Coast Guard crews are searching for two missing crewmembers following a platform explosion approximately 20 miles southeast of Grand Isle, last Friday morning. Eleven crewmembers have been medevaced from the Black Elk Energy-owned platform to various local hospitals. Nine additional crewmembers were safely evacuated off the platform. The fire has been extinguished, and a sheen has been spotted in the area. The Coast Guard is searching approximately a 1,400 square-mile area around the platform.
The MV GL Lan Xiu, which was carrying 2000 head of livestock, was refuelling at Hamilton in Brisbane in January when an accidental oil spill occurred. It took less than five minutes for about 4.5 tonnes of oil to spew into the Brisbane River after a valve was not closed properly. The vessel’s owner of the ship that has caused the oil spill in the Brisbane River has been fined $60,000.
The world’s first specialized vessel for the carriage of Nickel Ore has been built and registered to the NK class. The vessel, the Jules Garnier II, was built by Naikai Zosen Corporation and delivered to Japanese shipping major JX Shipping Co. Ltd on 19 September 2012, and is the first vessel in the world to be recognized as a Specially Constructed Cargo Ship for the carriage of Nickel Ore in accordance with the IMO’s IMSBC Code. The 27,200 dwt Jules Garnier II is the first vessel in the world to apply ClassNK’s new requirements in its construction and makes use longitudinal bulkheads in in its cargo holds to ensure stability and structural strength even when liquefied nickel ore cargoes are loaded.
If you are a seafarer, tutor, lecturer, trainer, training manager, ship manager or ship owner, then you could help GlobalMET in collecting information and opinions on the quality of maritime education and training by completed one of the three questionnaires that can be found HERE. The purpose of these questionnaires is to gain a clearer insight into maritime education and training standards and perceptions. The intended output from this questionnaire and further research will be a best-practice guidance document based upon the OCIMF tanker management self-assessment model.
Sources: IMAREST
During the 3rd annual SAFETY4SEA forum held in Athens in October 2012, George A.Gaitas, Attorney at Law in Houston Texas Chalos & Co. gave a very interesting speech on how a shipping company may get caught in a whistleblower situation and end up paying heavy fines and/or other penalties without ever committing an actual oil pollution. More than a decade has passed since the United States Department of Justice launched a vigorous campaign to enforce the observance of MARPOL 73/78 Annex I regulations by foreign ships calling at U.S. ports. Some ten years later, one would think that ship owners and ship managers would have caught-on, and found ways to effectively deal with it. Unfortunately it hasn’t worked out that way.
Two German shipping companies pleaded guilty in early November in federal court in Houston to criminal charges that they concealed the illegal dumping of oil at sea from U.S. Coast Guard inspectors. The operator and owner of the commercial cargo vessel MV Susan K, will pay a $1.2 million dollar criminal penalty, $200,000 of which will go to the National Marine Sanctuaries Fund as a community service payment for projects aimed at preserving and restoring the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary located off the Texas coast. As a condition of probation, all vessels owned or operated by the defendants will be prohibited from entering U.S. ports or waters for five years.
MAN Diesel & Turbo, together with HHI-EMD, the engine and machinery division of Hyundai Heavy Industries, has presented last October the first IMO Tier III-compliant diesel engine MAN B&W 6S80ME-C9 utilising EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation). The EGR system enables the engine to meet IMO Tier III NOx regulations, which will be introduced in ECAs (Emission Controlled Areas) from 2016.
Revised MARPOL Annex V sets new regulatory requirements regarding the disposal of garbage from ships and will come into force on 1 January 2013. The new amendments prohibit the disposal of almost all kinds of garbage at sea with the exemption under specific requirements of food waste, animal carcasses, cargo residues contained in wash water and environmental friendly cleaning agents. As a result of these regulations more and more ships will dispose their ship-generated waste to reception facilities ashore. MARPOL Annex V applies to all ships.
Last month POEA issued a Governing Board Resolution regarding Filipino seafarers working on vessels transiting high-risk areas. According to mentioned resolution the computation of double wage and compensation benefits for seafarers traversing established high risk zones/areas covers overtime and leave pay.
Five crewmen died died after inhaling gas leaking from a chamber of the vessel. The vessel was the 35,559-cbm LPG carrier Maharshi Krishnatreya of Varun Shipping. The incident took place in India. Another seafarer was airlifted to hospital in the town, where he was said to be in a serious condition on a ventilator. The vessel was manned by 20 seafarers in total.
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Officer of the Watch 