MarEx eNewsletter - July 16, 2009

July 16th, 2009 Vol. 7, No. 28 Mariners on National Maritime Center: Mission Not Yet Accomplished Seafarer's unions and others assert that Coast Guard credentialing program, which is now centralized along with the medical review process in the National Maritime Center in West Virginia, is fraught with inefficiencies and inequities. How to address those issues and what to do about them is another thing altogether. Read More>>>Back to Top MarEx Mailbag: This week's Mailbag contains a few letters, two of which reference our lead editorial from last week. Another references our May 7 Editorial on piracy and the question of whether or not to arm mariners. Last week, our lead piece referenced the rapidly developing situation in Alaska ... Read More>>>Back to Top Somali Pirates Won't Quit as Attacks Double from 2008 Pirates use captured Indian dhow to attack VLCC. Somali pirates have abandoned an Indian ship after using it to attack an oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden. The EU said the pirates hijacked an Indian dhow earlier in the week and left its 14 member crew ... Read More>>>Back to Top Mystery of the Polar Mist Solved Vessel owners doubted about lost fortune. The POLAR MIST sank in about 80 meters of water between Punta Dungense and Rio Gallegos about 37 nautical miles offshore. According to an Argentine Customs manifest, the vessel was transporting 9.359 kilos of unrefined gold and silver (mixed metal bars: ... Read More>>>Back to Top Coast Guard Marine Safety Alert: 04-09 (July 13, 2009) This Safety Alert addresses the importance of ensuring your Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) and Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) are properly registered with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). One of the circumstances surrounding a recent major marine casualty involving an uninspected commercial fishing vessel ... Read More>>>Back to Top The Future of Yacht Training As the profile of yacht crews start to evolve, changes must be considered as the industry inevitably follows suit. Michael French weighs in on a sector of the maritime world that is increasingly becoming impacted by STCW and other regulatory pressures. Yacht Crew training has, at last, ... Read More>>>Back to Top Department of Transportation Sells Two More Ships for Recycling MARAD to send two more ships for recycling to Esco Ltd. of Brownsville, Texas for a total of $171,452. Resolute, a partial container/breakbulk ship built in 1980, brought a purchase price of $90,726. Resolute is currently moored at the James River Reserve Fleet site in Newport News, ... Read More>>>Back to Top Mediation of GALTEX Pilot Rate Increase Fails Rate hearing set for July 16 & 17 to go on as planned. A hastily arranged mediation session, agreed to both by stakeholders and the GALTEX pilots did not yield any joy on Wednesday. A West Gulf Maritime Association (WGMA) prepared statement said, "Regrettably today's mediation did ... Read More>>>Back to Top THE UN-COMFORT ZONE with Robert Wilson More Powerful than You Know "Writing is not a job; it's a hobby!" thundered my father when I told him my plans for college. "You need to get a profession: medicine, law, engineering or accounting." I cheerlessly acquiesced and enrolled in a Pre-Med program, ... Read More>>>Back to Top Coast Guard Cutter Breaks Up Major Cocaine Smuggling Operation Seizure is first drug bust conducted by Bertholf; National Security Cutter commissioned less than one year ago. The Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf seized two suspected drug smuggling boats, detained four suspected smugglers and recovered a bale of cocaine as evidence after disrupting a major drug smuggling operation ... Read More>>>Back to Top Marshall Islands Fleet Surpasses 50 Million Gross Tons Milestone passed last week when 11,259 GT newbuild tanker SONGA EMERALD was launched at Samho Shipbuilding in Korea. The Marshall Islands Registry surpassed the 50 million gross ton mark continuing a pattern of steady growth. In less than six years, the Marshall Islands fleet has grown from ... Read More>>>Back to Top Manager of Tugboat Company Indicted for Clean Water Act Violations Defendant allegedly participated in and ordered the illegal discharge of dredged material over the course of several years. SAN FRANCISCO: The general manager of the Northern California operations of Brusco Tug & Barge Incorporated was indicted Tuesday for violating the Clean Water Act, United States Attorney Joseph ... Read More>>>Back to Top MITAGS to Host Environmental Regulations Update The course is designed in two one-day modules. The first day is an introduction to the environmental aspects of vessel operations and the basic structure of the marine international and federal regulatory environment. Module 2 consists of one day devoted specifically to the vessel general permit. Next offering is at ... Read More>>>Back to Top ARRA to Provide $60 Million for Ferry Docks and Facilities U.S Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced $60 million in grants to 19 states and one U.S. territory to improve ferry service and save and create jobs under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. "The Recovery Act was put in place quickly to rescue the economy from ... Read More>>>Back to Top 2009 International Maritime eLearning Symposium Symposium is next week in Easton, MD. It's not too late to sign up and attend. Join the leaders in Maritime eLearning Training from around the world for this year's Conference. The Calhoon MEBA Engineering School will be hosting the 2009 International Maritime eLearning Symposium from July ... Read More>>>Back to Top London P&I Club Weighs in on Stowaways & Crew abandonment Issues Both matters at the top of Club's priorities. • London P&I Club Chairman welcomes developments on crew abandonment liability John M Lyras, Chairman of The London P&I Club, has welcomed amendments to legislation proposed by governments, making shipowners liable for the abandonment of crew, ... Read More>>>Back to Top MACS Offers Free Safety Sites to Subscribers SafeWork sites, which can be subscriber-branded, draw on the Maritime Accident Casebook concept. Maritime Accident Casebook, the web-based maritime safety site, now offers free safety sites to its corporate and organisational subscribers. Called SafeWork, the sites will enable subscribers to build targeted safety resources to meet their ... Read More>>>Back to Top Liberia Extends Ship Registry Management Agreement for Further Ten Years The Liberian Bureau of Maritime Affairs has reached an agreement with the Liberian International Ship & Corporate Registry (LISCR), the US-based manager of the Liberian Registry, to extend for a further ten years the agreement under which LISCR manages the registry. LISCR has managed the Liberian ... Read More>>>Back to Top MSC SPLENDIDA Achieves First Energy Efficient Design Recognition International classification society Bureau Veritas has awarded its first Energy Efficient Design label to the new 3,952-passenger cruise vessel MSC Splendida. Just delivered to MSC from STX France Cruise's St Nazaire yard, MSC Splendida will be the flagship of the MSC Cruises fleet. Didier Chaleat, Senior Vice-President, ... Read More>>>Back to Top PVA President Testifies Before Congress on Mariner Credentialing In last week's testimony before Congress, PVA President Bill Clark told legislators that the Coast Guard's centralized system for issuing merchant mariner credentials must be improved. Captain Clark, who is also co-owner and operator of South Ferry, Inc., of Shelter Island, NY testified before the House Subcommittee ... Read More>>>Back to Top Monthly Retail Import Volume Returns to 1 Million Containers U.S. ports surveyed handled 1.04 million TEU's in May, up 5 percent from April and this ended a three-month streak of numbers below 1 million. Volume still off by 20 percent from April 2008. Import cargo volume at the nation's major retail container ports climbed back above ... Read More>>>Back to Top EMAIL UNSUBSCRIBE Copyright © 2009 The Maritime Executive. 3200 S. Andrews Avenue, Suite 100 Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316