The Coast Guard News

At least five people, including a child, died in an attempt to cross the English Channel from France, hours after Britain passed a bill to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda to try to deter the dangerous crossings.The deaths of one child, a woman and three men occurred on an overcrowded small boat carrying around 110 people attempting to cross one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. The French coastguard was still searching for survivors."After becoming initially stranded on the shore, the boat set out to sea again.

“Wind Turbines: The Bigger, the Better” -USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, August 24, 2023Last December the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) published a proposed sale notice regarding new development areas for utility scale wind projects in the central Atlantic Ocean. The notice includes an upfront issue: the need to mitigate conflicts with U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) activities. BOEM explains that in certain areas the Air Force has set an airspace floor of 1,000 feet above sea level and the Air Force asked BOEM to keep structures below that height.

The U.S. Coast Guard said it is seeking to fill 18 vacancies on the National Towing Safety Advisory Committee, which advises the Secretary of Homeland Security, via the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard on matters relating to shallow-draft inland navigation, coastal waterway navigation, and towing safety.The Coast Guard said it will consider applications for the following 18 vacancies:Seven members to represent the barge and towing industry, reflecting a regional geographic balance.One…

The Captain of the Port (COTP) has established the Fort Carroll Temporary Alternate Channel, which is on the northeast side of the main channel in the vicinity of the Francis Scott Key Bridge and will provide limited access for commercially essential vessels.The channel has a controlling depth of 20 feet, a 300-foot horizontal clearance, and a vertical clearance of 135 feet, and will facilitate additional commercially essential vessel traffic through the port of Baltimore.“This additional channel increases the types of vessels able to transit inbound and outbound the port of Baltimore…

Two Japanese navy helicopters crashed into the sea during a training exercise, killing at least one of the eight crew members on board, the defence minister said on Sunday.The two SH-60 patrol helicopters were conducting anti-submarine exercises on Saturday night near Torishima in the remote Izu island group, off the southern coast of central Japan.Defense Minister Minoru Kihara told a press conference the cause of the crash is under investigation. The two flight recorders had been discovered in close proximity to each other and the probability was high that the two helicopters had collided…

If nothing else, building vessels in the U.S. is a complicated business.In a session on the domestic shipbuilding marketplace, at Marine Money’s late-November 2023 conference held in New Orleans, Ben Bordelon, president and CEO of Bollinger Shipyards (with more than a dozen facilities, in Mississippi and Louisiana), described his company’s architecture as a “three-legged stool approach: commercial newbuilds, government newbuilds and repair/conversion capabilities”.On the same panel…

Steerprop announced it has been chosen to provide a Polar Class 4 (PC 4) propulsion package for the Canadian Coast Guard's Multi-Purpose Vessels (MPV) renewal program.The contract entails the supply of propulsion packages for the initial six MPVs, integral to Canada's National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS). Steerprop's solution comprises two tunnel thrusters for auxiliary propulsion and two Contra-Rotating Propulsors (CRP) for main propulsion, engineered to meet the operational…

The World Shipping Council (WSC) has appointed Joe Kramek as its new President and CEO, to succeed John Butler upon his retirement at the end of July.Kramek brings a wealth of experience and expertise to his new role, from both the maritime sector and government service. He has already served as the WSC's Director of U.S. Government Relations.His professional journey includes 28 years as a commissioned officer with the U.S. Coast Guard where he spent time at sea and as the Chief of Maritime, International, and Environmental Law. Notably, Kramek led the U.S.

The Maritime Risk Symposium is an annual three-day conference in which government and maritime industry leaders, port representatives, researchers, and solution providers convene to examine current and emerging threats to maritime security. MRS2024 is scheduled to take place June 11-13 2024 at Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey, CA.A look @ Panel 5: Facilitator: Eric “Coop” Cooper, CAPT, USCG (retired)This panel will inform participants and generate discussion to improve understanding of the risk of gray zone activities pose to the economy…

For 15 years the Maritime Risk Symposium (MRS), an annual three-day event, has brought together government and maritime industry leaders, port representatives, international and domestic researchers and solution providers to examine current and emerging threats to maritime security. World events highlight that maritime security is increasingly at risk during the current period of great-power competition and ongoing conflicts. The active competition between nations who are not…

Bellingham, Wash. shipbuilder All American Marine (AAM) announced it has been awarded a contract to build a new research vessel for the marine sciences program at  the California Polytechnical Institute at Humboldt (Cal Poly).The vessel is a 78’ x 26.7’ semi-displacement aluminum catamaran that was developed by Nic de Waal of Teknicraft Design in Auckland, New Zealand. The vessel will be inspected to U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Subchapter T standards and will operate as a multipurpose research vessel in the Near Coastal Waters of Northern California and Oregon, as well as Offshore on Ocean Routes.

