Call for Better Fire-Fighting Systems on Container Ships
The International Union of Marine Insurance has called for better fire-fighting systems on board container ships, citing its concern that current provisions
Keel Laid on First of Next Generation Celebrity Cruise ships – Celebrity Edge
Celebrity Cruises has initiated construction of Celebrity Edge, the first ship in its revolutionary new Edge Class at the STX France shipyard in St Nazaire.
Minister Garneau Announces New Investments under the Oceans Protection Plan to protect Canada’s Arctic Coast and Water
Backgrounder
Canadians rely on their coasts and waterways for recreation, to deliver products to market, and to earn a livelihood, but also cherish them for cultural reasons. The Oceans Protection Plan is the largest investment ever made to protect Canada’s coasts and waterways, while growing our economy. With this Plan, our future generations will continue to enjoy and benefit from our coasts and waterways the way we do now.
For residents of Canada’s Northern territories, marine transportation is an essential lifeline. Up to 95 percent of food and other goods are shipped to northern communities through the marine transportation system. Through the Oceans Protection Plan, the Government of Canada is taking action to protect Canada’s Arctic coast and support safe and responsible shipping in Arctic waters.
Federal investments in Safety Equipment and Basic Marine Infrastructure in Northern Communities Initiative
As part of the Oceans Protection Plan, the Government of Canada will invest $94.3 million over five years in the Safety Equipment and Basic Marine Infrastructure in Northern Communities Initiative. This initiative will make Arctic resupply operations faster, safer, and more efficient for remote Arctic coastal communities. Investments will be made in on-the-ground safety equipment and basic marine infrastructure to support safer community resupply operations and in training to use and maintain that equipment and infrastructure. The Government of Canada will work collaboratively with territorial governments, northern communities, Indigenous groups, and stakeholders to implement this initiative.
Enhanced National Aerial Surveillance Program and Arctic Complex
The Oceans Protection Plan will invest $29.9 million to build an Arctic National Aerial Surveillance Program Complex in Iqaluit over the next five years, including a hangar and accommodations unit. Aerial surveillance is considered internationally as the most effective way to detect oil spills. The National Aerial Surveillance Program keeps an eye on Canada’s coasts, including the Arctic coast, with three strategically placed aircraft located across Canada. One aircraft is currently co-located between Ottawa, ON and Iqaluit, NU, the second is located in Moncton, NB, and the third is located in Vancouver, BC. The new Arctic NASP Complex will allow year-round National Aerial Surveillance Program operations in the Arctic, as needed, and support the safety, security, and environmental sustainability of marine transportation in the North. In addition, under the Oceans Protection Plan, operations of Canada’s National Aerial Surveillance Program in the Arctic will be enhanced to support local marine pollution reporting, search and rescue capacity and satellite monitoring of vessels offshore.
Marine Training Contribution Fund in the Arctic
The Oceans Protection Plan is providing $21 million over five years through the Marine Training Contribution Fund to enhance and expand marine training and opportunities for underrepresented groups in Canada’s Arctic, including Indigenous Peoples, Northerners, and women. This includes adapting training curricula to reflect Indigenous traditional knowledge and culturally appropriate material. The Marine Training Contribution Fund will provide long-term training and jobs for Indigenous communities in Canada’s Arctic and contribute to a well-trained labour force that reflects Canada’s diverse population.
Incident Command System
The Oceans Protection Plan is providing $16.9 million over five years to Transport Canada for ongoing support to the new Office of Incident Management. Launching in September, 2017, the Office of Incident Management will modernize and standardize Transport Canada’s incident response processes including the implementation of Incident Command System across the department through training, coaching, and exercises among other activities. Implementing Incident Command System will improve coordination and increase response effectiveness, particularly where multiple agencies are involved. The Incident Command System is the recognized response tool used by federal departments such as the Canadian Coast Guard the National Energy Board, Environment and Climate Change Canada and others. It is also used widely among private/non-governmental response organizations, industry and most provincial, territorial, and municipal governments.
