Sheen News

The pilot of the container ship that knocked down a highway bridge into Baltimore Harbor had radioed for tugboat help and reported a power loss minutes earlier, federal safety officials said on Wednesday, citing audio from the ship's "black box" data recorder.The head of the National Transportation Safety Board also said that Francis Scott Key Bridge, a traffic artery over the harbor built in 1976, lacked structural engineering redundancies common to newer spans, making it more…

The Unified Command concluded its response to an oil sheen observed offshore of Huntington Beach, California on Monday, but the source of the oil remains unclear.Over the weekend, cleanup crews recovered approximately 85 gallons of product from offshore recovery efforts and removed roughly 1,050 pounds of oily waste/sand and tar balls from the shoreline.The U.S. Coast Guard and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Office of Spill Prevention and Response (CDFW-OSPR) collected samples from the offshore sheen and tar balls along the shoreline to help determine the source of the oil.

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A passenger ferry has run aground near the entrance to Maui's Maalaea Harbor, the U.S. Coast Guard said. At 5:05 a.m. on Monday, Coast Guard Sector Honolulu watchstanders received notification from the 55-foot ferry Expeditions Five, which had run aground with three crew members on board.Watchstanders issued an urgent marine broadcast to mariners and dispatched a 29-foot Response Boat-small crew from Station Maui. The Station Maui crew confirmed that the vessel was hard aground…

Uncontrolled flooding through a hole in the plating beneath the engine room of a fishing vessel led to its sinking in the Gulf of Mexico, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said Thursday.The commercial fishing vessel Captain Alex was fishing offshore of Galveston, Texas on Nov. 25, 2022, when the vessel began flooding. The four crewmembers on board were unable to stem the flooding and evacuated to a responding U.S. Coast Guard boat. The sinking resulted in an oil sheen and debris field; a reported 17,000 gallons of diesel fuel were on board. There were no injuries.

The U.S. Coast Guard said on Wednesday it was responding to an oil discharge near the Main Pass Oil Gathering (MPOG) Co's pipeline system in the Gulf of Mexico, while the main pipeline and several surrounding ones remained shut in."The reported sheen is being investigated and has not been confirmed to be associated with the November 16 observed initial discharge," the Coast Guard said.The Coast Guard had not yet identified any damage or indication of a leak after surveying the entire length of the pipeline along with 22.16 miles (36 km) of surrounding pipelines.

A salvage team has refloated a charter fishing vessel that sank near California's Santa Cruz Island.Overseen by the U.S. Coast Guard and the California Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR), the salvage operation included underwater assessment, refloating, stabilization and the safe transfer of the vessel to harbor. The operation was led by a seasoned salvage master and supported by a crew of four experienced salvage technicians and divers.Two dedicated recovery vessels equipped with lift bags, dewatering equipment and custom rigging were brought in to handle the vessel recovery.

The Office of Investigations and Casualty Analysis has released U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Alert 06-23: Avoiding Load Line Requirements.The safety alert cites a recent marine casualty resulting in the total loss of a crane barge, estimated at over $6 million, and cautions about the risks associated with not complying with load line regulations.The incident occurred approximately 18 miles offshore of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico while the crane barge was being towed in calm weather conditions.

A commercial fishing vessel that caught fire while moored in Tacoma, Wash. this weekend is now listing heavily to port as responders continue to battle the dayslong blaze.Fire broke out on board the factory trawler Kodiak Enterprise early Saturday morning, progressing throughout the ship while moored at Trident Seafoods in the Hylebos Waterway, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.Most of the fire has subsided and smoke conditions have improved significantly due to firefighting efforts…

A derelict tugboat began taking on water and sank Monday morning in Salmon Bay near Ballard in Seattle.The vessel, which had been abandoned for a number of years, was moored at a dock just east of the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks and tied off to two additional abandoned vessels at the time of the incident.The other vessels have been secured and do not present a hazard to maritime traffic, according to the U.S. Coast Guard, who responded to the incident alongside the Seattle Fire…

An incident involving a crane toppling off a barge in Virginia could have been avoided if a spotter was present to notice the crane being driven too far aft, and the cable system securing the crane to the barge failed, according to a recent report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).While working on the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel expansion project near Norfolk on February 8, 2022, an onboard crawler crane fell off the construction barge Carolyn Skaves and into Willoughby Bay. The crane was later recovered and declared an insurance loss of nearly $2 million.

