09 Nov

Tanker hits Ambrose Light tower

Professional Mariner StaffMaritime News
(NEW YORK, NY -- November 9, 2007) The U.S. Coast Guard is conducting an investigation to determine how a 799-foot tanker ship struck the Ambrose Light navigation aid at 2 a.m.on Nov. 3.   Ambrose Light is a 76-foot structure that sits about 12 miles southeast of Staten Island, N.Y., and watches over the main shipping lanes to New York…
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06 Nov

Pacific Northwest boat builder closes it doors

Professional Mariner StaffMaritime News
(FREELAND, WA -- November 3, 2007) Nichols Bros. Boat Builders Inc., which has operated on Whidbey Island in Puget Sound since 1964, has laid off its workers and closed.   The family-owned shipyard employed about 250 people. The company’s financial problems were compounded by two lawsuits filed by customers who say Nichols Bros. failed to meet deadlines for delivery of…
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06 Nov

Retail container traffic continues below last year’s levels

Professional Mariner StaffMaritime News
(WASHINGTON, DC -- November 6, 2007) A monthly Port Tracker report released today reveals that traffic levels at the nation’s major retail container ports are dropping for the second month in a row as compared to last year’s levels. The report, released by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Global Insight, predicts that levels will continue either flat or below…
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01 Nov

Dynamic positioning authority Jenssen receives Distinguished Achievement award

Professional Mariner StaffMaritime News
Nils Albert Jenssen (left) and Mr. Howard Shatto, the Conference Chairman (right), at the Marine Technology Society's Distinguished Achievement award ceremony. (HOUSTON, TX – October 30, 2007) The Marine Technology Society has honored Kongsberg Maritime veteran Nils Albert Jenssen with a Distinguished Achievement award for his services to dynamic positioning (DP). Jenssen, who is internationally recognized as one of the…
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29 Oct

Wärtsilä fuel cell prototype starts operation

Professional Mariner StaffMaritime News
Above and below, the Wärtsilä WFC20 alpha-prototype fuel cell (ESPOO, FINLAND -- October 24, 2007) The Wärtsilä Fuel Cell Program has reached a significant milestone in its development of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology. Yesterday, the first Wärtsilä WFC20 fuel cell, a 20 kWe alpha-prototype, was warmed up for the first time at the Wärtsilä Fuel Cell Laboratory in Espoo, Finland.…
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22 Oct

Fate of two LNG terminals in Maine hinges on dispute over right of innocent passage

Professional Mariner StaffMaritime News
LNG terminals have been proposed for Robbinston and Perry, Maine, on Passamaquoddy Bay. To reach the terminals, tankers would have to pass through the Canadian waters of Head Harbour Passage.  Depths shown are in meters. (Ginny Howe Illustration/Source: Maptech Inc. and Quoddy Pilots USA) It's a localized dispute at the easternmost harbor in the United States, pitting economic interests in…
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22 Oct

Ex-Engineer of the Year to head Deepwater

Professional Mariner StaffMaritime News
Rear Adm. Ronald J. Rábago will be directing the Coast Guard's efforts to reassert control over its $24 billion modernization program. (Courtesy U.S. Coast Guard) Promising to develop in-house acquisitions expertise, the Coast Guard has tapped a former Engineer of the Year to take over leadership of its troubled Deepwater program.Rear Adm. Ronald J. Rábago is the new program executive…
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22 Oct

Increasingly, the first step in salvage is the removal of harmful liquids

Professional Mariner StaffMaritime News
Diver Mike Lucia prepares to head below from  the dive support vessel Sea Trader to the research vessel Ocean Leader, which sank in 170 feet of water off the coast of Veracruz, Mexico. (Photos courtesy Global Diving and Salvage) Before salvage operations can begin, many salvage companies now require that any potentially polluting liquids first be recovered from a sunken…
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22 Oct

Connecticut adds its coastal waters to growing list of no-discharge zones

Professional Mariner StaffMaritime News
Only two states besides Connecticut — Rhode Island and New Hampshire, both of them also in New England — have designated all their coastal waters as no-discharge zones. Massachusetts, which has taken a more gradual approach, may have all its waters as no-discharge zones within five years. (Ginny Howe Illustration/Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) In July, Connecticut became the third…
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22 Oct

Congress holds hearing on allegations of bias by Coast Guard administrative law judges

Professional Mariner StaffMaritime News
Jeffie J. Massey, a retired administrative law judge, testifying before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee that the Coast Guard pressures judges to rule in its favor. (Baltimore Sun/Jed Kirschbaum) For years mariners have suspected that, when they must face justice in the U.S. Coast Guard administrative law system, the deck is stacked against them. Now influential members of Congress…
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