Port State Control Examination News

The Isle of Man Ship Registry has retained its place within the United States Coast Guard’s QUALSHIP 21 program, designed to recognize foreign-flagged vessels that maintain the highest safety and quality standards.Isle of Man Ship Registry director Cameron Mitchell said continued inclusion in the scheme through to July 2021 was great news for the registry and its clients, representing further independent verification of the quality of the Manx fleet.Entry into the program is based on data gathered during Port State Control inspections in the United States.

Two shipping companies incorporated in Liberia pled guilty today in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware, to failing to notify the U.S. Coast Guard of a hazardous condition on one if its vessels and to violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS) by presenting false documents to the Coast Guard that covered up vessel oil pollution.Jeffrey Bossert Clark, Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and David C. Weiss, U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware announced the plea agreement.

United States District Court Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi accepted the guilty plea of Doorae Shipping Co., LTD, a South Korean maritime operations company, and sentenced the company to pay a fine of $275,000, and a term of three years of probation for the failure to maintain an accurate oil record book, in violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships. According to the Information to which Doorae pled guilty, the operation of a marine vessel, such as the B. Pacific, a petroleum oil tank ship registered under the flag administration of the Marshall Islands, and operated by Doorae, generates large quantities of waste oil and oil-contaminated waste water. International and U.S. law requires that these vessels use pollution prevention equipment to preclude the discharge of these materials.

An Italian shipping firm based in Genoa, Italy, pleaded guilty to violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships by falsifying required ships’ documents to hide the fact that the ship had illegally discharged oil contaminated waste into the ocean on multiple occasions, announced the Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, and the U.S. Coast Guard. Carbofin S.PA. (Carbofin) agreed to plead…

Noble Drilling (U.S.) LLC was charged with environmental and maritime crimes for operating the drill ship Noble Discoverer and the drilling unit Kulluk in violation of federal law in Alaska in 2012, the Department of Justice announced. Under the terms of a plea agreement filed in federal court today, Noble will plead guilty to eight felony offenses, pay $12.2 million dollars in fines and community service payments, implement a comprehensive Environmental Compliance Plan, and will be placed on probation for four years. In addition, Noble’s parent corporation, Noble Corporation plc, headquartered in London, England, will implement an Environmental…

The Coast Guard issued a safety alert to personnel and the maritime community warning of the potential dangers of confined space entries. In the first case, an inspector was on board a tank vessel to conduct a Port State Control Examination. In anticipation of the examination, the crew opened the hatch to the Freefall Lifeboat to let it air out. As the Inspector entered the lifeboat his gas meter alarmed and he quickly exited. Upon investigation, it was confirmed with ship’s equipment that Carbon Monoxide had collected in the lifeboat.

New Zealand Fishing Company and Chief Engineer Sentenced for Environmental Crimes and Obstruction of Justice. A New Zealand fishing company that owned and operated the tuna fishing vessel San Nikunau, and a former chief engineer on the ship, were sentenced in federal court today for environmental crimes and obstruction of justice, announced Assistant Attorney General Ignacia S. Moreno of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ronald C. Machen Jr. Sanford Ltd.

Miami Man Convicted for Obstruction of Justice and False Statements for Certifying Ships Safe for Sea. A federal jury in Miami yesterday convicted a Miami-based ship surveyor for lying to the Coast Guard and for falsely certifying the safety of ships at sea, announced Ignacia S. Moreno, Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division at the Department of Justice; Wifredo A. Ferrer, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; Rear Admiral William D. Baumgartner, Commander, 7th Coast Guard District; and Jonathan Sall, Special Agent in Charge, U.S.

Miami River Compnay Sen tenced to Five Years Probation and $1,000,000 Fine for Oil Pollution and Ballast Water Crimes. Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Rear Admiral William D. Baumgartner, Commander, 7th Coast Guard District, and John Sall, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service, announced the sentencing of defendant Americas Marine Management Services, Inc., d/b/a Antillean Marine, a Florida corporation, for oil pollution and ballast water crimes.

Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit Portland, Ore., conducted Operation Clean River, a large-scale operation to ensure environmental compliance onboard commercial deep draft vessels, Wednesday, Jan. 19. Clean River covered both the Columbia and Willamette Rivers in an effort to examine all vessels that were currently moored or anchored from Portland downriver to Longview, Wash. Specifically, the Coast Guard’s Port State Control Branch verified vessel compliance with both international and domestic regulations found in MARPOL 73/78 and 33 CFR 151, 155 and 157, respectively. MARPOL 73/78 is the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships and is one of the most important international marine environmental regulations designed to minimize pollution of the seas…

September 21, 2009 Clay Maitland, Founding Chairman of the North American Marine Environment Protection Association (NAMEPA), announced that the United States Coast Guard is the recipient of NAMEPA’s 2009 Marine Environment Protection Award. The award will be presented at NAMEPA’s Awards Dinner to be held in New York in conjunction with the 2009 World Maritime Day Parallel Event on October 16th. Commandant Allen will be present to accept the award. The NAMEPA Marine Environment Protection Award is given in recognition of an individual or organization’s efforts on behalf of preserving the marine environment as exemplified by a commitment to a program which has specific objectives set for environmental performance and improvement…

The US Coast Guard issued an ALCOAST (All Coast Guard Message) designating 18 Sectors and Marine Safety Units as “Feeder Ports” to be utilized for training of new marine safety and security personnel.  The designation recognizes that these units have a sufficiently diverse workload and volume to allow for training in at least four of the 17 marine inspection and port state control examination competencies, as well as sufficient experienced staff to provide mentoring. (2/11/09). (Source: Holland & Knight)

MARMARAS NAVIGATION LTD, a Greek operator of a fleet of ocean going vessels transporting products around the world, recently plead guilty to a felony violation of the "Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships" for improperly documenting the handling of oily waste aboard the marine vessel ("M/V") Agia Eirini. MARMARAS pleaded guilty to a felony violation for failing to maintain proper records associated with the ship's handling of its waste oil. If approved by the court, the plea agreement requires that MARMARAS pay a criminal fine of $200,000, develop and implement a comprehensive environmental compliance plan for its fleet of twenty-eight (28) ships that call on United States ports, and serve three (3) years on probation.

The U.S. Coast Guard issued its 2004 Targeted Flag List for ISPS-MTSA. Vessels documented with listed nations are automatically assigned additional points for purposes of determining their priority for a port state control examination. Just like golf, the goal is to have as few points as possible. The points assigned on the Targeted Flag List are based on the USCG Control Action Ratio (CAR). Nations for which 7 points have been assigned include: Bolivia, Cayman Islands, Netherlands, Russia, and Thailand.

The U.S. Coast Guard issued a Port Security Advisory listing nations it has determined to have inadequate port security measures. Ships that have called in any of those nations within the five previous port calls may be subject to increased port state control examination upon arrival in a U.S. port. The enhanced examination may be lessen if the ship establishes a higher security level during the port call, executes a Declaration of Security, logs all security actions in the ship’s log, and reports the actions taken to the USCG Captain of the Port (COTP) prior to arrival in the U.S. port. The nations found to have inadequate port security measures are: Albania…