Safety and Security

The Office of Naval Research has successfully demonstrated a weapon that could one day prove an effective means of disabling pirate attack skiffs.On April 6, the Office of Naval Research and its industry partner, Northrop Grumman, successfully tested a solid-state, high-energy laser (HEL) from a surface ship, which disabled a small target vessel. The at-sea testing of ...

Piracy at sea hit an all-time high in the first three months of 2011, with 142 attacks worldwide, according to the most recent global piracy report from the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) International Maritime Bureau."Figures for piracy and armed robbery at sea in the past three months are higher than we've ever recorded in the first quarter of any past year," sa ...

Ship operators need to ensure that they have an appropriate process in place to properly manage the level of crew fatigue according to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB).The advice is a result of the ATSB's investigation into the April 3, 2010 grounding of Chinese bulk carrier Shen Neng 1 on Douglas Shoal, off the coast of Queensland near Gladstone. ...

The latest vessel to be hijacked by pirates is  the 3,642 gt general cargo ship MV SUSAN K, managed by  Nimmrich & Prahm Bereederung of Leer, Ostfriesland. EU Navfor says it was pirated in the early hours of April 8 when approximately 200 nautical miles Northeast of Salalah, Oman; a location only 35 nautical miles from the Omani coastline. ...

During the early morning of  April 6, the Finnish Navy minelayer FNS POHJANMAA identified a suspected Pirate Action Group (PAG) consisting of a dhow and 2 attack skiffs approximately 250 NM South East of Salalah, Oman.The PAG is believed to have been responsible for an unsuccessful attack on a merchant vessel in the area the day before.  ...

Regulation V/19 of the SOLAS Convention sets out navigational equipment to be carried on board ships, according to ship type.  Under the regulation, ships fitted with AIS shall maintain AIS in operation at all times except where international agreements, rules or standards provide for the protection of navigational information.IMO Resolution ...

In another example of "catch and release," EU Navfor is to release two pirate suspects to Somalia, beacuse of "insufficient evidence to secure a prosecution."The two were grabbed on the afternoon of  April 3, 2011, when the EU NAVFOR Spanish warship ESPS INFANTA ELENA, identified and boarded a suspected pirate whaler 89 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, Ken ...

Containership operator APL said it will begin radiation scanning of containerized Japanese exports delivered to its marine terminal in Yokohama for carriage on APL vessels. The decision makes APL one of the first container carriers to undertake large-scale cargo testing for radioactivity since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami damaged Japanese nuclear reactors north of ...