USCG issues warning on electrical deficiencies
MARCH 23, 2016 — Due to an increase in reported electrical deficiencies on commercial vessels, the U.S. Coast Guard District 9 (Great Lakes) is warning commercial vessel owners to inspect their vessels’
MARCH 23, 2016 — Due to an increase in reported electrical deficiencies on commercial vessels, the U.S. Coast Guard District 9 (Great Lakes) is warning commercial vessel owners to inspect their vessels’
MARCH 16, 2015 — The Coast Guard reports that responders have extinguished a fire that broke out Tuesday on an oil production platform in Berry Lake Canal in Bayou Sorrel, Iberville Parish,
MARCH 16,2016 — An Argentine Coast Guard (Prefectura Naval Argentina) patrol vessel, the GC- 28 Prefecto Derbes, has fired on and sunk a Chinese flag vessel, the Lu Yan Yuan Yu 010,
MARCH 8, 2016 — Bollinger Shipyards has delivered the USCG cutter Donald Horsley, the 17th Fast Response Cutter (FRC) to the United States Coast Guard. Each FRC is named for an enlisted
MARCH 7, 2016 — U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Dan Sullivan (R-AK) and Patty Murray (D-WA) have introduced the bipartisan Coast Guard Icebreaker Recapitalization Act. The legislation would authorize $150 million for
FEBRUARY 19, 2015 — The U.S. Coast Guard is reminding shipowners and operators that the final rule amending the ballast water management reporting and record keeping requirements, published on November 24, 2015,
FEBRUARY 3, 2016 — The Coast Guard yesterday responded to a vessel allision at mile marker 104.3 on the Mississippi River near New Orleans. The 116,104 dwt, 2007-built Cyprus flagged tanker Nordbay
FEBRUARY 1, 2016 — The North Carolina Department of Transportation says that at approximately 10:40 a.m. on Saturday, January 30, the Ferry Division vessel M/V Roanoke ran soft aground on its way
JANUARY 21, 2016 —Kongsberg Maritime has delivered a complete new CCTV system to the U.S. Coastguard for its Heavy Ice Breaker vessel Polar Star (WAGB-10). The delivery follows a successful CCTV System
Oceanfleet Shipping Limited is a Greek shipping company that operates the 29,513 dwt Liberian-flag general cargo ship M/V Ocean Hope.
The two engineering officers indicted are the vessel’s Chief Engineer, Rustico Yabut Ignacio, 65, of the Philippines; and the Second Engineer, Cassius Flores Samson, 51, of the Philippines.
According to the indictment, in 2015 Samson bypassed pollution prevention equipment with an unauthorized hose connection, or “magic pipe,” to discharge oil sludge generated by the M/V Ocean Hope directly into the sea. Samson also ordered crew members on numerous other occasions to pump oily mixtures from the vessel’s bilges into the sea using the ship’s general service pump rather than processing these mixtures through the vessel’s pollution prevention equipment.
To hide the illegal discharges, Ignacio and Samson allegedly maintained a fictitious oil record book that failed to record the disposal, transfer, or overboard discharge of oil from the vessel. The oil record book also contained false entries stating that pollution prevention equipment had been used when it had not.
The indictment further alleges Ignacio and Samson ordered subordinate crew members to lie to the U.S. Coast Guard during an inspection in Wilmington, NC. The crew members were allegedly instructed to deny knowledge of the connection of the pipe used discharge sludge and to tell the Coast Guard that Oily Water Separator had been used as required under international law to process oily mixtures before discharge when they knew it had not.
Both engineering officers were charged with violating the federal Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships for failing to record overboard discharges in the vessel’s oil record book, conspiracy for their agreement to violate federal law, obstruction of justice for presenting false documents intended to deceive the Coast Guard and witness tampering for ordering subordinate crewmembers to mislead and lie to the Coast Guard.
Samson was also charged with false statements and obstruction of justice for lying to Coast Guard inspectors about the discharges.
The U.S. Coast Guard, Sector North Carolina, investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Banumathi Rangarajan with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina and Trial Attorneys Shane N. Waller and Brendan Selby with the Department of Justice’s Environmental Crimes Section are prosecuting the case.announced Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden for the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and U.S. Attorney Thomas G. Walker for the Eastern District of North Carolina.