A need for responsible approach to maritime education Our government's present inability to land a cargo of gasoline in a U.S.-flag vessel in icebound Nome, Alaska, symbolizes the shortage of foresight of our maritime policy makers. We are unable to provide a U.S.-flag ice-strengthened tanker to lift cargo between points in the United States (within Alaska), and will apparently have to secure the services of a Russian vessel instead. At the same time, the termination of the Global Maritime and Transportation School (GMATS), which has been at the forefront of professional training since its founding in 1994, seems to be another illustration of an "asleep at the switch" attitude toward our urgent maritime requirements. The two episodes have more in common than might at first appear. Up to now, GMATS, located at King's Point, has provided more than 140 maritime education and training programs, including four categories: nautical science and military training, marine engineering, transportation logistics and management. In 2010, more than 4,000 students were enrolled in GMATS programs. All of this now comes to an end, although the various state-sponsored maritime academies will no doubt attempt to take up the slack. Many of the courses offered have particular significance...

In US, there is a need for a strong and focused government maritime policy Shipping, it is often said, is a house of many mansions. It is characterized by different qualities, and varies according to the nationality of the ships themselves, and their owners. Here in the United States, however, one thing cuts across all of the niche markets and special interests: we need leadership. Nowhere is this more apparent then in the somewhat veiled circumstances of the firing (because that is what it was) of Admiral Philip H. Greene Jr. as Superintendent of the United States Merchant Marine Academy, also known as King's Point, located on Long Island Sound, within sight of the New York State Maritime Academy, across the water in the Bronx. This has been followed by an order from the United States Maritime Administration (MARAD), closing down GMATS, a self-funded graduate training program based at the Academy. Now MARAD is taking away the Academy's training ship, the KING'S POINTER, transferring it to Galveston, Texas, where it may be refurbished, and could be made available to the Texas Maritime Academy (Texas A&M) for its own training needs. Admiral Greene's removal is the third such incident in fairly...

The Magnetic North The United States has granted Royal Dutch Shell conditional approval of its plan to begin drilling exploratory wells in the Beaufort Sea, off the North Slope of Alaska, next summer. Shell has spent nearly $4 billion over more than 5 years, to obtain the right to drill in waters north of Alaska. Aside from environmental issues, the challenges to the maritime industry are very large ones. The Arctic itself is an oceanic area around and north of land masses that circle the pole. In May of this year, the extent of Arctic ice was the third-smallest since collection of data began in 1979. Alaska itself has a coastline that is longer than that of the combined "lower" 48 states. Nevertheless, the United States has very limited resources to cope with search and rescue responsibilities; Last May, an Arctic Search and Rescue Agreement was signed by 8 nations - Iceland, Finland, the United States, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Canada and Denmark, in which it was agreed to cooperate on rescues above the Arctic Circle. At its meeting in Greenland, the Arctic Council refrained from any attempt to resolve the issue of territorial claims. Russia has made claim to a...

Piracy:Will we ever find a solution? We have inveighed against the tendency in our industry, to keep repeating: Something must be done about piracy, without getting specific about what that something is. A number of proposals, some of them sensible, and some of them unworkable, have been put forward. In the midst of all of the fulminations, a few mysteries are being cleared up. One of these mysteries is why the United States, as the only major power with a navy of proven efficiency, has done so little (I realize this will offend my British friends, but its now official: the Royal Navy hasnt been as small as it is now since the Middle Ages). There have for some time been rumours that the U.S. was pulling its punches with regard to the Somali pirates. Intriguing new evidence has surfaced in a recent article by two experienced New York Times reporters, Mark Mazzetti and Eric Schmitt, detailing what appears to be happening behind the scenes. The reality seems to be that the United States now considers Al Qaeda in Somalia, and its affiliate across the Gulf of Aden, to be a greater threat than the operatives in Pakistan who have...

What do oil spills, piracy and the Greek crisis have in common? There are at least three received truths, as one of my college professors sarcastically called them, that, in the world of shipping, may be open to challenge. One is that last years Gulf of Mexico oil rig explosion had nothing to do with the rest of the shipping industry, being only about wells and rigs and not ships. Another truth that is repeated constantly is that weve got to do something about piracy, particularly the Somali variety, and that if our industry musters the will, whatever that is, the world will listen. And the third is that Greeces (and Europes) current economic and political passion play has, and will have, no relevance to the Greek-owned shipping sector. In my more than 40 years in shipping, Ive learned that like most businesses, ours is dominated by relatively few voices, functioning within an echo chamber of mutually supportive expressions of internal consensus. These voices do not always take account of uncomfortable events outside: a failure that brings unpleasant surprises from time to time. There are a number of reasons why the three truths, that I have referred to, arent actually...