Seacurus Daily: Top Ten Maritime News Stories 05/08/2016
1. Tanker and Box Ship Collide
Late on Wednesday night, the very large crude carrier "Dream II" collided with the 14,000 TEU container ship "MSC Alexandra" in the Singapore Strait, about 1.5 nm from Sebarok Island. Dream II’s bow struck the Alexandra’s port quarter, causing damage to the Alexandra’s hull and putting ten containers over the side, including four which fell onto the deck of the tanker. The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said in a statement that its Port Operations Control Centre had attempted to warn the vessels of the impending collision. No injuries or pollution were reported, and both vessels were stable and anchored.
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2. Weight Not Costs
The Global Shippersâ Forum (GSF) has blasted shipping lines, forwarders and terminal operators using the mandatory container weight verification process as an excuse to add more surcharges. The GSF, which aims to stop container shipping surcharges within five years, said one of its members reported a $25 surcharge being imposed by one terminal in East Asia for just accepting a verified gross mass (VGM) declaration. If the practice of âunjustifiedâ fees charged for the provision of VGM data has not ended by the end of the year, the GSF said it intends to call on the IMO to review the implementation of the new regulation.
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3. Wallem Responds to Sexism Row
Hong Kongâs Wallem Group has responded to a sex discrimination row that erupted Thursday morning in the UKâs Daily Mail, the worldâs most read newspaper. Sophia Walker, 24, a qualified British deck officer, hit out at the shipmanager yesterday after she was refused a job interview because she âwould be better off working on a cruise shipâ. Having served her cadetship on a variety of vessels at Fleetwood Nautical Campus she sought out Wallem for a deck hand job but was told she could not work for the famous shipmanager âbecause of her genderâ. She was advised to apply instead for a career in the cruise sector.
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4. Old Charts to Blame
The US Coast Guard (USCG) found that out-of-date navigational charts were to blame for the grounding of the icebreaker "Fennica" in Alaskan waters last year. The Fennica became grounded in Dutch Harbour in July 2015 while it was transporting a capping stack for Shellâs then-controversial planned drilling campaign in the Chukchi Sea. Fennica, owned by Finnish company Arctia, suffered a three-foot gash in its hull which forced it to return to port. It was one of several mishaps to affect Shellâs project, which was also a lure for environmentalist protesters.
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5. Impact of the Panama Canal
One hundred years have passed since the Panama Canal opened, and nowadays hardly anybody is giving thought to a quirk of nature and a lot of human ingenuity that allows massive ships to ferry goods between the economies spread around the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Equally, not too many people have given much thought to a massive re-engineering project which enlarged the canal locks and enabled even larger ships to cross between two oceans without circumnavigating either of the American continents. But this project will have a large impact on the shipping industry and a lot of other industries catering to it.
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6. Worker Takes a Fall
On Thursday afternoon, local firefighters in San Francisco rescued a worker who fell 15 feet into a confined space on a U.S. Navy auxiliary vessel. The vessel, the Kaiser-class replenishment oiler Guadalupe, was in dry dock at a private facility at the time of the accident. The worker suffered moderate injuries but was conscious and breathing. The fire department said in an update that he would be taken to a trauma center, and that his injuries were not life threatening. Officials described the space as a narrow hole of 10 to 15 feet deep.
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7. Channel Security Becomes Hot News
Recent security exercises in the English Channel involving military personnel on board ships have sparked heightened media interest in maritime security in the region. As a result, International Maritime Organization (IMO)’s work in this field has been highlighted on Sky News by Chris Trelawny, IMO Special Advisor on Maritime Security and Facilitation. Asked about ferry security in the context of terrorism, Trelawny told the programme that âIMO has developed a range of guidance and measures to protect shipping, and to protect the ports serving shipping â including the International Ship and Port Facility Security Codeâ.
http://goo.gl/6w2ktH
http://goo.gl/6w2ktH
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8. Cruise Ship Breaksdown
A large cruise ship with almost 4,500 people on board was adrift for nine hours in the Irish Sea due to engine failure. The 290m-long (950ft-long) Caribbean Princess was forced to abandon a scheduled visit to Dublin Port this week, due to the seriousness of the incident which occurred 25 miles southeast of the city off the Wicklow coast on Wednesday. The 17-deck-tall âgrand classâ ship eventually regained power in the evening and made its way to Belfast port, where it berthed early on yesterday morning. The ship was en route from Cobh in Cork to Dublin as part of a 12-day cruise that left Southampton on July 31st.
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9. Ferry Almost Sunk
Passengers have spoken of their shock after a giant cruise ship ânearly sunkâ a tiny passenger ferry at Tilbury Docks last night. The gigantic CMV cruise ship "Magellan" ploughed into the ferry just off its landing jetty at Tilbury Docks. Following the incident, the Tilbury to Gravesend ferry service has âbeen suspended until safety checks are carried out.â It is not yet known if anyone was hurt in the incident, which happened last night at about 7pm. The ferry usually carries between 10 and 40 foot passengers between Tilbury and Gravesend.
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10. Pollution Rules Beckon
The latest amendments to the MARPOL Annex I for the prevention of oil pollution are scheduled to come into effect on October 1, 2016, according to Marine Department of the Government of Hong Kong. The amendment regulation states that oil residue (sludge) tank for machinery space should be provided with a designated pump for disposal of the oil residue and the tank should have no discharge connections to the bilge system, oily bilge water holding tank, tank top or oily water separators. In addition, oil tankers of 150 gross tonnage and above should have an approved Ship-to-Ship (STS) Operation Plan.
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Daily news feed from Seacurus Ltd â providers of MLC crew insurance solutions www.seacurus.com
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