South Bay News

Fire Island Ferries has taken delivery of its newest vessel, Fire Island Maid, designed by Elliott Bay Design Group (EBDG) and built by Metal Shark in Bayou La Batre, Ala.The 70- by  23-foot multipurpose vehicle ferry features a steel hull and aluminum superstructure and is equipped with a hydraulic ramp for loading and unloading heavy equipment. The reinforced deck is capable of supporting fully loaded concrete trucks and general cargo up to 100,000 pounds. The aft pilot house accommodates two crew and up to six passengers (assumed to be in their vehicles).

A new bill recently introduced by Congressman John Garamendi (D-CA) and U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) aims to increase federal funding for public ferry services in the United States.The “Ferry Service Expansion Act” would boost funding for both the Federal Highway Administration’s formula and the Federal Transit Administration’s competitive grant programs to the levels requested by the Public Ferry Coalition, building upon New Federal Investment in Ferry Service under Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.Specifically…

Metal Shark won a contract to build a new vehicle ferry for Fire Island Ferries, a vessel designed by Elliott Bay Design Group (EBDG).Construction of the new Fire Island Maid recently commenced at Metal Shark’s Bayou La Batre, Alabama shipyard, and the 70 x 23-ft.vessel features a steel hull and aluminum superstructure. With its hydraulically operated bow ramp and reinforced decks designed to support fully loaded concrete trucks and general cargo, the new ferry will provide transport between Bay Shore…

Marine News recently visited the Blount Boats facility in Warren, Rhode Island. While the year 2019 might be the ‘year of the woman’ in the eyes of the International Maritime Organization, the two women at the head of Blount Boats – Marcia & Julie Blount– have been a driving force in the U.S. boatbuilding market for decades. As Blount’s celebrates its 70th anniversary, read about the storied yard’s promising future.Founded in 1949, Blount Boats is a full-service shipyard with a customer base comprised of a variety of commercial and government entities including the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S.

A French cruise company and ship’s Master have been fined $70,000 and $30,000 respectively for endangering human life and entering a prohibited zone following a grounding incident in the remote New Zealand Subantarctic islands.French company Compagnie du Ponant and Captain Regis Daumesnil, a French citizen, were sentenced Tuesday in the Wellington District Court after pleading guilty to charges following the January 2017 grounding of the cruise ship L’Austral on an uncharted rock at the Snares Islands.Both Maritime NZ and the Department of Conservation (DOC) brought charges against Captain Daumesnil, with DOC also prosecuting the company.

Anyone plying the Great South Bay between the shores of Long Island and Fire Island know that the fleet of Fire Island Ferries is a ubiquitous site, shuttling people, pets and supplies from the mainland to the barrier island oasis just five miles away. The scene is a familiar one, too, for Rhode Island boat builder Blount Boats, which has built quite a few of these ferries, and announced today the contact with Fire Island Ferries to build a new 85-ft. aluminum ferry boat for service between Bay Shore and Fire Island on Great South Bay.

Ellicott Dredge Technologies (EDT) has been successful in launching a Mud Cat Multi-Function Dredge (MFD) at the SouthBay Residential Development in Bismarck, North Dakota. The dredge will remove 20,000 cubic yards (15,290 m3) of sand and clay from a private residential lake where developers are busy constructing high-end single family homes situated on 3 miles (5 km) of shoreline. Kevin Turnbow of Turnbow Construction and Home Building selected the Mud Cat MFD-1000 due to its ability to handle various materials including compacted clay and sand. It is also self-propelled with a 24 in. (610 mm) stainless steel steerable prop, so it does not require any anchor cables which would negatively impact the pristine shoreline. The MFD-1000 is pumping the slurry 900 ft. (274 m) with 24 ft.

All populated coastlines share a variety of pollution-related challenges. Those municipalities in the USA who engage in the discharge of waste water through ocean outfalls are subject to state and federal regulations requiring them to monitor the quality of the water near those structures and the marine environment beyond them. The City of San Diego in southern California is one such municipality. With two vessels and a wide array of oceanographic sensors, they continually inspect and report on two waste water outfalls; Point Loma Ocean Outfall (PLOO) near the mouth of San Diego Bay and South Bay Ocean Outfall (SBOO) near the US/Mexico border.

