DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2009 – 149 Number 149 *** COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS *** Monday 01-06-2009 News reports received from readers and Internet News articles taken from various news sites. HAL’s EURODAM Photo : Frans Sanderse (c) 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, kindly send an e-mail with the word “unsubscribe” in the subject line to [email protected], after receipt of this e-mail I will remove you from the distribution list soon as possible Distribution : daily 8050+ copies worldwide Page 1 www.maasmondmaritime.com/Inschrijven.aspx DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2009 – 149 EVENTS, INCIDENTS & OPERATIONS Tankcleaning and gasfreeing equipment Bilge oil water separators Victor Marine (UK) Ltd has appointed C.T.C. bv from the Netherlands as their agents for the Benelux, Germany, France and Spain. Any inquiries are welcome and can be sent to [email protected] or by fax to +31-10-5990985. Phone +31-10-5990979 (24/7) Further information can also be found on our website www.ctcnl.com RACON – POST VAN HET JAAR Net als voorgaande jaren heeft Racon, het Gilde van Nautische Verkeersleiders Nederland, de verkiezing Post van het jaar gehouden. De voorzitter van Racon, J.F. Goud, benadrukte dat de wisselbokaal in het leven is geroepen om de samenwerking tussen vaarweggebruikers en Verkeerscentrales in Nederland en België te benadrukken. Via de homepage van Racon, www.vts-racon.nl en op de scheepvaartbeurs Shipping en Industry te Gorinchem zijn vele stemmen uitgebracht. Tijdens de algemene ledenvergadering, gehouden op 27-05-2009 in het zeemanshuis van de Flying Angels, onderdeel van het Engelse Mission to Seafarers te Schiedam, werd de uitslag bekend gemaakt. De Regionale Verkeerscentrale Dordrecht mag zich het komende jaar Post van het jaar noemen. Als tweede is verkeerscentrale Botlek verkozen, de Verkeerspost Wemeldinge als derde. Aan de vertegenwoordigers van de genoemde posten is de bijbehorende bekers door de directeur van Nationale Nautische Verkeersdienst Opleiding (N.N.V.O) ., dhr. A.J.W. Wolters, overhandigt. De Jan Casper-bokaal, de wisseltrofee voor de Post van het jaar, zal op een later tijdstip aan de bemanning van Verkeerscentrale Dordrecht worden overhandigd. De volledige uitslag is te zien op www.vts-racon.nl Gibraltar calls Spanish navy ship moves 'unacceptable' Gibraltar's chief minister has called an incursion of a Spanish navy ship into the waters around the contested British territory on Spain's southern coast "unacceptable", reports said Saturday. In the latest in a string of similar incidents, a Spanish navy ship was spotted on May 22 in the waters off the village of Catalan Bay in "circumstances which would appear to be unacceptable," Peter Caruana was quoted as saying on Gibraltar public radio and television. Distribution : daily 8050+ copies worldwide Page 2 www.maasmondmaritime.com/Inschrijven.aspx DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2009 – 149 On May 8, a Spanish navy vessel sent boarding parties to inspect Spanish fishing boats in British waters, despite the British considering that it had no authority to do so. "It's a violation of British sovereignty and something we take very seriously indeed," a British foreign office spokesman told reporters at the time. The first incident took place last month when a Spanish police vessel was spotted close to the western approach to the Gibraltar airport runway, which juts out into the bay. It was ordered to leave by a British navy patrol launch. The Conservative party said Saturday they plan to question the government in parliament over the recent incidents. Spain ceded Gibraltar to Britain in 1713 under the Treaty of Utrecht but has retained a constitutional claim should Britain renounce sovereignty -- a move that London says will not happen without the consent of Gibraltarians. The Spanish government claims that Gibraltar has no territorial waters outside its internal port limits, but Britain firmly rejects this and claims three nautical miles around the Rock as British territorial waters. Source : AFP The OPDR TANGER seen in Rotterdam - Photo : Henk Wadman © Vroon Offshore fined in OSV deaths case Vroon Offshore Services was fined GBP 280,000 (about $447,000) after admitting three breaches of U.K. marine safety regulations in relation to a September 2007 incident in which three men died. Finlay MacFadyen, 46, Robert O'Brien, 59, and Robert Ebertowski, 40, all suffocated to death in the anchor chain locker of the offshore support vessel Viking Islay. Mr. Ebertowski had gone into the confined space to secure a banging chain that was keeping the crew awake. Mr. O'Brien probably went in to help him but was also overcome by the lack of oxygen. The court was told that Mr