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09 Jan 2024

US Trade Deficit Shrinks on Falling Imports

© sheilaf2002 / Adobe Stock

The U.S. trade deficit unexpectedly narrowed in November as imports of consumer goods fell to a one-year low amid slowing domestic demand, a trend that, if it persists in December, could result in trade having no impact on economic growth in the fourth quarter.The report from the Commerce Department on Tuesday also showed exports declined in November amid cooling demand overseas. Demand is slowing both in the United States and abroad following hefty interest rate increases by global central banks since 2022 to tackle rampant inflation.The Federal Reserve's rate hiking cycle has likely ended…

07 Nov 2023

California Boat Captain Guilty of 'Seaman's manslaughter' in Fire Deaths of 34 People

The fire-stricken Conception shortly before it sank off Santa Cruz Island in September 2019. All 33 passengers and one of six crewmembers died of smoke inhalation after they were trapped in the berthing area while a fire raged on the deck above. (Photo: Ventura County Fire Department)

The captain of a dive boat that caught fire and sank off the California coast in 2019, killing 34 people on board in one of the state's deadliest maritime disasters, was found guilty on Monday of a federal charge of seaman's manslaughter.Jerry Boylan, 70, was convicted by a U.S. District Court jury in Los Angeles on a single charged count of "misconduct or neglect of a ship officer" under a federal homicide statute dating from steamboat accidents in the early 1800s.The felony conviction…

07 Jun 2023

Fair Weather Collision Attributed to Distracted Bridge Watch Officers

Bunun Queen (left) and Thunder (right) are pictured before the collision. (Source: Wisdom Marine International (left) and Jackson Offshore (right))

The bridge watch officers on a bulk carrier and an offshore supply vessel were not maintaining a proper lookout before the vessels collided last year near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has concluded.On July 23, 2022, the bulk carrier Bunun Queen was transiting eastbound in the Gulf of Mexico and the offshore supply vessel Thunder was transiting northbound when the vessels collided. The Thunder sustained substantial damage to its port side, which resulted in the flooding of one of its propulsion rooms and three other spaces.

25 May 2023

Wrong Size Bearing Led to Engine Failure and Fire on Supply Vessel

Ocean Guardian pictured before the fire. (Source: Stabbert Maritime Group)​

An incorrectly sized bearing led to an engine failure and fire last year onboard the offshore supply vessel Ocean Guardian, reports the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).On May 27, 2022, the vessel was conducting a sea trial in Shilshole Bay when its no. 3 diesel generator engine suffered a mechanical failure, resulting in an engine room fire that caused $1.1 million in damages.After maintenance was completed on all four main diesel generator engines in January and February 2022, full-function tests of vessel systems were conducted in open waters.

06 Dec 2022

Lack of Situational Awareness Led to Ever Forward Grounding -USCG

File photo: A Coast Guard response crew monitors the 1,095-foot motor vessel Ever Forward, which became grounded in the Chesapeake Bay, March 13, 2022. (Photo: Kimberly Reaves / U.S. Coast Guard)

The U.S. Coast Guard cited the pilot’s failure to maintain situational awareness and attention while navigating, as well as inadequate bridge resource management as factors that led to the grounding of the 1,095-foot containership Ever Forward in the Craighill Channel earlier this year.The Hong Kong flagged box ship grounded in the Chesapeake Bay on March 13 while transiting with 4,964 containers aboard, en route from the Port of Baltimore to Norfolk, Va. The incident set in motion…

08 Jul 2021

Biden to Take Aim at Shipping Competition

U.S. President Joe Biden (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)

President Joe Biden will soon order U.S. transportation agencies to crack down on anti-competitive conduct and unjust fees in the rail and sea shipping industries to try to lower costs to consumers, the White House said on Thursday.It said his executive order is aimed at the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) and the Surface Transportation Board (STB).White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki noted that shipping costs had risen dramatically during the months of the pandemic.The order…

04 May 2021

US Trade Deficit Reaches Record High

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The U.S. trade deficit jumped to a record high in March amid roaring domestic demand, which is drawing in imports, and the gap could widen further as the nation's economic activity rebounds faster than its global rivals.Manufacturers lack the capacity to satisfy the surge in demand because of resource constraints and bottlenecks in the supply chain. Inventories are very lean. Demand is being driven by a rapidly improving public health situation and massive government aid to households…

