Resource Center News

Marine software company Greensea Systems Inc. said it has recently been awarded a contract for a two-year Phase II Option Period by the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research to continue the technology development for an autonomous hull cleaning vehicle. This is a continuation of the work that Greensea has been conducting through a Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program since 2018.“The objective of this STTR is to develop a highly autonomous robotic system for proactively cleaning ship hulls, that can be operated easily and cost effectively with minimal supervision.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration announced the designation of 27 Centers of Excellence for Domestic Maritime Workforce Training and Education (CoE), recognizing community colleges and training institutions that prepare students for careers in the U.S. maritime industry.One of the 27 schools and institutions recognized is the Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI).The designation allows CCRI to work with MARAD to enter into cooperative agreements to help advance recruitment of students and faculty…

The U.S. government has named a Russian ship on a list of vessels suspected of providing fuel to Pyongyang, a month after Reuters reported the same ship violated sanctions by carrying out a clandestine transfer to a North Korean tanker.The Treasury Department, which oversees U.S. sanctions, included the Russian vessel, the Tantal, on a new list of "vessels believed to have engaged in ship-to-ship transfers with North Korean tankers."The list was included in updated https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Documents/dprk_vessel_advisory_03212019.pdf guidance on addressing North Korea's illicit shipping practices published by the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

Captain Louis Rhéaume has joined the team at Maritime Simulation and Resource Center (MSRC).At MSRC Captain Rhéaume will supervise the implementation of maritime expertise projects and provide his professional and administrative experience to the pilots in training. Captain Rhéaume is a graduate of the Institute maritime du Québec and holder of a Master Foreign Going Certificate. He was a pilot on the St. Lawrence River in the Quebec-Escoumins sector from 1984 to 2018, President of the Lower St.

Serious questions have been raised regarding the testing of ballast water management systems (BWMSs). In order for a BWMS manufacturer to sell its equipment for use on commercial vessels operating in U.S. waters, the equipment must be tested in accordance with U.S. Coast Guard and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requirements and the equipment must then obtain a type approval certificate from the Coast Guard. To date, type approval certificates have been issued to six manufacturers and others are in the pipeline.

Maritime Environmental Resource Center will no longer conduct Type Approval Certification testing of ballast water management systems. The Maritime Environment Resource Center (MERC) was established in 2008 by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) to facilitate the development and adoption of Green Ship and Green Port innovations with a primary goal of expanding on over twenty years of research addressing the issues of ballast water invasive species. Invasive species introduction through the release of ship’s ballast water have enormous ecological and economic impacts on coastal waters around the world.

The new facility has dedicated transmission and thruster repair facilities, and larger warehouse and training areas. ZF Marine has a long standing presence in Louisiana, opening their first location in the city of St. Rose in 1996. The ever increasing customer base combined with the addition of the commercial thruster product line in 2009 resulted in the need to create a larger physical presence in the region. A comprehensive search of the region resulted in ZF finding a new home at 677 Time Saver Avenue in Elmwood, Louisiana. ZF Marine’s new facility is three times the size of its previous location. The new facility not only houses dedicated transmission and thruster repair facilities, but also a significantly larger warehouse area.

Members of the Houston Pilots recently participated in two custom-built simulation courses vital to their Pilotage duties in the Houston Ship Channel and the Port of Houston, the largest landlocked Port in America. Each course was two days long, and was provided by the Maritime Simulation Resource Center (MSRC), at their Quebec City, Canada-based facility. The Houston Pilots face a multitude of factors when piloting ships in their waterways, including weather and wind, particularly with large ships, a very small turning basin, as well as intricate 24/7 traffic management.

The Intermodal Association of North America has created a resource center, available on its website, to provide a wide range of information for prospective intermodal users and those who are new to the industry. The Intermodal Freight Resource Center offers educational tools, industry information, research and other content. The “What is Intermodal” page overviews the industry’s scope and benefits. Additional sections include intermodal network and terminal information, data & statistics, a glossary of industry terms, studies and research and links to organizations that provide related services. “The Intermodal Freight Resource Center is a tool that showcases the viability and value of intermodal service to multiple audiences,” said Joni Casey, president and CEO of IANA.

Blackmer, a company in positive displacement and centrifugal pump and reciprocating compressor technologies, has a relationship with the U.S. Military that dates back to 1914 when it became an official equipment supplier to the Armed Forces. One of the more significant contracts Blackmer has earned was awarded in 2007 when the U.S. Navy selected the company to supply sliding vane pumps for use on the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), which would be the lead ship in a new class of supercarriers used for crisis response and early decisive striking power in major combat operations. The USS Gerald R.

Thousands of migrants seeking refuge have lost their lives attempting to make their way across the Mediterranean Sea in overcrowded and unseaworthy boats. The United Nations estimates that as many as 850,000 refugees may attempt to make the trip between 2015 and 2016. Although most of the rescues have been handled by Coast Guard agencies in the region, merchant vessels often are being brought in to assist. Between 2014 and 2015, an estimated 1,200-plus merchant vessels were diverted to assist in the rescue of thousands of migrants making a desperate bid to reach Europe.

