Santa Barbara Channel News

U.S.-based Pacific shipping company Matson announced it has adjusted its sailing routes to help reduce the risk of whale strikes off the coast of California.Shipping channels into and out of San Francisco Bay and the Los Angeles/Long Beach port complex transit federally protected national marine sanctuaries. These sanctuaries –Monterey Bay, Greater Farallones, and Cordell Bank national marine sanctuaries–are destination feeding areas for threatened and endangered humpback and blue whales from late spring through the fall.In 2015…

Moose Boats won a new contract from Santa Barbara Harbor Patrol for the construction of a M2–35 Catamaran Rescue/Patrol Boat. “The Santa Barbara Harbor Patrol is excited to partner with Moose Boats to build our next generation patrol, fire, and rescue vessel," Santa Barbara Harbor Patrol Supervisor, Nathan Alldredge. "Santa Barbara Harbor Patrol is the primary emergency response for the city’s harbor, marina, beaches and Wharf. Additionally, Harbor Patrol’s area of responsibility extends to the near coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean from Santa Barbara Point to Loon Point and out to 3 miles.

The U.S. Coast Guard last week called off its active search for a crewmember that reportedly fell from a bulk carrier off the coast of Califronia.The crewmember is said to have gone overboard from the Panamanian-flagged African Cardinal, 14 miles southwest of Point Conception, Calif. while transiting the Santa Barbara Channel Traffic Separation Scheme en route to the Port of Long Beach.At approximately 5 a.m. on June 20, Coast Guard Sector Los Angeles – Long Beach Command Center watchstanders received the man overboard report and immediately issued an Urgent Marine Information Broadcast (UMIB) via VHF channel 16, stating the nature of the situation.

An incorrectly installed section of main engine fuel oil return tubing led to an engine room fire aboard a containership off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif., the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said Tuesday.Marine Investigation Report 22/15 details the NTSB’s investigation of the April 28, 2021, fire aboard the containership President Eisenhower while transiting through the Santa Barbara Channel. The vessel was transiting to Oakland, California with a crew of 22. The crew extinguished the fire using the engine room’s fixed carbon dioxide fire-extinguishing system. As a result of the fire, the vessel lost propulsion and drifted for several hours before being towed to the Port of Los Angeles. No pollution or injuries were reported.

The partners in an initiative to cut air pollution and protect endangered whales announced results from the 2018 program and recognized the 12 shipping companies that participated, reducing speeds to 10 knots or less in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Santa Barbara Channel region.The voluntary incentive program ran July 1 - November 15, 2018. Partners recognized the companies at a ceremony at the Bannings Landing Community Center near the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach.Shipping companies received financial awards based on the percent of distance traveled by their vessels through the Vessel Speed Reduction (VSR) zones at…

In an effort to protect whales and cut ship emissions, California continues its Protecting Blue Whales and Blue Skies Program and establishes voluntary vessel speed reduction zones in the Santa Barbara Channel region and San Francisco Bay area between 1 July 2018 and 15 November 2018. "Many of you are probably aware that the US West Coast has some of the heaviest ship traffic associated with some of the largest ports in the country, such as the Californian ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. You may also be aware that strict air pollution regulations in California have forced many ships to slow down off the Californian coast. But did you know that California’s waters are host to numerous threatened and endangered whale species?

Partners in an initiative to cut air pollution and protect whales have announced results from the 2017 program and publicly recognized the 11 shipping companies who participated, reducing speeds to 12 knots or less in two regions. For the first time the program included speed reduction zones in the San Francisco Bay Area in addition to the Santa Barbara Channel region. The voluntary incentive program started July 1 and ended November 15, 2017. Automatic Identification System (AIS) data for ship speeds in the program verified that more than 140 transits were successful in reducing speeds to 12 knots or less, and more than half of these were successful in achieving a bonus incentive for slowing to 10 knots or less.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL)  is pleased to announce that the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary has honored MOL with an award for the company's participation in the 2016 Vessel Speed Reduction (VSR) incentive program. Launched in 2016 by NOAA's Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District, Ventura County Air Pollution Control District, National Marine Sanctuary Foundation and Volgenau Foundation, the VSR program is a voluntary program that incentivizes containerships to slow down to speed at or below 12 knots, thereby reducing air pollution and enhancing protection of endangered whales in the Santa Barbara Channel.

