Marine Link
Friday, March 29, 2024
SUBSCRIBE

Steve Scherer News

11 Jul 2023

World's Top Fertilizer Maker Cuts Output as Canada Port Strike Drags On

© Anh / Adobe Stock

The world's biggest fertilizer producer Nutrien Ltd cut production on Tuesday, citing the impact of an 11-day-old strike in Canada's Pacific ports whose cost has now ballooned to an estimated C$5.5 billion ($4.2 billion).Some 7,500 dock workers represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) walked off on July 1 after failing to agree a new wage deal with the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA).The union says the BCMEA is refusing to give a fair pay increase despite making billions of dollars in profits in recent years.

21 Jun 2023

Search for Missing Titanic Sub Focuses on Area Where Sounds Detected

(File photo: OceanGate Expeditions)

Rescuers searching for a missing submersible near the wreck of the Titanic on Wednesday concentrated their efforts on a remote area of the North Atlantic where a series of undersea noises have been detected, though officials cautioned the sounds may not have originated from the vessel.With estimates suggesting the air supply on board the submersible could run out by Thursday morning, an international coalition of rescue teams has swept a vast expanse of the ocean for signs of the Titan…

21 Jun 2023

Missing Titanic Submersible Update: Searchers Detect Subsea Sounds

Copyright chocolatefather/AdobeStock

Search teams detected underwater sounds while scanning the North Atlantic for a tourist submersible that vanished with five people aboard during a deep-sea voyage to the century-old wreck of the Titanic, the U.S. Coast Guard said early on Wednesday.The detection of the sounds by Canadian aircraft on Tuesday, day three of the search, was reported by the Coast Guard as the clock ticked down to the last 24 hours of the missing craft's presumed oxygen supply.Robotic undersea search operations were diverted to the area where the sounds seemed to originate…

20 Jun 2023

Titanic Tourist Sub Still Missing as Rescuers Race Against Time

File photo: OceanGate Expeditions

Rescuers were in a race against time to find a missing submersible on Tuesday, two days after it lost communication while taking wealthy tourists to see the wreckage of the Titanic in deep waters off Canada's coast.One pilot and four passengers were on board the submersible that disappeared on Sunday. The operating company said it had the capacity to stay underwater for up to 96 hours - giving those aboard until early on Thursday before air ran out.U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral…

21 Sep 2022

US, Canadian Warships Sail Through Taiwan Strait

The guided-missile destroyer USS Higgins (DDG 76) transits the Taiwan Strait. Higgins is forward-deployed to the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations. (Photo: Donavan K. Patubo / U.S. Navy)

A U.S. Navy warship and a Canadian frigate made a routine transit through the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, the militaries of both nations said, at a time of heightened military tension between Beijing and Taipei.The transit was the second in a month by a U.S. Navy ship, and the second jointly by the United States and Canada in less than a year, since October 2021.While China condemned the mission, saying its forces "warned" the ships, recent years have seen U.S. warships, and occasionally those of allied nations such as Britain and Canada…

31 Aug 2022

This Decade's Oil Boom is Moving Offshore - Way Offshore

Bay du Nord FPSO Illustration - Credit: Equinor

Global oil companies are pumping billions of dollars into offshore drilling, reversing a long decline in spending on the decades-long projects, including some in the remote iceberg waters far off Canada's Atlantic coast.Surging oil prices are encouraging the investments, along with Europe's mounting energy demand as the Ukraine-Russia war drags on. Offshore production sites are more expensive to build than onshore shale, the last decade's investment darling. But once they are up and running…

29 Aug 2022

Canada Sees West Coast LNG Revival as World Scrambles for Gas

© vladsv / Adobe Stock

Canada is taking a second crack at developing a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export industry on its west coast a decade after soaring costs and indigenous opposition derailed a previous wave of proposed LNG terminals.This time, companies are focusing on smaller west coast projects they bet will be cheaper and faster to build."Smaller project are easier to manage, especially in Canada," Enbridge chief executive Al Monaco told Reuters in an interview. "The need for global LNG is clearer now than it was before, we're getting a second chance and I hope we don't blow it this time.

22 Aug 2022

Canada Exploring Feasibility of Direct LNG Exports to Europe

© vladsv / Adobe Stock

Canada is exploring ways to see if there is a business case to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) directly to Europe from its east coast, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday.Speaking alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Montreal, Trudeau said "we will do what we can" to contribute to the global supply of energy by increasing capacities in the short term.Canada will also "explore ways to see if it makes sense to export LNG and if there's a business case for it to export LNG directly to Europe ...