13 Jan 2021

Maritime Security: Neo-colonialism in the Gulf of Guinea

© Lucia / Adobe Stock

Is neo-colonialism in the Gulf of Guinea the answer to West Africa’s maritime crime crisis?In October 2020, China’s transport ministry established an ad hoc workgroup to lay down precautionary measures for ships and seafarers passing through high piracy risk West African waters.The move came as China told its vessels to up vigilance and implement a series of precautionary measures to ensure the security of ocea-going vessels and seafarers amid rising attacks and a surge in kidnaps in the Gulf of Guinea.Plans outlined by Wu Chungeng…

18 Dec 2020

Wakashio Owner: Mauritius Disaster Caused by Lack of Safety Awareness

Credit: ohim/AdobeStock

Japan's Nagashiki Shipping said on Friday the grounding of one of its large bulk carriers that caused an ecological disaster in Mauritius was due to a lack of safety awareness and a failure to follow rules as it pledged better training and oversight.The findings were assumptions based on interviews with crew members, the company said.A bulk carrier owned by Nagashiki and chartered by Mitsui OSK ran aground on a reef in Mauritius in July and began leaking oil, causing an ecological disaster in the pristine seas around the Indian Ocean island.

14 Oct 2020

ABS CEO Calls for Cooperation on Decarbonization

© Stephen Finn / Adobe Stock

The successful decarbonization of the shipping industry will require teamwork and cooperation, said ABS Chairman, President and CEO Christopher J. Wiernicki.“Building the future is clearly a team sport – even if not all players see it that way all the time,” he said. “In our industry, the more all stakeholders in the supply chain cooperate on meeting the challenges of getting to 2030 and 2050, the sooner we will reach those goals, and the better we all will be.”In a keynote address to the Shipping Insight 20/20: A Vision For The Decade conference titled Leaning into the Future…

12 Aug 2020

Lithium Ion Battery Fires: A Threat to Container Shipping

© angelha/AdobeStock

From 2015 to present an estimated 250 incidents related to electric hoverboard fires have been recorded according to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission. The same commission reports that 83,000 Toshiba laptop batteries were recalled in 2017 due to fire and safety concerns.In January 2017 a NYC garbage truck was the source of a neighborhood surprise when a Lithium ion battery exploded in the compactor of the truck. Luckily no one was injured.According to a study conducted by the National Fire Data Center branch of the U.S.

14 Jul 2020

i911: Tapping Cellphone Location Data to Save Lives

(Image: USCG)

In recent years the U.S. Coast Guard has identified an increasing trend in the use of cellular phones by the maritime public when communicating distress. In 2018, leadership in the Office of Search and Rescue (SAR) at Coast Guard Headquarters asked the Research and Development Center (RDC) to investigate available technologies that could assist Coast Guard responders in adapting to this trend by leveraging the cellphone’s internal GPS. The RDC, located in New London, Conn., has been serving the Coast Guard for nearly 50 years through research…

02 Jul 2020

Coast Guard Discontinues Differential GPS Broadcast

(USCG file photo by Kevin Young)

On June 30, 2020 the Coast Guard switched off the last Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) signals after more than 25 years of service.With the improved accuracy and integrity of un-augmented GPS over the last several years, and with the introduction of the U.S. operated satellite-based augmentation system known as Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), the maritime community no longer has a mission requirement for DGPS. GPS now provides sufficient positional accuracy…

06 May 2020

Cellphones Are Helping the USCG Locate Distressed Mariners

File photo (U.S. Coast Guard photo courtesy of Station New London)

First Coast Guard District command center crews, from Maine to Northern New Jersey, have a new tool to help distressed mariners come home to their families after being out to sea.The i911 program allows for watchstanders to use a mariner’s cellphone number to assist in finding their location for Coast Guard rescue crews to locate them faster. Once the number is entered, the mariner receives a text message authorizing them to share their location with the U.S. Coast Guard. Once shared…

21 Feb 2019

Oi: Tracking 50 Years of Ocean Innovation

Marine Technology Reporter published a supplement to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Oceanology International. Photo: MTR

As Oceanology International celebrates its 50th Anniversary, Marine Technology Reporter explores half a century of subsea technology development and discovery. Oceanology International Americas runs February 25-27, 2019 in San Diego.When Oceanology launched in 1969 in the seaside resort of Brighton the world was a very different place. For a start, Brighton was home to the mods and rockers, who would square off against each other on the town’s elegant seafront. The British currency included shillings and ha’ pennies and man had yet to step foot on the moon.More crucially…

04 Oct 2018

APM Terminals Brazil Uses Augmented Reality to Train Workers

No, using augmented reality to train workers is not a science fiction! The HSE (Health, Safety, and Environment) team at APM Terminals Brazil developed an augmented reality (AR) app for employees, contractors and visitors to download on their phones which provided video and 3D information about risks and safety operations in the terminal and office buildings.For Global Safety Day this year, employees and contractors took part in an experiment to see if the new and developing technology could be used to teach safety measures across the operation in a campaign titled "Stronger & Safer Together".After opening the app, users pointed their phone at stickers placed on a piece of equipment or on the floor or wall of an office building.

08 May 2018

Maritime Cybersecurity: A New Approach is Needed

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It is time to move toward a quantitative approach that provides deeper understanding of individual risk elements observed in marine operating systems.Increasing connectivity in complex maritime operating systems is escalating the potential impact of cyber-related incidents and complicating the task of defending against them. Traditional methods for assessing cyber risk provide inadequate guidance for applying limited security resources.Currently, available risk assessment methods are largely qualitative.

22 Mar 2018

Insights: Pat Folan, Tug & Barge Solutions

Pat Folan, Partner, Tug & Barge Solutions

Pat Folan, a partner at Tug & Barge Solutions, weighs in on all things tugboat – with a focus on Subchapter M. Pat Folan is a partner in Daphne, Ala.-based Tug & Barge Solutions, a company that focuses on Subchapter M compliance for towing companies. The company also performs surveys of towing vessels and barges, manages safety management systems for towing companies and trains people on towing vessels and in offices. A professional mariner, he has operated towing vessels from Maine to Corpus Christi, Texas, including the Alabama Rivers, Lower Mississippi, Great Lakes and Erie Canal.

14 Feb 2018

Luxury Cruise Ships & The French Connection

 Edie Rodriguez, the Americas Brand Chairman for PONANT Yacht Cruises and Expeditions. (Photo: Ponant)

Edie Rodriguez, the Americas Brand Chairman for PONANT Yacht Cruises and Expeditions, has spent a life and built a career centered on travel, cruise and branding in a most luxurious manner. She was a natural to discuss the booming luxury expedition sector, the next big frontier in the global cruise industry. It is natural, in the U.S., to pronounce PONANT as “po nant,” but the French have a different style and the company name is pronounced “po non,” dropping the ‘t.’ But Edie Rodriquez, charged with spreading the PONANT name in North America, does not get hung up on diction in this case.

26 Nov 2017

Rotterdam Port to be Zero-Emission by 2050

In 2050, the port of Rotterdam will still be a thriving centre of economic activity and employment. The main difference with today’s port is that this activity and this employment will be generated by industry and shipping sectors that release next to no emissions. Re-using waste will be the most natural thing in the world. The port will be even safer and healthier thanks to digitisation and new technologies. And there will be an even stronger focus on the ‘human dimension’. This, in a nutshell, is Remco Neumann’s vision of the future. And according to Neumann, the Port of Rotterdam Authority’s Corporate Social Responsibility programme manager, this future is closer than many people think.

22 Nov 2017

Connectivity for Brown Water Operations

Growing options emerge for ever-increasing data and Comms demand. In the United States alone, 625 million tons of cargo is transported along the more than 12,000 miles of commercially navigable waterways each year, moving vital commodities to and from 38 of the nation’s 50 states. The advent of subchapter M has raised the bar significantly for as many as 5,000 inland vessels, both in terms of safety and the need to document and more closely control this tonnage. At the same time, domestic coastal transport and offshore energy support vessels also face growing communications requirements.

02 Jan 2017

Mariner Rescued Aboard Disabled Vessel in Bellingham Bay

The Coast Guard rescued one mariner aboard a disabled vessel after he become disoriented in Bellingham Bay, Saturday. Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound command center received a report from Station Bellingham of the disabled and adrift 27-foot crab in the shoals of Bellingham Bay with one person aboard at 3:05 p.m. The mariner was unable to give his exact position but was quickly located after Sector personnel tracked his location using his cell phone GPS signal. A Coast Guard Station Bellingham rescue boat crew aboard a 45-foot Response Boat-Medium responded to the incident and safely removed the mariner from his vessel at 4:13 p.m. The mariner was reported to be in good condition and did not seek medical attention.

23 Dec 2016

NYC Ferries: A Collaborative Approach

Innovative boats, unusual collaboration: Hornblower, Horizon, Incat Crowther and Metal Shark team up on one of the most significant newbuilding projects of the year. When New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio earlier this year announced the selection of Hornblower to operate as many as 20 ferries to connect a similar number of New York City neighborhoods, the magnitude of the award immediately outweighed the details of the contract. The vessels, intended to eventually form the backbone of a modern, comfortable and efficient urban ferry fleet, will also be New York City’s first city-wide ferry system in over 100 years. Now on track to launch in 2017, the news service is predicated on the on-time delivery of high tech, newbuild hulls now being constructed on the U.S. Gulf Coast.