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation announced that it was recently awarded four contracts with an approximate value of $93 million. Great Lakes received two awards for coastal protection work required along the East Coast as a result of the extensive damage caused by Super Storm Sandy in 2012 and other more recent storms. The first award is a $30 million contract that involves sand replenishment and dune building from Kismet to Seaview on Fire Island, New York. Approximately 1.3 million cubic yards of sand will be dredged and pumped onto the beach. This barrier island helps protect back-bay communities along Great South Bay and Moriches Bay. Work is expected to be complete by December 2016.

Silver Ships, Inc. has recently delivered a 34-foot custom designed and purpose-built all-welded aluminum fire/rescue boat to the Islip Fire District on Long Island, N.Y. The Islip Fire District’s area of responsibility includes The Great South Bay, communities on Fire Island, the Atlantic Ocean and Fire Island Inlet. This boat will also be made available to other fire districts on a mutual aid basis. The Board of Fire Commissioners of the Islip Fire District wanted an all-welded aluminum boat to ensure the safety and comfort of their crews when responding to, and on scene, of various emergency situations, including fire and rescue, emergency medical, diving operations and the supply of water to land-based units in order to aid in firefighting operations.

After three years of annual double digit growth in Port of Redwood City tonnage from 2012-2014, the fiscal year 2015 Port tonnage declined slightly by 3.8 percent. However, the total tonnage for the year ending June 30, 2015 was the fourth highest in the port’s modern history at 1,715,633 metric tons, reflecting the continuing strong demand for construction materials in Silicon Valley and the South Bay, particularly the high quality sand and aggregates shipped to the port from British Columbia.

The Golden Gate passenger ferry system, California's largest, was shut down on Friday by striking boat captains, disrupting service for thousands of San Francisco Bay-area commuters in a wider labor dispute over wages and benefits for transit workers. The 20 ferry pilots who work for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District walked off the job for the day to protest what union officials have criticized as bad-faith contract bargaining on the part of management. The Golden Gate service operates five ferries making 42 crossings a day - carrying roughly 8,500 passengers - between San Francisco and the Marin County communities of Sausalito and Larkspur on the north side of the bay.

Two extreme AC72 foiling catamarans with wing sails went head-to-head at over 40 knots in San Francisco Bay, California. The teams were competing in the 2013 Americas Cup Challenge which took place from September 7-21, 2013. Anyone watching the first few days of Americas Cup sailing will know that it looked like Emirates Team New Zealand had a seemingly untouchable lead – then out of the blue Oracle Team USA completed one of the greatest comebacks in sport to win the 34th America’s Cup.

The final in a series of five Canada Steamship Lines' (CSL) state-of-the-art, new Trillium Class self-unloading Panamax vessels, the 228-meter long CSL Tacoma, embarked on her maiden voyage from the Chengxi Shipyard in Jiangyin, China on Oct. 12, and is making her maiden cargo voyage to San Francisco Bay. She is scheduled to arrive at the Port of Redwood City at noon on Wednesday, November 6, with sand and gravel construction materials from an Eagle Rock Aggregates quarry in British Columbia.

Blount Boats completed the 85’ Fire Islander in September 2013. The 382-passenger, 2 deck, all aluminum commuter boat will operate between Bay Shore Long Island and Fire Island on Great South Bay, Long Island, New York. The triple screw vessel is powered by Detroit Series 60 Tier II diesel engines, 600 hp each at 2,100 rpm with 2:1 ZF 550 reduction gears. At a displacement of 43.6 tons, she cruises at 19 knots at 70% of her horsepower load at full complement and 24 knots lightship at wide open throttle with very little wake.

