Mra News

Marine Response Alliance (MRA), an association of the top U.S. emergency responders providing OPA 90 Salvage Marine Firefighting (SMFF), says it has launched an exclusive mobile app, providing ship owners/operators, qualified individuals (QIs) and the U.S. Coast Guard with immediate access to the MRA’s resources for Salvage Marine Fire Fighting as per OPA 90 compliance as well as the ability to report incidents through TITAN Salvage (MRA partner) around the world. The OPA 90 SMFF app allows users to report an incident…

Long awaited, much hyped, the new rules require compliance in January. Will industry and more importantly, the response community, be ready? In September, the U.S. Coast Guard published the long awaited Non-tank Vessel Response Plan (NTVRP) and Other Response Plan regulations. The U.S. Coast Guard cites “Improved preparedness and reaction to an incident, including a worst case discharge, and improved effectiveness of shore-side and onboard response activities” as the primary benefits of the new rule. For all affected vessels, a mandatory compliance date of January 30, 2014 looms large the porthole. The regulations impact self-propelled non-tank vessels of 400 gross tons or greater that operate in navigable waters of the United States and carry any kind of oil as fuel for main propulsion.

Marine Response Alliance (MRA), an association of the top U.S. emergency responders providing OPA 90 Salvage Marine Firefighting (SMFF), has launched an exclusive mobile app, providing ship owners/operators, qualified individuals (QIs) and the U.S. Coast Guard with immediate access to the MRA's resources for Salvage Marine Fire Fighting as per OPA 90 compliance as well as the ability to report incidents through TITAN Salvage (MRA partner) around the world. The OPA 90 SMFF app allows users to report an incident…

Samina Mahmood, former commercial manager for TITAN Salvage, has been appointed manager for Marine Response Alliance, an association of U.S. emergency responders providing OPA 90 Salvage Marine Firefighting (SMFF). MRA, founded in 1994, combines experts in all facets of emergency response with salvage, firefighting and lightering equipment in all Captain of the Port Zones. Alliance members include TITAN, Crowley, Marine Pollution Control and McAllister Towing & Transportation.

Marine Response Alliance (MRA), an association of U.S. emergency responders providing OPA 90 Salvage Marine Firefighting (SMFF), has relocated from Pompano, Fla., to Houston to be situated with international salvage partner TITAN Salvage. Conveniently located near George Bush International airport, the new office boasts a 102,500 square-foot maintenance and warehousing facility with 4.61 acres of outside storage. Built to suit, the facility includes a state-of-the-art Emergency Response Center manned 24/7, the only one of its kind in the United States.

On September 17, McAllister Towing and Reinauer Transportation will be partnering with the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Long Island Sound and Sector New York in a major simulated marine accident and pollution incident on the waters of Long Island Sound. Responders will be faced with a simulated grounding and subsequent oil spill impacting the waters and shoreline of Connecticut and New York. The exercise is part of the National Preparedness for Response Exercise Program (PREP), a voluntary program bringing together industry and government to meet the exercise and preparedness requirements of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, legislation enacted following the Exxon Valdez.

Titan Salvage and OPA 90 partner, Marine Response Alliance will team up as sponsors of the National Maritime Salvage Conference, “Weathering the Storm”, hosted jointly by the American Salvage Association (AMA) and Marine Log magazine from September 9 through 12, 2013 in Arlington V.A. The American Salvage Association was created to provide professional salvors with an identity while also assisting with the professionalization of the United States marine salvage and firefighting response capability. The mission of the ASA is to be a unifying association of the commercial marine salvage industry and serve as the definitive spokesman for this industry in Washington, D.C. and around the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Titan Salvage is a subsiidiary of Crowley Maritime Corp.

The Marine Response Alliance (MRA) will host an OPA 90 regulatory Seminar entitled, “Navigating US Waters”, on September 4th in Hamburg, Germany at Le Meridien hotel. The afternoon seminar will bring speakers from different sects of the industry and around the world together providing their different perspectives on handling salvage incidents in the U.S. H.-C. The industry will have the chance to discuss compliance regarding OPA 90 regulatory changes as well as abiding to current regulations in place. The seminar will start promptly at 1:30pm and will conclude at 5:30pm allowing for networking opportunities, cocktails, and hor d’ouvres until 7:30pm.

