Sea Serpent News

A patrolling Coast Guard aircrew spotted, pursued and compelled a lancha across the U.S./Mexican border, Friday, after the lancha was spotted poaching in U.S waters. At 2:30 p.m., a Coast Guard aircrew aboard an HU-25 Falcon aircraft spotted the 25-foot lancha fishing 45 miles offshore of Port Isabel and 7 miles north of the U.S./Mexican border. The aircrew immediately notified Coast Guard Sector Corpus Christi, and pursued the vessel south, forcing it across the border. The Coast Guard Cutter Cobia, an 87-foot coastal patrol boat, also pursued the lancha, but was unable to intercept it. The Cobia is currently searching for any longline gear the lancha may have laid. The Coast Guard is continuing its efforts in conjunction with Operation Sea Serpent.

U.S. Coast Guard crews at Station South Padre Island have completed the qualification and trial run process, Tuesday, for the new 45-foot-Response Boat-Medium that was delivered to the station in late February. The training focused on acclimating the crews to the boat's advanced response capabilities. With twin diesel engines using water-jet propulsion, the RB-M can respond faster than previous boats of similar size and has a top speed in excess of 40 knots. It has advanced search capability with an installed forward-looking infrared search technology. Additionally, with twin jet propulsion, the vessel is extremely maneuverable and is better suited to respond to mariners in distress and law enforcement operations.

Coast Guard crew seizes a lancha, 297 illegally caught fish, & detain crew of 4 Mexican nationals apprehended fishing in US waters in the US Exclusive Economic Zone. The cutter's crew spotted the lancha 10 miles north of the U.S./Mexico border. The crew launched a small boat to pursue the lancha, which stopped and was boarded. The crew was able to determine that the four Mexicans onboard had been fishing illegally, having caught 272 red snapper, four mackerel and 21 blacktip shark.

As the evolution and integration of robotics in maritime vehicles continues to reshape missions and capabilities inland, near-shore and at sea, Maritime Reporter & Engineering News last month was on hand in Abu Dhabi for the unveiling of a new Unmanned Surface Vessel family. If it delivers as designed, it will revolutionize marine robotic vehicle applications for both military and commercial purposes. Robert J. Murphy is certainly no stranger to the world of autonomous robotic marine vehicles, having worked in the field for more than a quarter of a century, dating to the mid-1980s.

Today Al Seer Marine and 5G International announced the introduction of a new family of unmanned surface vessels, a family ranging from the 3m Sea Serpent to the 11m monohull Eclipse. The USV family is designed to rapidly penetrate a vibrant Middle East defense market and to offer affordable, dependable USV options for commercial operations. Eclipse, the top-of-class 11-m monohull. While USV technology is surely not in its infancy, in relative terms, particularly when considering dramatic strides made in aerial and ground robotics, it is still pre-puberty.

Award-winning technology adds to GAC's range of vessel protection solutions. GAC Maritime Security has added the award winning P-trap anti-boarding device to its range of non-lethal vessel protection solutions. A winner at the 5th Safety at Sea International Awards and a finalist in the Seatrade Awards and Lloyd's List Awards in 2011, P-trap is an engine blocking system that creates a security zone around the ship to prevent other vessels from approaching too close and attempting to board.

GAC Maritime Security has entered into a strategic partnership with Mobile Defense Systems LLC to provide PirateFence  anti-grapple razor wire to protect vessels from attacks by sea criminals. This marks the latest addition to GAC Maritime Security's expanding portfolio of protective solutions for vessel owners and operators seeking to put in place a non-lethal, multi-layered risk mitigation system. PirateFence  is a modular-based perimeter protection system with an innovative anti-climb and grapple-resistant component.

GAC Protective Solutions, Powered by AKE, has entered into two new strategic partnerships with the innovators of anti-piracy technologies to help protect vessels, cargoes and seafarers: Unifire's SEASERPENT Anti-Pirate Water Cannon System and Intelligent Engineering's (IE) SPS Citadel Access Protection. Unifire's SEASERPENT Water Cannon System is a unique, non-lethal protective measure using high-volume, remote control water cannons to rapidly flood pirate skiffs. By delivering a jet of up to 80 litres of water per second from a range of 80 metres…

Unique Maritime Group’s marine buoyancy solutions help stricken vessel and world’s largest windfarm; highlights the diverse uses for Seaflex buoyancy systems. Unique Maritime Group, one of the world’s leading integrated turnkey subsea and offshore solution providers, today announced two key projects, involving buoyancy systems provided by Seaflex Ltd. The London Array is an offshore wind farm under construction in the outer Thames Estuary in the United Kingdom. With 1,000 megawatt (MW) capacity, it is expected to become the world's largest offshore wind farm.

Unifire AB of Sweden (PirateSafe.com) has released an exclusive new video of their Force 80™ Anti-Pirate Water Cannon System on their YouTube channel. The video shows Unifire's "Force 80" remote control water cannons (a.k.a. "monitors") in action on a large chemical tanker. These impressive water cannons are high-tech and made of acid-proof, marine grade Stainless Steel 316L. Unifire’s Anti-Pirate Water Cannon Systems are extremely powerful, yet non-lethal, devices for getting tough with pirates and hijackers.