Argentina’s ports are again paralyzed by the latest in a series of strikes organized by the maritime unions as they seek to pressure the government to prioritize workers in the ports and maritime trades for COVID-19 vaccinations. A total of 16 unions representing the pilots, tug boats, dockworkers, and customs officials, banded together to hold a 24-hour strike on Friday, June 18 repeating their calls on the government to follow through on earlier promises to prioritize their members for vaccinations.
“Despite the multiple meetings held, within the framework of the Vaccination and Immunization Plan for COVID 19, the port, maritime and naval workers demand a response from the authorities, as essential workers,” wrote the Maritime Port Federation and the Naval Industry of the Argentine Republic (FeMPINRA) in announcing the nationwide job action. In May, prior to starting the job actions, FeMPINRA had said that it had reached its limit on the number of deaths among members and their families and was no longer going to standby while members who were performing jobs essential to the economy were being passed over and dying.
The union was encouraged in its efforts by the recent success of the international, long-haul truck drivers, who had staged similar strikes. The truck drivers recently blocked a major boarder crossing to Brazil demanding better health procedures and controls along with prior to the vaccines. They reported that less than one-in-three truck drivers had received a COVID-19 vaccination. After meeting with government representatives, it was announced that they had agreed to provide an additional 4,600 vaccinations to be used for the international truck drivers carrying commence across the border.
Argentina has been struggling with increasing cases during a new wave of the virus that began in late March. Although the case load peaked in late May with a 7-day average of over 30,000, the pace of cases continues to average over 20,000 new cases a day. The government recently announced that it would be administering vaccinations at a rate of 1,000 per day for members of the military and security forces.
The union representing the workers who move the grains in the major ports has repeatedly expressed its concern that the government was not including its members on the priority list for essential workers. They highlighted that agriculture is Argentina’s largest foreign export and a major contributor to the economy, yet their members and families were being regularly put at risk by not being included in the prior categories.
A port official speaking to Reuters said that today’s strike meant that they again would not be able to dock and undock vessels. The strike was centered on the agricultural ports of San Lorenzo and Rosario. Local media said it was uncertain if the action would also spread to the major sea ports, including Necochea and Bahia Blanca, which have also been seeking vaccinations and requiring vessels to undergo a 14-day quarantine before arrival.
The first strike in the ports came in late May lasting for a day and was followed a week later by a two-day strike. The tug boat captains and customs officials staged an additional work stoppage. Further efforts had been posted after government officials said they would prioritize the maritime industry workers. The unions are saying that they will continue to stage these demonstrations until the government fulfills its promise to include workers in the maritime sector among the priority list.
A Portuguese-flagged container ship spilled oil off India, after suffering an underwater crack in its fuel tank, a government statement said.
The Indian Coast Guard received information from Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) Colombo in late hours of Wednesday 16 June, regarding a mid-sea oil spill about 450 kms South East of Chennai.
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On further investigation, it was revealed that the German container ship MV Devon developed an underwater crack in the fuel tank containing about 120 KL of Very Low Sulphur Fuel Oil, while on passage from Colombo to Haldia, West Bengal.
The crack resulted in spillage of about 10 KL of oil into the sea before preventive action was taken and the remaining oil in tank was transferred to another tank by the ship’s crew,
…a press statement by India’s Ministry of Defence reads.
At the time of the incident, the vessel was carrying 10,795 tonnes of cargo in 382 containers and manned by 17 crew.
The ICG is in continuous contact with MV Devon and the master has reported that the vessel is stable. ICG Pollution response team at Chennai has been alerted and kept on standby. In addition, ICG ships & aircraft deployed at sea are also put on alert in pollution response configuration,
Shipbuilder Damen is making progress on its first fully-electric reversed stern drive tug, which is currently under construction for New Zealand’s Ports of Auckland. Recently, Damen’s Song Cam Shipyard in Vietnam installed the tug’s batteries.
The project involved the installation of more than 2,200 batteries totalling nearly 2,800 kWh in capacity (the equivalent of 28 top-end Teslas). With this, the tug – named Sparky – will carry out two or more berthing/unberthing operations with up to 70 tonnes of bollard pull on a single charge. Afterwards, it will take just two hours for the tug to recharge to its full capacity.
For redundancy purposes, the batteries are arranged in strings. If one battery in a string were to fail, the others would simply carry on the work, Damen said.
Ports of Auckland placed the order with Damen in August of 2019 as part of its mission to achieve zero emissions by 2040. Work continues on Sparky, and Damen expects to deliver her towards the end of this year.
