DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2012 – 151 Number 151 *** COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS *** Wednesday 30-05-2012 News reports received from readers and Internet News articles copied from various news sites. 2 barges loaded with jackets spotted in Rotterdam-Waalhaven Photo : Josso van Boxtel - The Offshore Partners B.V. © Distribution : daily to 22125+ active addresses 30-05-2012 Page 1 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2012 – 151 Your feedback is important to me so please drop me an email if you have any photos or articles that may be of interest to the maritime interested people at sea and ashore PLEASE SEND ALL PHOTOS / ARTICLES TO : [email protected] If you don't like to receive this bulletin anymore : To unsubscribe click here (English version) or visit the subscription page on our website. http://www.maasmondmaritime.com/uitschrijven.aspx?lan=en-US EVENTS, INCIDENTS & OPERATIONS The PRESIDENT HUBERT with the Tugspotters flag in top enroute Rotterdam Photo : Peter Andriessen - www.tughunter.nl © Beaches that became world’s biggest ship graveyards Beaches at Alang in India, Chittagong in Bangladesh, Gadani in Pakistan and Aliağa in Turkey aren’t top holiday destinations. They’re world’s top ship graveyards. After a lifespan of a few decades and hard use, a worn down ship will make its last trip to one of these beaches in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan or Turkey. It’ll be demolished and broken Distribution : daily to 22125+ active addresses 30-05-2012 Page 2 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2012 – 151 for lucrative recycling – a ship may not be sea worthy anymore but it’s definitely a few million dollars worthy as scrap metal. No trained workers and no advanced tools will be used to take the ship down. Low-labor-cost local people, very often children, will use blowtorches, hammers and axes to tear down a ship that, on average, is 1180 feet (360 meters) long and weighs 160 metric tons. Very often, they won’t wear protective gear and will inhale dangerous vapors and fumes from materials including asbestos polychlorinated biphenyls. BBC’s Simon Reeve reported from the second world’s biggest ship breaking (or demolition) yard in Bangladesh that, on average, eight people die there every month. Crushed under heavy metal falling on top of them. Suffocated inside a gas chamber. Filming on any of the beaches isn’t allowed and reporters need to get creative to get the footage. When they do, pictures are indeed spectacular, but not in a pretty way. Corroding skeletons of giant ships dumped on the beachfront, with huge chunks ripped off them. Black oil floating on the water surface. Wastes of the scrapped ships, especially oil and oils substances as well as different types of metal, are being accumulated and heavily contaminate the coastal soil and seawater environment of the biggest ship graveyard beaches in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Turkey. There’s a reason why these four places are the biggest ship breaking yards in the world. Costs of removing the metal for scrap are cut down by using low-cost-labor without appropriate protection and tools. Negligent or lack of environmental laws don’t require appropriate disposal of large quantities of highly toxic materials – surely, it’s not Green Ship Recycling as in some other ports; industrialized ports. But these other Green Ship Recycling ports are far from being the biggest, the dirtiest, the most hazardous, the most dangerous, the most exploitative, and the most profitable ship breaking yards in the world. Source: All Voices The BW LOTUS anchored off Singapore – Photo : Piet Sinke © Somalia: Puntland Agrees for Mauritius to Temporarily Imprison Pirates The Puntland government signed an agreement with Mauritius to temporarily hold inmates convicted of piracy until Puntland detention facilities meet the international standard, Radio Garowe reports. Saeed Mohamed Ragge, Minister of Ports, Sea Transport and Counter Piracy for Puntland met with Prime Minister of Mauritius, Navinchandra Distribution : daily to 22125+ active addresses 30-05-2012 Page 3 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2012 – 151 Ramgoolam and various Mauritanian government officials. Minister Ragge's delegation included Puntland Chief of Corrections Officers, Gen. Ali Nuur Omar. The purpose of the meeting was to reach an agreement on how convicted pirates captured at sea would be incarcerated and for how long. After a long closed door meeting with the Prime Minister both government officials reached an agreement for tried and convicted pirates to be jailed in Mauritius until the facilities reach the UN standard. The agreement says that the convicted pirates will finish there sentences in their land after the Puntland government has constructed proper facilities to house the convicted pirates. The meeting was also attended by Legal Adviser of Denmark on piracy