greatlakesshipwatchers.com

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

By ALLAN BENNER | Source: Welland Tribune

After spending the past three days anchored off the shore of Port Colborne, the Greenpeace vessel MY Arctic Sunrise went into action on Lake Erie Thursday morning, blocking a freighter loaded with coal from reaching the Nanticoke power generating station.

The Greenpeace activists also “managed to paint the side of the ship,” Ruzycki said.

In white lettering, they painted “No nukes. No coal. Clean energy now,” across the hull of the Algomarine, owned by Algoma Central Corp. of Sault Ste. Marie.

Three members of the Arctic Sunrise crew, two women and a man, also boarded the Algomarine. Read the rest of this entry »

Tom Breckenridge | Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer

 The Cleveland port authority’s bold plan to spur the local economy earned praise Wednesday night, but the watchdogs are wary.

Some 80 people attended a public hearing on the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority’s proposed, 25-year strategic plan, unveiled last week.

It calls for the port to bulk up its dock operations and partner with the public and private interests for big-impact projects focused on regional strengths - aerospace, health care, advanced manufacturing and warehousing/distribution.

Full story at Cleveland Plain Dealer >>

By FREE PRESS STAFF | Source: Detroit Free Press

Governor Jennifer Granholm sent a letter Wednesday to the governors of other Great Lakes states and two Canadian provinces, urging them to follow Michigan’s lead and enact legislation regulating ballast water discharges from ocean-going ships into the lakes.

The letter to the governors and the premiers of Ontario and Quebec comes on the heels of a recent decision by U.S. District Court Judge John Feikens in Detroit that upheld Michigan’s ballast law against a challenge by several shipping-related interests. Judge Feikens’ ruling came on the same day that the same ballast was introduced in Ohio.

Full story at Detroit Free Press >>

By Ralph Zahorik | Source: Chicago Tribune

Waukegan officials are standing firm on a plan to deindustrialize the city’s harbor despite a rejection by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a threatened pullout from the project by the Lake County Board and lakefront industries.

The City Council met in closed session Monday to discuss last week’s EPA rejection of conditions to a $36 million harbor-cleanup plan. Officials said they were puzzled by the agency’s opposition to limiting the harbor’s depth to 10 feet and transforming it into a recreational waterway.

“It’s not the EPA’s business to decide whether the harbor should be industrial,” Mayor Richard Hyde said Tuesday. “Their job is to clean the harbor.”

No action was necessary after the closed session because the city position remains unchanged, Hyde said. If the EPA refuses to change its position, the city will explore other means to clean up the harbor, he said.

Full story at Chicago Tribune >>

By Mark Sommer | Source: The Buffalo News

While most public attention on developing Buffalo’s waterfront has focused on the historic canal wharf, momentum quietly has been building to allow the public into the difficult-to-access limestone lighthouse and turn the surrounding site into a public waterfront park.

It’s owned by the Coast Guard, but the Buffalo Lighthouse Association was granted temporary control of the landmark 23 years ago and has spent about $300,000 on restoration and maintenance, including extensive regrouting. The City of Buffalo spent about $100,000 on a brick path that leads to the lighthouse.

Full story at The Buffalo News >>

By KEVIN NEVERS | Source: Chesterton Tribune

Seven employees at the Burns Harbor facility of Mittal Steel USA were injured this morning, at least two of them seriously, after being burned by molten steel “squished” from the No. 1 vessel at the basic oxygen furnace.

Paul Gipson, president of United Steelworkers Local 6787, identified the two most seriously injured as salaried workers with more than 30 years of service. Both were airlifted to hospitals in Chicago.

All seven employees were wearing required safety gear, including flame retardant clothing, Gipson said, and most of the injuries were to the hands, neck, and face. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: Lake Carriers’ Association

Cleveland—Shipments of limestone on the Great Lakes totaled 4.4 million net tons in July, a decrease of 7.4 percent compared to a year ago, and 5.2 percent off the month’s 5-year average. While demand is sluggish in some key markets, the trade continues to be hampered by lack of dredging throughout the Great Lakes navigation system.

July limestone shipments also were impacted by a labor dispute that continued to idle three vessels that regularly haul the product. Read the rest of this entry »

By Sarah Owen | Source: Appleton Post Crescent

“Lighthouses are becoming more and more popular as they’re becoming more extinct,” said Mary Grant, owner of Bayfield’s Keeper of the Light. “They’re kind of like castles in other countries, with a lot of history and heritage.”

“Because we have all these great lakes, we have all these really great lighthouses,” said Lisa Marshall, communications coordinator with the Wisconsin Department of Tourism.

Here’s a look at a few of Wisconsin’s top lighthouse destinations waiting for your visit this fall…

Lighthouses near Bayfield, Door County and the Kenosha area are featured at the Appleton Post Crescent >>

Source: KARE Channel 11

In mid-summer the lake was flirting with an 80-year-old, all-time record low.

And the shipping industry is feeling the effects like a few other businesses.

Down at the very west end of the lake, in the Duluth-Superior harbor, as a conveyor roars while dumping coal into a boat, they can measure the impact of the falling lake with this very load.

“We’re restricted to about 93 percent of design capacity on this boat due to low water levels,” says Fred Shusterich, President of Superior, Wisconsin-based Midwest Energy Resources. Read the rest of this entry »

Click to see picture of Tuesday 8/28/07’s visit by the Arthur M. Anderson

By Nathan Phelps | Source: Green Bay Press Gazette

A pair of workers standing near the end of the dock along the Fox River watched the Great Lakes freighter Arthur M. Anderson begin its journey out of the Port of Green Bay Tuesday afternoon.

The Anderson is one of more than 200 ships that come and go from the port on an annual basis, and since early spring port officials and terminal operators have been working to educate the public about just where — and what — the port is.

During a tall ship festival hosted in downtown Green Bay last summer, Port of Green Bay Director Dean Haen said they surveyed 2,000 people from the immediate area and the region.

“Nobody knew where the port of Green Bay was … and they think the port is a place you drive up to, that it’s a building,” he said. “But it’s these three miles of river made up of these 14 businesses doing commerce.”

The port runs from the mouth of the Fox River to the Georgia Pacific Broadway mill just south of the trestle bridge between Green Bay and Allouez.

Among the key goods moving through the port are coal, limestone, cement, salt and fuel oil. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: BYM Marine & Maritime News

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Alder will be deploying the Coast Guard Spilled Oil Recovery System (SORS) for training on Tuesday, August 28, 2007.

The U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Area Strike Team and Ninth Coast Guard District Response Advisory Team will participate in the deployment of SORS as technical experts and will coordinate the training.

SORS is an oil recovery system designed for deployment aboard USCGC ALDER and other Coast Guard buoy tenders to respond in a maritime environmental emergency, such as an oil or fuel spill.  SORS enables ALDER to begin oil recovery within hours of arriving on the scene of a spill. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: Lake Carriers’ Association

CLEVELAND—Even though coal shipments on the Great Lakes increased 18.5 percent in July compared to a year ago, the dredging crisis effectively trimmed hundreds of thousands of tons from the month-end total.

Shipments from Superior Midwest Energy Terminal (SMET) in Superior, Wisconsin, are a case in point. Although the dock recorded its second-best month ever since starting operations in 1976 – 2,542,659 net tons – it would have shipped nearly 2.8 million net tons if each of the 53 vessels that loaded at SMET in July had been able to carry full loads. The dredging crisis and falling water levels negated 10 percent of vessels’ carrying capacity over the course of July.

Light loads were commonplace at other coal loading docks in July. Read the rest of this entry »

BY KENDRICK MARSHALL | Source: Suburban Chicago News

Two lawmakers are trying to save industries at Waukegan Harbor from collapse following the city’s decision to de-industrialize the harbor and last week’s announcement by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw support for a $36 million dredging project.

State Rep. Eddie Washington, D-Waukegan, and JoAnn Osmond, R-Antioch, say they do not want to lose the Waukegan shipping terminal and have vowed to support National Gypsum, Lafarge and St. Mary’s Cement.

