Wild Well News

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…

"The Columbia River and its tributaries, wetlands, and estuaries are the lifeblood of the Pacific Northwest, providing abundant water, power, recreation, agriculture, transportation and natural resources that have supported livelihoods, cultural and spiritual practices, commerce and economic growth.” - President Biden, Memorandum of September 27, 2023.Those abundant benefits directly impact about 13 million people in the Pacific Northwest. Hydropower extends that plentitude to millions more, powering cities and industry from Idaho to California.

“The winds of change are blowing wild and free.” – Bob DylanIn the U.S. offshore wind industry, developments over recent months have placed an exclamation point on the word “wild”. Yes, the wind still blows “free”, but mounting challenges have proven that harnessing its power offshore is anything but. In fact, far from it, as rising materials costs, high interest rates, labor shortages and supply chain delays, among other issues, have delivered heavy blows to the commercial viability of several projects.

Panama City Fla. based Eastern Shipbuilding Group announced it has been awarded a contract to complete construction of two ultra high-spec 400 class multipurpose support vessels (MPSVs) for Hornbeck Offshore Services (HOS).The newbuilds were originally started by Gulf Island Shipyards in Houma, La. before Hornbeck terminated the contracts in 2018 over what it described as "performance issues". Gulf Island then sued Hornbeck, claiming the two shipyard construction contracts were wrongfully terminated.

The first US-built trawler-processor for Alaskan pollock in over three decades is now undergoing sea trials in the Northern Pacific, testing an integrated technology package from Kongsberg Discovery tailored to locate, inspect, and engage fish with unparalleled efficiency.The 100-meter-long Arctic Fjord, designed by Kongsberg Maritime and built by Louisiana’s Thoma-Sea Marine Constructor, will start full-time operations for 2024’s pollock A season in the Bering Sea.Speaking ahead of this week’s Pacific Marine Expo in Seattle…

A luxury cruise ship carrying 206 people has run aground in remote eastern Greenland with the nearest help by sea days away, the Danish military's Joint Arctic Command (JAC) said on Tuesday.The Ocean Explorer ran aground on Monday in Alpefjord in a national park some 1,400 km (870 miles) northeast of Greenland's capital Nuuk, the JAC said in a statement.There were no reports of injuries, JAC said."A cruise ship in trouble in the national park is obviously a worry.

Woodside Energy last week announced it would start seismic testing for its Scarborough gas project off Australia’s west coast, before reversing the decision in the face of a legal challenge from Traditional Owners.Seismic testing is highly controversial in marine environments. Australia’s federal regulator (the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority) is currently examining a proposal for seismic testing in the Otway Basin in Bass Strait, which conservationists say has attracted more than 30…

Off the coast of Spain and Portugal, killer whales have been biting boats. And the famous beluga whale nicknamed “Hvaldimir” has popped up again – this time in Sweden. When first spotted in Norway in 2019, wearing a suspicious harness, some suggested he could be a Russian spy.These unusual human-wildlife interactions raise questions about managing risk. Both situations present a maritime safety concern. And the whales are at risk of being injured or killed by the boat.What’s more…

With the peak ocean freight cargo season approaching, the latest data from Oslo-based Xeneta shows mixed fortunes, and outlooks, for the two main Far East to Europe trade corridors.Xeneta’s analysis reveals that shippers opting for the Far East – Mediterranean route are currently paying a spot rate premium compared to those choosing a North European option. There are also clear implications for long-term contracts, explains Peter Sand, Chief Analyst at Xeneta, across two very similar routes…

This is going to be about whales, but it will actually be an engineering discussion rather than a nature discussion. Let’s start with an easy truth. Whale deaths due to offshore wind activities is utter nonsense. It has no basis in fact, and is a total fabrication by truly malicious characters.There, now let’s get into more interesting stuff. Whale deaths caused by humans is a complex issue that will never be solved completely, but, with careful adjustments, can be reduced. There is a possibility that occasionally there are whale COVID style epidemics that cause unusual levels of mortality…

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 shelter in place order has been lifted as a large fishing vessel fire begins to die down in Tacoma, Wash.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.The City of Tacoma Fire Department is issuing a temporary shelter in place order for Northeast Tacoma, Browns Point and Dash Point neighborhoods as flames inched closer toward the vessel’s freon tanks, which could see pressure build from the fire's heat.