Community Participation Funding Program
As part of the Oceans Protection Plan, Transport Canada is expanding the Community Participation Funding Program (CPFP) to facilitate meaningful partnerships with Indigenous groups and provide funding to support community engagement on marine safety issues across the country. A total of $13.4 million in funding, with a maximum of $50,000 per recipient, per engagement opportunity, will be made available over the next five years. Funding will encourage the participation of Indigenous groups, non-profit organizations and local communities (including municipal governments and residential associations), as well as increase the capacity of these groups to engage and share their knowledge and expertise in the development and improvement of Canada’s marine transportation system. Please visit Transport Canada’s website at www.tc.gc.ca/cpfp for more information.
Low impact shipping corridors
The Low Impact Shipping Corridors are specific shipping routes throughout the Arctic where the necessary infrastructure, marine navigational support, and emergency response services are provided to support safe shipping in the Arctic. These shipping routes are based on historical and projected traffic patterns, hydrographic information, and areas of environmental sensitivity. The Government of Canada will continue to work with Indigenous groups and stakeholders to validate the shipping routes and to implement this Oceans Protection Plan initiative.
Enhanced Arctic Auxiliary
The Canadian Coast Guard will support the continued expansion of the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary in the Arctic to bolster our collective ability to respond to maritime all-hazard incidents in the future. The Coast Guard Auxiliary is made up of trained volunteers who use their own vessels to respond to incidents in Canadian waters. Agreement negotiations are underway and the Canadian Coast Guard has begun identifying locations of the expanded Arctic Auxiliary.
Oceans Protection Plan
These initiatives are part of the Government of Canada’s $1.5 billion Oceans Protection Plan, a national strategy to create a world-leading marine safety system that provides economic opportunities for Canadians today, while protecting our coastlines for future generations. The Oceans Protection Plan is the largest investment ever made in Canada’s coasts and waterways. The Oceans Protection Plan will involve new measures to improve marine safety and responsible shipping, protect Canada’s marine environment, and offer new possibilities for Indigenous and coastal communities.
DP World completes Prince Rupert Container Terminal 2 North Expansion
VANCOUVER — DP World has completed the ‘Phase 2 North’ expansion project designed to increase container throughput of Prince Rupert’s Fairview Container Terminal.
DP World Group Chairman and CEO, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem and François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of International Trade, Government of Canada, marked the occasion in a ribbon cutting ceremony in Prince Rupert today, in the presence of First Nation representatives, senior government and state officials.
DP World acquired the Fairview Container Terminal in in August 2015 with the ‘Phase 2 North’ expansion project launched shortly after. The terminal supports 800 direct jobs and the original capacity of 750,000 TEU has increased to an approximate 1.35 million TEU annually. A second berth has been added with the extension of the existing berth by 440 meters to a total berth length of 800 meters. The total terminal footprint has also increased to 32 hectares (320 thousand square meters) with the reclamation of 4.5 hectares (45 thousand square meters) of land.
The increased capacity will support importers and exporters who favour Fairview for its position as the most efficient and fastest route from Asia to North American markets.
DP World Group Chairman and CEO, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, said: “The expanded container terminal is an economic engine for the city of Prince Rupert and is directly responsible for hundreds of jobs with many others in the local community and beyond benefitting from its operations. We are delighted to mark this occasion today which marks our commitment to Canada and the local community. This is all part of our plans to provide capacity to meet Canada’s Pacific container terminal capacity requirements for decades to come in a cost-effective and environmentally responsible manner.”
DP World Canada Inc. General Manager Maksim Mihic said: “Prince Rupert’s success has been driven by its unparalleled geographical position on the Trans-Pacific trade route, high terminal productivity and consistent low dwell times that have been sustained alongside our significant growth in throughput over the past two years. Strong relationships with our partners ILWU, the Prince Rupert Port Authority and CN Rail have resulted in a reliable and competitive service for our customers.”
