Dutch shipping giant Maersk Line is joining with Lloyd’s Register to test biodiesel in its marine engines for the next two years.

This story from the Journal of Commerce says the feasibility study on the container ship Maersk Kalmar will be funded in part by the Dutch government:

Using fatty acid methyl esters – a biodiesel product known as FAME — the tests will use a blend of between 5 percent and 7 percent biodiesel to examine a long list of potential problems.

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Taiwan's Evergreen Marine Corp plans to expand its fleet to cope with a recovery in container shipping since the end of the global economic crisis, a newspaper said Tuesday. Evergreen, the world's fourth-largest maritime shipping company, plans to buy at least a dozen vessels that can carry 7,000 to 8,000 standard-sized shipping containers, the Economic Daily News reported.

"Evergreen is discussing with Japanese, South Korean and Taiwanese shipyards," the paper quoted company vice president Hsieh Chih-chien as saying. "They will quote prices to Evergreen before the end of April."

Hsieh said Evergreen expected an improved business climate as the global economic crisis eases, particularly since China's free-trade agreement with the Association of South-East Asian Nations took effect on January 1.

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The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) detained two oil vessels and its crew, off Pulau Pangkor waters near Lumut, about 100km from here, for illegally dumping oil residual.

District Maritime 3 Enforcement Chief Ang Cheng Hwa said the activities of the two ships was discovered at about 11pm, about 3 Nautical miles from Pulau Pangkor and detained by the Kilat 52 patrol boat.

One of the two ships was registered in Klang while other was registered in Medan, Indonesia.

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Pirates have seized a Kenyan-flagged fishing vessel off the Somali coast for possible use as a "mother ship" to launch more attacks, a maritime official said on Tuesday.

Andrew Mwangura of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme said pirates captured the Spanish-owned FV Sakoba last week.

"I think the pirates have taken her, now they are using her as a mother ship to attack other ships," he told Reuters.

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Federal transport minister Anthony Albanese joined the Australian Shipowners Association yesterday in officially launching the International Year of the Seafarer.
Australian-Maritime-College

Coinciding with Shipping Industry Awareness Day, Mr Albanese said it was an opportunity to "reflect on the unique but often overlooked contribution merchant seafarers make to the well-being of communities and the prosperity of the global economy".

"The world's 1.5m merchant seafarers are responsible for transporting more than 90% of the products and produce traded globally, a job that involves long periods of separation from family and friends as well as the risks posed by pirates and the weather," he said.

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Two more Filipino seafarers held captive by Somali pirates were released Sunday night, reducing the number of Filipinos still in the hands of outlaws in the East African country to three.

A statement posted on the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Web site said the two were among the crew of Thai Union 3, the Thai-owned fishing vessel that was hijacked off Seychelles last October 29.

The vessel was also carrying 23 Russians and two Ghanaians, the DFA said.

The department, citing information reaching the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers, said the released Filipino crew members were all in good condition.

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The Hellenic Coast Guard had rescued last night a crew of a sinking cargo ship under the flag of the Comoros, which is transported cigarettes from Bulgaria to Turkey, RIA Novosti reported.

All five crew members were rescued.

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It was confirmed on Friday by health officials that a member of the crew on a cruise ship has leprosy. Hansen’s disease, commonly called leprosy, is a disease that is curable and is not considered to be very contagious. The only risk would be if the person with the disease had close personal contact with someone else.

The crew member was in Canada on the cruise ship only because the ship had been hired for the housing of the Olympic security staff and he has been receiving treatment since February 18 when he was diagnosed. This young crew member is unnamed and works in the engine room aboard the ship. He did not have any contact with the military or police and was not part of a passenger support or service role. It is believed that the crew member only posed a risk to the already criticized Vancouver games than he did to anyone there on the ship.

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The U.S. Navy says the crew of a Tanzanian-flagged ship has successfully fought off a pirate attack in the Gulf of Aden before a U.S. warship arrived and apprehended the pirates.

The Navy's 5th Fleet, which is based in Bahrain, UAE, said Monday the MV Barakaale 1 signaled for help from the international anti-pirate task force after pirates tried to board the vessel from a skiff.

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Near the waterline inside the Maersk Beaumont lies the main reason why this new container ship is set to spend at least the rest of this year unused on a Scottish sea loch.