The first of four Crowley Maritime Corporation ocean class tugboats, Ocean Wave, completed its inaugural project earlier this month by removing a grounded containership from the northern coast of Cuba. The job is additionally significant because it utilized many of Crowley’s unique capabilities, equipment and established relationships with Cuban entities and government to complete the job quickly despite many challenges. The project’s success hinged on a coordinated and timely response from Antilliana De Salvemento, the Cuban salvage company which subcontracted Titan Salvage, Crowley’s Pompano, Fla.-based emergency response, marine salvage and wreck removal company, and Houston-based T&T Marine Salvage, to assist with the removal of the stricken containership.

Regulation shapes the workboat industry perhaps more than any other single factor. This regulatory seascape includes a myriad of onerous and ever-changing rules. A ‘SITREP’ on those choppy waters is therefore in order. Last December, the Coast Guard closed the public comment period following its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) requiring nearly all towing vessels to obtain Certificates of Inspection under Subchapter M of CFR 46. The Coast Guard’s Towing Vessel National Center of Expertise (NCE) estimates that there are 5,800 U.S.

The directors of Marine Response Alliance LLC (MRA or Alliance) announced that McAllister Towing and Transportation Co., Inc. (McAllister) has joined the MRA as a full and equal member. McAllister is now united with the other MRA member companies—Crowley Marine Services, Inc. (Crowley), Marine Pollution Control Corporation (MPC), Titan Maritime LLC (Titan) and Marine Hazard Response (MHR)  (a joint venture of Wild Well Control, Inc. and Williams Fire and Hazard Control, Inc.) to provide OPA-90 Salvage and Marine Firefighting services to the maritime community.

In a letter dated 3 June 2010, to MRA Director Captain Scott Powell, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) clarified its position on how a plan holder can comply with the pre-fire plan requirements found in 33 CFR Part 155 (Salvage and Marine Firefighting Requirements; Vessel Response Plans for Oil). The letter was in response to a request submitted by the MHR on behalf of MRA. “Simply put, the submission of a SOLAS fire control plan does not, in itself, satisfy the intent of 33 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 155.4035 (b) (1). “A SOLAS fire control plan is only part of an acceptable pre-fire plan submission submitted to the Coast Guard.

Marine Response Alliance, LLC (MRA) has received approval from the U.S. Coast Guard of its Salvage and Marine Firefighting Contract and Funding Agreement. The Coast Guard’s all-inclusive acceptance of the contract means that MRA has the ability fully contract with plan holders needing salvage and marine firefighting services required under the OPA-90 sanctioned Salvage and Marine Firefighting Final Rule, which takes effect on February 22, 2011. MRA is a U.S. based emergency response partnership comprised of Crowley Marine Services, Marine Pollution Control, TITAN Salvage, and Marine Hazard Response (a joint venture of Wild Well Control and Williams Fire & Hazard Control).

The Marine Response Alliance (MRA) is pleased to announce Ms. Margaret Kaigh Doyle has been appointed General Manager of the Alliance effective May 18, 2009. Doyle has over 20 years of experience in the maritime industry and the majority of her career has focused on representing the interests of various sectors in the industry including ship owners and operators, government agencies as well as salvage and firefighting organizations. Prior to joining the MRA she worked as a senior tanker analyst at Marsoft, a Boston-based maritime consulting company.

During the early morning hours of February 21, 2009, TITAN Salvage was notified by the Marine Response Alliance (MRA) of the grounding of the Yasa Golden Dardanelles, a tanker, off the coast of Galveston, Tex. The tanker was fully laden with approximately 620,000 barrels of fuel oil onboard. TITAN responded by mobilizing a response team consisting of TITAN Salvage Master,  Guy Wood, an assistant salvage master and a naval architect, who all arrived on site later the same day.

