greatlakesshipwatchers.com

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

By Tony Walter | Source: Green Bay Press Gazette

Port and harbor officials want federal lawmakers to help make water transport more attractive to companies by exempting some vessels from a harbor maintenance tax.

The American Great Lakes Ports Association, meeting Tuesday in Green Bay, added its support to federal legislation that would maintain the tax for bulk haulers but eliminate it for shorter hauls throughout the Great Lakes.

Green Bay Port Director Dean Haen said there have been conversations with major companies in Northeastern Wisconsin such as Georgia-Pacific, Oshkosh Truck, Marinette Marine, Kimberly-Clark and Mercury Marine, about shipping goods on the lakes. The high price of fuel and the crowded highways have led company officials to seek less-expensive ways to move goods.

“The tax exemption would allow free movement” on the lakes, Haen said. “It would take traffic off the roads and rails.”

The tax now costs haulers 12.5 cents per $100 of value for goods shipped on the Great Lakes, making shipping in the region a deterrent for many companies. It was established in 1986 and collects an estimated $22 billion annually, mostly from foreign shippers.

…The tax has been the major source of revenue to pay for the dredging of Great Lakes harbors, a necessity to maintain the health of businesses that depend on Great Lakes shipping. The exemption would only apply to smaller carriers, which provide a small contribution to that revenue.

Read the full story, comment at the Green Bay Press-Gazette >>

by Nathan Phelps | Source: Green Bay Press Gazette

The St. Marys Cement terminal in Green Bay sees about 20 shiploads of cement a year.

It is one of more than a dozen businesses along the Fox River in Green Bay that handled 2.3 million tons of cargo last year — from cement to limestone and lumber.

“Moving the product by water is the most economical and cost-effective way of moving our product,” said Greg Leiteritz, who works out of the Green Bay terminal in sales and technical service.

While it may not be readily apparent, much of what comes through the port is used by the consumer on a daily basis, from road surfaces to coal for energy.

The Green Bay operation is one of three terminals St. Mary’s operates in the state, in addition to a plant in Milwaukee.

The cement passing through Green Bay is produced in Charlevoix, Mich., and is sent to Green Bay primarily via barge and tug combinations.

It’s then loaded onto trucks and sent to between 30 and 50 customers around a region stretching west to Wisconsin 13 and north into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Leiteritz said.

… St. Mary’s cement is used in applications, including ready-mix, block producers and pre-cast producers.

Roads, driveways and sidewalks are where most people will find cement from St. Marys, said Mike Vizer, terminal manager.

Arrow Concrete in Green Bay is one of the users who truck cement from the terminal to its ready-mix facilities and on to commercial, residential and farm work sites.

“Basement floors and walls, garage floors, commercial walls … barnyards, bunker feeders,” said Allan Duchateau, owner of Arrow.

Arrow uses about 16,000 tons of concrete a year on 100 to 150 projects in the Green Bay area, he said.

While cement and other bulk goods coming through the port may be taken for granted, they have an almost daily interface with residents — whether those residents know it or not.

“Almost everything, in one way or another, comes back to the consumer,” said Port Director Dean Haen. “Some things are more direct like cement — for driveways and foundations and roads — and liquid asphalt for tar.

“But even the limestone gets used in agricultural applications and in smokestack scrubbers,” he said.

Much more about the cargoes handled in Green Bay, throughout the lakes at the Green Bay Press Gazette >>

Source: USCG

MARINETTE, Wisc. - The Coast Guard is providing security for a new Navy Ship in Northern Lake Michigan, