MarEx eNewsletter - June 11, 2009

June 11th, 2009 Vol. 7, No. 23 On the Back Burner (Again) As Congress inches along towards the July 4th break, a lot is happening on the maritime front. But, you won't hear about any of it. Looking back on last November's contentious and prolonged presidential and congressional elections, I can't help but remember the impassioned zeal with which ... Read More>>>Back to Top MarEx Mailbag: This week's Mailbag is heavy. All letters reference our lead editorial from last week, which addressed another OPED piece from the Sunday May 31, 2009 Washington Post. In his opinion piece, Richard K. Bank compares the woes of automaker GM to that of the U.S. Merchant Marine. ... Read More>>>Back to Top Kistefos & Trico Disagree on Preliminary Voting Results at Annual Meeting Trico Marine Services claims that stockholders re-elected company's director nominees. Kistefos fires back: Preliminary Voting Results Show an Overwhelming Majority of Stockholders Want Change. In a pair of competing – and sometimes conflicting – press releases issued yesterday, both Trico Marine Services, Inc. and Kistefos AS, the ... Read More>>>Back to Top Multraship and URS Refloat Grounded Tanker off Vlissingen Vessel refloated using six tugs, four connected to the grounded tanker and two pushing from the side. NETHERLANDS-based salvage specialist Multraship Salvage and Belgian salvage specialist URS Salvage & Maritime Contracting have successfully refloated the 25,654 gt oil tanker Akti N after the Liberian-flag vessel ran aground ... Read More>>>Back to Top INTERTANKO's Welcome at Release of Hebei Two Tinged with Disappointment at Failure to Exonerate INTERTANKO is delighted that Captain Jasprit Chawla and Chief Officer Syam Chetan, Master and Chief officer of the Hebei Spirit, have finally been released after being held in Korea for 550 days since the accident in December 2007, and will be returning home within days. That these ... Read More>>>Back to Top MITAGS Announces Pilot Course Convening Dates MITAGS announces its new Pilot Course convening dates for 2009. MITAGS--"The Leader in Maritime Training"--releases its new training schedule for marine pilots, for more information go to the PDF below: Read see the available dates click HERE. Read More>>>Back to Top DHS Updates Public and Industry on Status of the Ballast Water Discharge Standard Rulemaking The ballast water rulemaking is currently under review at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Assuming there aren't any major issues with the rule, according to their guidelines OMB must clear on significant rulemakings within 90 days of the May 15, 2009 submission. Download and read previous MarEx print ... Read More>>>Back to Top Ben Strong Highlights the Virtues of Amver for MarEx Readers National Maritime Day provides perfect backdrop for this Year's Amver Awards. "Amver is about saving lives," says Strong. What better way to celebrate National Maritime Day than paying tribute to the over 400 U.S. ships participating in the Amver system. That is just what happened at the ... Read More>>>Back to Top 2009 International Maritime eLearning Symposium Join Robert Jaffin from American Public University and Tina Woehling from the Global Maritime and Transportation School for a Wednesday Morning Roundtable discussion: "THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN ACADEMIC PARTNERSHIPS" Day & Time: Wednesday, July 22, 10:00 AM - 10:45 AM Topic Summary: Traditional universities, ... Read More>>>Back to Top THE UN-COMFORT ZONE with Robert Wilson Pack Mentality When my son was two years old, we got a Samoyed puppy, and for the next 18 months they were the best of friends. Then the dog changed. Suddenly she started growling at my son and biting him. At first I thought that maybe he ... Read More>>>Back to Top Korean Corporate Owner of Cargo Vessel Sentenced to Pay $2.2 Million for Conspiracy and Falsifying Records Captain Timothy Close, Commander of U.S. Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg: "The U.S. Coast Guard will pursue all such cases and will continue to work closely with the U.S. Attorney and the Department of Justice to prosecute offenders." WASHINGTON (5 June 2009): U.S. District Court Judge Richard ... Read More>>>Back to Top INTERTANKO Encourages IMO to set Target Levels to Reduce GHG Emissions Early establishment by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) of target levels for the energy efficiency for new ships essential, says INTERTANKO. Setting such targets would become part of the discussions on the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) for new ships which is currently under consideration by the ... Read More>>>Back to Top Bureau Veritas Publishes Class Rules for Submarines New rules to provide a self-supporting set of independent guidelines which can be updated on a regular basis in line with operational experience. LEADING international classification society Bureau Veritas has published its rules for the classification of naval submarines, which cover verification by an independent third party ... Read More>>>Back to Top Monthly Retail Import Volume Still Below 1 Million Containers April was the third-slowest month in the past five years despite a slight improvement over March, says National Retail Federation and IHS Global Insight. WASHINGTON (June 9, 2009): Import cargo volume at the nation's major retail container ports remained below the 1 million mark in April and ... Read More>>>Back to Top Hellenic Holds its Own Despite Piracy, Unrest and Poor Investment Climate Performance achieved in the context of a dire global investment climate, a significant increase in piracy attacks off Somalia and violence and unrest in other parts of the world. A healthy operating surplus, offset by investment losses, resulted in a marginal overall deficit after tax for the ... Read More>>>Back to Top James River Reserve Fleet Ship Sold for Recycling Obsolete vessel, tentatively scheduled for departure on July 2, 2009, fetches purchase price of $20,001. The vessel is The U.S. Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration has sold a ship for recycling to International Shipbreaking Ltd. of Brownsville, Texas. The Suribachi, a breakbulk AE21 class ammunition ship, built ... Read More>>>Back to Top United States Coast Guard Marine Safety Alert Assistant Commandant for Marine Safety, Security and Stewardship issues Safety Alert referencing Compact Fluorescent Lights (02-09). This Safety Alert serves to inform the maritime industry that energy saving Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL) or lighting, sometimes known as radio frequency (RF) lighting devices may interfere with certain communications ... Read More>>>Back to Top Bisso Lufesa Salvages Luxury Passenger Vessel The steel-hull M/V PARRANDA caught fire and sank Jan. 14 in 19.8 meters (65 feet) of water in the national park off Bartolome Island in the Galapagos Islands.. Bisso Lufesa, a full-service marine contractor, successfully salvaged a luxury passenger vessel that sank in the environmentally pristine Galapagos ... Read More>>>Back to Top Coast Guard [Docket No. USCG–2009–0446] Merchant Mariner Medical Advisory Committee; Vacancies DHS and U.S. Coast Guard announce notice of committee establishment and request for applications. SUMMARY: The Secretary of Homeland Security is establishing the Merchant Mariner Medical Advisory Committee (MMMAC) under authority of 6 U.S.C. 451 and shall operate under the provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act ... Read More>>>Back to Top McQuilling Services, LLC Weighs in on Global Tonnage Supply Marine Transport Advisors Weekly Note No. 12 (June 9 2009) asks: Tonnage Overhang or Capacity Constrained? For some time now the specter of a looming tonnage supply overhang has been an unwelcome reality in the shipping industry across most sectors. While the global economic downturn has brought ... Read More>>>Back to Top EMAIL UNSUBSCRIBE Copyright © 2009 The Maritime Executive. 3200 S. Andrews Avenue, Suite 100 Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316