As a modern, efficient intermodal terminal, Prince Rupert Fairview features three new Super-post Panamax cranes in addition to its existing fleet of four Super-post Panamax cranes and direct on-dock access to the CN Rail network. The addition of 6,000 feet of on-dock rail and six rubber tired gantry cranes (RTGs) to the rail yard ensures the smooth and efficient flow of goods. Together, the upgrades allow Prince Rupert to efficiently handle the largest vessels in the world with a carrying capacity of 20,000-plus TEUs.
DP World’s commitment to Canada will receive a further boost later this year with work to expand the company’s Centerm terminal in Vancouver due to start. — SG
Article courtesy of Saudi Gazette.
To read the original article, click here.
10 Who Served at Sea: The Sailors Who Went Missing in the Navy Collision
They were young men, petty officers all, whose lives were lived at sea and then almost certainly lost there.
John Henry Hoagland III grew up in Killeen, Tex., and he spoke about serving his country when he was just 5 and still confronted with kindergarten. His family said he had joined the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps in high school, and then visited recruiters for different branches of the military before deciding on the Navy, where his uncle and a grandfather had also served.
Aboard big ships plowing waters far from land, he found serenity and exhilaration. Cynthia Kimball, his mother, shared one of her son’s Facebook posts, written in June, that captured his feelings.
“I’ve been to a few gorgeous places since I’ve made it out to the Fleet,” he wrote. “But man,” he added, “I still can’t get over just looking out at the ocean, or staring up at all of the stars at night. I think those two things are at the top of my list of favorite reasons for going Navy over any other branch.”
Ms. Kimball last spoke with her son, 20, an electronics technician, third class, last Friday afternoon. He let her know “that they were going to dock soon and he would call me when they did,” she said. “He was headed to bed. Told me good night and he loved me.”
The destroyer John S. McCain collided with an oil tanker in the waters near Singapore on Monday. Ten sailors, including Petty Officer Hoagland, are presumed to have died despite the slim odds survivors could be found, said two Navy officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential aspects of the investigation. They represented a scattered group of men with early and pointed desires to do service on the world’s oceans. They then became victims in the latest of a spate of accidents involving Navy vessels.
After 80 hours of looking across 2,100 square miles of water, the Navy suspended search and rescue efforts on Thursday. Attempts to find the bodies inside the ship continued, but were complicated by the heavy damage to the vessel. At least 20 divers from the Navy and the Marine Corps have been working underwater with hydraulic cutters to try to pierce the McCain’s crushed and flooded berthing compartments.
The crash occurred just two months after the deadly collision of another ship from the Navy’s Seventh Fleet, the destroyer Fitzgerald, which hit a freighter off the coast of Japan. Seven people died aboard the American ship. Two other Navy accidents occurred in Asia this year.
In the aftermath, the commander of the Seventh Fleet, the Navy’s largest overseas, was removed on Wednesday. On Thursday, Adm. Bill Moran, the Navy’s second-ranking officer, issued detailed instructions to the four-star admiral assigned to conduct a 60-day review into possible systemic problems plaguing Navy ships worldwide, especially the Seventh Fleet based in Japan.
The instructions direct Adm. Phil Davidson, the head of the Fleet Forces Command in Norfolk, Va., to examine issues including pace of operations, readiness, and whether the fleet was properly training officers and crews.
The cause of the latest crash remains under investigation. A pair of House Armed Services subcommittees on Wednesday said they would hold a joint hearing on Sept. 7 about readiness issues associated with the two destroyer collisions. Representative Rob Wittman, a Virginia Republican who heads the sea power subcommittee, is expected to meet on Monday in Japan with the new commander of the Seventh Fleet, Vice Adm. Phillip G. Sawyer. The Senate Armed Services Committee is also expected to hold hearings examining the accidents in September.
