Coast Guard Sector Northern New England News

Coast Guard Sector Northern New England officially opened a new 24-hour command center Wednesday in South Portland, Maine.Sen. Susan Collins, Atlantic Area Commander Vice Adm. Scott Buschman, and First District Commander Rear Adm. Andrew Tiongson were all on hand for the ribbon cutting ceremony. The command center is the hub for all Coast Guard operations across Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and parts of New York. Located at Coast Guard Base South Portland, the command center's exterior remained the same, but the interior is completely new.

German Shipping Operator Sentenced to Pay $3.2 Million for Obstruction of Justice and Falsifying Official Logs to Hide Deliberate Oil Pollution. The previously Convicted Company Committed Environmental Crimes While on Probation.A German shipping company, MST Mineralien Schiffahrt Spedition und Transport GmbH (MST), pleaded guilty and was sentenced today in Portland, Maine, for obstruction of justice and for maintaining false official records to conceal deliberate pollution from one of its ships, the M/V Marguerita, announced Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey B.

The U.S. Coast Guard said it is responding to an oil spill in the Fore River in Maine along with Maine Department of Environmental Protection and local fire departments.   According to initial reports, the cause of the spill was a car accident involving an overturned tank truck carrying diesel fuel on Interstate I-295.   Pollution responders from Coast Guard Station South Portland and Coast Guard Sector Northern New England are on scene.

The Coast Guard rescued two people off their sinking vessel Friday, about 17 miles off shore from York, Maine. At around 3:15 p.m., Coast Guard Sector Northern New England received a MAYDAY call on VHF-CH. 16 from a crew member reporting their 45-foot lobster boat, Miss Mae & Son, was hit with a rogue wave and the pumps could not keep up with the water. A boat crew from Station Portsmouth Harbor launched their 47-foot response boat and arrived on the scene to find the fishermen standing on the pilot house in full survival gear. Due to safety concerns, the fishermen jumped into the water and the boat crew pulled alongside to bring them on board. The water temperature was 42 degrees and the air temperature was 37 degrees.

A boat fire was extinguished Thursday off the coast of Jonesport, Maine. The was no one aboard at the time of the fire. At about 6:12 a.m., watchstanders at U.S. Coast Guard Sector Northern New England received a call from the owner, who was on shore, that his 32-foot fishing vessel Bigger Dirls was on fire in Hopkins Point Marina. Station Jonesport launched a 29-foot response boat crew. They arrived on scene where the vessel was tied to a mooring ball and used their dewatering pump to begin fighting the fire. Jonesport Fire Department also arrived on scene and assisted in dousing the flames.

U.S. Coast Guard crews from Station South Portland, Maine, and Air Station Cape Cod responded to a report of a fishing boat fire Wednesday, about six miles from Jeffreys Ledge, a fishing area which stretches from the coast of Rockport to just southeast of Cape Elizabeth, Maine. A crewmember aboard the 40-foot fishing boat Gretchen Marie contacted watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Northern New England at about 7:40 p.m. Wednesday reporting a fire onboard and heavy smoke in Gretchen Marie's pilothouse. Two men were aboard the vessel.

The U.S. Coast Guard reported that it is responding after a 600-foot tanker vessel, Sea Pride, allided with the Memorial Bridge in Portsmouth, N.H., at approximately 5:30 a.m. Friday. The Malta-flagged vessel was outbound from a Piscataqua River facility when it allided with the bridge on its port side, damaging a fender on the bridge. There was no leak on the ship's double hull, no injuries to the crew, and they continued their journey to Portland, Maine, after contacting the Coast Guard.

The tankship 'Harbour Feature' towed free of the Sarah Long Bridge, on the Piscataqua River in Portsmouth, N.H. after drifting alongside the bridge. Tug boats were able to safely tow the 473-foot, Portuguese-flagged, motor vessel Harbour Feature from the bridge to the state pier during slack tide. Earlier, Monday, US Coast Guard watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Northern New England received a report from the Harbour Feature that it had become disabled and allided with the bridge. There have been no reports of injury or pollution, but a six-to-twelve inch rupture above the waterline of the vessel near the port ballast tank has been observed. The incident is under investigation.

