USCG – Officer of the Watch

Monthly PSC Report For November 2012

December 15, 2012 by Officer of the Watch Leave a Comment

The following tables summarize some general findings from the PSC inspections conducted in the main PSC MoU areas (Black Sea MoU, Mediterranean MoU, Indian Ocean MoU, Paris MoU and Tokyo MoU) during last month. Data have been also gathered from various Coast Guard agencies and are presented in each month’s report. Data from other PSC MoUs (Vina del Mar, Abuja MoU, Riyadh MoU) could not be extracted at the time this report has been issued and therefore were not included.

PSC MoUs	Black Sea	Mediterranean	Indian	Paris	Tokyo
Total Inspections	493	488	445	1446	3193
With Deficiencies	356	245	265	1055	2133
Without Deficiencies	137	243	180	391	1060
Detentions	18	42	21	72	108

USCG And OWS Violations

November 27, 2012 by Officer of the Watch Leave a Comment

The large, green generators in the engine room of a 292-foot ship moored to a pier in San Francisco grind to life, filling the enclosed space with machine-produced roar. Coast Guard inspectors take a few slow laps around the room looking for malfunctions, leaks, fire risks and safety hazards.

Avoiding the APPS Magic Pipe Trap

November 14, 2012 by Officer of the Watch 1 Comment

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.

German Shipping Companies Guilty for Illegal Dumping of Oil at Sea

November 9, 2012 by Officer of the Watch 5 Comments

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.

USCG Searching for Missing Crewman in Gulf of Mexico

October 17, 2012 by Officer of the Watch 5 Comments

The US Coast Guard is searching for a missing 26-year-old Turkish crewmember approximately 230 miles south of New Orleans in the Gulf of Mexico Wednesday morning. The second mate was last seen walking the deck of MT AQUA, a Maltese-flagged 248 m tanker vessel, wearing a green and brown shirt with no life jacket. He was reported missing after he did not report for his watch.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: OOW FOCUS Tagged With: Crew, Crewman, MT AQUA, overboard, USCG

Crewman Overboard from MSC Tokyo

October 15, 2012 by Officer of the Watch Leave a Comment

The US Coast Guard is searching for a missing 37-year-old Filipino crewman who might have fell overboard from a container ship off the coast of Mobile, Monday. Coast Guard Station Dauphin Island watchstanders received a call from the Mobile Pilots reporting a missing crewmember aboard the Singapore-flagged MSC Tokyo at approximately 2:30 a.m.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: OOW FOCUS Tagged With: Crew, Crewman, MSC Tokyo, overboard, USCG

Shipping Company Fined for OWS Discharges

September 13, 2012 by Officer of the Watch Leave a Comment

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.

Ship Owner and Chief Engineer Sentenced for Illegal Discharges from Cargo Ship

August 18, 2012 by Officer of the Watch Leave a Comment

A shipping company headquartered in Italy and the chief engineer of one of its ships were sentenced today in federal court in Mobile, Ala., for deliberately falsifying records to conceal discharges of oily wastewater from the ship directly into the sea. Giusseppe Bottiglieri Shipping Company S.P.A, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Ginny Granade in the Southern District of Alabama to pay a $1 million criminal fine, serve four years of probation, and make a $300,000 community service payment to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The company must also fund and implement a comprehensive environmental compliance plan during the term of probation. Chief Engineer Vito La Forgia was sentenced by Judge Granade to one month in jail.

USCG Rule on Ballast Water Discharges

June 12, 2012 by Officer of the Watch Leave a Comment

On March 23, 2012, the USCG issued Rule regarding Standards for Living Organisms in Ships’ Ballast Water Discharged in U.S. Waters, amending the existing ballast water management (“BWM”) regulations and creating a standard for the allowable concentration of living organisms in ballast water discharged in U.S. waters consistent with the International Maritime Organization’s International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments (“BWM Convention”).