Twelve cylinders, whose linings alone weigh eight tonnes each, sit ready to accelerate the ship to speeds of nearly 30 knots (55kph). They make the Beaumont and her six sister ships, built to rush Chinese goods to the US east coast, the world’s fastest modern container vessels. But fuel consumption is nearly as high as on the world’s largest container ships, which carry three times as much cargo.

The fast ships, which analysts say would have cost well over $50m (€36.7m, £32.3m) each, have fallen victim to a doubling in fuel prices, slumping demand for containerised goods and changes in industry practice.

Denmark’s Maersk Line, owner of the vessels, moved the Beaumont and four of the sister ships to Loch Striven, off western Scotland’s Clyde estuary, in July. Another redundant Maersk ship was added to provide more stability when the group was lashed together. The remaining two B Class ships, as they are known, are laid up at Laem Chabang in Thailand.

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The Federal Government announced on Friday that it would temporarily lift the Protection of the Sea Levy to recover the clean up costs of the 23,737 dwt general cargo ship, which leaked oil into the sea in March last year.

The levy would increase by three cents from April to 14.25 cents per net registered tonne, federal transport minister Anthony Albanese said.

The levy plan was flagged last August when the Federal and Queensland Governments announced that Pacific Adventurer’s owner, Swire Shipping, had agreed to pay $25m in compensation for the oil spill.

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Eleven of 12 Indonesian sailors who work for a Singaporean company were released after pirates held them hostage for five days near the island nation, an official said on Sunday.

“We have received a report that 11 Indonesian ship crew members have been rescued and taken to the Indonesian Consulate General in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia,” Teguh Wardoyo, director of the Foreign Ministry’s citizens’ protection unit, told the Jakarta Globe.

Teguh said all of the released crew members were safe and healthy, but the ministry and the Malaysian Navy were still trying to locate the 12th crew member, who was still being held hostage by the pirates.

Iman Rokhadi, an official at the Indonesian Consulate General in Kota Kinabalu, said a sand- dredging ship owned by a Singaporean company embarked from Cambodia for Singapore on Feb. 6. All 12 crew members aboard were Indonesian.

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A B.C. mother breathed a sigh of relief when told that her 19-year-old daughter and other Canadian students were alive after their tall ship sank off the coast of Brazil and they spent 40 hours on life rafts before being rescued.

“It’s a miracle story,” Doris Smith recalled Sunday.

She said she talked to daughter Sarah for the first time Saturday morning.

“She called yesterday to say, ‘Hi, I’m alive. I’ll call you later.’ She only had two minutes because everyone was waiting to use the phone,” the mother said.

“She cried when she called. It was emotional.”

Her daughter called again later and they talked at length, the mother added.

She said her daughter had the highest praise for the ship’s crew and on-board teachers involved in the floating school program called Class Afloat.

Nova Scotia-based West Island College International runs the program, which gives high school and university students an opportunity to study while sailing the world.

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As more than a dozen students and crew reached land yesterday after spending 40 hours clinging to life-rafts in rough seas following the sinking of their Canadian tall ship off Brazil, the head of their program said he's uncertain whether it will continue.

"I can't speak to the future of Class Afloat. I can just speak to the present," said Nigel McCarthy, president of Lunenburg, N.S.-based West Island College International, which offers the floating-classroom program.

"We've lived through a miracle at sea."

Class Afloat gives high school and university students an opportunity to study while sailing the world.

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Summary: Today, 22. February 2010, 06h00 UTC, still at least 9 foreign vessels plus one barge are kept in Somalia against the will of their owners, while at least 187 seafarers - including an elderly British yachting couple - suffer to be released. See the Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor

CASES NOT COMPLETELY CLOSED:
MS INDIAN OCEAN EXPLORER and S/Y SERENITY - presumed sunken, but wrecks not secured.

BARGE NN - an unnamed barge (allegedly with chemical waste) is held at Kulule (near Bendar-Beyla) since mid March. Ownership and circumstances could not yet be clarified. In the meantime local people have developed some ailments. Community awareness campaign was carried out, barge is provisionally secured.

S/Y JUMLA or YUMLA ? - a mysterious yacht with three Africans on board was/is kept since a long time near Dinooda.