This story spans a long period of time, but begins with a note I received recently on an earlier column from a reader named Allan Berger. He commented on the OODA loop concept in my “Pondering Truths in Design” column in the September MREN issue.He provided his approach that closely follows the OODA loop concept, which follows the principle of always gathering all the facts before speaking. That led to a discussion on decision making. Decision making is an extremely important concept that sets the course of human development, and is central to effective engineering.

Lobsters versus right whales: The latest chapter in a long quest to make fishing more sustainableMaine lobster fishermen received a Christmas gift from Congress at the end of 2022: A six-year delay on new federal regulations designed to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.The rules would have required lobstermen to create new seasonal nonfishing zones and further reduce their use of vertical ropes to retrieve lobster traps from the seafloor. Entanglement…

In January 2019, the Korean-flagged fishing vessel Oyang 77 sailed south toward international waters off Argentina. The vessel had a known history of nefarious activities, including underreporting its catch and illegally dumping low-value fish to make room in its hold for more lucrative catch.At 2 a.m. on Jan. 10, the Oyang 77 turned off its location transponder at the edge of Argentina’s exclusive economic zone – a political boundary that divides Argentina’s national waters from international waters, or the high seas. At 9 p.m. on Jan.

Venezuelan police have arrested a fugitive Malaysian businessman nicknamed 'Fat Leonard' who is at the center of a major U.S. Navy bribery scandal, as he prepared to leave the country for Russia, Venezuelan Interpol said.Leonard Glenn Francis was detained at the country's main international airport on Wednesday under a red notification requested by the United States for crimes of corruption and bribery, the Interpol chief in Venezuela said in a statement posted on Instagram.The…

A Malaysian businessman at the center of a major U.S. Navy bribery scandal has escaped house arrest ahead of his impending sentencing by cutting off his monitoring anklet, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported on Monday.Leonard Glenn Francis, popularly known as "Fat Leonard," cut off his GPS anklet some time Sunday morning, and when police went to his home they found it empty, the newspaper reported, citing Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Omar Castillo.Prosecutors said that in exchange for contracts Francis plied Navy officers with cash…

Norwegian coal mining company Store Norske is taking in vessels from Østensjø Rederi for one of the most ambitious environmental projects in Norway: the clean-up of the closed down Svea Nord longwall mine in Svlabard."When Svea Nord was closed in March 2020, a new camp was established at Kapp Amsterdam with associated functions such as workshop and power station. In August, the airport closes down, so we need vessels to transport to and from Longyearbyen. In addition, today's camp will be demolished…

Looking back, it is easy to wonder if one could have done better by taking the other fork in the road. I grew up in Holland in a maritime family and am pretty sure I would have stuck with maritime there. In 1968, when I was 8 years old, my father left Holland America Line and joined the United States Salvage Association. At the same time, their main customer, the U.S. marine insurance industry, became heavily involved in the development of North Sea offshore oil and gas, and it resulted in an economic boom that made USSA’s Rotterdam office wildly profitable.

U.S. President Joe Biden announced a ban on Russian oil and other energy imports on Tuesday in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine, underscoring strong bipartisan support for a move that he acknowledged would drive up U.S. energy prices."We're banning all imports of Russian oil and gas energy," Biden told reporters at the White House. "That means Russian oil will no longer be acceptable in U.S. ports and the American people will deal another powerful blow to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's war machine."Oil prices jumped on the news…

By mid-century, offshore wind will require ocean space which is equivalent to the landmass of Italy, and the industry will by then account for half of all the capex in the Blue Economy, according to DNV’s Ocean’s Future to 2050 report."The exponential growth of offshore wind power will be the main driver of a nine-fold increase in demand for ocean space by the middle of the century," DNV said.The growth will be particularly pronounced in regions with long coastlines and presently have low penetration of offshore wind.

A fish-farming superyacht developed by Ocean Ark Tech of Chile (OATECH) and its strategic ally, London-based Ocean Sovereign, is one step closer to delivering fish to market after winning a key approval from marine classification society, RINA.Registro Italiano Navale (RINA) announced the Approval in Principle (AiP) of the new-concept offshore fish-farming system, Ocean Ark. The vessel delivers a new approach to aquaculture and looks set to disrupt by dramatically improving fish health…

The shipping industry may face unexpected risks from labor negotiations in western U.S. ports and winter weather in the northern hemisphere over the next few months, the head of German container firm Hapag-Lloyd said on Thursday."Winter can have a significant impact on shipping," Chief Executive Rolf Habben Jansen said in an online call with reporters, adding the weather conditions looked normal so far."The other thing are the labour negotiations on the U.S.