Southwest Coast News

An investigation by Australian research organisation CSIRO’s research vessel RV Investigator has confirmed the location of the wreck of the MV Blythe Star.The 44-metre motor vessel Blythe Star was a coastal freighter that disappeared off Tasmania nearly 50 years ago. The vessel was travelling from Hobart to King Island with a cargo of superphosphate fertiliser and a ton of beer in kegs when, on October 13, 1973, it suddenly capsized and sank off the southwest coast of Tasmania…

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Thursday rejected a bid by a businessman to block his extradition to South Korea to face embezzlement charges that stemmed from a 2014 ferry sinking that killed 304 people.Sotomayor rejected Yoo Hyuk-Kee’s request to prevent his extradition from going forward while he appeals lower-court rulings rejecting his effort to avoid being sent to South Korea to face trial on the seven embezzlement charges against him.Sotomayor is the justice assigned to review emergency appeals from a group of states that include New York…

The world's largest, and first custom-built, diamond recovery vessel, to be owned by Debmarine Namibia, will feature an advanced power system by the Swiss company ABB.The vessel is being built by Damen at Damen Shipyards Mangalia on the Black Sea in Romania. The newbuild will be delivered to Debmarine Namibia, a joint venture between the Government of the Republic of Namibia and De Beers Group in 2022. De Beers Group is the world's leading diamond company.Namibia has the richest known marine diamond deposits in the world…

The Coast Guard is responding to a 6.5 magnitude earthquake and seismic activity off the south and southwest coasts of Puerto Rico.All the ports in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands remain open until further notice. Currently, there is no ongoing maritime search and rescue as a result of the registered seismic activity.Coast Guard Sector San Juan and Air Station Borinquen have activated their Incident Management Teams, which remain in close communication with local and federal…

The offshore wind parks specialist Fred Olsen Windcarrier won its first major deal in the Asian market after being picked to install the 8MW Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) turbines at the Yunlin offshore wind farm off Taiwan.Fred. Olsen Windcarrier will mobilise one of its special purpose-built jack-up installation vessels in Europe during the spring of 2020 which will head to Asia to start working in this emerging market.“This is a very exciting project as it is the first large transport and installation project in Asia for us. We are glad to have been picked by SGRE as a reliable partner for this new market. The contract will continue to strengthen our relationship with SGRE.

Danish shipowner ESVAGT and offshore wind farm developer MHI Vestas have sealed long-term contracts for the delivery of two new service operation vessels (SOVs) for separate wind farms off the Netherlands and the U.K.The wind farm service vessels will work the fields Borssele 3-4, located 22 km off the coast of Zeeland in the Netherlands, and Triton Knoll, which is 33 km off the coast of Lincolnshire in England, which together will produce 1,600 MW green energy from 2021. An option for an additional SOV for servicing the farm Moray East off the U.K. is also included.

The capacity for Intelligent Awareness and machine learning technologies to significantly improve navigational safety has been verified by Rolls-Royce and Japanese shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL), following the success of a pilot project aboard a 165m passenger ferry, Sunflower Gold.Results from sea trials on the vessel, which operates night-time sailings between Kobe and Oita, Japan, found that the navigating officers were able to visually detect objects that would otherwise have been cloaked by the blackness of night.The vessel navigates the Akashi Kaikyo…

Marine Hub Cornwall are on a mission to showcase the UK’s southwest coast as a world class center for marine technology and innovation. Working alongside Invest in Cornwall, which manages inward investment into the region, Marine Hub’s Operations Director, Matt Hodson, explains why he believes Cornwall is best positioned to be a global hub for the marine renewable industry.To kick off, can you give the readers a brief overview of your experience and what led you to become the…

South Korean Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said on Tuesday the government will designate five key shipbuilding centres on the country's south coast as "industry crisis" zones eligible for economic support. The areas include Dong-gu in the city of Ulsan, Geoje-si of Kyong-nam province and Jinhae-gu of Changwon, as well as Tongyeong and Mokpo in the southwest coast. These areas are home to heavy shipping and shipbuilding companies and have struggled with high unemployment in recent years. A copy of the minister's speech released from the ministry showed the government would provide financial and tax incentives for suppliers of shipbuilding companies in the designated regions.