Damen put a high priority on the electric tug contract, as it is aiming to transition its business towards zero-emissions propulsion. The company has extensive experience in the construction of fully electric vessels, including seven fully-electric ferries for the City of Copenhagen and a fully-electric cutter suction dredger for an Australian client. It is also constructing a full range of all-electric and hybrid-electric ferry vessels for two public ferry operators in Canada.
Sparky got her name by means of an online suggestion box, open to the general public. Auckland’s port authority disqualified some of the proposals – like Tuggy McTugface, The Fighting Queen of Covid, Electric Disco Biscuit and Doug – and presented the internet community with four final choices. These included Arahi (a Maori word meaning to lead, escort, conduct or drive), Hiko (Maori for electrical, power), E.T. (an acronym for “electric tug”) and Sparky (the final vote winner).
Port State Control (PSC) guarantees that foreign ships do not jeopardize marine safety, security, and the environment when entering foreign ports. To share inspection information and improve the efficiency of PSC, countries in the same regions cooperate and follow memoranda of understanding (MoUs). Globally, a total of ten MoUs govern three different inspection regimes designed to select and inspect substandard ships. In this study, we use a super-slacks-based measure (super-SBM) to evaluate and compare the inspection efficiency of the three inspection regimes implemented by these ten MoUs and relies on the Malmquist production index (MPI) to identify the most applicable regimes. Our analyses produce three main conclusions. First, we use the average scores of the super-SBM in the past 11 years to confirm the efficiency rankings of the ten MoUs. Second, we combine the average efficiency scores of the three inspection regimes to show that the New Inspection Regime (NIR) is more economically efficient than other inspection regimes. Third, we use MPI scores to obtain a better understanding of the efficiency changes in MoUs’ productivity over time and confirm that the NIR is more stable than other inspection regimes.
We have recently seen an increase in Port State Control fines on vessels at Ghanaian ports.
Local inspectors are visiting vessels and paying particular attention to discharge of what they say is untreated wastewater and vessel records concerning garbage and oily water separators.
Fines are as high as USD 60,000.00 and vessels are not allowed to sail until payment of the fine is agreed. The Ghanaian Maritime Authority (GMA) are not open to negotiating the fines. It is suggested that Owners check the local requirements closely with their appointed agent before arriving at Ghanaian ports.
If in doubt, it is recommended that nothing is discharged into local waters when at Ghanaian ports and Masters should ensure all waste records are up to date.
The port captain of Tarragona detained the ‘Atlantic M’, loaded with 5,700 live animals, for five days after the detection of deficiencies especially regarding the documentation. The ship had arrived in port in the night of Apr 20, 2018, and intended to leave after a few hours with the load of 4,000 lambs and 1,700 calves. After the defiencies were rectified, the ship was allowed to leave on Apr 25 at 11.50 a.m. bound to Al Khums, ETA Apr 28. The animal collective Tarragona Animal Save has denounced that the animals had to endure days of confinement in precarious conditions and has highlighted that crew members of other ships have warned of the strong smell that came off the cargo. The manager of Euromarco, the consignee company that has supervised the operation, denied that the animals have been subjected to degrading conditions during the wait.
The Cayman Islands is a British overseas dependent territory with a population of approximately 65,000 people. The islands are strategically located south of Florida and Cuba, west of Jamaica and north of Panama in the northern Caribbean Sea.
The pillars of the Cayman Islands economy are tourism (both stayover and cruise) and financial services.
The Cayman Islands has a strong maritime heritage. It has a successful shipping registry and a vibrant cruise tourism industry: approximately 1.8 million cruise passengers arrived in the Cayman Islands in 2019. Because more than 97 per cent of everything consumed in the Cayman Islands is imported by sea, it boasts a very successful port operation. Approximately 700,000 tonnes of cargo passed through its main port at George Town, Grand Cayman in 2019, mainly from the United States, Jamaica, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. The Cayman Islands has no significant goods exports.
The Cayman Islands Shipping Registry was established in 1903 and the ports of George Town, Bloody Bay and the Creek, at which ships may be registered in the Cayman Islands, are recognised as British Ports of Registry. Cayman Islands-flagged vessels have full British Consular Services and Royal Naval assistance and protection worldwide. The Cayman Islands Shipping Registry has Category 1 status, which allows it to register vessels of any size and type as long as they meet international standards, and it provides services to commercial ships and private pleasure yachts. As at February 2020, the flag consisted of approximately 2,200 vessels, representing approximately 6 million gross tonnes and comprising approximately 1,800 pleasure yachts and 400 commercial vessels. The Cayman Islands is the registry of choice for superyachts globally.