off the coast of Somalia Thomas Winkler and officials from UN Office for Drugs and Crime, who are currently working with Puntland and Mauritius to improve the quality of detention facilities. The Mauritius government agreed to help improve the quality of Puntland corrections facilities through funding by the UN and the international community. There are hundreds of Somali pirates that are jailed in countries across the world due partly to the lack of quality detention facilities according to international standards. Mauritius signed an agreement with the EU last July to house convicted Somali pirates. Source: Garowe Online The SEVEN EAGLE enroute the Ijmuiden locks outbound – Photo : Erwin Willemse © Trident Group and Eagle Bulk Shipping recognised in a shooting video Trident Group and Eagle Bulk Shipping have been recognised in a video published on YouTube on which armed guards are shooting at a pirate skiff. This video has raised a heated debate on rules for the use of force and calls for further investigation. See video at : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVnpY8HhTwU&feature=player_embedded The video shows a private maritime security company’s operatives firing what they call warning shots, but there appears to be no gradual or layered approach to protecting the ship, as advocated in the International Maritime Organization’s Best Management Practices. The guards continue to fire for some minutes as the vessel moved away from the pirates and the threat to the vessel became less urgent. Eagle Bulk declined to confirm that the vessel in the video was under its control. However, in a statement issued to Lloyd’s List it said: “Piracy is a scourge which threatens the life and safety of seafarers. Out of respect for the safety of our crews, we do not discuss any aspect of our operations, safety or security procedures.” Lloyd’s List has been told by several sources that the vessel in the video is owned by Eagle Bulk and shortly before the end of the clip the Eagle Bulk livery is clearly visible on the side of the vessel. Eagle Bulk uses Trident as a security provider. In an emailed statement to Lloyd’s List, Trident president Tom Rothrauff said: “This action came 72 hours following another attack by this exact same pirate action group against this very same vessel. Further, the same Distribution : daily to 22125+ active addresses 30-05-2012 Page 4 DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2012 – 151 PAG had attacked a tanker in the week prior, so this was a killer PAG. Our team acted with poise, and used every rule for the use of force as prescribed by the US Coast Guard in PSA 3-09. “The skiff was identified as carrying RPG’s and AK 47’s. The team was compelled to wait before they initiated warning shots until the master gave permission to the team to release repelling force. When the warning shots were fired, it just so happened that the skiff opened up on our team at the exact same time.” The International Association of Maritime Security Professionals issued a statement on its website stating that the PMSC in the video had employed a questionable use of force. After receiving expressions of concern regarding the video’s content, the IAMSP felt it had sufficient information to warrant attention and launched an investigation. IAMSP said that after gathering information it had concluded that the nature of the events in the video warranted the attention of the appropriate flag state and not an administrative investigation. Trident is based in Virginia in the US while Eagle Bulk’s flag state is t he Marshall Islands. However, Marshall Islands chief operating officer John Ramage said the investigation bureau had no intention of investigating the incident further. “Nobody on board the ship was injured and we have no plans to investigate further. However, we do reserve the right to look into the matter at a further date if we deem it necessary,” Mr Ramage said. He added that it was important to remember that pirates were “doing an illegal act and too many people have been killed and injured by pirates”. “That has to be at the forefront of our minds. Obviously, it is regrettable that anyone is injured, pirates included and it is a concern from a flag state’s point of view,” he said. Mr Ramage said he was not sure if the incident in the video had been reported or not, but said that it was common practice to report all approaches from pirate vessels. Meanwhile, there have been calls from the maritime security industry for the Security Association for the Maritime Industry to investigate the incident. SAMI told Lloyd’s List it has no further information on the video clip but the debate generated “clearly demonstrates that clarification on the rules for the use of force is needed”. “Indeed, SAMI cannot envisage any incident when exceeding the use of minimum force during the act of deterring a pirate attack or protecting of merchant vessels and crews is justified or indeed legal,” SAMI said.