Polarstern Returns from Arctic
On Wednesday, 14 October 2015 the research icebreaker Polarstern from the Alfred-Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), entered its homeport in Bremerhaven. Since mid-May, over 200 biologists, physicists, chemists, ice physicists, oceanographers and geoscientists have taken part in a total of four expeditions, with changes of personnel in Longyearbyen (Spitsbergen) and Tromsø (Norway). In the course of these five months, RV Polarstern covered over 16,000 nautical miles (more than 30,000 kilometres). Climate change is proceeding especially rapidly and intensively in the Arctic. Over the past few decades, the mean temperature in the High North has risen twice as fast as the global average.
UN Throws the Book at North Korea Ship Operator
A U.N. Security Council committee on Monday blacklisted the operator of a North Korean ship, which was seized near the Panama Canal last year for smuggling Soviet-era arms, and raised concerns about Cuba's military cooperation with Pyongyang. The North Korea (DPRK) sanctions committee designated Ocean Maritime Management, which operated the Chong Chon Gang, the ship detained a year ago carrying arms, including two MiG-21 jet fighters, under thousands of tonnes of sugar. The company is now subject to an international asset freeze and travel ban. North Korea is under an array of United Nations and U.S. and other countries' sanctions for nuclear and ballistic missile tests since 2006 in defiance of global demands to stop.
Ocean Tankers Awarded Contract
Following a public Government Tender, the company was awarded the Contract last April 21, for (a) the study and construction of the necessary infrastructure (SPM, subsea pipeline etc, offshore Limassol) and (b) the transportation of about 8 million cubic meters of potable water from Greece to Cyprus by tankers. The Contract provides for the completion of the work per (a) within four months and per (b) within six months from the contract date, ie a total of ten months. The company committed a fleet of six tankers for this pioneering project, which have been and are being thoroughly and suitably cleaned to EU specs and standards, and duly certified for the transportation of potable water by DNV, an IACS Classification Society.
Legal: Chemical Testing Following Serious Marine Acccident
Alcohol and drugs too frequently play a major role in maritime accidents. Subsequent to these accidents there are multiple problems involved in the collecting of specimens for testing the presence of alcohol or drugs in an individual's body. The Coast Guard has proposed several changes in the procedure for collecting those specimens. These proposed requirements would help to better understand and eventually avoid problems like the infamous Exxon Valdez accident of 1989, where the captain's blood alcohol content was .061% when finally taken eleven hours after the ship ran aground. Alcohol was also alleged to be a factor in the sinking of the Cape Fear off the coast of New England in 1999.
Coatings & Corrosion Control: Microbiologically Influenced Corrosion (MIC)
Recently, the use of certain environmental-friendly waxes or "semi-hard coatings", used by barge fabricators to protect the internal void walls and floors of marine double-hulled steel barges from corrosion, have fallen under scrutiny by some barge owners/operators. It is believed that certain paraffin wax coatings act as a food source for certain living corrosive microorganisms. These single-celled organisms are associated with a phenomenon known as Microbiologically Influenced Corrosion (MIC) that can cause localized pitting and eventually leaks in steel barge voids. This following examines the biological and chemical research that has recently been performed on the Jotun Paints, Inc, "beeswax" coating by two independent laboratories.