24 Oct 2021

Fire Breaks Out on Containership off British Columbia

The Zim Kingston caught fire a day after losing 40 containers while moored approximately five nautical miles from Victoria. (Photo: U.S. Coast Guard)

A container fire that broke out on Saturday on a cargo ship carrying mining chemicals off British Columbia is smoldering and appears to be under control, Canadian Coast Guard officials said on Sunday.Sixteen crew members were evacuated from the MV Zim Kingston on Saturday, while five remained onboard to fight the fire.The ship is anchored several kilometers off the southern coast of Vancouver Island. Residents of the island are not in danger, officials said, and transit of commercial…

22 May 2019

Canada Plans $11.7 Bln Coast Guard Overhaul

(File photo: Heath Moffat Photography, Seaspan Vancouver Shipyards)

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday said Canada would spend an estimated C$15.7 billion ($11.7 billion) to renew its coast guard fleet and that it would partner with a new shipyard to complete the project.Two Arctic icebreakers will be among a total of 18 new ships ordered, Trudeau told reporters in Vancouver. They will be built by Irving Shipbuilding in Halifax on the east coast, while 16 multi-purpose vessels will be built by Vancouver Shipyards on the west coast."Our…

28 Feb 2019

Fincantieri Open to Shipyard Acquisitions

Giuseppe Bono (Photo: Fincantieri)

Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri is open to new acquisitions in the sector as authorities review its purchase of French rival STX, CEO Giuseppe Bono said on Thursday.When asked about possible M&A activity in the future other than STX, Bono said: "Why not?".Italy's Deputy Minister Matteo Salvini, who was attending the same event in Monfalcone, said the idea of possibly replacing Bono was off the table.(Reuters, Reporting by Riccardo Bastianello; writing by Francesca Landini, editing by Steve Scherer)

01 Feb 2019

Italian Coastguard Holds Migrant Rescue Ship in Sicily

File Image / Credit © AdobeStock

Italy's coastguard on Friday blocked the Sea-Watch 3 migrant rescue ship in the port of Catania citing safety and environmental concerns, delaying the vessel's plans to return to patrolling the Libyan coastline.After a long standoff with the Italian government, on Thursday the Dutch-flagged vessel, run by a German charity, was allowed to disembark 47 migrants it had rescued at sea on Jan. 19 in the Sicilian port.Coastguard inspectors who boarded the Sea-Watch on Thursday found "irregularities" relating to safety and environmental standards.

04 Sep 2018

Pope Urges Action Against Plastic in Oceans

© Lovell / Adobe Stock

Pope Francis, who has spoken strongly for action against global warming in recent years, called on Saturday for people to work together to stop the world's oceans filling up with plastic waste."We cannot allow our seas and oceans to be littered by endless fields of floating plastic," the pope said. "We need to pray as if everything depended on God's providence, and work as if everything depended on us."The pontiff's comments are from a message for the fourth annual prayer day…

09 Aug 2018

Italy Uncovers Massive Load of Hash in Ship's Fuel Tanks

Italian police said on Thursday they found 20 tonnes of hash worth as much as 200 million euros ($232 million) in the fuel tanks of a Panama-flagged ship that was stopped in international waters and escorted to Sicily.The entire 11-person crew, all from Montenegro, was arrested for international drugs trafficking, Italy's finance police said in a statement.The research and survey vessel Remus left the Canary Islands bound for Egypt and Turkey, but police surveillance showed it had turned off its position transmitter near the coast of North Africa, raising investigators' suspicions.With the permission of Panamanian authorities, Italian finance police seized the vessel in international waters on July 31 and escorted it to Palermo.

10 Jul 2018

Italy Refuses Commercial Ship with Migrants on Board

Italy has refused to allow a commercial vessel flying an Italian flag to bring ashore rescued migrants, sticking to a hardline policy on new arrivals as it presses European allies to share the burden of hosting an influx of displaced people.A commercial ship that supplies oil platforms off the coast of Libya pulled 66 migrants to safety on Monday, but it was told not to bring them to Italy, an Interior Ministry source said.Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli, who oversees the coast guard and the country's ports, said the migrants had been transferred to an Italian coast guard vessel on Tuesday after some of them threatened the lives of the Italian crew.They will be brought to Italy…

21 Jun 2018

Italy Tells Rescue Ship to Take Migrants to the Netherlands

Italy's anti-immigrant interior minister accused a German charity on Thursday of ignoring coastguard orders when its Dutch-flagged ship picked up 226 migrants off Libya's coast and he said they should be taken to the Netherlands not Italy.Earlier this month Matteo Salvini pledged to no longer let charity ships offload rescued migrants in Italy, leaving the Gibraltar-flagged Aquarius stranded at sea for several days with more than 600 migrants until Spain offered them safe haven.On Thursday, Mission Lifeline, a charity based in Dresden, Germany, pulled migrants off two rubber boats in international waters even though it was told by Italy that Libya's coastguard was coming to get them, a spokesman for the charity said.

