The Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Star arrived Jan. 17 on its annual deployment to Antarctica, as its crew continues to battle the 42-year-old ship’s aging equipment.
The 399’x83’x31’ Polar Star came to the U.S. science mission logistics hub at McMurdo Station, breaking through 18 miles of ice to bring in a Military Sealift Command-chartered Crowley Technical Management resupply ship, the 545’x76.3’ Ocean Giant with 400 containers of supplies. The U.S. military provides join maritime and air...
Due to the lapse in federal funding, the Coast Guard’s National Vessel Documentation Center (NVDC) is not able to process commercial vessel documentation.
On its website, the NVDC says:
NOTICE: DUE TO THE LAPSE IN FEDERAL FUNDING, INFORMATION ON THIS WEBSITE MAY NOT BE UP TO DATE. TRANSACTIONS SUBMITTED VIA THIS WEBSITE MIGHT NOT BE PROCESSED AND WE CANNOT GUARANTEE A RESPONSE TO INQUIRIES UNTIL AFTER APPROPRIATIONS ARE ENACTED.
The NVDC is closed to the public until further notice. Phone service...
https://www.workboat.com/news/government/coast-guard-not-able-to-process/
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced Tuesday that it has selected $25 million in research projects for next-generation marine energy devices. Funded by DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Water Power Technologies, these 12 innovative projects will reduce capital costs and accelerate the innovation cycle by testing new concepts. Marine energy includes ocean wave power, tidal, and river/ocean current devices that convert movement of water into electricity.
“Advancing...
https://www.workboat.com/news/government/doe-awards-25-million-for-marine-energy/
Coast Guard units continue to work despite the extended government shutdown, but as the political standoff continues in Washington the service may not be able to pay personnel as scheduled Jan. 15.
The last payday was Jan. 1, and with a week to go neighbors of the Coast Guard Cape May Training Center, Cape May, N.J., are organizing donations of household supplies in case the budget impasse is not resolved.
Unlike branches of the military in the Department of Defense, the Coast Guard is part of...
https://www.workboat.com/news/government/coast-guard-may-not-be-paid-in-shutdown/
The U.S. Coast Guard National Maritime Center (NMC) has taken steps to mitigate the impact caused by the partial lapse in fiscal year 2019 appropriations and federal government shutdown.
The NMC is taking the following actions:
• Merchant Mariner Credentials (MMC) (national endorsements only) that expire between Dec.22, 2018, and Jan. 31, 2019, are extended as valid until March 31, 2019. Print the attached letter and carry it with your credential.
• Additional Information (AI) letters sent to...
https://www.workboat.com/news/government/national-maritime-center-takes-steps/
The Coast Guard has raised the 2019 minimum random drug-testing rate to 50% of crewmembers, because recent positive results crossed the 1% threshold that triggers a step-up in testing.
It’s the first increase after a six-year stretch while the rate held at 25%.
Employers must submit test data for each calendar year by mid-March of the following year. Starting in 2018, mariners in safety-sensitive positions were being tested for semi-synthetic opioids in addition to marijuana, cocaine,...
https://www.workboat.com/news/government/coast-guard-steps-up-random-drug-testing/
After responding to more than 700 false alarms during 2018, the Coast Guard is urging mariners to make sure their emergency position indicating beacon (EPIRB) is properly registered.
EPIRBs transmit a distress signal to satellites, which is then relayed to ground stations and on to Coast Guard rescue centers and other emergency agencies. The devices can be triggered manually or automatically – as when they float free as a vessel sinks – but they can also activate by accident.
When a signal is...
https://www.workboat.com/news/government/coast-guard-urges-proper-epirb-registration/
The Coast Guard and Department of Homeland Security are testing an autonomous underwater vehicle as part of their preparations for future hazardous material and oil spills in the Arctic.
With environmental changes bringing more shipping to the high latitudes, the Coast Guard faces major challenges in spill response. Its focus is ensuring access to early and on-going information about the nature and magnitude of spills to help with effective cleanup.
“Because of ice coverage and the tyranny of...
Four years after the Maritime Administration had promised to develop a national strategy to pump up the maritime industry, the proposal remains stuck in the Washington, D.C., bureaucracy, with no rescue in sight.
The initiative began with much anticipation in 2014 with a series of “listening sessions” in Washington and elsewhere that gathered a variety of views from different maritime sectors. Topics included mariner shortages, lagging port and intermodal freight infrastructure and the decline...
https://www.workboat.com/news/government/trump-administration-review-of-national-maritime/
The Coast Guard has set an unrealistic schedule for completing new heavy polar icebreakers, which could lead to design flaws and add to the estimated $9.8 billion cost of adding three new vessels to the service’s polar operations.
This was the conclusion of a report by the General Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, that was discussed last week at a congressional hearing.
https://www.workboat.com/news/government/gao-warns-of-problems-in-coast-guards-icebreakers-program/