The Cayman Islands is white-listed in all major international ports (the Port State Control Memoranda of Understanding), which has led to it maintaining its position on the prestigious United States Coast Guard Qualship 21 programme since 2007.2 The Cayman Islands is a top flag on the white lists of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control 1982 (the Paris MOU) and the Tokyo Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control in the Asia-Pacific Region 1994 (the Tokyo MOU) and a leading flag on the International Chamber of Shipping’s annual Flag State Performance Table.
The continued popularity of the Cayman Islands flag can be largely credited to the service provided by the Cayman Islands Shipping Registry and the experience and technical excellence that has become synonymous with the Registry. Further, because of the stable political, social and economic environment in the Cayman Islands, coupled with a legal system based on English law, the Cayman Islands flag is extremely popular with banks and financial institutions.
The Cayman Islands is a British overseas dependent territory with a population of approximately 65,000 people. The islands are strategically located south of Florida and Cuba, west of Jamaica and north of Panama in the northern Caribbean Sea.
The pillars of the Cayman Islands economy are tourism (both stayover and cruise) and financial services.
The Cayman Islands has a strong maritime heritage. It has a successful shipping registry and a vibrant cruise tourism industry: approximately 1.8 million cruise passengers arrived in the Cayman Islands in 2019. Because more than 97 per cent of everything consumed in the Cayman Islands is imported by sea, it boasts a very successful port operation. Approximately 700,000 tonnes of cargo passed through its main port at George Town, Grand Cayman in 2019, mainly from the United States, Jamaica, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. The Cayman Islands has no significant goods exports.
The Cayman Islands Shipping Registry was established in 1903 and the ports of George Town, Bloody Bay and the Creek, at which ships may be registered in the Cayman Islands, are recognised as British Ports of Registry. Cayman Islands-flagged vessels have full British Consular Services and Royal Naval assistance and protection worldwide. The Cayman Islands Shipping Registry has Category 1 status, which allows it to register vessels of any size and type as long as they meet international standards, and it provides services to commercial ships and private pleasure yachts. As at February 2020, the flag consisted of approximately 2,200 vessels, representing approximately 6 million gross tonnes and comprising approximately 1,800 pleasure yachts and 400 commercial vessels. The Cayman Islands is the registry of choice for superyachts globally.
The Cayman Islands is white-listed in all major international ports (the Port State Control Memoranda of Understanding), which has led to it maintaining its position on the prestigious United States Coast Guard Qualship 21 programme since 2007.2 The Cayman Islands is a top flag on the white lists of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control 1982 (the Paris MOU) and the Tokyo Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control in the Asia-Pacific Region 1994 (the Tokyo MOU) and a leading flag on the International Chamber of Shipping’s annual Flag State Performance Table.
The continued popularity of the Cayman Islands flag can be largely credited to the service provided by the Cayman Islands Shipping Registry and the experience and technical excellence that has become synonymous with the Registry. Further, because of the stable political, social and economic environment in the Cayman Islands, coupled with a legal system based on English law, the Cayman Islands flag is extremely popular with banks and financial institutions.
The legislative framework for shipping is scattered across many different statutes. Key legislation is contained in the Brazilian Federal Constitution, the Brazilian Commercial Code dated 1850 and the Brazilian Civil Code dated 2002, which regulates contracts of carriage.
There are also other uncodified statutes, such as Federal Law 2,180/1954, which regulates the Admiralty Court and its jurisdiction, Decree-Law 116/1967 addressing, inter alia, limitation for cargo claims in shipping disputes, and Federal Law 7,542/1986, which regulates wreck removal.
Federal Law 10,233/2001 created the National Waterway Transportation Agency (ANTAQ), whose mandate includes the regulation of domestic and international waterway carriage of people and goods, offshore platform and port supply navigation, ports and terminals and the exploitation of the federal waterway infrastructure.
Federal Law 9,537/1997 regulates waterway safety in Brazilian territorial waters, Federal Law 9,432/1997 provides the statutory framework regulating waterway transportation, while Federal Law 9,611/1998 regulates multimodal transportation.
The Brazilian Navy, which acts as the national maritime authority, has an active role in shipping matters. It presides on the procedures tried before the Admiralty Court and issues norms, which are mandatory law within Brazilian jurisdictional waters, known as NORMAM.