A statement from the White House on Tuesday expressed “great sadness” and said, “As the Navy begins the process of recovering our fallen sailors, our thoughts and prayers go out to their families and friends.”
The sailors came from eight states and ranged in age from 20 to 39. Eight were in their 20s.
Inside the flooded ship, divers found the remains of Kenneth Aaron Smith, 22, an electronics technician, third class, from Cherry Hill, N.J. After growing up in Michigan, he moved to Virginia as a teenager, according to a report in The Detroit Free Press, and followed his grandfather and father into the Navy.
Niana Jasso knew Petty Officer Smith in high school and talked to him frequently over Skype while he was serving aboard the McCain. “We’d talk about the latest video games he was playing,” Ms. Jasso said. “After the military he wanted to be a YouTube star and be a game developer.”
He would joke to her that no one showered aboard the ship, so everyone smelled. Sometimes he sent Ms. Jasso videos from the deck. “Just him just walking around,” she said. “He’d be looking out at the sea and the stars.”
She last spoke to him last week. He had been badgering her to watch his favorite show, “Rick and Morty,” and she wanted to tell him that she finally had.
The allure of travel brought Jacob Daniel Drake, 21, to the Navy. An electronics technician, second class, from Cable, Ohio, he joined the Navy after high school.
He loved gadgets and technology, according to Brandie Roberts, a cousin. “He was ridiculously smart,” Ms. Roberts said in an interview over Facebook messenger, adding that he was “awkward, but it made him even more fun to be around” and that “he could make anyone laugh.”
Ms. Roberts said she had last spoken with Petty Officer Drake a little over a week ago. He inquired about her daughter, she said, who has been having health problems. She tried to talk with him about once a month, but she said he had never mentioned the recent crash involving the Fitzgerald.
“I think maybe he didn’t bring it up because I’m sure it bothered him and he didn’t want us to worry even more,” she said.
She said her cousin had made lots of friends in the Navy and enjoyed his experience there, but “was ready for his deployment to end because he was ready to be closer to home.”
Pride was a big motivation for Charles Nathan Findley, 31, an electronics technician, first class, from tiny Amazonia, Mo. Fond of rebuilding cars, he, too, wanted to travel and make himself and his family proud, his sister, Amy Winters, told Fox 4, a television station in Kansas City, Mo.
Logan Stephen Palmer, 23, an interior communications electrician, third class, from Decatur, Ill., was known for his ingenuity. Caleb Stamper, who attended boot camp with him, said in an interview over Facebook messenger that he was “very outgoing” and “very courageous,” and was “always stepping up and leading with new ideas on how we could do things.”
He added: “He wanted to serve his country before he took what it had to offer. He thought that was the right thing to do.”
One of the things that stood out about Corey George Ingram was his winning personality. Petty Officer Ingram, 28, was an information systems technician, second class, from Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
“He was very outgoing, always willing to lend a hand,” a fellow sailor, Chris Eaton, told The Straits Times of Singapore. “If we were ever in the same city, we would meet up and go looking for a party. He could befriend anyone in the room — he just had one of those personalities.”
The other missing sailors are Dustin Louis Doyon, 26, an electronics technician, third class, from Suffield, Conn.; Abraham Lopez, 39, an interior communications electrician, first class, from El Paso; Kevin Sayer Bushell, 26, an electronics technician, second class, from Gaithersburg, Md; and Timothy Thomas Eckels Jr., 23, an information systems technician, second class, from Manchester, Md.
There was little question that the collision involving the Fitzgerald had gotten the attention of the McCain sailors. But it didn’t seem to worry them.
Ms. Kimball, Petty Officer Hoagland’s mother, said she had discussed that accident with her son.
“We talked about the other collision,” she said. “No, he was not worried it would happen to them.”
Final Countdown to Compliance with the BWM Convention
With the Ballast Water Management Convention entering into force on 8 September, DNV GL would like to remind you of a few last-minute but important issues.
