Atlantic Sea News

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Wednesday revised upward its outlook for the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, estimating there was a 65% chance of an above-normal season compared with a previous report that called for a 60% chance.The U.S. government agency anticipates there will be between 15 and 21 named storms this season. A previous outlook had called for 13 to 20 named storms.The first hurricane of the season, Elsa, came onshore in Florida in July.

U.S. offshore wind farm support company Atlantic Wind Transfers (AWT) has signed a multi-million-dollar, market-first order for two state-of the-art Chartwell 24 Crew Transfer Vessels (CTVs), developed by Chartwell Marine.The vessels, to be deployed in support of new wind farms off the East Coast, will be built by Blount Boats, with delivery scheduled for 2020."Meeting the demands of U.S. offshore wind developers and asset owners - many of whom have a background in the European sector - requires domestic supply chain firms to capitalise on existing technology, lessons learnt and best practice, while responding to the unique requirements of operating in American waters…

Atlantic Container Line (ACL) held a christening ceremony for its new G4 vessel, the Atlantic Sun, on Wednesday, at FAPS Port Newark Auto Marine Terminal at the Port of New York & New Jersey. The ACL G4 vessels are the first of their kind and the largest multipurpose RoRo/Containerships ever built. They incorporate an innovative design that increases capacity without significantly changing the dimensions of the vessel. The G4s are bigger, greener and more efficient than their predecessors.

The Grimaldi Group signed an agreement for PureSOx connectivity services on five vessels operated by Atlantic Container Line (ACL). The services will provide not only compliance monitoring, but also valuable data for use in optimizing PureSOx operation. The Grimaldi Group has been using PureSOx for exhaust gas cleaning aboard its vessels since 2014. ACL, a Grimaldi Group company specialized in transatlantic cargo shipping, has hybrid PureSOx scrubber systems installed on all five of its Generation 4 (G4) vessels: Atlantic Sail, Atlantic Sea, Atlantic Sky, Atlantic Star and Atlantic Sun.

As technologies mature and dramatic cost-cutting continues, the future is looking bright for offshore wind. Below are five trends to keep an eye on.Follow the LeaderOffshore wind’s established leader, Europe, will continue to show the way forward and build capacity. At the end of 2016, nearly 88 percent of the world’s offshore wind installations were located in European waters. In 2017, Europe saw a record 3,148 MW of net additional offshore wind capacity installed, with 560 new offshore wind turbines across 17 wind farms, according to WindEurope.

A team of international scientists, led by the Marine Institute in Ireland, has completed a transatlantic sea bed mapping exercise, which has revealed previously uncharted seabed features including mountains and ridges taller than Carrauntoohil. Footprints of icebergs moving across the seabed, an ancient glacial moraine and a mountain higher than Carrauntoohil in Co Kerry have been mapped across the Atlantic by the team of scientists on board the State’s research ship, the MV Celtic Explorer. It followed the route taken by ships dropping the first transatlantic telecommunications cable between Ireland and Newfoundland in Canada in 1857.

Alfa Laval reports its scrubber solution PureSOx has been the subject of many repeat orders. One of the major returning customers is the Grimaldi Group, which has now ordered its 10th installation of Alfa Laval’s exhaust gas cleaning system. The Grimaldi Group is a multinational logistics group specialized in the operation of RoRo vessels, car carriers and ferries. Through the maritime services of Atlantic Container Line, Finnlines and its other companies, the Naples-based group transports passengers, nearly any type of rolling cargo as well as containers and general cargo.

