Western Channel News

A towboat captain’s complacency led to barges striking the Natchez-Vidalia Bridge last year in the Mississippi River, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said.The SCF Towing-operated vessel Susan K was transiting with 25 barges downbound on the Mississippi River toward the Natchez-Vidalia Bridge on April 23, 2023. The captain intended to maneuver the tow through the western channel under the bridge, but was inattentive during the approach. The tow was out of position…

A containership that broke down in Egypt's Suez Canal on Sunday causing some traffic to be diverted has resumed its journey, the Canal Authority said.The authority said in an earlier statement that the MSC Istanbul, sailing under the flag of Liberia, became stranded while transiting the canal on its way from Malaysia to Portugal.Four tugboats had been working to move it, and traffic in the vital waterway had not been affected, the statement said."All the ships that are coming from the north have normally passed and navigation from the south also proceeded normally after the ships were diverted

The number of cars taken by ferry has increased from 8.6 million in 2015 to nearly 8.8 million in 2016, a 1.7% increase. This is the fourth successive year of growth according to the annual results of the ferry industry. 2016 Ferrystat figures released today by Discover Ferries, the industry body for ferry operators, reports that growth for car travel by sea is up by 473,000 in the past four years; up from just 8.3 million car crossings by sea in 2012. Discover Ferries member ferry operators include Brittany Ferries, Caledonian MacBrayne, Condor Ferries, DFDS, Irish Ferries, Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, Isles of Scilly Steamship Group, Northlink, P&O Ferries, Red Funnel, StenaLine and Wightlink.

Annual 2013 figures show more passengers, cars and coaches carried by the UK ferry industry, compared with 2012, according to figures released by industry body, ‘Discover Ferries’. Britain’s ferry industry showed growth across all its travel sectors last year, with passenger numbers up 2.6% overall to 38 million, all cars carried up 1.1% to 8.37million, and coaches up overall  4.1% to 158,470 -  according to 2013 “Ferrystat” figures, quoted by industry body, ‘Discover Ferries’.

Planet Ocean inform that they are supporting the UK Met Office and Plymouth Marine Laboratory to gather real-time Met-Ocean Data with their AXYS Watchman (WM-500) data acquisition and telemetry systems. The WM-500 can be configured to control a large variety of sensors providing data manipulation, logging and have the ability to interface with a variety of communication systems. The UK Met Office (UKMO) are using these systems in their range of inshore and offshore data buoy hulls provided by a growing range of manufacturers.

The 2015 0.1% sulphur limit applies within the North Sea and English Channel and the Baltic Sea Emission Control Areas. These comments were made following the publication of a report by consultancy firm AMEC, commissioned by the Chamber on behalf of several North Sea and Western Channel shipping operators. The report says that the targets for shipping companies to reduce their sulphur emissions by 2015, could cause adverse environmental effects and result in a loss of 2,000 maritime services jobs, and place many more industrial jobs under threat. The report is the first of its kind to examine the full impact of hitting sulphur targets. • Significant increases (up to 29% in some cases) in the cost of passenger and container route ticket prices.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that the dredging of sediment contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) has resumed in the Upper Hudson River, marking the start of the second and final phase of the Hudson River cleanup. The historic dredging project targets approximately 2.4 million cubic yards of PCB-contaminated sediment from a forty- mile section of the Upper Hudson River between Fort Edward and Troy, NY. PCBs are potentially cancer-causing in people and build up in the fat of fish and mammals, increasing in concentration as they move up the food chain. The primary risk to humans is the accumulation of PCBs in the body from eating contaminated fish.

Brittany Ferries’ new 24,641gt RoPax ferry Armorique will shortly enter service for the Western Channel operator featuring a vehicle access outfit from MacGregor. MacGregor has unrivalled experience in developing marine cargo handling and offshore load-handling solutions, and is part of Cargotec Corporation, the world's leading provider of cargo handling solutions used in local transportation, terminals, ports, distribution centers, and ships. Armorique has been designed specifically to run between Plymouth in the UK and the Breton port of Roscoff in France.

The U.K.’s Ferry Operator of the Year 2006, Brittany Ferries, has purchased the Incat-built 321 ft. fast ferry Normandie Express in what it says should be taken as an indication of its intention to maintain its English Channel ferry service between the ports of Cherbourg and Portsmouth. Assisted by the broking firms Incat Europe Ltd and London-based Mason Shipbrokers, High Speed Catamarans BV has sold the ferry in a $39.51m deal. Introduced on bareboat charter in 2005, the Normandie Express provides a fast ferry crossing to Cherbourg and Caen from Portsmouth operating from mid-March until mid-November. With crossing times of only 180 minutes to Cherbourg and 225 minutes to Caen…

The Suez Canal has reopened to very large vessels including supertankers after the authorities introduced special procedures in the deeper eastern channel, which is partially blocked by a sunken dredger. The authority had earlier turned away 10 large vessels because they were too big to go through the western channel activated since the dredger sank, said a Suez Canal Authority official. The dredger has not been removed but the eastern channel of the canal, which can take ships with a draft up to 62 feet, has been reopened to large vessels, he added. The vessels will have to sail slowly and carry senior pilots from the authority. The site of the sunken dredger has been marked by signs to warn approaching ships.