Florida Gulf Coast News

American Glory, the second Coastal Cat in American Cruise Lines’ new series of 100-passenger ships, was christened in Key West, Fla. on Sunday. The ceremony took place at Mallory Square where the ship docks when visiting Key West along the company’s newest U.S. itinerary—Florida Gulf Coast & Keys cruises, operating roundtrip from St. Petersburg.Charles B. Robertson, President & CEO of American Cruise Lines, gave remarks and introduced American Glory’s Godmother, the Honorable Teri Johnston, Mayor of Key West.

American Cruise Lines’ newest Coastal Cat, American Glory, completed sea trials and has been delivered from Chesapeake Shipbuilding on-time as scheduled.The the 100-passenger small ship is the newest ship in American’s ongoing series of 12 new Coastal Cats for exploring U.S. waterways. Additional ships in the series are already under construction, with the next two scheduled for delivery in 2024. American Glory will sail its inaugural cruise on November 28 from Maryland to Florida…

Eastern Shipbuilding Group, Inc. (ESG) on Thursday announced Joey D’Isernia has been appointed CEO and chairman of the board, succeeding company founder Brian D’Isernia, who is retiring after more than 46 years in the role.“We all stood on Brian’s shoulders as he built this company from the ground up. I am deeply humbled as I step into this role knowing how much my father sacrificed for us and for this company. We will carry on his legacy and maintain Eastern’s core values of delivering our clients exceptional service and the highest quality vessels…

About 157,706 barrels, or 9%, of oil production in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico were shut on Wednesday by Hurricane Ian, said offshore regulator Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.Hurricane Ian was lashing Florida's Gulf Coast with powerful winds and drenching rain, but the Category 5 storm steered clear of the Gulf's richest oil production areas. A total of 16 oil and gas production platforms were evacuated by Ian on Wednesday, compared to 14 the day before, the regulator said.Some 128 million cubic feet, or 6%, of gas production in the U.S.

Prysmian Group, the energy and telecom cable systems provider, on Wednesday welcomed U.S. President Joe Biden on a visit to the site of its new subsea power cables plant in Brayton Point, Massachusetts. Prysmian said it was set to transform the area, home to the former Somerset coal plant, into a high-tech hub for the energy transition process.The Brayton Point factory will manufacture subsea inter-array and export cables up to 275 kV AC or 525 kV DC, that are needed to connect offshore wind farms to mainland power grids.

While the adoption of unmanned/uncrewed surfaces vessels (USVs) was initially in defence, use of these low footprint systems has spread into other sectors, not least survey, and now the race is on for greater capability, endurance and autonomy. Elaine Maslin reports.After starting small, in inland waterways, use of USVs for survey operations has moved into coastal and now offshore waters. Given the extensive amount of seabed and rapid growth in offshore wind, there’s plenty of work out there for them to do.With the travel restrictions posed by Covid and increasing awareness of climate change…

Hurricane Michael, the third most powerful storm ever to strike the U.S. mainland, headed northeast on Thursday, weakened but still set to soak Georgia and the Carolinas after devastating the Florida Panhandle.By 6 AM on Thursday, heavy rain and wind had reached as far north as Charlotte, North Carolina and the Western North Carolina mountains. The center of the storm was located over Augusta, Georgia, moving north rapidly at more than 20 MPH in a north / northeast heading. Charlotte…

Insured losses in the United States from Hurricane Nate will be close to $500 million, catastrophe modelling company Karen Clark & Company (KCC) said on Monday. The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Monday that the former hurricane has become a post-tropical cyclone that continues to pack heavy rain and gusty winds. Hurricane Nate caused flooding in Mississippi, but spared the state from catastrophic damages. On Monday, it was expected to continue tracking northeastward, moving through the Ohio Valley and into the lower great lakes. KCC said the estimates included insured wind and storm surge losses to residential, commercial, and industrial properties and autos.

Wind and rain from Hurricane Hermine toppled trees and power lines along Florida's northern Gulf Coast, inundating coastal areas with storm surges before it weakened to a tropical storm over land and plowed toward the Atlantic Coast on Friday. Hermine made landfall early on Friday near St. Marks, Florida, 20 miles south of the capital of Tallahassee, dumping heavy rains and packing winds of 80 mph (130 km/h), leaving tens of thousands of households without power along Florida's Gulf Coast. No injuries were immediately reported. It was the first hurricane to make landfall in Florida since Wilma more than a decade ago. A weakening Hermine moved across southern Georgia, blowing winds of 60 miles per hour (95 km) at 8 a.m. EDT, (noon GMT), according to the National Hurricane Center.

Port Manatee says it has signed an agreement to keep Del Monte fruit coming into the Florida Gulf Coast port for as many as 20 more years. Del Monte Fresh Produce N.A. Inc., which has imported fruit into the deepwater Florida seaport since 1989, is now signed to a lease extension with Port Manatee through August 30, 2021, with options for three additional extensions of five years each. If all options are exercised, Del Monte will be doing business at Port Manatee until at least 2036.

