Clay Maitland, Founding Chairman of the North American Marine Environment Protection Association (NAMEPA), announced the recipients of NAMEPA’s 2012 Marine Environment Protection Awards.
A Bahamian flagged tanker ran aground on a shoal to the east of Aegna island at 6:55 on Monday morning. According to officials there is no threat of pollution or danger to the 24-member crew of the Kyeema Spirit, which was not carrying cargo. The tanker had been leaking bilge water, but the leakage has now been stopped.
The Japanese Coast Guard is searching for 13 crew members which went missing from a fishing boat after it collided with a larger cargo ship in Japan’s Pacific Ocean. The 13 missing members of the fishing boat were part of a 22-man crew on board the 119-ton Horiei Maru. The fishing boat collided with the 25,000-ton Nikkei Tiger about 900 kilometres east of Sendai at 2.30am last Sunday morning.
INTERTANKO’s Executive Committee (ExCom) recently held its third meeting for 2012 in Rome, Italy, focusing on the major issues currently facing independent tanker owners such as tanker market sustainability, piracy, ballast water management and air emissions. Participants expressed concern over the state of the tanker industry and the rising costs of shipping, which are considered the most crucial issue facing INTERTANKO’s Members. They noted that, while independent owners acknowledged to have contributed to the problems by over-ordering, current market levels could actually endanger the supply chain element of safe, sustainable transportation of oil, products and chemicals.
A cargo ship has run aground on its maiden voyage from Southampton to the Channel Islands. The Huelin Dispatch was loaded with containers from Southampton to the Channel Islands. The vessel hit a rock off the coast of Alderney on last Friday. The vessel issued a distress call after running aground on an isolated rock one and a half miles south-west of Alderney. All crew and cargo are safe.
EU and IMO differences for maritime emissions came to surface on a relevant conference hosted by the European Policy Centre and supported by the Mission of Norway to the European Union. Definite rules on emissions regulations might have not been discussed in depth, but what has been clearly understood from the different opinions that have been expressed is that EU and IMO are not in convergence regarding ship emissions although they both aim at the same target, that is to reduce emissions produced by the maritime industry.
A new levy on all vessels calling at Nigerian ports came into force on September 1, 2012 according to the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).
Rolls-Royce, the global power systems company, has delivered the first of its newly-developed permanent magnet tunnel thruster (TT-PM) to Norwegian company Olympic Shipping, who will operate the thruster on their vessel Olympic Octopus.
At about 1450 on 8 October 2010, the partially loaded Liberian registered bulk carrier Grand Rodosi collided with the Australian fishing vessel Apollo S in Port Lincoln, South Australia. As a result of the collision, Apollo S, which was unmanned, was crushed against the wharf and sank shortly afterwards. Grand Rodosi sustained several relatively small holes in its bow shell plating.
Since 2002 Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) fitting has been available for vessels along with relevant backup arrangement as per SOLAS regulation V/19-2.1.4. This option has changed into a mandatory requirement (IMO Maritime Safety Committee in May / June 2009) since further amendments to SOLAS regulation V/19 made the carriage of ECDIS mandatory on vessels engaged in international voyages.
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Officer of the Watch 