05 Dec

Our industry needs to protect mariners’ paid vacation time

Professional Mariner StaffA Mariner's Notebook, Publication > Professional Mariner
By law, every worker in the 28-country European Union, Australia and New Zealand is legally mandated to receive at least a month of paid vacation each year — with six weeks the norm in many of those countries. Japanese and Canadian workers are legally guaranteed weeks of paid vacation every year. But this is not so in the United States.…
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Broadley: Wind energy spatial planning will have impact on mariners
13 Nov

Broadley: Wind energy spatial planning will have impact on mariners

Professional Mariner StaffA Mariner's Notebook, Industry News
The U.S. is gradually incorporating renewable energy sources for its future energy needs.  We all have seen more and more solar panels on rooftops and wind turbines in fields as the availability and cost of these energy alternatives have become more and more economically viable. One of these renewable energy sources that has received a lot of attention in the…
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Salyers: Towboat crews need to rest during hitch and at home
24 Oct

Salyers: Towboat crews need to rest during hitch and at home

Professional Mariner StaffA Mariner's Notebook, Industry News
Whether you work shoreside or live/work on a towboat, you’re always trying to improve your quality of life. With technology and resources at your fingertips — which is both a pro and a con — information about nutrition, exercise, managing stress, sleep, illnesses, medications, etc., is only a click away. The challenge for towboaters is that most of this information…
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Chalos: Coast Guard to require more Oil Record Book entries
17 Oct

Chalos: Coast Guard to require more Oil Record Book entries

Professional Mariner StaffA Mariner's Notebook, Industry News
The U.S. Coast Guard has been in the process of updating its Oil Record Book (ORB) to conform to the latest MARPOL Annex I amendments over the past 2½ years. A draft ORB was published in February 2012. This was part of a multifaceted notice of proposed rulemaking by the Coast Guard “to harmonize U.S. regulations with international conventions regarding oil pollution and…
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Murphy: Take your required security course, and be sure to turn in certificates
13 Oct

Murphy: Take your required security course, and be sure to turn in certificates

Professional Mariner StaffA Mariner's Notebook, Industry News
Security, security, security. No, I do not mean “securité” like in the radio call. And yes, I understand that this is French for “listen up,” so it might actually work for this article after all. One of the classes I teach is the Vessel Security Officer (VSO). Have you heard of that certification? If not, you will! This is one…
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11 Sep

Maitland: Alaska ro-ro voyage demonstrates value of U.S. mariners, pollution controls

Professional Mariner StaffA Mariner's Notebook, Industry News
Last year, at a Coast Guard Foundation dinner in Seattle, Carleen Lyden-Kluss and I bid on and won a one-way trip aboard Midnight Sun, a ro-ro trailer ship operating between Tacoma, Wash., and Anchorage, Alaska. Our attention was attracted by the fact that Midnight Sun’s owner, Totem Ocean Trailer Express (TOTE), a member of the Saltchuk group of companies, has…
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