Representatives from 11 countries and territories from North America, the Caribbean and Europe have committed support for the conservation of the Sargasso Sea eco-system for the benefit of present and future generations, informs the Sargasso Sea Alliance (SSA). The Alliance explains that for more than two years, it has collaborated with the Bermuda government  in a push for the establishment of safeguarding measures for the Sargasso Sea, a unique two-million-square nautical mile ecosystem in the North Atlantic that is without effective legal protection…

The recently signed "Galway Statement on Atlantic Ocean Cooperation" concerns research into the workings of the Atlantic Ocean and its interaction with the Arctic. The alliance will build on existing bilateral cooperation agreements and projects with the aim of developing and advancing a shared vision for the Atlantic. For the European Union, the Statement was signed by European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science Máire Geoghegan-Quinn and European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Maria Damanaki. For the United States the Statement was signed by Dr Kerri-Ann Jones, Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs.

Maritime Administration officials said that Maersk Lines, Limited, a U.S.-flag vessel operator and Maritime Security Program (MSP) contractor for the U.S. government, are in the process of replacing nine of its militarily-useful, U.S.-flag containerships in the MSP with nine newer and more efficient ships. The Maritime Administration manages the MSP, which leverages commercially viable, militarily-useful, privately-owned vessels and inter-modal assets to meet national defense and other security requirements. Maersk’s 2008 request for the change was approved and coordinated with the Department of Defense’s U.S. Transportation Command after the Maritime Administration found that the proposed replacement vessels met or exceeded the eligibility requirements of the Maritime Security Program.

The Maritime Administration (MARAD) issued a notice stating that it and the US Coast Guard will prepare an environmental impact statement in conjunction with an application from Atlantic Sea Island Group LLC to construct and operate a liquefied natural gas (LNG) deepwater port (DWP) facility in the North Atlantic Ocean approximately 13.5 miles south of the City of Long Beach, New York and 23 miles east of Highlands, New Jersey.  Public meetings will be held in Eaton, New Jersey (January 27) and Long Beach, New York (January 29).  Written comments should be submitted by February 9.  74 Fed. Reg. 982  (January 9, 2009). (Source: Holland & Knight)

As a result of the Maritime Administrator’s designation of New Jersey as an adjacent coastal state, pursuant to 33 USC 1508(a)(2), Atlantic Sea Island Group, LLC, (ASIG) a deepwater port applicant, filed suit against the Maritime Administrator and Secretary of Transportation on February 15, 2008. In addition to filing the suit, the plaintiff also sought a preliminary injunction. ASIG alleged that the Maritime Administrator's designation of New Jersey as an "adjacent coastal state" under the Deepwater Ports Act of 1974 as amended, was contrary to law. The Maritime Administration filed a motion to dismiss the suit on March 17, 2008. On Dec. 8, 2008, in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Judge Richard W.

The US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the Maritime Administrator was acting within his authority under the Deepwater Port Act when he designated New Jersey as an additional adjacent coastal state with respect to the application of Atlantic Sea Island Group LLC (ASIG) for a license to construct and operate a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import facility at a site to be located in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 13.5 miles off the coast of New York and 19 miles off the coast of New Jersey.  The 45-day timeframe in the statute for such designation was held to be directory rather than mandatory.  ASIG v. Connaughton, No. 08-259 (DDC, December 8, 2008). (Source: Holland & Knight)

Ship Owner Mediterranean Shipping Co. S.A. MSC Linzie is the first vessel of a new vessel type developed and designed by Hanjin which adopts the new Panamax length design of 294.05 m. Apparently the design series and Hanjin's well-established reputation in this niche has proved attractive, as the company has, to date, logged orders for 24 ships of the new design. As mentioned above, its length is the maximum for Panama canal, i.e. 294 m. So it has been designed to move flexibly both in Pacific Ocean and in Atlantic Ocean through Panama canal, which is one of the main feature that makes it popular among the operator. This ship offers the maximum intake of 5,060TEU.

Atlantic Sea Island Group, announced that they have received notification from the United States Coast Guard that their application to create an LNG deepwater terminal on a 60.5 acres constructed island 13.5 approximate miles south of Long Beach, Long Island, has been deemed "complete" and allows the regulatory, oversight and review process to continue pursuant to federal regulations. Far from population centers and outside of vital shipping lanes, Safe Harbor Energy will have the capacity to deliver 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas each day to 65 million consumers, ending the area's dependence on natural gas shipped up from the Gulf Coast some 1,200 miles away.

