2009 September | MarineBuzz.com

Subscribe to Earthquake Notification Service and Tsunami Warnings

30 Sep, 2009 No Comments

A tsunami as a result of a strong underwater earthquake in the South Pacific, in Samoa islands region on September 29 killed hundreds of people in several islands. Though every tsunami is a result of an ocean floor earth quake, every underwater earthquake does not trigger a tsunami. Tsunami with 3 metre high waves was observed at Apia, Western Samoa, Pago Pago and American Samoa.

Though earthquakes and subsequent warnings on possible tsunamis are issued by international agencies, the information takes long time to reach the likely victims. As a result loss of human lives are not minimized.

It seems in Samoa initially tsunami warning was issued and later withdrawn causing confusion to the general public about tsunami.

Stay up-to-date on earthquakes and tsunamis, by subscribing to get Earthquake Notification Service and Tsunami Warnings to your email account/mobile phone.

Here are the details available on Earthquake and subsequent Tsunami warnings of the Samoa islands:

HMS Iron Duke: Largest Seizure of Cocaine by Royal Navy

29 Sep, 2009 No Comments

HMS Iron Duke, the Type 23 frigate has seized over five and a half tonnes of cocaine at sea from MV Cristal. This is the largest seizure of cocaine by the Royal Navy.
Some interesting features of this cocaine seizure:

Seizure was done in coordination with the supply ship 31,000-tonne Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) Fort George and with the US Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment embarked onboard.
MV Cristal
- 138 ft converted fishing vessel was spotted by Lynx helicopter of HMS Iron Duke.
- Cocaine was hidden under concrete in the vessel’s ballast tanks.
- A total of 212 separate bales of cocaine weighing approximately 26 kg each were seized.
- Was destroyed by gunfire to prevent her being a hazard to nearby shipping.
Estimated street price of cocaine: more than £240 Million.
Third major counter narcotics success for HMS Iron Duke off the coast of South America.

Here are some photographs of cocaine seizure by HMS Iron Duke from the Royal Navy.

Latest GPS Speedo from Wema

28 Sep, 2009 No Comments

Wema has launched the latest GPS Speedo that works on GPS signals.

Some interesting features of Wema’s GPS Speedo are:

displays speed analogically (SOG-Speed over Ground) and compass heading (Course over Ground) digitally.
an instrument with high-end 32 channel GPS Receiver.
display is independent of vessel’s engine control and monitoring systems, sea conditions.
plug and play, standalone, easy to install unit that works on 12V dc.
available in 30 knots and 60 knots version.

GPS Speedo is different from Electro Magnetic (EM) speed log that uses a transducer mounted on the ship’s hull (bottom – below water line) to measure the speed of the vessel. The latest EM logs have provision for GPS signal inputs.

Weekend View: EarthPulse, State of the Earth 2010

27 Sep, 2009 No Comments

National Geographic has interesting interactive maps in their “EarthPulse – State of the Earth 2010”.

The interactive maps relating to marine available are:

Global Shipping Intensity
Fish and Seafood
Water Footprint Per Capita

For more details, log on to National Geographic-EarthPulse 2010.

Post in MarineBuzz on this day a year before:

Weekend Flight: Fusion Man Yves Rossy Crosses English Channel with Jet Propelled Wing

World Maritime Day 2009 Takes Climate Change as a Challenge

26 Sep, 2009 No Comments

World Maritime Day is celebrated during the last week of September. The date of celebration is left to individual Governments to decide.

World Maritime Day 2009:

International Maritime Organization (IMO) has celebrated on September 24 at the Organization’s Headquarters in London.
Theme: “Climate change: a challenge for IMO too!”
Celebration of the IMO World Maritime Day Parallel Event in the United States of America is planned from October 15 to 18.
Though CO₂emissions by shipping industry is less, IMO wants to take it as a challenge to fight climate change. Global CO₂emissions by:
- Rail: 0.5%
- Domestic Shipping & Fishing: 0.6%
- International Aviation: 1.9%
- International Shipping: 2.7%
- Manufacturing Industries and construction: 18.2%
- Other Transport (Road): 21.3%
- Electricity and Heat Production: 35%
- Other Energy Industries: 4.6%
- Others: 15.3%

IMO has initiated an action plan to decelerate climate change by setting up

HMAS Toowoomba Disarms Somali Pirates

25 Sep, 2009 No Comments

HMAS Toowoomba, the first warship of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) on anti sea piracy mission off Somalia has started disarming Somali pirates.