Removal operations for a tug partially submerged at the National Guard Dock in Gastineau Channel, near Juneau, Alaska, are scheduled, weather pending, to be conducted this week and into the weekend, the U.S. Coast Guard said.Melino’s Marine Services, the contracted salvage company, plans to remove the vessel utilizing a barge and crane system that are currently enroute from Bellingham, Wash.The operation is expected to take multiple days pending weather conditions. Once the vessel is removed…

Armada Technologies announced that Irish Ferries has contracted for a feasibility study and integration engineering for the Armada ‘passive air lubrication system’ (PALS) on board its RoPax cruise ferry W.B. Yeats.Armada’s PALS is a second-generation air lubrication system that uses the vessel’s own forward motion to drive water through a series of openings in the bow region of the vessel. These openings direct system water through branch lines to venturis and injectors that then passively delivers an optimal air/water mix (rather than simply air) for hull lubrication of unparalleled efficacy."One of the major complaints shipowners have…

The U.S. Coast Guard and Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) are monitoring periodic discharges of oil from the Liberty Ship Thomas Heyward, a World War II era vessel sunk in 1977 to serve as an artificial reef approximately six miles southwest of Destin, Fla.Following Hurricane Sally in September 2020, the National Response Center (NRC) began receiving reports of pollution in the vicinity of the artificial reef. Coast Guard personnel conducted preliminary investigations…

A commercial fishing vessel that sank Saturday near San Juan Island, Wash. is spilling oil, the U.S. Coast Guard said.All five crewmembers from the sinking Aleutian Isle were rescued by a Good Samaritan, and no injuries have been reported.The 49-foot vessel sank with approximately 2,500 gallons of diesel fuel and a combined 100 gallons of hydraulic fluid and lubricant oil aboard, according to the Coast Guard. A sheen has been observed spanning more than two miles and was reported to have entered Canadian waters as the vessel continues to release small amounts of diesel.At approximately 2 p.m.

Response crews have collected more than one million gallons of oil from a Gulf of Mexico spill that has been ongoing for nearly 20 years.The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and partner agencies have been working to contain oil that continues to leak from damaged wells in Mississippi Canyon Block 20 (MC-20), located 11 miles south of the Louisiana shoreline, after storm surge from Hurricane Ivan in 2004 triggered an underwater mudslide that toppled Taylor Energy's MC-20 platform. The active spill is the longest-running in U.S.

The company that operates the pipeline that spilled an estimated 3,000 barrels of oil into the Pacific Ocean off California has an 800-page manual on handling an oil spill - but it is unclear whether its employees followed those procedures.Houston-based Amplify Energy Corp and several state and federal regulatory agencies have provided differing accounts of what happened on Oct. 2, when the pipeline spill that fouled beaches, killed wildlife, and closed down fishing along miles of coastline was officially reported.The U.S.

A section of the oil pipeline that burst off the Southern California coast was displaced 105 feet (32 meters) across the ocean floor, officials said on Tuesday, fueling speculation that a ship's anchor may have caused the environmental disaster.The revelation came as the U.S. Coast Guard and drilling company Amplify Energy Corp came under further scrutiny about the time it took to respond to the spill, amid reports that mariners first reported seeing oil in the water on Friday night…

More oil from a massive offshore spill landed on the southern California shore on Monday, with beaches closed and dead fish and birds washing up on shore as officials investigated whether a ship anchor striking a pipeline could have triggered the leak.Crews dressed in white coveralls and helmets raced against an approaching storm as they cleaned damage from 3,000 barrels (126,000 gallons) of oil that spilled into the Pacific Ocean in recent days from a pipeline connected to an…

A private dive team will try to locate the source of a suspected oil spill spotted in the Bay Marchand area of the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday, after Hurricane Ida wreaked havoc in the region this week, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Saturday.U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite images, first reported by the Associated Press on Wednesday, showed a miles-long brownish-black slick spreading in coastal waters about two miles off Port Fourchon, Louisiana, an oil…

A 120-foot dredge barge capsized in the Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina, Wednesday, the U.S. Coast Guard said.Coast Guard Sector Charleston watchstanders received a call at 3:34 a.m. from the Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina staff stating the dredge barge rolled over on its side in the marina. There were no persons aboard the Capt Leo II when it capsized, but the dredge barge has a reported maximum potential of 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on board. Photos shared by the…

Authorities in Turkey and Cyprus are on alert for any potential pollution from a 'sheen' of fuel floating across the Mediterranean from a spill in Syria, officials said.Fuel which seeped into the sea from a thermal station off the coast of Syria on August 23 has been snaking across the Eastern Mediterranean, but any potential impact on Cyprus will depend on currents.The latest satellite images of the region provided by the European Maritime Safety Agency showed the oil sheen east of Cyprus breaking down and dissolving, the Cyprus Fisheries and Marine Research Department said.The eastern Cyprus coastline, largely unspoilt, falls within two opposing jurisdictions; an area controlled by the internationally recognized Greek Cypriot government and a Turkish Cypriot breakaway state recognized on

Authorities are working to track down the source of a recurring mystery sheen emanating from the bank of the East River in Brunswick, Ga.The U.S. Coast Guard said Friday its Marine Safety Unit (MSU) Savannah personnel have been conducting an investigation since February 2019 to identify the source of the sheen across multiple waterfront properties.Hard boom and absorbent materials have been placed around the discharge sites to recover any product that enters the water as the source of the sheen remains unknown at this time. MSU Savannah personnel are coordinating the investigation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Georgia…