Evergreen Line has received recognition for its excellent performance in a voluntary environmental and ecological protection program, which started on July 1 last year and ended on November 15. The initiative was aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions of vessels and avoiding whale collisions by encouraging slow sailing speeds in California's  Santa Barbara Channel region. The recognition ceremony took place on January 23, 2017. Vessels enrolled in this program were required to reduce speeds to 12 knots or less within 95 nautical miles of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. This practice helps to minimize the emissions of greenhouse gases and thus reduce their influence on air quality within the port community.

A conservation group said the federal government must stop approving offshore fracking from oil platforms in California's Santa Barbara Channel under the settlement of a lawsuit it filed. The group, the Center for Biological Diversity, in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, had challenged what it said was the U.S. Department of the Interior's practice of rubber-stamping fracking off California's coast without engaging the public or analyzing fracking's threats to ocean ecosystems, coastal communities and marine life. The settlement reached on Friday prohibits officials from authorizing fracking practices in federal waters until the Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement complete an environmental review…

Steamship Mutual advises that beginning January 1, 2016 Marine Spill Response Corporation (MSRC) will no longer provide California Shoreline Protection (CASP) and On Water Response Coverage services for vessels calling at the Port of Hueneme, Calif. and/or transiting the southbound traffic lanes of the Santa Barbara Channel. However, MSRC will continue to meet the planning standards for 12 hours and greater in the Santa Barbara Channel and Port Hueneme and will respond in these areas in the event of an incident. Furthermore, from January 1, 2016, So Cal Ship Services (SCSS) will provide CASP response services to meet the two hour skimming…

A second sea lion rescued from along California's oil-fouled coastline near Santa Barbara has died at SeaWorld San Diego, where veterinarians are still caring for 15 surviving marine mammals brought in for treatment, a spokesman said on Tuesday. The petroleum-stained pinnipeds are among the earliest apparent wildlife casualties documented from a pipeline rupture that dumped as much as 2,400 barrels (101,000 gallons or 382,327 liters) of crude oil onto the shoreline and into the ocean west of Santa Barbara one week ago. The spill left an oil slick stretching for more than 9 miles (14.5 km) along the coast and forced the indefinite closure of two popular beaches. The area also has been placed off-limits to fishing and shellfish harvesting.

Several petroleum-stained pelicans rescued from the blackened muck of California's latest oil spill spent the day on Friday being gently, painstakingly scrubbed clean at a wildlife rehabilitation center in Los Angeles. The six pelicans brought this week to the Los Angeles Oiled Bird Care and Education Center in the city's San Pedro harbor area were the first known surviving wildlife casualties from a pipeline rupture on Tuesday about 150 miles away near Santa Barbara. They were to be joined soon by two more oil-contaminated pelicans from the spill zone, said Christine Fiorello, a veterinarian from the Oiled Wildlife Care Network at the University of California, Davis.

The U.S. Coast Guard captain overseeing cleanup of oil spilled from a pipeline rupture that closed two California state beaches and fouled offshore waters near Santa Barbara said on Thursday it may take months to restore the area to its natural condition. Up to 2,500 barrels (105,000 gallons) of crude petroleum, according to latest estimates, gushed onto San Refugio State Beach and into the Pacific about 20 miles (32 km) west of Santa Barbara on Tuesday when an underground pipeline that runs along the coastal highway burst. As much as a fifth of the amount was believed to have reached the ocean, leaving oil slicks that stretched for more than 9 miles (15 km) along the coast.

Mariners do best when they avoid the edges of the sea – the shoals, rocks, and other hard spots. Coming into contact with the edges of the sea at other than a slow walking speed can ruin an otherwise pleasant voyage. Unfortunately, though, vessels have been making hard contact with the edges since Noah’s Ark grounded on Mount Ararat, rendering the Ark unseaworthy. For a while, it was thought that the leadline would reduce groundings, but one can’t be swinging the leadline constantly. Lighthouses were another early means of identifying hard spots by means other than direct contact.