A blast caused by a fire on a ship under repair at India's Cochin Shipyard Ltd killed five people on Tuesday, and injured around 11, a company spokeswoman said, prompting the government to call for a quick enquiry. The spokeswoman said smoke hampered rescue operations initially and that an investigation would be launched soon. The ship belongs to the country's top energy explorer, Oil and Natural Gas Corp Ltd, she added. An ONGC official said the ship was undergoing maintenance at state-run Cochin Shipyard on the country's southwest coast. The blast took place inside the water tank, said M.P. Dinesh, a senior police official in the southern state of Kerala where the shipyard is located.

The maritime industry increasingly moves towards autonomy, and Rolls-Royce has been a major driver of the initiative globally. Today Rolls-Royce announced a deal with Japanese multi-modal transport company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL), to collaborate in the development of its intelligent awareness system. Specifically the intitiative will be trialled onboard the 165-m passenger ferry Sunflower, owned and operated by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines’ subsidiary company, which makes the 222-nautical mile run between Kobe and Oita via the Akashi Kaikyo, Bisan Seto and Kurushima Straits.

NC-Lavalin, Dragados Canada and Pennecon announced that their General Partnership (GP) has been awarded a construction contract from Husky Energy as part of the company's West White Rose Project in Newfoundland and Labrador. The GP will build a concrete gravity structure (CGS) for a fixed drilling platform. The CGS, with an overall height of 145m and base diameter of 122m, will require 76,000m3 of concrete in its construction, which will take place in a purpose built dry dock from 2017 to 2021. Once completed and installed in the White Rose field, the CGS will support a topside module to enable drilling and oil extraction 350km away from the coast of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean.

Six fragments of remains found, official says; DNA tests planned to identify remains. The remains of what appears to be at least one unrecovered victim of South Korea's sunken Sewol ferry were found near the salvaged vessel on Tuesday, an official said, nearly three years after the disaster that killed 304 people. The ferry was structurally unsound, overloaded and travelling too fast on a turn when it capsized and sank during a routine voyage off the southwest coast on April 16, 2014. Most of the victims were children on a school excursion. "Six pieces of remains that were found are 4 cm to 18 cm long," Lee Cheol-jo, an official of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, told a briefing.

Rolls-Royce said it has signed a deal with Swedish ferry company Stena Line AB to collaborate in the development of its first intelligent awareness system. Intelligent awareness systems will make vessels safer, easier and more efficient to operate by providing crew with an enhanced understanding of their vessel’s surroundings, according to Rolls-Royce. This will be achieved by fusing data from a range of sensors with information from existing ship systems; such as Automatic Identification System (AIS) and radar. Data from other sources, including global databases, will also have a role.

Tropical Storm Javier formed off of Mexico's Pacific coast on Sunday, unleashing intense winds amid expectations it will churn north toward Baja California and the beach resort of Los Cabos, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Javier was producing maximum sustained winds of 45 miles per hour (72 km per hour), and was located some 110 miles (177 km) west of the port of Manzanillo. "The center of (Javier) should pass offshore of the southwest coast of Mexico today, and approach the southern portion of the Baja California peninsula on Monday," the Miami-based center said in a statement. Javier is expected to produce total rainfall of between 4 inches to 8 inches (10-20 cm) over costal portions of Mexico's Colima…

South Korea has chosen a consortium led by China’s state-run Shanghai Salvage Co. as the preferred bidder to raise the Sewol passenger ferry which sank off Jindo Island on April 16, 2014, the country’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF) said in a statement. The consortium of Shanghai Salvage and an unnamed South Korean company beat six other consortia competing for the contract. The 6,825-tonne Sewol ferry sank off the southwest coast in April 2014. A total of 295 bodies were recovered, but nine remained unaccounted for when divers finally called off the dangerous search of the sunken vessel last November. The Sewol lies 40 metres (130 feet) down on the sea bed and bringing it to the surface represents a substantial technical challenge.

