The US Coast Guard is responding to an oil discharge that took place near Port Sulphur, Louisiana, on Sunday, December 9. Namely, a crude oil well in Rattle Snake Bayou, southwest of Port Sulphur, was leaking. The amount of the oil spill is not know yet.
The US Coast Guard informed that it is searching for seven migrants who are missing after a boat capsized off the Dominican Republic. The boat was carrying a total of 28 people when the incident took place. According to the US Coast Guard, a commercial tanker spotted the capsized boat on December 6 off the Dominican Republic, near the island of Saona.
As global warming and ice melting opens new shipping routes in Arctic, the head of the US Coast Guard announced that it may soon get funding for a new heavy icebreaker. The US has currently two operational icebreakers, the Polar Star, which is heavy but more than 42 years old, and the Healy which is a medium one.
NAVCEN, in collaboration with the Office of Commercial Vessel Compliance, developed a program to identify vessels that have not reported their Long Range Identification and Tracking status and are not in compliance with 33 CFR §169.230. Once notified, the USCG will enforce the LRIT reporting requirement.
The US Coast Guard Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation Program, in cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate, launched two 6U CubeSats from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California on December 3. CubeSats aim to evaluate the effectiveness of space sensors to support Arctic search and rescue missions.
The US Coast Guard medevaced a 49-year-old captain from a motor vessel, approximately eight miles offshore of Galveston, Texas, on December first. According to the crew, the captain was presenting symptoms of heart attack.
The US Coast Guard Cutter ‘Mackinaw’ was loaded with 1,200 Christmas trees from northern Michigan last week and, on Monday, left Cheboygan County for Chicago where the trees will be unloaded and delivered to families in need preserving the tradition of the ‘Christmas Tree Ship’.
The USCG Marine Safety Center published an update to its technical note “Marine Safety Center Review of Rigid Hull Inflatable Vessels.” The document provides an alternative design standard equivalent to certain regulatory requirements found in 46 CFR Subchapters T and S for rigid hull inflatable and rigid hull foam collar small passenger vessels (RHIs).
A Boston federal court sentenced the former captain of the ‘Bulldog’, a New Bedford based commercial fishing vessel for interfering with a US Coast Guard inspection of a fishing boat off the Massachusetts coast.
Two Greek shipping companies, Avin International LTD, and Nicos I.V. Special Maritime Enterprises, pleaded guilty yesterday in US court in Beaumont, to charges over several oil discharges in Texas waters by the oil tanker ‘Nicos I.V.’ The Master and the Chief Officer also pleaded guilty to making material false statements to members of the Coast Guard during investigation.