Port Manatee is adding a 2-acre cargo pad to support storage of prilled sulphur, a new commodity for the Florida Gulf Coast port. Under an agreement signed Tuesday, June 16, with longtime port tenant Gulf Coast Bulk Equipment Inc., construction of the pad is slated to begin in September on the east side of Port Manatee. A Palmetto, Fla.-based stevedoring and marine terminal operations firm, Gulf Coast Bulk Equipment has been a Port Manatee tenant since 2008, handling fertilizers, salt, potash and other bulk cargos.

Crowley Maritime Corporation christen the 16,000-horsepower tugboat 'Legend' and 330,000-barrel tank barge 750-2 in Tampa, Florida. Together the vessels comprise the company’s newest articulated-tug-barge  (ATB) and will be used to transport petroleum products between the U.S. Gulf and East Coasts, making regular port calls in Tampa where Crowley currently discharges nearly 163 million gallons of product each month. The Legend/750-2 is the second of three petroleum tank vessels in its class in terms of size…

Unified Marine Announces Restructuring of Operations, Including Major Staff Appointments; Moves Designed to Strengthen Leadership of the Company’s SeaSense Brand. Leading marine accessories manufacturer Unified Marine, maker of the renowned SeaSense® brand, has announced a major restructuring of its operations. The moves are designed to reduce operating costs, and improve product quality and customer service to its distributor, retailer and end-user customers. As part of the restructuring, Unified Marine will relocate its distribution center from Newport, Tenn., to a new location in Florida’s Naples-Fort Myers area. “We want to bring our warehousing and distribution operations back to Florida in closer proximity to our research and development facility in Bonita Springs…

Marine Travelift Inc. announced that Tampa, Fla.-based RiverHawk Marine has acquired one of its 300C mobile boat hoists, thanks in part to a Small Shipyard Grant from the U.S. Maritime Administration. The Small Shipyard Grants program is administered by the Office of Shipyards and Marine Engineering in Washington D.C. RiverHawk’s 7.5-acre facility on West Tyson Avenue in Tampa is located with easy deep-water access from the Gulf of Mexico. The yard accommodates vessels up to 200 ft in length with drafts up to 14 ft for in-water repairs…

LPD 19's Marine contingent prepare to board the U.S. Navy amphibious transport dock ship Saturday morning during the commissioning ceremony in Panama City. Northrop Grumman-built Mesa Verde was commissioned into the U.S. Navy's Atlantic Fleet on the Florida Gulf Coast. Speaking to a crowd of more than 4,000, former U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado congratulated the shipbuilding team and future crew of the amphibious transport dock ship. sailor-friendly ships ever built. Saturday's ceremony. Command, placed the ship in commission. forward presence from the sea. maritime force.

Big oil has been pressing Congress for years to expand its rights to drill for domestic offshore oil and gas, with little to show for its efforts. But with tensions in the Middle East and gasoline prices in the U.S. rising, its fortune in Capitol Hill may be changing. Both houses of Congress have now passed legislation on new exploration, and though the bills differ, any final version is expected to liberalize offshore drilling for the oil companies. According to the New York Times, there is a sense around the industry that a break may be coming from a quarter-century of federal policy that put a higher priority on environmental concerns than on opportunities to produce energy supplies offshore.

Radiance Shipping Line, Inc., a newly formed shipping and transportation logistics company based in Palmetto, Florida, is proud to announce the purchase of the ROLO LUZ B. This roll-on, roll off / load on, load off cargo vessel has 740 lane meters of capacity, enabling the transportation of up to 50 freight containers or a combination of freight and vehicles, as well as many other types of cargo. Additionally, the vessel will have the capacity for an additional 132 containers (Lo-Lo). The LUZ B will also have a minimum of 50 refrigeration spaces, further enabling the ship to maximize capacity. vehicles, rolling stock, heavy machinery, agriculture equipment, refrigeration containers, trailers, rail vans and pallets. Additional details regarding cargo capacity are available upon request.

The Senate on Thursday backed a White House compromise that drastically reduced proposed oil and natural gas drilling off Florida's Gulf Coast, rejecting a bid by the state's Democratic senators to temporarily block development of the tract. Voting 67-33, the Democratic-led Senate rejected an amendment pushed by Florida Sens. Bill Nelson and Bob Graham to delay for six months oil and gas leasing in a lucrative tract in federal waters off the coasts of Florida and Alabama. After the Republican-led House of Representatives voted last month for a six-month ban on the leasing, President George W. Bush agreed to shrink the tract by 75 percent and keep it at least 100 miles away from Florida's beaches. Florida lawmakers, including Gov.