California lawmakers on Friday passed legislation requiring railroad companies to tell emergency officials when crude oil trains will chug through the state.The bill would require railroads to notify the state's Office of Emergency Services…
Labor Day weekend marks the unofficial end of the boating season and is known as one of the busiest recreational boating weekends on the Ohio River. With approximately 2,000 boaters taking to the water, the increased recreational traffic presents additional safety hazards…
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) informs that it has issued a direction to the container ship 'Vega Auriga' (IMO 9347786) that prohibits the ship from using or entering any Australian ports due to repeated breaches relating to seafarer welfare and maintenance of the ship…
Piracy’s gone away, right? You’d be forgiven for thinking that. The predominant narrative for the Indian Ocean is that Piracy has been suppressed to an extent that ship-owners are requesting fewer guards, even unarmed in some cases. Certainly…
The California State Lands Commission (CSL) has promulgated a letter to clarify its interpretation of existing ballast water requirements under the California's Marine Invasive Species Act (MISA) informs the UK P&I Club.In its letter, California…
Hsin-Chi Su, Chairman and CEO of Today Makes Tomorrow Group (TMT) launched a suit in Texas federal court on July 28, 2014, alleging that a planned bankruptcy sale of three company ships, including M.V.D Whale, M.V.G Whale and M.V.H Whale, to Mega International Commercial Bank Co…
BIMCO notes that the highly acclaimed 'Double Jeopardy - trial by media, trial by law' first showcased at the BIMCO AGM in Dubai earlier this year is to be brought to the stage in a London theatre production on 3 November. This highly novel event blends theatre…
The Maritime Labour Convention (MLC), an international agreement which safeguards the employment rights, working conditions and health care of seafarers, came into force in the UK on 7 August. Shipping and maritime law expert Katie Williams of Pinsent Masons…
In a new enforcement initiative, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in cooperation with the United States Coast Guard (USCG), has boarded vessels to collect bunker samples to determine whether the vessels’ fuel sources meet the 1…
Bribery and corruption is a growing concern for businesses in all sectors and jurisdictions. Corruption is a problem not only from an ethical and competition-distorting perspective, but also because of the substantial risk it creates to the…
Amendments to the International Safety Management (ISM) Code will enter into force on 1 January, 2015, introducing new requirements for manning and company verification, and new references to related IMO guidance, as follows:Changes to manning requirementsAmended paragraph 6…
Evolving Needs of Private Equity Clients Inspire Move. Seward & Kissel LLP has announced that veteran finance attorney John Imhof has joined the firm’s leading Maritime and Transportation Finance practice in New York.Mr. Imhof, who comes to Seward & Kissel from Watson…
Dryad Maritime COO Ian Millen tells of an audacious open-ocean ambush of a product tanker in Gulf of Guinea and wonders if this attack heralds a new trend in offshore African piracy, as follows:'In the early hours of Saturday 9th August,…
North Sea supply vessels and support ships could be detained in port if they are found to be failing to comply with a new maritime law which today comes into effect in the U.K., a legal expert has warned.The Maritime Labor Convention (MLC)…
The Maritime Authorities of the Paris and the Tokyo Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) on Port State Control will launch a joint Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC) with the purpose to establish that watchkeeping personnel are meeting the…