Weekly News Summary For August 11 - August 17, 2008:
The Coast Guard was continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding the collision between the tanker Tintomara and a fuel oil barge being pushed by the DRD Towing-owned Mel Oliver with a formal hearing scheduled for Aug. 12 in New Orleans.
Meanwhile, cleanup of barges on the Mississippi River continues with Ingram reporting it still had about 50 barges to be cleaned on Tuesday, Aug. 5. Turn Services reported about 50 barges yet to be cleaned on Wednesday, Aug. 6. A total of 240 barges still needed cleaning as of Aug. 5.
“We have nothing but praise for the exemplary job the Coast Guard is doing,” said Mike Marshall, vice president of operations for Turn Services. “Capt. Lincoln Stroh has put resumption of industry as his highest priority and has done an amazing job balancing the competing interests.” Stroh is Captain of the Port of New Orleans and commander of Sector New Orleans.
Salvage of the barge DM 392, owned by American Commercial Lines (ACL), is taking longer than originally projected as the deep waters, strong currents approaching five knots and near zero visibility are hampering efforts to prepare the barge to be cut into two pieces to raise it onto waiting barges….
The Manitowoc Company Inc. announced on August 4 that it has agreed to sell the stock of its subsidiary, Manitowoc Marine Group, to Fincantieri Marine Group Holdings Inc., a subsidiary of Italian shipbuilding giant Fincantieri Navali Italiani SpA.
The sale is valued at about $120 million. Both boards have approved the all-cash deal. The transaction must still be approved by U.S. antitrust authorities and the Commission on Foreign Investment in the U.S.
Manitowoc Marine Group is an important mid-sized shipyard whose customers include the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard. It operates two shipyards in Wisconsin—Marinette Marine Corporation in Marinette, and Bay Shipbuilding Company in Sturgeon Bay—as well as a repair yard in Cleveland, Ohio. Its 1,590 employees generated revenues of about $320 million in 2007, with an increase expected for 2008.
Manitowoc Marine is part of a shipbuilding team led by Lockheed Martin that is competing to build the U.S. Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship, a new generation of combat ship. The prototype LCS, the USS Freedom, built in Manitowoc’s Marinette yard, is undergoing sea tests on Lake Michigan this week under tight secrecy….
The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW) was opened to barge traffic an estimated 24 hours earlier than would be the norm because of two industry-supplied response boats that helped survey channels after Tropical Storm Eduoard went ashore near High Island, east of Galveston, Tex., early on Tuesday, Aug. 5.
Houston-based Kirby and Florida Marine Transporters, based in Mandeville, La., provided response boats to survey waterways, allowing the Coast Guard to open them to shallow draft traffic.
The Coast Guard shut down the Houston Ship Channel on Monday night when rough seas made transit too dangerous. Twenty-two ships were waiting to enter the Houston Ship Channel by Tuesday afternoon before the Coast Guard opened the busy waterway, Reuters News Agency reported.
Capt. William Diehl, Commander of Sector Houston-Galveston, reported that by 1830 on Tuesday the Houston Ship Channel and Port of Galveston were open to traffic but restricted to draft of 38 feet, while the Port of Texas City was open with a draft restriction of 35 feet. Port Freeport was open with no restrictions and the GIWW was open to all barge traffic….
Continuing the modernization of its fleet of vessels, petroleum carrier Martin Marine, based in La Porte, Texas, recently completed work on the towboat W.O. Watson, which it bought from American Commercial Lines. The 100- by 35-foot towboat was built in 1974 by Houma Welders Inc. It has twin GM 8-645E5 diesels with a total of 2,800 hp.
R & R Marine Fabrication & Drydock in Port Arthur, Texas, reworked the boat’s hull, including the rudders, shafts and wheels. The shipyard replaced the channel coolers with Fernstrum Gridcoolers, and blasted and coated all tanks and void spaces.
Martin Marine’s repair and maintenance unit in Sabine Pass, Texas, rebuilt the entire interior living space.
“Floyd King, manager of the facility, and his crew really outdid themselves,” said Ed Grimm, senior vice president of Martin Marine. “The new quarters are equal to or better than many boats built today. All the cabinets and built-in furniture are made of solid Appalachian red oak and South American purpleheart. They were built from scratch by Floyd and his crew. The butcher block island and the commercial-grade stainless steel refrigerator and freezer really set off the galley.”…
It sounds like the script of a low budget Frankenstein movie: well-meaning scientists create a monster which leaves a “Dead Zone” in its wake until howling winds of a storm come to the rescue.
Returning from the Gulf of Mexico to the port of Cocodrie, La., researchers reported Hurricane Dolly has aerated western portions of the Gulf of Mexico, preventing the annual oxygen-depleted “Dead Zone” from covering the biggest area ever, as computer models had predicted.
Still, the Dead Zone, known by its scientific name of hypoxia, covered 8,000 square miles of Gulf of Mexico seabed, making it second in size only to the area mapped in 2001. Oxygen levels in the Dead Zone are too low to support bottom life, and species that cannot swim away often die.
Nutrients, including nitrogen and phosphorus, coming down the Mississippi River and Atchafalaya River, stimulate phytoplankton growth. When the phytoplankton dies, it settles to the bottom and decays.
Thirty percent of the Mississippi River’s water volume is diverted to the Atchafalaya above Baton Rouge at the Old River Control Structure….
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