The U.S. Coast Guard & U.S. Attorney Office announce sentencing in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. Former Coast Guard man Shane Coxon, 24, was sentenced for knowingly making a false distress call to the Coast Guard in July 2010, and was sentenced to time-served of approximately three and a half months imprisonment to be followed by two years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay the U.S. Coast Guard more than $4,500 in restitution. Prior to the incident, Coxon was a petty officer second class in the Coast Guard, stationed at Sector Northern New England. On July 18, 2010, Coxon called the Coast Guard Sector Northern New England Command Center, provided a false name and reported a flare sighting off the coast of Old Orchard Beach, Maine.

BOSTON – U.S. Coast Guard units in Maine are scheduled to begin ice-breaking operations on the Kennebec River during the week of March 12, 2012. The public is being advised to remove their fish shacks as soon as possible, if safe to do so, in advance of Coast Guard ice-breaking operations. "Anyone who still has ice fishing shacks or gear on the Kennebec River should remove them as soon as possible and should proceed with extreme caution in areas where the Coast Guard will break ice," said Chief Warrant Officer Bob Albert, the ice operations mission manager for Coast Guard Sector Northern New England. During the Kennebec River Spring Break-out…

U.S. Coast Guard Sector Northern New England’s crew will receive a new commander during a change of command ceremony at 11:00 a.m., June 24, 2011 at the Portland Head Light in Fort Williams Park. Rear Adm. Daniel Neptun, commander of the 1st Coast Guard District, will preside over the ceremony. Sector Northern New England's current commander, Capt. James McPherson of Bradley Beach, N.J., will be assigned as chief of staff for the First Coast Guard District in Boston. Capt. Christopher Roberge will assume command of Sector Northern New England. Roberge previously served as chief of prevention for Coast Guard Atlantic Area in Portsmouth, Va.

The Coast Guard recommended to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that the waterways associated with the Calais LNG, LLC proposal to construct an LNG facility in Calais, Maine, are suitable for LNG vessel transits provided certain safety and security actions are taken as part of the permit. The Coast Guard's role in the process was to assess the safety and security issues associated with LNG tankers transiting the Passamaquoddy Bay and the St. Croix River. As part of the Coast Guard's contribution to the FERC review process, the Coast Guard Captain of the Port for Northern New England, along with key stakeholders, reviewed and validated the navigation safety and maritime security aspects of the Calais LNG, LLC proposal.

U.S. Coast Guard Sector Northern New England (SNNE) crews partner with Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC) members to demonstrate the nation's most robust tidal energy program on, Aug. 24, 2010. Gov. John Baldacci, Congressman Mike Michaud and Capt. James McPherson, SNNE’s commander, will unite at Coast Guard Station Eastport to celebrate the first-ever successful implementation of tidal energy at a federal facility. Massive tidal ranges in the ocean waters surrounding Eastport represent some of the largest in the country, rising and falling over 20 feet.

The commandant of the Coast Guard, Adm. Thomas Collins, is in Maine Wednesday, joining U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe for a tour of the Coast Guard base in South Portland, according to WMTW.com, touring the recently established Coast Guard Sector Northern New England. Snowe chairs the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Fisheries and the Coast Guard.

Coast Guard Sector Northern New England, Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod, the Coast Guard Maritime Safety and Security Team, the Coast Guard Atlantic Strike Team, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Maine Emergency Team-WMD, the Cities of Portland and South Portland, Portland Pipeline and many other area agencies and industry partners will be participating in a full-scale maritime security exercise in the port of Portland May 9 through May 12. The exercise provides local players with the opportunity to practice interagency coordination and response to a potential attack on the Maritime Transportation System. In the aftermath of 9/11…

Captain Patrick B. Trapp will relieve Captain Robert R. O'Brien, Jr. as Commander of Coast Guard Sector Hampton Roads on April 21 at Nauticus. The Commander of Sector Hampton Roads is responsible for the Coast Guard's port safety and security, search and rescue, law enforcement, aids to navigation, marine environmental protection, and commercial vessel safety missions. The Commander exercises federal authority granted by law and regulation as Captain of the Port, Officer in Charge Marine Inspection, Federal Maritime Security Coordinator, and Federal On-Scene Coordinator. The area of responsibility for the Sector includes nearly all of Virginia and the Atlantic Coast of Maryland.