Relevant for owners and managers, design offices, shipyards, suppliers and flag states.
1. Actions needed before 8 September 2017
The entry into force date of the BWM convention is 8 September 2017. By this date all vessels subject to the convention must be in compliance with the D-1 (exchange standard). To quickly identify the steps customers may have to take before 8 September, DNV GL has prepared the following examples, with recommended actions:
Scenario A – vessel status:
Action: Vessel in compliance – No further actions needed
Scenario B – vessel status:
Action:
Step 1: Generate Ballast Water Management Plan (BWMP) quickly and efficiently with DNV GL’s free-to-use web application BWMP Generator.
Step 2: Submit the BWMP for approval to: bwmp.exchange@dnvgl.com. For BWMPs received in the last 2 weeks before 8 September, a certificate will be issued in accordance with BWM.2/Circ.40 including the provision that the BWMP is to be approved and initial survey concluded before 8 December 2017. (Circ.40 allows a grace period of 3 months to complete the initial survey and certification after the entry into force date, see below).
Scenario C – vessel status:
Action:
If you are not able to perform an initial survey before 8 September 2017, please request DNV GL to issue a certificate in accordance with BWM.2/Circ.40. The certificate will be issued with the provision that the initial survey is concluded before 8 December 2017. Requests to be submitted to: bwmp.exchange@dnvgl.com.
2. Office based D-1 initial surveys and position of flags
DNV GL has been authorized to issue the BWM D-1 certificate without a physical survey carried out on board by the following flag state administrations: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Cyprus, Denmark, Germany, Latvia, Marshall Islands, Malta, Netherlands and Norway.
This is subject to certain conditions, including a declaration by the vessel’s Master regarding the availability of an approved BWM plan and record book on board the vessel. This option may only be given to vessels flying one of the above flags if no scheduled or occasional survey is planned prior to 8 December 2017 – fully utilising the period of grace granted by the IMO BWM.2/Circ. 40. (please see above).
If the conditions listed above are met, an e-mail requesting the initial BWM D-1 office based survey and certification including a scanned copy of the declaration by the Master should be sent to bwmp.exchange@dnvgl.com. For more information on this, please contact your local DNV GL office.
3. D-2 compliance
The MEPC (71) meeting in early-July reached a compromise on compliance dates for the ballast water D-2 standard (installation date).
- All ships with a keel laying after 8 September 2017 must comply with the D-2 standard on delivery.
- Existing ships must, in general, comply with the D-2 standard by the first IOPP renewal after 8 September 2019.
To make sure there is no uncertainty about when your vessel must comply with the D-2 standard, DNV GL suggests using our new “D-2 Calculator” to verify the required compliance dates for each vessel.
Ships to which the IOPP renewal survey does not apply (generally ships below 400 GT and oil tankers below 150 GT) with a keel laying before the 8 September 2017 must be in compliance with the D-2 standard no later than 8 September 2024.
Recommendations
All DNV GL customers are advised to avoid last-minute preparation, and to carefully examine and consider their ship’s individual IOPP renewal dates to ensure compliance. If you are uncertain about what to do, please contact your flag or your local DNV GL office.
References
DNV GL key resource page on Ballast Water Management, including the new “D-2 Calculator” to verify the required compliance dates for each vessel.
Previously issued Technical and Regulatory News from DNV GL:
- MEPC 71 agrees to implementation dates for ballast water treatment systems
- 100 days to go – are you ready? The BWM Convention enters into force on 8 September 2017
- New DNV GL Ballast Water Management Plan (BWMP) Generator – compliant with less effort
- Ballast Water Management – How to comply with the IMO Convention
Contact
- For customers: DATE – Direct Access to Technical Experts via My DNV GL
- Otherwise: Use our office locator to find the nearest DNV GL maritime office
Article courtesy of DNVGL.
To read the original article, click here.