Attendees of BIMCO’s Annual Conference in Hamburg will today hear the very latest findings on the potential vulnerabilities of ships to cyber attacks. In a session dedicated to the topic, BIMCO and industry experts will show three scenarios showing the possible risks and the methods of prevention for a cyber attack on ships’ systems. The session is designed for corporate management but also focused on the safety of seafarers and ships. BIMCO delegates will hear from Andrew Fitzmaurice, CEO of Templar Executives, and a long-standing thought leader in the global information assurance and cyber security community. Today’s conference session…

McMurdo informs it has launched an online resource center at to help impacted vessel operators comply with the requirements of the United States Coast Guard (USCG) Automatic Identification System (AIS) Mandate, which becomes effective March 1, 2016. “Many vessel operators are still learning about AIS and there is still a fair amount of confusion about how it works, as well as which AIS device is appropriate for their vessel,” said Randel Maestre, McMurdo Chief Marketing Officer. The resource center, located at info.mcmurdogroup.com/AIS-US-Coast-Guard-Mandate.html, features frequently asked questions and answers about the USCG Mandate, information about McMurdo compliant products, special offers and a McMurdo AIS dealer locator.

Evoqua Water Technologies has become the first company to complete low salinity (brackish) water testing for ballast water management solutions (BWMS), the company announced today. As part of United States Coast Guard (USCG) protocols, BWMS are designed to safely protect the environment and world economies from invasive aquatic species damage. Testing for the SeaCURE system for BWMS was completed at the Marine Environmental Resource Center (MERC) in Baltimore, Md. under rigorous conditions that replicate the environment in which the system will be operating…

The Maritime Administration (MARAD), in cooperation with the Maryland Environmental Resource Center, will hold an open forum to solicit input on the Agency’s Maritime Environmental and Technical Assistance (META) Program and key environmental issues facing maritime transportation. Specific topics of discussion will include how MARAD might be able to better focus requests for proposals, and how to address various levels of technology readiness. Input received will inform MARAD and Department of Transportation decision making regarding possible future research, development and demonstration projects. The META program seeks to foster collaborative efforts among Federal agencies, academia, industry and the public to address critical marine transportation environmental issues.

Shipboard testing to be conducted on the vessel APL England as NEI takes the next step towards full USCG Type Approval for its Venturi Oxygen Stripping (VOS) Ballast Water Treatment System. NEI Treatment Systems announced that the container vessel APL England will be used for the shipboard testing phase of their VOS Ballast Water Treatment System (BWTS), to begin in the early summer of 2015. The APL England is a 67.9K DWT container vessel, trading between China and multiple ports on the U.S. West Coast. The vessel utilizes a VOS system operating at 1,250 m3/hr., and was installed seven years ago. The retrofit project was completed as an in-service “riding” installation.

The United States Maritime Resource announced that its training partner, Harvey Gulf International Marine, recently launched the PSV Harvey Energy, the first LNG-fueled vessel to enter service in North America. In March, the PSV Harvey Energy began working on charter to Shell in the Gulf of Mexico shortly after the vessel’s first successful LNG bunkering operation. Middletown, R.I.-based USMRC developed the LNG bunkering safety training course for Harvey Gulf in 2014 as it prepared to launch its first dual fuel offshore supply vessel.

The United States Maritime Resource Center (USMRC) in Middletown, Rhode Island and ClassNK have announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) laying out a framework for future technical cooperation to carry out joint research and development activities for the maritime industry. This will mark the first time a major ship classification society has teamed with a prominent marine operations simulation center engaged in specialized training and research in North America.

The NSF International Independent Laboratory (IL), the first designated by the United States Coast Guard (USCG) to test ballast water management systems (BWMS) for U.S. type approval, will now include the American Bureau of Shipping’s (ABS) expertise. ABS will complete design/construction and documentation reviews as part of the type approval, and will work with three other IL partners to maximize the value of USCG type approval testing for BWMS manufacturers. ABS will also evaluate the appropriateness of the systems for installation and operation onboard vessels. NSF’s IL partnership, formed in 2012, includes Retlif Testing Laboratories, the Great Ships Initiative, the Maritime Environmental Resource Center and now ABS.

Environmental professionals in industry are tasked with the unenviable responsibility of managing the delicate balance between compliance with ever-increasing and at times mind-numbingly complex and stringent regulations and maximization of production efforts. Consequently, Environmental Compliance Officers are perpetually on the hunt for alternatives to costly process controls and best management practices designed to mitigate potential negative impact. Requirements of the Clean…

A team of researchers led by NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries have discovered two significant vessels from World War II’s Battle of the Atlantic. The German U-boat 576 and the freighter Bluefields were found approximately 30 miles off the coast of North Carolina. Lost for more than 70 years, the discovery of the two vessels, in an area known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic, is a rare window into a historic military battle and the underwater battlefield landscape of WWII.

Retlif Testing Laboratories, a strategic compliance organization and independent testing laboratory, is celebrating its 35th year of operations. President Walter Poggi officially announced the anniversary with a series of planned events and pledged to uphold the personal service that has been the organization’s hallmark since its inception. Founded in 1978 by Walter and Marilyn Poggi, Retlif provides EMC/EMI and environmental simulation testing services, approvals and certifications in support of clients in the marine and maritime fields.

Retlif Testing Laboratories, a strategic compliance organization and a leading independent testing laboratories, is celebrating its 35th year of operations. President Walter Poggi officially announced the anniversary with a series of planned events and pledged to uphold the personal service that has been the organization’s hallmark since its inception. Founded in 1978 by Walter and Marilyn Poggi, Retlif provides EMC/EMI and environmental simulation testing services, approvals and certifications in support of clients in the marine and maritime fields.