Monitoring efforts along the Pacific Coast of the U.S. and Canada have detected the presence of small amounts of radioactivity from the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident 100 miles (150 km) due west of Eureka, California. Scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) found the trace amounts of telltale radioactive compounds as part of their ongoing monitoring of natural and human sources of radioactivity in the ocean. In the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami off Japan, the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant released cesium-134 and other radioactive elements into the ocean at unprecedented levels. Since then, the radioactive plume has traveled west across the Pacific, propelled largely by ocean currents and being diluted along the way.

NOAA, NASA and the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) have joined together to support three demonstration projects that will lay the foundation for the first national network to monitor marine biodiversity at scales ranging from microbes to whales. The projects, to be funded at approximately $17 million over the next five years, subject to the availability of funds, will demonstrate how a national operational marine biodiversity observation network could be developed. Such a network would serve as a marine resource management tool to conserve existing biodiversity and enhance U.S. biosecurity against threats such as invasive species and infectious agents.

The security drill was the first since the rollout of the Port’s new Maritime Advanced Systems and Technology Lab (MAST) program and involved an Offshore Platform Security Threat Awareness and Response Program exercise (OPSTAR) conducted by the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Asymmetric Warfare and the U.S. Coast Guard. The half day OPSTAR exercise called for a simulated attack and occupation of an Off Shore Oil Platform within the Santa Barbara Channel and included a no…

All American Marine, Inc., announced the launch of the Condor Express, Southern California's first quad-jet powered catamaran charter boat. The catamaran's new owner, Capt. Fred Benko, set out recently from Bellingham's Cruise Terminal for Santa Barbara, where the boat will be used for whale watching tours and other functions between Santa Barbara and the Channel Islands. The Condor Express is All American Marine's 10th Teknicraft high-speed aluminum power catamaran. In addition to serving both tourists and scientists interested in whale watching, the boat will also be used for dinner cruises, weddings and other celebrations, as well as marine education for children.

Coast Guard District Eleven continues to support the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in conducting overflights to monitor the locations of blue whales in the Santa Barbara Channel and surrounding area. This information is being passed to vessel agents to increase industry awareness. Since September 8, 2007, two blue whale carcasses have been discovered in the Santa Barbara Channel, and one was discovered in Long Beach Harbor. The Coast Guard is working closely with NOAA concerning measures to help protect against future blue whale strikes. Commercial mariners are cooperating in this effort. Collisions with whales or sightings of injured whales should be reported to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) at (562) 980-4017. Boaters can contact the U.S.

With eyes on more than 400 environmental and safety concerns, the U.S. Coast Guard officially stopped the clock last week on the approval process for the liquefied natural gas (LNG) project planned for the southern stretches of the Santa Barbara Channel. A proposal from Texas-based NorthernStar Energy to convert the Platform Grace oil rig — some 10 miles off the coast of Santa Barbara and directly adjacent to the boundaries of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary — into an LNG facility had been on a fast-tracked review process that could have seen the Clearwater Port project approved as soon as next June — until now, that is. In a letter sent directly to NorthernStar on October 30, the Coast Guard, in conjunction with the U.S.

A catastrophic release of liquefied natural gas from a terminal proposed off the Ventura County coast could spread a powerful and spectacular fireball over several miles, but pose no threat on land because the facility would be at least 14 miles offshore, a new study shows. The gas-processing plant, one of four proposed for Southern California, would convert fuel shipped from across the Pacific Ocean for use in Los Angeles-area factories and power plants. Such terminals operate around the world with a good safety record, yet the newly released analysis shows that the effect of a worst-case disaster would be significantly greater than identified when the project, called Cabrillo Port, was proposed nearly three years ago.

RINCON Marine, Inc., has taken delivery of its newest addition, anchor handling tug Santa Cruz. The 190 x 44 x 16 ft. vessel is the first of two vessels of this design being built at Eastern Shipbuilding Group, incorporating the anchor handling equipment necessary for servicing the oil rigs in Santa Barbara Channel. A traditional supply boat layout has been followed, with capacities including 70,000 gal. diesel fuel, 223,395 gal. ballast water, 7,200 cu.ft. dry bulk mud in six 1,200 cu.ft. tanks, 2,016 barrels grade E liquid mud, and 8.650 gal. or potable water. Santa Cruz has a conventional propulsion arrangement. Main engines fitted are Caterpillar Model 3516B rated at 2,200 bhp @ 1,600 rpm, coupled to Reintjes Model WAF872 gearboxes with a ratio of 6.4:1.