MacFadyen raised the alarm and then tried to enter the small chamber wearing breathing apparatus, but could not get through the hatch. He tried again, using a different breathing apparatus, but he too collapsed when it was dislodged. Judge Robert Moore ruled in Sheffield Crown Court that if the vessel had had an oxygen meter on board the deaths could have been prevented, though he noted: "There remains a possibility the men may still have opened this Distribution : daily 8050+ copies worldwide Page 3 www.maasmondmaritime.com/Inschrijven.aspx DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2009 – 149 dangerous space and gone into it without using the meter." Earlier this month, a jury cleared the ship's captain, Donald Fryer of failing to discharge his duties properly in such a manner as to cause the deaths. Source : MarineLog Somalia piracy crackdown shows signs of success An international crackdown on piracy off Somalia's coast has yielded around 100 arrests and put bandits operating near the Horn of Africa on the defensive, U.S. and U.N. officials said on Friday. "The international maritime presence is increasingly successful," U.N. special envoy to Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah told reporters. "It is successful because pirates have to go further away," Ould-Abdallah said. As a result, pirates have to spend more of the ransom money they receive to hijack ships and avoid arrest, Ould-Abdallah said. "Many (pirates) have been captured," Ould-Abdallah said. "We have about 100 already arrested. I don't know how many disappeared. ... I think financiers behind them are also aware that they are being watched." Foreign navies have been deployed off the coast of the lawless Horn of Africa state since the turn of the year to try to prevent piracy that has flourished in busy Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean shipping lanes. Somali pirates in recent months have seized several cargo ships and collected tens of millions of dollars in ransom for the safe release of crews and cargoes. Figures for the first five months of 2009 show piracy off Somalia, which has been mired in civil war and without a proper government for 18 years, had actually worsened. In 2008, there were more than 100 pirate attacks in the region, with more than 40 successful hijackings. This year, around 100 attacks have been registered, including more than 25 successful hijackings. "The issue is getting worse," Somalia's Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Omaar told reporters as he pleaded for aid to help his country build an effective coast guard. Separately, the so-called Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia on Friday signed a declaration supporting measures to be taken by the group to help counter Somali piracy. The contact group includes the United States, the European Union, NATO and the United Nations. Greg Delawie, a U.S. envoy present at the signing ceremony, told reporters those measures would include apprehending and prosecuting pirates and supporting the creation of effective coast guards in the region. Omaar said an effective Somali coast guard could help put an end to piracy in the country's waters. But to get it up and running, he said, money and equipment were urgently needed. "We have the will and we have the men on the ground in the areas where these things are happening," he said, adding that the coast guard would need money, equipment, boats, radar and satellite communications systems. He said creating a coast guard would also create employment opportunities for young Somali men who may go into piracy to escape abject poverty. Source : Reuters Distribution : daily 8050+ copies worldwide Page 4 www.maasmondmaritime.com/Inschrijven.aspx DAILY COLLECTION OF MARITIME PRESS CLIPPINGS 2009 – 149 80 passengers leave Australian cruise ship in swine flu scare Scores of passengers have been allowed to leave a ship at an Australian port after medical tests indicated that a swine flu outbreak that cut short their Great Barrier Reef cruise appears to be restricted to three crew members. Health officials screened 83 passengers as they disembarked from the Pacific Dawn in the Queensland state capital Brisbane on Saturday. Hundreds more passengers who are now sailing on down the coast to Sydney were not allowed off the ship while it was docked. The Brisbane stop over was made for passengers who wanted to get off the ship early after three crew members tested positive for the virus on Thursday. Australia's count of confirmed edged up by two on Saturday to 209. Source : Gulf News Holiday over for 2,000 people as Pacific Dawn sets sail to Brisbane THE ill-fated Pacific Dawn cruise ship is sailing towards Brisbane where it will be met by health officials, after three crew members tested positive to swine flu.