South Korea remembered the 304 people, most of them school children, who died on the Sewol ferry on the 10th anniversary of its sinking on Tuesday, with families calling for a proper apology for the unnecessary deaths of their loved ones.Many parents attended a memorial service in the city of Ansan, home of the 250 children who died on the ferry during a school excursion, while another 37 family members boarded a Coast Guard ship that sailed to the scene of the disaster, marked by a lone buoy…

U.S. National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy said at a Senate hearing Wednesday that investigators had conducted interviews with key cargo ship personnel in the investigation of the March 26 Baltimore bridge collapse.The Dali cargo ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, sending it crashing into the harbor and killing six people. Work to clear the wreckage and restore traffic through the Mid-Atlantic state's shipping channel is ongoing.Homendy said investigators remained on site and had interviewed the pilots…

Jennifer Carpenter joined The American Waterways Operators (AWO), the national trade association representing the inland and coastal tugboat, towboat and barge industry, in August 1990 and became its president and CEO in January 2020. She highlights some of the greatest focus areas for the 80-year-old trade group—simultaneously looking at both the present day and the road ahead.The towboat, tug and barge industry is in a period of rapid evolution. How is AWO—now in its 80th year…

Nine people, including a baby, have died after their boat capsized while trying to cross the Mediterranean in stormy weather, and another 15 people are feared missing, Italy's coast guard said on Thursday.The Italian coast guard said it received a cooperation request from the Maltese search and rescue (SAR) authority after the boat capsized approximately 30 miles (50 km) southeast of the island of Lampedusa on Wednesday .The coast guard said it dispatched its own patrol boat to the scene…

The U.S. Coast Guard has rejected comments by a Chinese diplomat that its recent boardings of Chinese fishing boats in the Pacific Islands alongside local police are illegal, saying the joint patrols are at the behest of Pacific nations to protect coastal fisheries.Reuters reported last month that six Chinese fishing boats were found to be violating Vanuatu's fisheries law after being inspected by local police who were on board the first U.S. Coast Guard boat to patrol the waters of the Pacific Islands nation.China's Ambassador to New Zealand Wang Xiaolong…

Kongsberg Maritime announced it has been selected by shipbuilder Austal USA to supply its Promas propulsion system to the latest ship in the U.S. Coast Guard’s Heritage Class Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC) program.This initial contract is to supply Kongsberg Maritime equipment for the fifth ship, Coast Guard Cutter Pickering, which is the first to be built by Austal USA at its yard in Mobile, Ala.Built to replace the Coast Guard’s medium endurance cutters, the OPC program is expected to run up to 25 ships. The OPC vessels will be able to provide long range patrol capability.

The Unified Command completed a line integrity test on the Main Pass Oil Gathering (MPOG) company's pipeline system near Plaquemines Parish, southeast of New Orleans, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Monday."Following a successful line integrity test of the MPOG line, the Unified Command has stood down its work to respond to the oil release observed on November 16," they added.A line integrity test confirms that all points are leak-free.In Nov 2023 an oil spill was reported near the…

A containership lost propulsion in a busy New York City waterway just as it was about to pass under the Bayonne Bridge on Friday night—less than two weeks after a presumed power failure caused similarly sized vessel to allide with Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge.The U.S. Coast Guard said it received a report that the Malta-registered APL Qingdao lost propulsion about 8:30 p.m. as it traversed the Kill Van Kull, a shipping late between New York's Staten Island and Bayonne…

With supply chain attacks on the rise, and nation-state attackers constantly looking for new ways to disrupt national security and economic stability, one of the most vulnerable areas is the security around our maritime operations. The Biden-Harris Administration's recent Executive Order to fortify the cybersecurity of U.S. ports underscores this concern, spotlighting the urgency of addressing vulnerabilities in a sector that drives over $5.4 trillion in economic activity annually.

The Unified Command began to remove containers onboard M/V Dali at the Key Bridge incident site, Sunday. Salvors removed containers from the Dali as part of the effort to gain access to the portion of the Key Bridge that lies atop the ship. The transfer of containers from the Dali will continue in the coming days, as weather permits.The removal of the containers is a critical step required to safely move the Dali and eventually fully re-open the Fort McHenry Channel. Removing containers allows for safe access to then remove the pieces of the Key Bridge that lie across the ship’s bow…

Crowley Maritime Corporation has owned and operated a lot of vessels since its founding in 1892. But the latest vessel to join its fleet is unlike any other that has come before it.Crowley’s new harbor tug, eWolf, is unique in that it runs 100% powered by batteries, not diesel engines, meaning it produces zero emissions and nearly no noise. Not only is the vessel the first fully electric tug in the Crowley fleet, but it is also the first of its kind in the United States.Faced with stricter regulations and commercial pressure to prioritize environmental…

The Unified Command continues to coordinate response operations to the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse despite the challenging weather conditions which included severe thunderstorms and high winds on Wednesday.Trained crews, in conjunction with the Unified Command, are conducting routine salvage assessments. Divers are on scene to conduct underwater surveys along with mapping out plans for future wreckage removal. “Our operations continue but will be adjusted as necessary in response to any adverse weather conditions,” said U.S.