According to Asbury Park Press, an investment group proposing to build an offshore liquid natural gas terminal 19 miles east of Sea Bright is preparing specific design details for the artificial island, and may make more plans public in the coming weeks. Safe Harbor and its parent company, the Atlantic Sea Island Group, propose building a 53-to-65-acre island in about 60 feet of water 13.5 miles south of Long Beach, N.Y. The island would be an offloading and storage terminal for liquified natural gas tankers, which would pump out their ultra-cold fuel for processing and delivery via undersea pipeline to the mainland. The company is starting its regulatory applications this spring, and says it could build the site by 2010.

A $1 billion plan for a liquefied natural gas terminal on a 53-acre man-made island in the Atlantic Ocean between Long Island and New Jersey was unveiled February 2 by a new company. The announcement comes as another proposal, for a ship-like floating terminal anchored in the middle of Long Island Sound, has drawn widespread opposition from environmental groups and public officials in both New York and Connecticut. The new plan for an island, called Safe Harbor Energy, was announced by officials of the Atlantic Sea Island Group, a privately financed company. They will file an application in the next few months for government approvals. The site is 13.5 miles south of Long Beach and 19 miles east of Sandy Hook, N.J. (Source: mywesttexas.com)

Furthering its commitment to its U.S.-flag cruise ship initiative, Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) has purchased the S/S United States, one of the country's most venerable ships built in the glory days of trans-Atlantic sea travel. NCL will convert the vessel to a state-of-the art, modern cruise ship and add it to NCL's planned U.S. flagged fleet. Widely considered to be the greatest superliner ever built in this country, the S/S United States was engineered to be faster, safer and more technologically advanced than anything else afloat when it was christened. To this day, its Atlantic crossing record has never been matched and it remains the holder of the fabled Blue Riband. Knowing that S/S United States faced an uncertain future, NCL moved swiftly to purchase the vessel.

A new 272-passenger high-speed monohull ferry, for Island Ferries of Galway, Ireland, has been delviered, and is currently making 10-nautical-mile commuter and tourist crossings between Galway and Aran Island. Draiocht Na Farriage (Magic of the Sea), a 123-ft. aluminum vessel, was designed and built by WaveMaster International, Henderson, West Australia. The design incorporates a substantial keel, fine entry lines and steep deadrise. Two chines give the hull a narrower waterline beam underway for speed, while adding stability and buoyancy as the vessel slows down and the hull immerses. Both strength and stability are maximized to withstand fierce North Atlantic sea conditions. The new ferry is powered by three Cat 3412C marine engines, each rated 1,050 bhp at 2,300 rpm.

As the first equipment manufacturer Thrane & Thrane has received Inmarsat Type Approval for its new maritime high-speed terminal for Inmarsat’s Fleet F55 service, the TT-3086A Capsat® Fleet55. The Inmarsat Type Approval is the direct result of intensive beta testing carried out onboard three different vessel types sailing in different ocean regions. The three beta test systems have all been operating successfully during the test period. “Our Capsat® Fleet55 system has been tested onboard three different vessels sailing in different ocean regions. These ships range from a container carrier to a lightweight high-speed military vessel.

Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) has purchased the S/S United States, one of the country's most venerable ships built in the glory days of trans-Atlantic sea travel. NCL will convert the vessel to a state-of-the art, modern cruise ship and add it to NCL's planned U.S. flagged fleet. A relaunched S/S United States will add more than 1,000 American maritime jobs and 5,000 shoreside jobs to the 3,000 maritime jobs and 17,000 shoreside jobs that NCL's U.S. flag initiative with Project America is predicted to generate. Widely considered to be the greatest superliner ever built in this country, the S/S United States was engineered to be faster, safer and more technologically advanced than anything else afloat when she was christened.