Tag: USCG

The bottleneck in Houston Ship Channel seems to be coming under control as four tankers on Thursday were preparing to offload or pick up cargoes in the busiest US oil port, according to AIS data. The bottleneck has reportedly cut 1 million barrels per day of shipments since Monday. 

USCG and partner agencies are responding to an oil spill that occurred in the Arthur Kill waterway near the Goethals Bridge, Thursday afternoon, after fuel-oil leaked from a commercial container ship while moored at the Global Marine New York Container Terminal in Staten Island.

The US Coast Guard published an alert for towboats, warning them for very strong currents at the Lower Mississippi River. Namely, three marine casualties led to the sinking of towing vessels, while one of them resulted in a fatality. USCG says that it is vital for vessel operators to provide a wide berth when maneuvering around any other vessel or object.

The US Coast Guard reopened portions of the Houston Ship Channel on Monday, with restrictions on waterways affected by the petrochemical leak outside Houston that has disrupted ship traffic. USCG said it is allowing daytime transits only through the ship channel.

The previous weekend, the USCG cutter Bertholf joined the US Navy destroyer Curtis Wilbur for a transit of the Strait of Formosa, part of the Navy's long-running freedom of navigation campaign in the Western Pacific. It is the third such transit concerning the previous months, but the presence of the cutter was unusual, as previous patrols in the region have seen the deployment of Navy vessels only.

On March 25, the US Coast Guard reported that approximately five dozen ships will be in line to transit the Houston Ship Channel, as efforts to clean the waste from the International Terminals tank fire continue. TCEQ has been taking water samples from  the drainage ditch, and nine chemicals in its samples exceeded health-protective concentration levels.

The US Inspections and Compliance Directorate published the Marine Safety Alert 02-19, 'Not all navigation lights are created equal,' to help all mariners understand the difference between navigation lights used on power driven vessels and those used on sailing vessels. The vertical divergence requirements for lights on vessels under sail are larger to accommodate greater heeling.

The US Coast Guard informed that it suspended its search for a person who went into the water after a 54-foot towing vessel capsized at mile marker 55 on the lower Mississippi River north of Point A La Hache, Louisiana, on March 18. US Coast Guard crews searched around 158 square-nautical miles for about 18 hours but were unable to find the missing person.

USCG sent cutter Bertholf to Sasebo, Japan, on March 3, to enforce North Korea sanctions in the East China Sea. The cutter arrival to Japan was conducted following a deployment in the East China Sea where the crew assisted in United Nations Security Council Resolutions (UNSCR) enforcement against illicit ship-to-ship transfers that violate North Korea sanctions.

The US Coast Guard informed that is searching for a person in the water after a towing vessel capsized at mile marker 55 on the lower Mississippi River north of Point A La Hache, Louisiana, on March 18. At the time of the incident, the boat had three people on board. Two of them were recovered, while one is still missing. The cause of the incident is still under investigation.