrying a cargo of coal, as well as 188,000 gallons of low sulfur fuel oil, diesel and lube oil, collectively. No injuries, pollution or flooding concerns were reported.The refloated…

The Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA, often called the Clean Water Act), as amended by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90), provides:If a discharge, or a substantial threat of a discharge, of oil or a hazardous substance from a vessel, offshore facility, or onshore facility is of such a size or character as to be a substantial threat to the public health or welfare of the United States (including but not limited to fish, shellfish, wildlife, other natural resources…

A dredge barge that was taking on water has been intentionally grounded in the Matagorda Ship Channel near Port Lavaca, Texas, the U.S. Coast Guard said.The Coast Guard said its watchstanders at Sector/Air Station Corpus Christi were notified on Monday evening that the dredge barge Everett Fisher began taking on water. The towing vessel Dana Robyn pushed the bareg aground and recovered the four crewmembers aboard.No injuries or pollution have been reported.Coast Guard air and boat crews are on scene.

US-based Crowley Maritime Corp. announced on Wednesday that it has realigned its marine services organization and introduced new leadership.In a move that aims to provide better support to customers, Crowley Marine Services, part of the company’s shipping arm, will now be comprised of three distinct, yet interrelated business segments: offshore services, ship assist and tanker escort and engineering services – those provided by Crowley and subsidiary Jensen Maritime Consultants.Jeff Andreini…

It has been ten years since the U.S. Salvage and Marine Firefighting Regulations were published: Is it time for a reassessment of the U.S. marine salvage posture?In 1982, the National Research Council’s Committee on the National Salvage Posture prepared a study entitled, “Marine Salvage in the United States.” The goal of the report was “to assess the present national posture for coping with ship rescue salvage and towing situations for time-critical offshore salvage in general.”…

Boluda Corporación Marítima, a shipping company operating in Mediterranean ports, said that its towage division Boluda Towage and Salvage has added a new azimuth tractor tugboat in the port of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.The VB TAMARAN joins ten other tugs operating in the Canarian port to facilitate ships’ entry and exit from the port area.With this new tug Boluda Corporación Marítima has expanded the fleet in the port of Las Palmas to ensure maritime safety in the Canary archipelago. The investment is in line with the company’s commitment to increase the operational capacity of vessels providing towage and marine salvage services.The VB TAMARAN…

Switzerland-based MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company confirms that significant progress has been made in an unprecedented clean-up operation in the North Sea and on the beaches of the Netherlands and Germany."We would like to thank the authorities and volunteers in these countries for their support in the response," said a press note from the world's second-largest shipping line in terms of container vessel capacity.More than 250 containers fell from the ship “MSC Zoe” during a night of heavy weather on 2 January.MSC responded as quickly as possible to the incident and immediately engaged Ardent Global, internationally-renown experts in marine salvage and emergency response…

Boys are coaxed into cleanliness at bath time playing with boats. But it was never a game for Joseph Farrell, III, instinctively realizing he was ballasting and salvaging ships, unlike the typical Mr. Bubbles kid. The scion of Resolve Marine Group may have been born to lead the global emergency response company founded by his father with a single tug 38 years ago, but he’s never taken dangerous wreck removal lightly.Before turning 15, Joey had two close calls on and around ships that guide him today, at 34.

SMIT Salvage has acquired two five-year marine salvage contracts to serve as the exclusive marine salvage and engineering support contractor for the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), the division of the U.S. Navy responsible for engineering, building, buying and maintaining Navy ships and submarines.The Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. subsidiary will provide the U.S. Navy with marine salvage, salvage-related towing, ocean engineering and towage services in the event of an emergency or incident in two of the three geographic zones in the world as defined by the U.S. Navy.SMIT Salvage held a contract for one zone covering the area between the Suez Canal and the international date line for a number of periods totaling more than 30 years, which it was able to renew.

On July 20, 2018, The American Salvage Association (ASA) welcomed Dr. Richard J. Burke, of SUNY Maritime College as the Association’s very first honorary maritime academy faculty member representative. This initiative is designed to broaden the knowledge about the marine salvage and emergency response industry, and the academic community’s access to it.The ASA’s Education Committee was established in March 2011 to further promote general maritime industry interest with a focus on marine salvage and emergency response…

Switzerland-based shipping company MSC is pledging to pay the cost of cleaning up hundreds of containers MSC Zoe spill in a North Sea storm."MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company would like to reassure authorities and members of the public in the Netherlands and Germany that the company will pay the full costs of the clean-up of the 2 January MSC Zoe container spill," said a press release from the company.MSC is committed to continue searching the sea for the containers which fell overboard, until the last one is found, it said. MSC will also ensure that the beaches of the Dutch and German coastlines are surveyed until all debris related to this incident has been cleared."MSC confirms the appointment of Ardent Global to coordinate the search at sea in both countries…

Congress enacted the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90) a mere 17 months after the disastrous oil spill following the grounding of the tanker Exxon Valdez in Prince William Sound. Among the many provisions in the voluminous bill was a detailed planning requirement. For the first time, tank vessels and facilities handling oil in bulk were required to develop extensive plans for responding to a worst case discharge of oil into waters of the United States. As regards vessels and marine-transportation-related facilities, the U.S.

U.S. salvage industry update: Coast Guard recognition and continuous improvement for the domestic salvage industry and its working professionals.Professional salvors are called in when the ship’s crew is overwhelmed – the last resort to protect lives, minimize environmental impacts and save the ship and cargo. These salvage masters, divers, firefighters, naval architects, heavy lift operators and other salvage team members regularly go into harm’s way and consistently perform incredible feats. They commit their lives and livelihoods to this work.