In November 2019, the Office of Coast Survey (OCS), part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), announced the start of a five-year program to “sunset” all raster and paper nautical charts.NOAA has produced electronic navigational charts (ENCs) since 1993. In the 2019 notice, NOAA writes that “ENC sales increased 425% since 2008
Royal Caribbean Group and Carnival Corp will push ahead with a return to cruises this summer despite two guests onboard Royal Caribbean’s Celebrity Millennium ship testing positive for COVID-19.A year after several cruise ships were host to major coronavirus outbreaks and with large numbers of Americans now vaccinated, cruise lines have been striving to get the business going.
On January 15, 2021, the U.S. Coast Guard issued an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) for Safety Management System (SMS) requirements in the domestic passenger vessel industry (Docket No. USCG-2020-0123). This requirement will have the largest implications on the domestic passenger vessel industry since the revisions of 46 CFR Subchapter T & K in the mid-90s.
If you and your crew are facing questions about ballast water management (BWM) and related regulatory deadlines, it would be worth your while to download a new (January 2021) “Ballast Water Management Systems User Guide,” an extensive, in-depth look at evaluating, selecting and installing a BWM system. The guide was published by MARAD and Glosten for the Ship Operations Cooperative Program (SOCP).
A widely-shared meme has taken several facts about the Titanic out of context to make unsubstantiated claims that imply the ship’s sinking was a deliberate act. This is not true—experts widely agree the sinking of the Titanic was an accident. The meme was posted to Facebook on March 1 and has been shared more than 600 times (here).
It was an odd legislative journey, but ultimately one with a happy ending. That’s one way to sum up the rather tortuous process that led to the passage of the Water Resources Development Act of 2020 (WRDA). For the first time WRDA (usually reauthorized every two years) was not enacted as its own legislative bill.
NOAA’s effort to recapitalize its aging fleet of research ships took a major step forward today with the U.S. Navy’s award of a $178,082,877 contract to Thoma-Sea Marine Constructors LLC, Houma, La., for the detailed design and construction of two new oceanographic ships.NOAA is acquiring the vessels through an agreement with the Naval Sea Systems Command, a leader in building
In a joint plea to Congressional leadership and Treasury Secretary Steven Munchin this week a host of maritime transportation entities asked that $3.5 billion in COVID-19 relief funding be made available for the U.S. maritime transportation sector, citing “significant hardships” and “unique and unexpected challenges” posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The U.S. Navy announced it will scrap the USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6), forgoing repairs to the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship that was ravaged by a major fire in San Diego in July."We did not come to this decision lightly," said Secretary of the Navy Kenneth J. Braithwaite. "Following an extensive material assessment in which various courses of action were considered and evaluated
MISC Berhad (MISC) has taken delivery of the world's largest very large ethane carrier (VLEC) at the Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) shipyard in Geoje, South Korea.The newbuild 98,000 cubic meter capacity Seri Everest, MISC's first VLEC, is the lead vessel in a series of six that the shipowner purchased from Zhejiang Satellite Petrochemical (STL) in July 2020.
Within a week's time, Detyens Shipyards has secured two Military Sealift Command (MSC) ship repair contracts worth more than $29 million combined. The privately-owned Charleston, S.C. repair yard beat out two other competing shipyards to secure a $18,144,376, 76-calendar day, firm-fixed-price contract for the regular overhaul dry-docking availability of the fleet replenishment oiler USNS Leroy
When Captain Will Whatley guides a ship through Arctic waters, he is starkly aware of what can go wrong.Double the manpower is needed to navigate. Lookout shifts are kept to just one hour, so sailors don't lose concentration and miss a mass of floating ice. Big icebergs show up on radar, but smaller, truck-sized "bergy bits"—even more dangerous—can be missed, the captain says.