12 Jun 2018

US Navy Recovered 12 Bodies, 41 Survivors from Migrant Boat off Libya

File photo: USNS Trenton (EPF 5) docked in Gaeta, Italy in 2017. (Photo by Matthew Montgomery)

An American naval vessel went to the aid of a rubber boat that was sinking off the coast of Libya, rescuing 41 people and collecting 12 bodies, a humanitarian group said on Tuesday after its ship was contacted by radio to help out.The U.S. navy vessel Trenton called the German charity Sea Watch, which operates the only charity rescue ship currently on patrol off the Libyan coast, to alert them to the shipwreck and ask for assistance, a spokesman for Sea Watch said.The Dutch-flagged Sea Watch 3 ship was en route to rendezvous with the Trenton, said spokesman Ruben Neugebauer.

28 Mar 2018

Two Killed in Italian Port Blast

Photo: Livorno Port Authority

An explosion at an industrial cistern in the Tuscan port of Livorno, one of Italy's biggest passenger and commercial harbours, killed two people on Wednesday, an official said. The two men had been doing maintenance on the storage tank when the blast occurred, the port authority official said. Photographs posted online showed a large metal cistern partially crumpled and leaning sideways. It had contained ethyl acetate, a combustible liquid, la Repubblica newspaper's web site said. Commercial and passenger services in Livorno were not likely to be affected, the port authority official said.

13 Mar 2018

Migrant Influx Puts Greek Port on Edge

© Kostas Koufogiorgos / Adobe Stock

The migrants bolted across a street and clambered over a fence into the Greek port at Patras, scouting around for trucks to stow away in. Dozens at a time scaled a 2-km stretch of fence one afternoon last week, playing cat-and-mouse with police officers who pushed them back only for the men to try again hours later. They are part of a growing number of migrants in Greece trying daily to smuggle themselves onto ferries at Patras to get to Italy. It's a dangerous passage but it has become more appealing since the closure in 2016 of the overland Balkan route to northern Europe.

18 Oct 2017

Italy Breaks up Libyan Fuel Smuggling Ring

Sicilian police on Wednesday sought the arrest of nine people, including a suspected mobster, for running a Libyan fuel-smuggling ring in which at least 30 million euros ($35 million) of diesel was sold in gas stations in Italy and Europe. A Libyan, nicknamed the "boss", used small boats to steal fuel from a refinery in Zawiya, a port city west of Tripoli, a statement from the finance police said. The fuel, stolen from Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC), was then transferred to a larger ship off the coast of Malta and brought to Italy. Police from the Sicilian city of Catania "documented in detail 30 voyages in which more than 80 million kilos of diesel fuel was imported," the statement said.

15 Aug 2017

Migrant Rescue Ship Threatened by Libyan Coastguard

The Libyan coastguard intercepted a humanitarian rescue ship in the Mediterranean on Tuesday, ordering it to sail to Tripoli or risk being targeted, a Reuters photographer aboard said. The Golfo Azzurro ship operated by Spanish humanitarian organisation Proactiva Open Arms was repeatedly contacted by a Libyan coastguard vessel, according to radio transmissions heard by the photographer. "You are sailing in our waters for months now and you are conducting activities that are causing problems to Libyan state sovereignty," said a man who identified himself as part of the Libyan coastguard, speaking in English. "Therefore I ask you to alter your course towards Tripoli port. If you do not obey the orders right now... you will be targeted," the voice said.

11 Aug 2017

Migrant Rescue Boat Goes to Aid of Anti-migrant Vessel in Mediterranean

A German humanitarian rescue ship said it was heading on Friday to the aid of a vessel run by a group of far-right activists who are at sea to disrupt the work of charity boats helping migrants in the Mediterranean. The Sea-Eye charity's founder Michael Buschheuer said the Italian coastguard had asked his ship to set course for the activists' C-Star vessel because it was in distress. The Identitarian group running C-star, however, denied on Twitter that the vessel was in distress but said it had alerted other vessels because its main engine had stopped due to "a minor technical problem". The Italian coastguard declined to comment. "C-Star is in distress and we are the closest, so at the moment we have set a course to reach them," Sea-Eye's Buschheuer told Reuters by telephone.

27 Jul 2017

Italy Mulls Deployments in Libyan Waters

Tripoli government invited Italy into its waters; some 600,000 boat migrants have come to Italy since 2014. Italy intends to deploy several ships in Libyan waters by the end of August to fight human trafficking and stem a flood of immigrants, a government source said on Thursday. A mission plan should be brought to the Cabinet for approval on Friday, and the necessary parliamentary vote to endorse it may be held next week, the source said. "The exact number of ships and sailors is still being worked out," said the source. If parliament approves, the mission might begin "by the end of August", he said. Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni met with military chiefs and ministers on Thursday to discuss "security, immigration and the Libyan situation", according to a statement.