Seacurus Daily: Top Ten Maritime News Stories 10/08/2016
1. Fish Farm and Ship Collide
A fish farm vessel capsized in Grand Harbor in Valetta, Malta after being hit by a K Line heavy-lift vessel, which resulted in crew injuries and quite a mess. K Line’s "Maria" suffered a mechanical failure as it was about to berth at Laboratory Wharf at around 12.10hrs on Tuesday, the Times of Malta reports. The technical fault caused the heavy-lift ship to allide with the Italian-registered fish farming vessel "Angela Arcella", which capsized.
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2. El Faro VDR Found
The National Transportation Safety Board has recovered the data recorder of El Faro, a ship that sank with all hands on board last year near the Bahamas. Investigators hope to find GPS navigational data and crew communications on the recorder that will give them a window into the final hours of the doomed ship that sunk during Hurricane Joaquin in October. The recovery has the potential to give investigators greater insight into the tragic loss.
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3. Call for Channel Sea Marshalls
British ferry passengers should be protected by a new Sea Marshal force to prevent people trafficking across the Channel, a Conservative MP has demanded. Charlie Elphicke, the MP for Dover, said the Royal Navy should also be deployed in the English Channel to protect the UK against migrant people-smugglers and the heightened terror threat. Mr Elphicke called for the new patrol force to be modelled on the Royal Navy fleet Dover Patrol.
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4. Maersk’s China Crisis
Maersk Line, the world’s biggest container shipper has decided to stop services to and from 10 ports in China for both import and export shipments from September 1. The purpose is to focus on the ports that we could offer the most benefits that in the end create growth, better service and opportunities for our customers. The ports concerned are Chizhou, Luzhou, Yingkou, Jinzhou, Rizhao, Yueyang, Lijiao, Taiping, Jiaoxin and Nansha old port.
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5. Bareboat Battle into Arbitration
Otto Marine has announced that its subsidiaries, Swordfish 5 and GO Offshore, have each commenced arbitration proceedings under the London Maritime Arbitrators Association Terms 2012 with Vettal Mega Services in connection with bareboat charter contracts. Otto Marine claimed that Vettal Mega Services has failed to pay hire due, owing $6m under the contracts.
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6. Military Swoops into Delta
A search for Niger Delta militants began this week in the creeks and waterways of Bayelsa State. The operation commenced following the declaration by the Joint Task Force (JTF), Operation Delta Safe (ODS) that it would go “on the offensive” to fish out all the militants and killers of soldiers at a military checkpoint in Nembe. Militants promptly ambushed the checkpoint, killing three soldiers on duty and carted away gunboats, rifles and ammunition.
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7. More North Sea Strikes Beckon
Two UK trade unions have announced dates for further strike action against Wood Group on rigs in the North Sea. Already 48-hour and 24-hour strikes have been held on seven Shell-operated platforms – the first strikes seen on North Sea rigs for 30 years. Now Wood Group faces an escalation in the pay row dispute with the six rigs set for three strikes in a two-week period later this month and one – the Brent Charlie – planning a total of six work stoppages.
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8. ECDIS Spotlight on Low Standards
Few are aware that the world is halfway through an international project to train around 1,000 inspectors and PSC officers in ECDIS. Without doubt, it has already dramatically increased the safety of navigation at sea by providing inspecting officers with all the relevant questions that need to be asked for all the 38 manufacturers, regardless of what certificates the officers hold. But the process has also highlighted some worrying concerns.
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9. Hapag Lloyd Wins Award
The GT Nexus Shipper Council, a community group of supply chain executives representing large global enterprises, has recognised Hapag-Lloyd, one of the world’s leading container liner shipping companies, as the winner of the 2016 Ocean Performance Award. The award was granted at Bridges 2016, the leading cloud supply chain industry event held July 10-13 in New York as part of Inforum.
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10. Amazing Footage of Panama Locks
Check out this drone video showing a neopanamax containership entering the expanded Panama Canal’s new Agua Clara locks from Gatun Lake on the Atlantic side of the waterway. In the face of safety concerns and criticisms, the video illustrates, what the Canal administrators say is, the excellent work by Panama Canal ship pilots, the video does a better job of showing the challenges of maneuvering ships through the locks using the new tugboat system.
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Daily news feed from Seacurus Ltd – providers of MLC crew insurance solutions www.seacurus.com
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S Jones
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