FV INTMAS 6 [aka FV TAWARIQ 2]: Missing since March 2009. FV INTMAS 6 (sometimes named FV TAWARIQ 2) with a crew of around 30 seamen went missing around the time when FV TAWARIQ 1 was arrested by Tanzanian authorities with the help of the South African coastguard for illegal fishing. Families of four Kenyan crew members, who were hired by a Chinese shipping agent in Kenya, are desperate to know the fate of their relatives, while the shipping agent is now held also in the Tanzanian prisons in connection with the arrest of FV TAWARIQ 1. When FV TAWARIQ 1 was seized also FV TAWARIQ 2, 3 and 4 fled from the Western Indian Ocean. TAWARIQ 4 is now anchored in Singapore, TAWARIQ 3 caught fire off Mauritius, which has developed into a hub for fish-poachers, and TAWARIQ 2 (INTMAS 6) and her multi-national crew comprised of Taiwanese, Chinese, Filipinos, Vietnamese, Indonesians and Kenyans is still missing. When FV WIN FAR 161 was captured by Somalis, who had followed the vessel close to the Seychelles, the other WIN FAR vessels were called back to Taiwan. The Taiwanese real shipowner of FV TAWARIQ 1, who is said to also have had his part in FV WIN FAR 161, which recently was released from Somalia with some dead bodies on board - is wanted by the authorities too.

MT AGIA BARBARA: INDIAN AND SYRIAN CREW STILL WANTED FOR MURDER - vessel escaped from Somalia after the murder of a TFG policeman and the attempted murder of another to the UAE - unhindered by international naval forces. See our respective updates for details.

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Addressing over 500 members of the Singapore Shipping Association and invited guests at a Lunar Year celebration on Friday night, SSA president S.S. Teo urged attendees to "draw from the traits of the Tiger... as we embark on the road to recovery – to be courageous and resilient in adversity and to pounce on sound opportunities when they arise."

Teo used the occasion to toast the success of both the SSA - which marks its 25th anniversary this year boasting an impressive 374 members - and the Singapore Chamber of Maritime Arbitration, which was reorganised last year and has received pledges of support from over 100 companies as a centre for dispute resolution in Asia.

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Four capsized Kabir Jaya XI cargo ship`s crew members were found alive by a local fisherman on Sunday, a worker of West Sulawesi`s coastal radio station said.

The vessel`s crew members were rescued by Ambo Island`s fishermen after floating on the Makassar Strait waters for three days, Head of the Mamuju Coastal Radio Station Cahaya Hamal said here Monday.

The ill-fated ship loading oranges sank three days ago amid bad weather on its sailing from Sempo sub-district in West Sulawesi to a seaport in East Kalimantan Province port, he said.

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An anti-whaling activist from New Zealand was being held in custody on a Japanese whaling vessel Tuesday after secretly boarding it the day before as part of a protest, the whalers said.

Diplomats in New Zealand and Tokyo have been meeting to discuss what to do with Peter Bethune, who jumped aboard the Shonan Maru 2 from a Jet Ski on Monday with the stated goal of making a citizen's arrest of the ship's captain and handing over a $3 million bill for the destruction of his protest ship last month.

The brazen boarding was the latest escalation by the U.S.-based Sea Shepherd activist group meant to hamper the whaling activities of the Japanese.

Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research, which sponsors the whale hunt, called Bethune's actions "a form of piracy" and said the activist was being restrained and may have to stay aboard the ship until it returns to Japan.

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GAC, the Kuwait based shipping, logistics and marine service company, have announced a joint venture with the National Maritime College of Ireland (NMCI) to provide innovative and cost saving training solutions for the LNG and tanker markets, as well as other commodity and maritime sectors.

The initiative is to provide expert delivery of a portfolio of training courses for both seafarers and shore-based shipping personnel at the state-of-the-art $100 million training facility at NMCI in Cork, the client's location, e-learning provisions, or any combination thereof.

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The Bahamas is developing "a core of highly qualified" mariners to take a leading role in the maritime industry, in a bid to fill the gap created by a global shortage of seafarers.

Earl Deveaux, minister of the environment, said that to date some 300 persons have graduated from the Bahamas Maritime Cadet Corps, and another 50 are scheduled to graduate this year.

During the second annual Bahamas International Maritime Conference, Efthimios Mitropoulos, secretary-general of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), called for more recruitment of seafarers worldwide.

During his address, Mr Mitropoulos said the maritime industry was facing a shortage of seafarers, noting that naval officials would be short 40,000 seafarers by 2011, and 53,000 by 2013.

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