Enviromental News

The North American Marine Environment Protection Association (NAMEPA) has announced the winners of the Marine Environment Protection Awards for 2023.Winners include MSC Cruises for Sustainability, Tote Services for the Industry Award, Captain Bridget Cooney as an Individual, Dr. Jason Zuidema for Seafarers, New York Harbor Middle School led by example this year for Maritime Academies, Port XChange for Innovation, Maritime Blue in the Non-Profit category, and NOAA’s OR&R for Government.The Awards will be presented at NAMEPA’s Annual Marine Environment Protection Conference…

German maritime propulsion specialist Schottel announced that its Schottel Rudder Eco-Peller (SRE) is set to be installed for the first time in a retrofit project.For the project, a pair of four-bladed SREs type SRE 340 L CP, with an input power of 750 kW each, will be featured in a double-ended ferry from the Norwegian ferry operator Torghatten Traf-ikkselskap.Significant for this project is the fact that no hull changes or major steel work will be necessary, al-lowing work to be carried out by a local shipyard…

ClassNK has issued a Statement of Compliance (SoC) to PHP Ship Breaking and Recycling Industries Limited (PHP), a ship recycling facility in Chattogram (Chittagong), Bangladesh, verifying that the facility is in line with the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, 2009 (HKC).While ClassNK has so far issued 34 Statements of Compliance to ship recycling facilities around the globe, this is the first one issued by the Society to a facility in Bangladesh.

Artemis Technologies has announced a joint venture with Denmark’s Tuco Marine Group to produce the world’s first zero emissions workboat.Artemis Technologies will collaborate with Tuco Marine Group to integrate its new electric eFoiler propulsion system into an 11m carbon fiber vessel.This will serve as a demonstrator vessel as proof of concept for the innovative technology that will be marketed to the marine trade by Artemis Technologies and Tuco Marine Group, which supplies the ProZero high performance Workboat range.  The hydrofoils and propulsion system for the proof of concept vessel will be manufactured and assembled in Belfast Harbour, following a multi million pound investment in the project.

France's OFW Ships chose Marlink to provide a multi-band connectivity solution, combining high-throughput global VSAT with an L-band back-up for connectivity redundancy.OFW stands for ‘Ocean Fresh Water’, reflecting the company’s simple but profound purpose: to sustainably convert saltwater into drinks. To do this, OFW Ships vessel is equipped with a seawater selected filtration system and bottling plant will be able to produce 2,500,000 liters of premium drinks every week.Pure and mineral-rich saltwater is drawn from the high seas…

A.P. Moller - Maersk alongside with Wallenius Wilhelmsen, BMW Group, H&M Group, Levi Strauss & Co. and, Marks & Spencer to explore LEO - a blend of lignin and ethanol - that could be part of the future solution for sustainable shipping.From the phone, tablet or computer you are reading this on, to the fruit you eat, the trousers you wear or the car you drive, around 80% of the goods you use every day are delivered to you by sea. Shipping accounts for 2-3% of global CO2 emissions, a proportion that is set to increase as global trade continues to grow at a sluggish but steady pace. As such, this industry has an urgent need to reduce its environmental impact.Maersk and Wallenius Wilhelmsen have teamed up with Copenhagen University and major customers including BMW Group…

The very large crude oil carrier (VLCC) Tanzawa, the first new NYK-owned vessel to include an SOx scrubber, has been delivered into the NYK fleet. On October 3, a naming and delivery ceremony was held at the Kure shipyard of Japan Marine United Corporation, and attended by Akira Kono, NYK managing corporate officer, and other related parties.The new vessel is equipped with a scrubber that is compliant with the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) more stringent SOx emission regulation…

NYK has placed an order for the world largest pure car and truck carrier (PCTC) capable of navigating oceans with only LNG as the main fuel. A keel laying ceremony was held on September 20 at Shin Kurushima Toyohashi Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., and NYK managing corporate officer Takaya Soga and other related parties were in attendance. The ship is scheduled to be delivered in 2020 and will be the first large LNG-fueled PCTC to be built in Japan.To minimize a reduction in vehicle loading capacity caused by the installation of LNG fuel tanks…

Mediterranean resort town Cannes, France's fourth-biggest cruise ship port, will ban the most polluting cruise ships from next year in a bid to boost air quality in the city.The ban will target ships that do not respect a 0.1% cap on sulphur in their fuel and could stop some passengers from disembarking in the city famous for its film festival."It's not about being against cruise ships. It's about being against pollution," Cannes Mayor David Lisnard told Reuters Television in an interview.Under the European Union's clean air policy…

Danfoss Editron has delivered two 105kW motors that will help power Edel, the first hybrid vessel built for the aquaculture sector by Norwegian shipyard Moen Marin. Edel is also the first diesel-electric vessel in the fleet of NRS Farming, Norway’s leading producer of sustainable salmon.The 13.5 by 7.5m vessel will become part of NRS Farming’s fleet and be used for sustainable fishing in salmon farms located in Norway’s fjords. As it has an operating pattern of predominantly short trips, NRS Farming plans to run Edel mainly on battery power.

The technology group Wärtsilä will supply a broad scope of solutions that will support Hurtigruten, the world’s largest expedition cruise operator, in its push for greener and more sustainable shipping.Hurtigruten is converting an additional three vessels to become premium, hybrid powered expedition cruise ships. The order with Wärtsilä was placed in Q2 2019 and covers the ‘MS Finnmarken’, the first of the three vessels to be upgraded. Following the conversion project, the 140 metre…

Classification society ClassNK has undergone structural changes that include an integration of its point of contacts in order to more quickly and efficiently support clients with the IMO’s upcoming Sulphur Cap which will be globally enforced starting in January of 2020.In light of the increasingly strengthening SOx regulation, until now ClassNK had already been providing not only appropriate plan approvals/site surveys and information on international/regional regulations, but also carrying out various other initiatives to provide clients with compliant support to the new regulation.

Bristol Harbor Group, Inc. (BHGI) was contracted by the New York Power Authority (NYPA) to provide naval architecture and marine engineering services to review and analyze a Canadian Coast Guard buoy for required internal ballast and mooring in order to secure the buoy moorings in tailrace waters.NYPA’s fast water warning buoys had reached the end of their life cycle. BHGI conducted a site visit at the Moses-Saunders Power Dam in Massena, NY. The purpose of the visit was to inspect…

As part of its ongoing commitment to sustainability, Damen Shipyards Group is having solar panels installed at a number of its Dutch yards. Collectively, the installations will provide approximately 12 MW clean electricity per year.Project manager, Gerard Kornet, of Damen explains, “At Damen, we always take a long-term view. It’s part of our culture as a family company, we want to ensure the sustainability of the business for the next generation. This means that what we do has to be both profitable and in tune with the environment in which we operate.

The Board of Directors of StormGeo has appointed Søren Andersen as the new CEO of StormGeo. Andersen will take up his new position on September 2, 2019. Interim CEO, Henrik Dahl, will reassume his role as Non-executive Director on the Board of Directors of StormGeo.Andersen has more than 20 years of leadership experience from companies such as A.P. Møller – Maersk, APL, Rickmers and several start-ups. Most recently, he served as the CEO of 2020seaways, a modern shipowner focused on environmentally and economically superior container tonnage.

The Coast Guard Captain of the Port set port condition Whiskey for Hawaii County, Tuesday afternoon.Commercial ports in Hawaii County are Hilo Harbor and Kawaihae Harbor of the Big Island.During Port heavy weather condition WHISKEY, gale force winds 39 mph are predicted to arrive within 72 hours. Both ports currently remain open to all commercial and recreational traffic.The public is reminded of these important safety messages:When hurricane or tropical storm force winds are present stay off the water. The Coast Guard’s search and rescue capabilities degrade as storm conditions strengthen.

The voluntary French sea rescue organization “Société Nationale de Sauvetage en Mer” (SNSM) has had one of its 12 meter-long rescue vessels (SN 203) coated  with the Fouling Release Film Renolit Dolphin S. The test at the location of Pornichet, near Saint-Nazaire in Brittany is being monitored by the SNSM’s National Technical Department and is scheduled to run for one year. All necessary performance parameters of the film on the hull will be routinely checked by divers.The non-profit organization…

The decarbonization drive is gearing up to be the defining issue faced by the shipping sector in the coming decades and the industry is searching for low carbon and zero emissions technologies that will deliver on the International Maritime Organization (IMO) initial strategy of reducing emissions by at least 50% by 2050. One family of technologies that is seeing an upsurge of interest in the industry is wind-assist and primary wind propulsion solutions. Today the Paris headquartered…

Tropical Storm Barry formed on Thursday with heavy rains expected across the north-central U.S. Gulf Coast, the National Hurricane Center said.Barry, the second named storm of the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season, was located about 95 miles (150 kilometers) south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River at about 11 a.m. EDT with maximum sustained winds of 40 miles (65 km) per hour, the Miami-based weather forecaster said. (Reuters, Reporting by Swati Verma in Bengaluru Editing by Bill Trott)

Venice should be put on the United Nations' list of endangered cities and cruise ships should be banned from its fragile lagoon to prevent an ecological disaster, Italy's main conservation group said on Monday.The call came less than a month after a towering cruise ship collided with a dock and a tourist boat in Venice, injuring four people and rekindling a heated debate in Italy about how to protect the historic city, which draws some 30 million tourists a year."Venice is unique and we cannot allow it to be destroyed even more than it has been already…

Portline Bulk International S.A. pleaded guilty in federal court in Charleston, South Carolina, to one count of violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships and one count of Obstruction. The charges stem from the falsification of the Oil Record Book onboard the M/V Achilleus, a Maltese-flagged ocean-going bulk carrier ship managed by Defendant Portline.From April 2017 to August 2018, senior members of the vessel’s engineering team oversaw and participated in the bypass of the ship’s Oil Water Separator utilizing a yellow plastic hose, referred to as a magic pipe. The ship’s Chief Engineer made a series of fake entries and key omissions in the Oil Record Book in order to conceal the illegal overboard discharges of oily bilge water. On Aug.

A new carbon neutral product - the first of its kind in the industry - is being piloted with select Maersk customers who are highly engaged in sustainable solutions for their supply chain. H&M Group is the first company to trial it as part of the shift towards carbon-neutral transportation.The biofuel in the pilot project is the same blend of used cooking oil and heavy which has been tested and successfully validated in a trial driven in collaboration with the Dutch Sustainability Growth Coalition (DSGC), and Shell his year.

Indian authorities are preparing to evacuate 300,000 people along the western coast as a severe cyclone is expected to make landfall on Thursday morning in the state of Gujarat.Storm Vayu, which formed in the Arabian Sea, is likely to cross the Gujarat coast with gust speeds as high as 135 kmph (84 mph), the India Meteorological Department said in a statement.It also warned the cyclone could further delay the progress of the annual monsoon rains over the rest of India, as the storm was drawing rain clouds from over the sea.The arrival of the monsoons on the southern coast of Kerala was already about a week late this year.Gujarat Chief…