Heeding the call to join “An Ocean in Common,” authors flooded the Oceans ‘13 MTS/IEEE San Diego technical program committee with a record number of abstracts in a single day. Special topics include an Ultra-deep track discussing current and prospective robotic technologies, plus a panel of scientists to consider research questions. Oceans2013 Chair Bob Wernli, and Co-Chair Kevin Hardy, developer of the unmanned landers for James Cameron’s DeepSea Challenge Expedition, will be the session conveners. “James’ intention is to be certain the door remains open to other explorers,” Hardy said.

Harbor Commission Approves Environmental Impact Report, Lease Agreement; Historic Battleship Plans to Open to Public July 7. The Los Angeles Harbor Commission today voted unanimously to create a new home for the historic battleship, the USS IOWA, in a prime location along the LA Waterfront at the Port of Los Angeles. In separate actions, The Harbor Commission approved the lease agreement and an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) necessary to bring the World War II icon to the LA Waterfront  where it will be converted to an interactive naval museum and living memorial.

Final Restoration Plan Completed for Cosco Busan Oil Spill; Projects will Address Impacts from Ship that Struck the Bay Bridge. State and federal trustee agencies have released the Cosco Busan Oil Spill Final Damage Assessment and Restoration Plan. The document summarizes the injuries to wildlife, habitat, and recreational uses from the oil spill that occurred on Nov. 7, 2007. It also describes a number of restoration projects that will be implemented to compensate for injuries from the spill.

When the State of California, long a leader in reducing air-pollution, announced the Carl Moyer Program to reduce NOx emissions, towboat owner Aaron Lind and his family decided to get on board. The program is supported by a one-time appropriation of $50 million dollars for the 2000/2001 fiscal year. A significant portion of this amount was allotted for Carl Moyer Program incentive grants, as a means to reduce emissions from heavy-duty engines. These grants cover the incremental cost of cleaner on-road, off-road, marine, locomotive and stationary agricultural pump engines, as well as forklifts and airport ground support equipment. Beginning in summer 1999, grants became available through participating air pollution control and air quality management districts grants.

Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding, Duclos Corporation, has received an order for a new high-speed ferry from Fire Island Ferries, Inc., on the south shore of Long Island in New York. The vessel’s delivery is scheduled for June 2011. The new 387-passenger, all-aluminum mono-hull ferry is a further refinement of a vessel design concept optimized by Fire Island Ferries since the early 1970s to operate on the 20-minute crossing on the shallow Great South Bay. With an emphasis on economy, efficiency, and quick turn-around, there are large mid-ship passenger doors on the main deck. There is indoor seating for 204 passengers on the main deck and outdoor seating on the upper deck for another 183 passengers.

Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding, Duclos Corporation, has delivered a new high-speed ferry to Fire Island Ferries, Inc., on the south shore of Long Island in New York. The new 387-passenger, all-aluminum, mono-hull ferry is a further refinement of a vessel design concept optimized by Fire Island Ferries since the early 1970s to operate on the 20-minute crossing on the shallow Great South Bay. With an emphasis on economy, efficiency, and quick turn-around, there are large passenger doors mid-ship on the main deck.

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a final decree regarding Alaska's assertion of ownership of certain marine submerged lands in the southeast portion of the state. The court finalized its earlier ruling that the federal government retained ownership of those portions of the Alexander Archipelago more than three geographical (nautical) miles from shore because those waters do not constitute historic inland waters. The federal government retained ownership of those portions of North Bay, South Bay, Sitka Sound, and Cordova Bay more than three geographical miles from shore because those waters do not constitute juridical bays. The federal government also retained ownership of marine submerged lands within Glacier Bay National Monument.

According to the SB Sun, California would get $30m for a controversial fence along the Mexican border under a Senate plan that allocates $288m for nationwide construction on the border. The measure, which also sets aside $65m for border security - including 1,000 new Border Patrol agents - is one of several spending bills the Senate is expected to consider this week that would provide billions of dollars to California for such projects as food stamps, wildfire protection and Inland Empire perchlorate treatment. But the $31.7b Department of Homeland Security bill is by far the largest and would provide some of the most direct funding for California's anti-terrorism efforts and its attempts to block illegal immigration.