The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has called for new VTS safety measures after the anchor-drag incident that caused an oil spill off the coast of California in October 2021. The spill released around 588 barrels of crude oil into San Pedro Bay and caused about $160 million in damage, including cleanup costs. It was initiated when a container ship dragged anchor over an underwater pipeline in a storm eight months earlier. NTSB determined that the MSC Danit's anchor contacted and damaged the pipeline during a high wind event earlier in the year, and that stress fractures ..read more

On Tuesday, the U.S. Coast Guard rescued five people who were trapped by flooding during a major storm near Rosburg, Washington.  At 1020 hours, Sector Columbia River received a request for helicopter support from the local fire department in Cathlamet, Washington. Four people were trapped in their house, which was immersed in four feet of water.  A Jayhawk helicopter crew launched from Air Station Astoria to assist, and they arrived on scene just after 1100. However, as soon as the helicopter reached its destination, the Coast Guard diverted it to help another individual who wa ..read more

Australian-owned defense shipbuilder Austal USA has had an up-and-down year, and has already had to contend with a criminal prosecution, a money-losing tug bid, and turnover in the C-suite. This week, the cyber threat group Hunters International claimed that it hacked Austal and stole unspecified data, a claim which has been widely reported in the cybersecurity trade press but could not be immediately verified.  In a list of new victims posted on its Dark Web site, Hunters International said that it has data from Austal's U.S. operation and will release up to 43 samples&nbs ..read more

Two years after a major diplomatic dispute over a canceled submarine order, the governments of Australia and France have decided to bury the hatchet with an agreement to share naval base access in the Pacific.  In September 2021, the administration of then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison decided to abandon a troubled $65 billion deal to buy conventionally-powered submarines from France's Naval Group. Instead, Australia would pursue a joint UK-American-Australian nuclear submarine program, sharing technology and production resources among the three nations. French diplomats said that they we ..read more

  The UAE announced plans for its second large investment in the UK offshore energy sector forming a partnership with Iberdrola which is set to develop one of the largest wind farms in the UK sector. This initiative which is part of a broader cooperation between the UAE’s Masdar and Spain’s Iberdrola follows a similar agreement announced days ago for the UAE to invest with RWE in another of the UK’s largest wind farms and is part of a broader strategy by the UAE to enhance its image by investing in renewable energy projects ranging from Germany to Poland, the USA, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, a ..read more

  More than six years after the loss of the converted bulk carrier Stellar Daisy, a South Korean inquiry into the sinking which claimed the lives of 22 crewmembers confirmed the findings blaming maintenance issues while also adding some new details on the contributing factors. The loss of the Stellar Daisy on March 31, 2017, approximately 2,000 nautical miles from the Port of Montevideo, Uruguay with 24 crew members on board shined light on the then-common practice of converting aging tankers into large bulk carriers. Having begun her life in the 1990s, the Stellar Daisy was a converted v ..read more

On Tuesday, the U.S. Coast Guard rescued five people who were trapped by flooding during a major storm near Rosburg, Washington.  At 1020 hours, Sector Columbia River received a request for helicopter support from the local fire department in Cathlamet, Washington. Four people were trapped in their house, which was immersed in four feet of water.  A Jayhawk helicopter crew launched from Air Station Astoria to assist, and they arrived on scene just after 1100. However, as soon as the helicopter reached its destination, the Coast Guard diverted it to help another individual who wa ..read more

Australian-owned defense shipbuilder Austal USA has had an up-and-down year, and has already had to contend with a criminal prosecution, a money-losing tug bid, and turnover in the C-suite. This week, the cyber threat group Hunters International claimed that it hacked Austal and stole unspecified data, a claim which has been widely reported in the cybersecurity trade press but could not be immediately verified.  In a list of new victims posted on its Dark Web site, Hunters International said that it has data from Austal's U.S. operation and will release up to 43 samples&nbs ..read more

Two years after a major diplomatic dispute over a canceled submarine order, the governments of Australia and France have decided to bury the hatchet with an agreement to share naval base access in the Pacific.  In September 2021, the administration of then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison decided to abandon a troubled $65 billion deal to buy conventionally-powered submarines from France's Naval Group. Instead, Australia would pursue a joint UK-American-Australian nuclear submarine program, sharing technology and production resources among the three nations. French diplomats said that they we ..read more

  The UAE announced plans for its second large investment in the UK offshore energy sector forming a partnership with Iberdrola which is set to develop one of the largest wind farms in the UK sector. This initiative which is part of a broader cooperation between the UAE’s Masdar and Spain’s Iberdrola follows a similar agreement announced days ago for the UAE to invest with RWE in another of the UK’s largest wind farms and is part of a broader strategy by the UAE to enhance its image by investing in renewable energy projects ranging from Germany to Poland, the USA, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, a ..read more