Search Techniques News

Meridian Ocean Services said it recovered the body of Canadian First Nations Elder Solomon Roberts from the icy waters of Otter Lake in northern Saskatchewan. After searching more than 450 acres underwater, Meridian, a provider of subsea inspection and support services using remote and autonomous underwater vehicles, helped return Elder Roberts, of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band, to his family. In November, 66-year-old Elder Roberts, from the town of Grandmother’s Bay, fell through the ice on his snowmobile. Members of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band located Elder Roberts’ snowmobile but as temperatures dropped in the days after, thick ice quickly covered vast sections of the lake, hindering traditional search techniques.

The impact of increasingly stiff rules from legislators regarding ship engine emissions combined with ever increasing demands from ship and boat owners of better life-cycle performance and fuel economy has placed the onus squarely upon the diesel engine manufacturing community to continuously improve products and systems. While the diesel engine community has responded in kind with a variety of enhanced designs and concepts, there is a revolution spurred by evolution brewing in academia which promises to, at the very least, arm diesel engine makers with a system to quickly and cost effectively optimize current diesel engine performance, and to possibly even help to reshape the diesel engine's inner and outer appearance in the name of improving performance.

A Visit, Board, Search and Seizure (VBSS) Sailor assigned to coastal patrol ship USS Hurricane (PC 3) conducts an initial security sweep aboard Yard Patrol Craft 681 (YP 681) while his shipmates board the vessel. YP 681 acted as a non-compliant vessel as part of Hurricane's Advanced Phase Training Exercise, designed to prepare the crew for upcoming deployments. U.S. Sailors and assets from the U.S. Naval Academy provided a unique training opportunity Jan. 10 and 17 for the crews of USS Thunderbolt (PC 12) and USS Hurricane (PC 3) in the Chesapeake Bay. The exercises were part of Thunderbolt and Hurricane's theater-tailored Advanced Phase Training Exercise, designed to prepare the crews for upcoming deployments.

The Department of Homeland Security has published an interim rule in the Federal Register and will issue its final rule on November 25, 2003. The rule is intended to implement strong Port State Control measures to aggressively enforce these regulations, including tracking the performance of all owners, operators, port facility managers, flag administrators and recognized security organizations. The MITAGS/PMI Security Officer Training incorporates this Interim Final Rule, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) amendments that contain the International Ship and Port Security Code (ISPS Code), which comes into effect in July, 2004, and the U.S. Coast Guard NVIC 10-02. The Coast Guard has concluded that they will impose their new requirements on many U.S.

Glen Paine, Executive Director, the Maritime Institute of Technology & Graduate Studies (MITAGS) and Pacific Maritime Institute (PMI) has announced an upgrade in their Security Officer Training program which is now called, “Security Officer Training – Port Facility, Company and Ship.” Since September 11, 2001, the maritime industry has come under increasing pressure to improve security awareness and develop security measures appropriate to the threat level for all passenger and cargo vessels and the port facilities they call on. The Department of Homeland Security has published an interim rule in the Federal Register and will issue its final rule on November 25, 2003.