Brazil is not a signatory to the International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules of Law relating to Bills of Lading 1924 (the Hague Rules), the 1968 Protocol to amend the International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules of Law Relating to Bills of Lading (the Hague-Visby Rules), the UN Convention on the Carriage of Goods by Sea 1978 (the Hamburg Rules) or the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea 2009 (the Rotterdam Rules). However, Brazil has ratified most of the conventions on marine safety, such as the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea 1972 (COLREGs), the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea 1974 (SOLAS) and the International Convention on Salvage 1989 (the 1989 Salvage Convention). Brazil has also ratified the International Convention on Maritime Liens and Mortgages 1993.
In practical terms, the statutory framework outlined above is designed to protect and develop the local shipping market.
A U.S. District Court judge ruled in favor of Florida in its effort to receive a temporary injunction against the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from enforcing its Conditional Sailing Order on cruise ships operating from Florida’s ports. Because of Florida’s probability of success on the merits of its case and the imminent threat of irreparable injury to Florida, Judge Steven Merryday enjoined the CDC from enforcing the CSO in Florida, while also giving the CDC time to revise its rules to fit within the court’s perception of the agency’s legal authority.
Judge Merryday stayed his order to give the CDC time to respond while also ordering Florida and the CDC to resume mediation regarding the broader case. As of July 18, under the judge’s current order, the CDC’s order and framework for the resumption of the cruise industry “will persist as only a non-binding consideration, recommendation, or guideline, the same tools used by CDC when addressing the practices in other similarly situated industries, such as airlines, railroads, hotels, casinos, sports venues, buses, subways, and others,” writes the judge.
In his 124-page decision, the judge reviewed the merits of the case and Florida’s accusations that the CDC exceeds its statutory and regulatory authority, is failing to recognize the impact of vaccinations and foreign cruises success at resuming sailing, and is delaying action. Florida documented its decline in tax revenues and increased unemployment payments, points the CDC did not dispute but said were broader than the cruise industry relating to Florida’s general revenue. The CDC also argues that Florida lacks standing in its claims and pointed to the issues of timing of the case and the efforts moving forward to restart cruising.
“Florida establishes a strong likelihood that many or almost all cruise ships will remain unable to sail for the entire summer season,” the order finds, continuing that “each day the cruise industry faces uncertainty about when cruises can resume, Florida not only suffers a concrete economic injury resulting from reduced revenue and increased unemployment spending, but Florida faces an increasingly threatening and imminent prospect that the cruise industry will depart the state.”
The judge reviewed each of the arguments, for example citing the history of quarantine efforts in the United States, public heath statues, and the limits of the CDC’s authority as defined by Congress and the constitution. The order confirms Florida’s constitutional and statutory standing to assert the claims in the complaint. In a ruling that could have broader implications for the CDC, the order also finds that “Florida is highly likely to prevail on the merits of the claim that CDC’s conditional sailing order and the implementing orders exceed the authority delegated to CDC or unconstitutional delegation of legislative power to CDC.”
The order provides that the CDC “may propose” not later than July 2 a narrower injunction both permitting cruise ships to sail timely and remaining within CDC’s authority as interpreted by the order. Florida would then have up to seven days to respond and the judge would conduct a hearing and issue a further order immediately resolving the issue of the preliminary injunction.
The order does not decide the merits of the broader case and instead the judge based on his preliminary finding orders Florida and the CDC to resume mediation. The issues of Alaska and Texas’s motions to intervene in the case also remains unresolved. Because the issue of harm was limited to Florida, the order only covers cruises sailing from ports in Florida.
“The CDC has been wrong all along, and they knew it,” said Governor Ron DeSantis responding to the news of the judge’s decision. “The CDC and the Biden Administration concocted a plan to sink the cruise industry, hiding behind bureaucratic delay and lawsuits. Today, we are securing this victory for Florida families, for the cruise industry, and for every state that wants to preserve its rights in the face of unprecedented federal overreach.”
The CSO, however, was issued on October 31, 2020, during the Trump Administration as well as the original No Sail Order in March 2020. As the vaccine became more widespread and virus cases began to recede, the CDC issued its framework for the resumption of cruising on April 2, 2021 under the Biden Administration. The CDC this week further revised its recommendations for cruise travelers dividing its guidance based on vaccinations. The cruise industry has previously criticized the CDC’s rules as cumbersome but is proceeding under the framework to resume sailings.
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