The state audit agency has interrogated the chief of the Navy over a faulty Navy salvage ship that failed to participate in the national rescue operation for the ferry Sewol that sank off the southwest coast in April according to an unnamed source cited by Yonhap News Agency. The interrogation of Navy Chief Adm. Hwang Ki-chul is part of the Board of Audit and Inspection's probe into the military's project to construct the first South Korean-built salvage ship Tongyeong, according to the source. The military completed the construction of the salvage ship with local shipbuilder Daweoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in 2012, but the military has refused to take over the vessel, citing its insufficient sonar system as well as a remotely operated vehicle for underwater maneuvers.

South Korea's biggest and most bizarre manhunt, linked to a ferry disaster in which hundreds drowned, has come full circle at the compound of a sect known for its organic ice cream as police on Thursday used earth movers to search for tunnels. Police have raided the grounds of the Evangelical Baptist Church in Anseong, a two-hour drive south of Seoul, twice as they try to flush out church co-founder Yoo Byung-un, 73, South Korea's most wanted man since the Sewol ferry sank in April killing more than 300 people, mostly children from the same school.

MOKPO, South Korea, May 20 (Reuters) - South Korea's legal system appears to be failing 15 surviving crew of a ferry that sank last month, killing hundreds of children, with their being tried and convicted by an angry public before the case has even come to court. Lawyers are agonising over how they can mount a convincing defence of the crew, who jumped ship as the children waited in their cabins, dressed in life jackets, obediently following orders before a disaster that put the whole country in mourning. The absence of determined defence may mean that the crew's side of the story - whether, for instance, they were adequately trained or whether they were given strict orders to abandon ship - may never be heard in court.

A diver searching for bodies in a sunken ferry died on Friday after an accident, the coast guard said, as a car believed to be used by a fugitive businessman linked to the ship was reported found. The diver was pulled from the water where he was involved in the cutting open of the hull in the hope of reaching some of 16 people missing 45 days after the vessel sank, a coast guard official said. The man, in his forties, was bleeding from the face and unconscious when he was pulled to the surface and died in hospital, the official said. He was the second diver to die since the April 16 disaster. The Sewol, overloaded and travelling too fast on a turn…

A victim from the South Korean ferry disaster was found in waters roughly 25 miles from the site of the capsized vessel, the Associated Press reported. The body is the first recovered since May 21, bringing the death toll to 289. Government officials said fingerprint scans identified the body as one of the passengers from the ferry Sewol that sank on April 16. Fifteen people remain missing as divers continue o search the wreckage. AP reported that divers are impeded by heavy objects such as desks and cabinets which have made it difficult to navigate through unsearched parts of the ferry.

Captain caught abandoning boat in his underwear as children stayed in cabins; "Imagine the children were yours," mourning families tell crew. Fifteen crew of a South Korean ferry that sank in April killing more than 300 people, most of them children, went on trial on Tuesday on charges ranging from negligence to homicide, with the shout going up of "murderer" as the captain entered the court. Captain Lee Joon-seok, 68, and three senior crew members were charged with homicide, facing a maximum sentence of death. Two were charged with fleeing and abandoning ship that carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. Nine were charged with negligence, which can also carry jail terms.

South Korea's biggest and most bizarre manhunt, linked to a ferry disaster in which hundreds drowned, has come full circle at the compound of a sect known for its organic ice cream as police on Thursday used earth movers to search for tunnels. Police have raided the grounds of the Evangelical Baptist Church in Anseong, a two-hour drive south of Seoul, twice as they try to flush out church co-founder Yoo Byung-un, 73, South Korea's most wanted man since the Sewol ferry sank in April killing more than 300 people, mostly children from the same school. But, so far, Yoo, a businessman and photographer who was once jailed for fraud, has eluded capture in a case which has become an embarrassment for authorities already under pressure for their handling of the disaster.