…. National Gypsum, Lafarge and St. Mary’s Cement have sent letters to the City Council urging them to back an agreement supported by all parties and take into consideration the workers and their families.

Full coverage at Suburban Chicago News >>

Source: Business Week

Steel production was up 0.7 percent in the Midwest during July, having fallen by 0.3 percent in June. Nationally, steel output during July was also 0.7 percent higher. Compared to July 2006, regional steel production was down 0.7 percent last month, while national steel output was unchanged.

Full report at Business Week >>

By Gene Sloan | Source: USA Today / The Cruise Log

The premier operator of cruises in the Great Lakes says falling water levels have forced it to end sailings in the region.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported Sunday on the reasons that luxury operator Hapag-Lloyd is pulling the 420-passenger Columbus from the Great Lakes after the current season ends in October. The ship, purposely built with a narrow hull to maneuver through the region’s locks and waterways, has sailed the Great Lakes for a decade.

More at USA Today / The Cruise Log >>

Source: Firefighting News

Outliving its usefulness, Milwaukee Fire Boat No. 23 was unceremoniously stripped of its hoses and steam pumping equipment and scuttled in Lake Michigan.

Though the July 27, 1923, sinking was not a secret, the actual location of the shipwreck was lost for more than eight decades until Milwaukee wreck hunter Jerry Guyer discovered its dilapidated, zebra mussel-encrusted carcass in 2005.

Full story at Firefighting News >>

Source: Metal Producing & Processing

U.S. Steel Corp jumped ahead of rivals with an agreement to acquire Stelco Inc for a reported $1.1 billion. The move blocks further expansion of foreign steelmakers into the regional market, and solidifies USS’s position as a supplier of flat-rolled steel products in North America.

Late on Sunday USS and Stelco reported they have entered into a definitive agreement for USS to pay for C$38.50 ($19.50) in cash per share for Stelco.

Full story at Metal Producing & Processing >>

See Also: A hard decision and a standard worth defending - American Maritime Officer

by Dan McCaffery | Source: Sarnia Observer

Safety on the Great Lakes has been put at risk by an American company’s decision to bring in replacement workers for three ships that had been stranded all summer in Sarnia, a union official says.

Donald Cree, a vice president of the American Maritime Officers (AMO), made that claim Friday, less than 24 hours after the freighter Wolverine sailed out of the north slip on its way to Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.

The Wolverine is one of three 630-foot long ‘river class’ self-unloading bulk carriers that were stranded in Sarnia after AMO members walked off them on May 10.

The workers took the action after contract talks broke down. A key issue has been job and benefit security. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: American Maritime Officer

American Maritime Officers will not end its three-month strike against Wisconsin and Michigan Steamship Co. in response to the company’s plan to operate its three U.S.-flagged self-unloading Great Lakes bulk carriers with non-union engineers, mates and stewards.

AMO “will not be intimidated” by the company’s strategy, AMO National Executive Vice President Dan Smith said. “Our strike stands, and we are determined to safeguard our position and the licensed labor standards AMO has set on the Great Lakes.”

AMO members walked off the vessels David Z, Earl W and Wolverine in May 2007 when the union and the company reached an impasse during negotiations provided for under an economic re-opener clause in a collective bargaining agreement that expired in July 2007.

…the strike by AMO against Wisconsin & Michigan Steamship Co. resulted in a $1 million loss for the Rand Logistics Inc. subsidiary in the second quarter of 2007.

Full story at American Maritime Officer >>

by Terry Oblander | Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer

 Elyria - The fire that broke out in the stern of the freighter Roger Blough in Lorain on June 24, 1971, would do more than delay construction of the Great Lakes’ largest ore carrier.

Four men constructing the ship would die in the fire that lasted four days.

And, some believe, the firefighters who fought that blaze might have walked away with cancers that would kill them someday.

Ken Afrates was among those who fought the fire. He died of pancreatic cancer exactly 22 years later - on June 24, 1993. His daughter, Kara Afrates, believes his cancer was caused by the burning diesel fuel.

Complete story at the Cleveland Plain Dealer >>