According to Fairplay, Denmark’s TORM crew onboard the tanker Torm Gertrud used a novel method to repel a pirate attack off Nigeria over the weekend. Jakob Risom, press officer at TORM reported that the crew overflowed the ballast system meaning that water was poured over the side of the vessel.
MSC 90 was held in London from 16-25 May 2012 under the chairmanship of Deputy Director-General Christian Breinholt. At the ninetieth session of the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC 90) the following items have been discussed and relevant decisions have been taken: Piracy, Passenger ship safety, Navigation bridge visibility, Fishing vessel safety, The Polar Code, Development of new ship standards and the use of risk analyses.
The ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) is calling for the Panamanian and Mexican authorities to reveal the results of their investigations into the death of the young engineering cadet Dayra Wood Pino (age 22) aboard the Panamanian flagged products tanker El Valencia – and to answer questions about:
Fifty contractual workers of a Shipping Company went on hunger strike on Saturday as their long-pending demands have not been met. The workers alleged that the company is not concerned about fulfilling their demands. The company has given the contract of operating tugs to a firm called SVS. Workers from captain to deck crew sat on dharna at the company’s jetty. At present, 10 tugs are being operated at Hazira and all their workers are on strike. The strike brought to a standstill all work at the company’s jetty.
Almost a week ago a crewman onboard bulk carrier MV Sage Sagittarius was reported missing, possibly after a dispute about conditions on the ship. An investigation had been initiated by the Australian Federal Police. Now the police is investigating again a second suspicious death on the coal ship Sage Sagittarius. The police has set up a crime scene at the ship, where it is berthed at the Dyke wharves at Carrington in Newcastle.
On Sept. 20, the empty 230-metre ship MV Miner was being towed by a tugboat to a Turkish scrapyard when it broke free in rough seas and ran aground on Scatarie Island, a provincial wilderness area about two kilometres from the northeast coast of Cape Breton. Initially attempts to pull the former Great Lakes freighter off the rocks failed but now new operations have been scheduled in order to remove the grounded vessel.
MIT researchers have developed a new technique for magnetically separating oil and water that could be used to clean up oil spills. They believe that, with their technique, the oil could be recovered for use, offsetting much of the cost of cleanup. The researchers will present their work at the International Conference on Magnetic Fluids in January. Shahriar Khushrushahi, a postdoc in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, is lead author on the paper, joined by Markus Zahn, the Thomas and Gerd Perkins Professor of Electrical Engineering, and T. Alan Hatton, the Ralph Landau Professor of Chemical Engineering. The team has also filed two patents on its work.
A Greek shipping company must pay the US federal government $300,000 after admitting that one of its vessels discharged waste oil into the Atlantic Ocean, U.S. Attorney Donald J. Cazayoux Jr. announced Wednesday in Baton Rouge. “The oceans must be protected from shipping companies that look to cut corners by dumping waste improperly,” said Ivan Vikin, special agent-in-charge of the EPA’s criminal enforcement program in Louisiana.
The following information have been gathered mainly from PSC MoUs sites and may serve only as reference for the inspections being carried out each month by each MoU. The consistency of the information may differ between MoU since there are slight differences on the way each organization presents the inspection info. Moreover, depending on the organization and the date this post is being published there might not be enough statistical data for the month under review. For more information on the inspections carried out please refer to each organization’s site.
Stricter limits on the sulphur content of shipping fuels are set to improve air quality along European coastlines and reduce the estimated 50,000 premature deaths caused each year by air pollution from ships. EU parliament today approved legislation agreed with member states, which requires new general limits to be in place by 2020.
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Officer of the Watch 