Titan Salvage, Crowley Maritime Corporation's salvage and wreck removal company, announced that Dan Schwall has been promoted to vice president and Phil Reed has been promoted to general manager, salvage and engineering. Both promotions become effective January 1, 2009 and both Schwall and Reed will be domiciled at the Pompano Beach, Fla. headquarters. Schwall will report directly to Todd Busch, senior vice president and general manager of Crowley's technical services group. In…

The directors of Seattle-based Marine Response Alliance LLC (MRA) announced that Titan Maritime LLC has joined the alliance as a full and equal member, effective immediately. Titan joins the other MRA member companies Marine Pollution Control Corporation (MPC) and Crowley Marine Services, Inc., to provide comprehensive emergency response services, offering OPA '90 compliant capabilities for rescue towing, lightering, fendering, salvage and firefighting services in all U.S. Captain of the Port zones. Anticipated shifts in the focus of federal regulation and recent developments in state regulation, particularly on the U.S. West Coast, have prompted MRA to expand and strengthen its capabilities.

The directors of Seattle-based Marine Response Alliance LLC (MRA) announced the signing of an agreement with Marine Hazard Response to join the Alliance as a full and equal member, effective January 1. Marine Hazard Response (MHR), based in Houston, is a joint venture of Wild Well Control, Inc., and Williams Fire and Hazard Control, Inc., and specializes in marine firefighting and the technical management of marine casualties. MHR will now unite with the other MRA member companies-Crowley Marine Services, Inc. (Crowley), Marine Pollution Control Corporation (MPC) and Titan Maritime LLC (Titan)-to provide access to comprehensive emergency response services, offering OPA '90 compliant capabilities for rescue towing, lightering, fendering, salvage and firefighting in all U.S.

At just after 0100hrs EDT July 22nd, 2002 the M/V Patriot, a 710-ft., 35,000-ton tanker was in the Florida Straits off West Palm Beach, having sailed from New York bound for Texas, when alarms on the bridge informed the crew that they had a fire in the engine room. The general alarm was sounded as the crew dressed and made their way through smoke and heat to muster forward of the vessel's accommodation structure. With all hands accounted for, the vessel's Master, realized that the fire was too large for his crew to fight. The crew, having been drilled for just such an event, began to seal all vents and engine room access to enable the ships CO2 system to work effectively in combating the fire.

The U.S. Coast Guard issued a Navigation and Vessel Inspection Circular (NVIC) providing guidance regarding marine equipment approvals covered by the United States-European Community mutual recognition agreement (MRA). The goals of the MRA, which came into effect on 1 July 2004, are to facilitate US-EC trade in marine equipment and to promote bilateral cooperation on international marine equipment regulations. Source: HK Law

Crowley Marine Services refloated the passenger ferry Le Conte, which had run aground about 30 miles north of Sitka, Alaska on Monday, May 10. Crowley, under contract with the Alaska Marine Highway System, floated the Le Conte off Cozian Reef. The salvage team made internal and external surveys and the Le Conte is presently being towed to the Ketchikan Ship Yard by the tug Chahunta with Crowley's salvage vessel, the American Salvor, escorting. The 31-year-old ferry was transiting from Angoon to Sitka with more than 100 passengers and crewmembers onboard, when it struck the reef located in Peril Strait. All of the passengers were successfully evacuated by the Coast Guard and local private watercraft immediately following the grounding with only a few people sustaining minor injuries.

The EU and the U.S. signed a mutual recognition agreement on marine equipment. Under the agreement, marine equipment certified as acceptable in the market of one party will be able to circulate in the other market without additional testing or certification. The agreement covers 30 types of marine equipment, including life-saving equipment (distress signals, rigid life rafts), fire protection equipment, and navigational equipment (GPS receivers, echo-sounding equipment). European Union (EU) Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, United States (US) Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick and Ireland's Ambassador to the US, Noel Fahey signed a mutual recognition agreement (MRA) on marine equipment between the EU and the US.

On Tuesday, September 24th, 2002 California State Senator Tom Torlakson honored Titan Maritime, its subcontractors, the USCG, and the California Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR) for their success with the underwater oil cleanup of the freighter SS “Jacob Luckenbach”. Senator Torlakson presented Titan with a plaque in recognition for their successful efforts in protecting the sensitive California coastline and the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary from further oil pollution damage from this wreck. Titan has just completed a contract with the U.S. Coast Guard to recover oil from the SS “Jacob Luckenbach”, an ocean freight vessel built in 1944.