On receiving an emergency radio call from the Merchant Vessel BBC Portugal on September 20, HMAS Toowoomba started chasing the suspect vessel 50 miles off the coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden. A coalition P3 Orion maritime surveillance aircraft and a helicopter from another coalition warship also joined the operation. As the helicopter crew confirmed sighting of weapons in the suspect vessel, HMAS Toowoomba boarded the suspect vessel to investigate, search, disarm and seize.

During the search, HMAS Toowoomba found weapons (photo on the right) including a Rocket Propelled Grenade launcher (RPG), six AK47 Assault Rifles, a G3 Assault Rifle and a large quantity of ammunition. Though the crew of the vessel from Somalia denied their intention to attack nearby merchant vessels or planning piracy activities, weapons seized from the vessel indicate that they were not engaged in fishing. The crew were freed after disarming.

HMAS Toowoomba continues her mission to deter, warn, intercept, disarm vessels suspected to be involved in acts of piracy off Somalia.

Here is the photograph of HMAS Toowoomba’s boarding operation.

INMEX India 2009 Starts at Mumbai

24 Sep, 2009 1 Comment

INMEX India 2009, a Trade Exhibition and Forum on “Transforming India as a Maritime Hub” starts on September 24 at Mumbai.

Some interesting features of INMEX India 2009 are:

On its 10th year, the 6th edition of INMEX India 2009 aims to develop India as a Maritime Hub.
Over 400 Indian and international exhibitors are participating.
Exhibitors are from: Shipbuilding, Ship repair, Marine offshore technology, Dredging, Ports and port technology, Ocean engineering, Marine equipment, Underwater robotics.
Visitors are from: Navy, Coastguard, Port authorities, Government, Shipping companies, Shipbuilding and design, Dredging companies, Offshore and oil rig companies, Cargo handlers, Logistics providers.
Also has Round Table Sessions and exclusive B2B meetings:
- Round Table Session-1: Role of Ports & Logistics in Building a Maritime Hub.
- Round Table Session-2: Shipping as an Infrastructural Sector of the Maritime Hub.
- Round Table Session-3: Roadmap for India as a Hub for Ship Building & Equipment Sources.
- Round Table Session-4: Offshore Services beyond Resource Exploration – An Insight.
- Round Table Session-5: Profitable Logistics through Costal Shipping & Inland Waterways Infrastructure – The Reality.
- Round Table Session-6: Regional Maritime Corridors & Maritime Promotion Council – A Unified Strategy in Transforming India as the Maritime Hub of the Future.
Exclusive Maritime Workshop – in partnership with Holland Marine Equipment Association & The Royal Government of The Netherlands
- Session 1: State-of-the-Art Dredging Technologies.
- Session 2: Sustainable Port Development.
Being held at Bombay Exhibition Centre, Mumbai till September 26.
Exhibitor list is here.

India: ISRO Launches Oceansat-2 Satellite

23 Sep, 2009 No Comments

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched Oceansat-2 satellite on September 23 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota, 90 km north of Chennai.

Some interesting features of the launch and Oceansat-2 are:

Launched by ISRO’s PSLV-C14 (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) at 11:51 am IST.
Sixteenth mission of PSLV and its fifteenth consecutive success.
Launched as a replacement to 1050 kg IRS-P4 (Oceansat-1), that was launched on May 26, 1999 with Ocean Colour Monitor (OCM) and a Multi-frequency Scanning Microwave Radiometer (MSMR) for oceanographic studies.
Oceansat-2 satellite
- Weighs 960 kg and powered by 15 Sq.metre solar panels to generate 1360 W with two 24 Ah Ni-Cd Batteries.
- Injected into orbit at 1081 seconds after lift-off at an altitude of 728 km.
- Sixteenth remote sensing satellite of India.
- Carries three payloads: Ocean Colour Monitor (OCM); Ku-band Pencil Beam scatterometer (SCAT) developed by ISRO; Radio Occultation Sounder for Atmosphere (ROSA) developed by the Italian Space Agency.
- OCM: the eight band OCM images a swath (strip of land or ocean) of 1420 km width with a resolution of 360 metre and works in the Visible and Near Infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum.
- SCAT: the Ku-band Scatterometer with a 1 metre diameter antenna rotating at 20 rpm, works at a frequency of 13.515 GHz; the Scatterometer covers a swath of 1400 km and operates continuously.
- ROSA: GPS Receiver for atmospheric sounding by radio occultation.
- Helps to identify potential fishing zones and can provide inputs for weather forecasting.
- Mission life: 5 years

India: Depleting Ground Water and Rain Water Harvesting

22 Sep, 2009 No Comments

NASA published a report last month on India’s depleting ground water level using their twin satellites in Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) program.

