Columns – Page 6 – Pacific Maritime Magazine

Shipping Industry Leaders Call for Decarbonization of International Shipping

About 150 global companies and organizations, including the Northwest Seaport Alliance, Vancouver Fraser Port Authority and the Panama Canal Authority, on Sept. 22 called for the global shipping industry to be fully decarbonized by 2050, urging governments around the world to take action. The signatories of the Call to Action for Shipping Decarbonization urged world leaders to align shipping with the Paris Agreement temperature goal. “The private sector is already taking important steps to decarbonize global supply chains. Now governments must deliver the policies that will supercharge the transition and make zero emission shipping the default choice by 2030,” the…

U.S. Navy Vessel Participates in West Africa Anti-Piracy Exercise

U.S. Navy expeditionary sea base (ESB) USS Hershel "Woody" Williams was in West Africa in early August to participate in maritime security training along with African maritime security authorities. They participated in a three-day sea training exercise with Nigerian offshore patrol vessels and members of Ghana’s Special Boat Squadron as part of efforts to contain growing piracy in the Gulf of Guinea. The USS Hershel “Woody” Williams is the first warship permanently assigned to the U.S. Africa Command area of responsibility. The U.S. shares a common interest with African partner nations in ensuring security, safety, and freedom of navigation on…

Shippers Redraw Perimeter of High Piracy Risk Area

Shipping groups have redrawn the perimeters of the so-called High Risk Area covering Yemen and Somalia due to a decrease in Somali piracy. As of Sept. 1, the High Risk Area (HRA) was set to be scaled back to cover the Yemeni and Somali territorial seas and exclusive economic zones to the east and south. The changes were agreed to by the Baltic & International Maritime Council (BIMCO), International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), the International Association of Dry Cargo Shipowners (INTERCARGO), the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners (INTERTANKO), and the Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF), representing the global…

International Report – Noteworthy maritime hijacking news from around the world

Piracy and Armed Robbery Incidents at Lowest Level in 27 Years, IMB Reports The latest global piracy report from the International Chamber of Commerce’s International Maritime Bureau (IMB) details 68 incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships during the first half of 2021, down from 98 incidents during the same period last year, and the lowest total since 1994. During the first six months of this year, IMB’s Piracy Reporting Centre (PRC) reported 61 vessels boarded, four attempted attacks, two vessels fired upon, and one vessel hijacked. Despite the overall decline in reported incidents, violence against crews has continued…

To Be Paid in Full – Promptly

Life at sea away from family and friends is not always easy for seamen. For their hard work and sacrifices, seamen are entitled to be paid what is due in full in a timely manner. Federal law so provides. Historically, seamen have been considered in need of special protection by Congress and the courts because of the nature of their employment. Various statutes and regulations have been enacted over the years to provide that protection including laws pertaining to compensation. Indeed, the first statute to give seamen a right to collect their wages was enacted in 1790. Wage Law Basics…

Tacoma LNG Facility Nears Opening Date

Submitted by Puget Sound Energy The Port of Tacoma is a deep-water, major shipping hub in the Pacific Northwest. Soon, it will also be home to a new LNG facility capable of providing marine vessels with a safe, reliable, and economic source of liquefied natural gas. That facility, the Tacoma LNG plant, is a jointly-owned endeavor between Washington State utility Puget Sound Energy (PSE) and its commercial sister company Puget LNG. The project broke ground on Nov. 1, 2016 and, ever since, the plant and its team have continued to successfully reach the milestones that a project of this complexity…

International Report

Cargo Ship Freed from Suez Canal The Evergreen Lines cargo ship Ever Given was freed from the Suez Canal on March 29, six days after it became stuck and became the subject of global fascination and occasional ridicule. The 20,000 TEU-class container ship, which is currently leased by Evergreen Marine Corp. under a time charter agreement, had been deployed on a Far East-Europe service route when it became grounded when it collided with the canal bank and became across the waterway. The blockage caused by the 1,300-foot-long vessel had a significant impact on trade between Europe and Asia and the…

Infrastructure Debate Front and Center in Congress — Will It Happen?

Joe Biden rode into the White House on campaign promises of building up climate resiliency, pledges to mitigate decades of transportation inequity, and assurances that his administration would take bold action to build back better with sustainable long-term investments in infrastructure. The nation’s crumbling infrastructure has been a prominent concern and front-burner policy issue for years, but the devastation and disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted a number serious deficiencies crippling our freight and logistics network. With unprecedented demand for imported goods and capacity issues abound, the pandemic effectively uncovered major issues for the maritime and freight logistics industries with…

The Dangerous Dance Floor

Who knew a dance floor on a cruise ship could be a dangerous place? Over the years, dance floors on cruise ships have been the sites of many personal injuries. In turn, those injuries gave rise to lawsuits against the cruise lines. Surprisingly, the cruise lines were not always held liable for what happened on the dance floor. Open and Obvious Condition in the Disco Under established federal maritime law, a vessel owner owes only a duty of reasonable care under the circumstances to passengers, not the higher duty of seaworthiness owed by a vessel owner to crewmembers. In Salazar…