Highlights of the report are:

The north Indian states of Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana are the worst affected with groundwater levels reducing at the rate of one metre every three years (one foot per year).
Ground water is pumped and consumed rapidly due to:
- population explosion
- rapid economic development
- water-hungry farms
When groundwater is rapidly consumed, recharge to the original levels by natural process can take months or years.
If corrective actions are not taken, it may lead to famine due to collapse of agricultural output and severe potable water scarcity.

The map above from NASA shows groundwater changes in India during 2002-08, with losses in red and gains in blue, based on GRACE satellite observations. (Credit: I. Velicogna/UC Irvine)

Norway: Space Based Automatic Identification System by NORAIS and AISSat-1 Nano Satellite

21 Sep, 2009 No Comments

Norway is getting ready to test space based Automatic Identification System (AIS) to track ships at sea. The space based testing is going to be done from International Space Station (ISS) and from a nanosatellite. Present AIS operates on VHF (Very High Frequency) signals and has range restriction of approximately 50 km.

Some interesting features of space based AIS by Norway are:

Space based tracking helps to track ships at sea globally with wider coverage area.
Developed jointly by the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI), Kongsberg Seatex in cooperation with other partners.
NORAIS (Norwegian Automatic Identification System)
- Instrument has reached this month through the Japanese H-2 Transfer Vehicle to International Space Station for installation in Columbus, the European space laboratory on the International Space Station. Project is called as Columbus Automatic Identification System (COLAIS).
- Testing will start next year after fixing a specially constructed antennae outside Columbus in November this year.
- To be operated by FFI. N-USOC in Trondheim, Norway will collect data from the instrument and send it to FFI every hour.
- Has a viewing range of more than 4000 km covering the ocean areas between 70 degrees North and 70 degrees South several times a day.

GSP Prince Getting Ready to Join the Fleet

19 Sep, 2009 No Comments

Grup Servicii Petroliere (GSP) is engaged in offshore drilling.GSP is a member of Upetrom Group with their headquarter in Constanta Harbour, Romania. They also provide engineering and technical consultancy. In addition to offshore Drilling Rigs, GSP has specialized vessels like AHTS (Anchor Handling Tug Supply) vessels, DSVs (Dive Support Vessel), PSVs (Platform Supply Vessel), Crew Vessels, Crane Barges and Barges. As a new addition, GSP Prince, a new ROV Survey/Diving and Intervention Support Vessel is getting ready to reach Constanta in mid October to join the GSP fleet.

Some interesting features of GSP Prince are:

DP 2 specialized vessel, built at Baatbygg Shipyard, Norway.
Designated as ST-253, purpose built as ROV Survey Vessel and is designed by Skipsteknisk AS.
The vessel is suitable for
- ROV operations
- SAT Diving
- Sub-sea installation works
- Geo-technical surveys/works
- Light construction works
- Crane operations
Capable of operating under severe weather conditions, with high maneuverability and station keeping.

Here are some photographs of GSP Prince.

Indian Navy: INS Kochi (Project 15-A) Destroyer Launched

18 Sep, 2009 No Comments

INS Kochi (Project 15-A) stealth destroyer of Indian Navy was launched on September 18. INS Kochi is a variant of Type 15 destroyers (INS Delhi, INS Mysore and INS Mumbai).
Some interesting features of INS Kochi are:

Launched by Mrs Madhulika Verma, wife of Admiral Nirmal Verma, Chief of the Naval Staff.
The second of the three Project 15-A Kolkata-class stealth destroyers, built by Mazagon Docks Ltd (MDL) in Mumbai.
Designed indigenously by the Directorate of Naval Design and launched using pontoon-assisted launch technique for the first time to overcome draft constraints in launching heavier vessels.
6500 ton,163 metres long, with maximum speed of 30 Knots.
To have
- Supersonic BrahMos surface-to-surface missile.
- Long Range Surface-to-Air Missiles (LRSAM).
- MFStar, multi-function radar system to provide accurate data on surface and air targets.
- Four AK-630 rapid-fire guns and a Medium Range gun for close-range defence capability.
- Indigenously developed twin-tube torpedo launchers and anti-submarine rocket launchers.
- NPOL developed Humsa-NG hull-mounted sonar.
- Two multi-role helicopters.
Expected to join the fleet in August 2012.

Inmarsat FleetBroadband Users to have Free 505 Emergency Calling

17 Sep, 2009 No Comments

From October 01, in case of emergency, all Inmarsat FleetBroadband users on dialing 505, will be connected automatically to a to a 24-hour operational Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre (MRCC) of coast guard wherever they are in the world.

This is a free service from Inmarsat and the 505 Emergency Calling can be activated immediately just by dialing 505.

Digit 505 has been selected to resemble SOS.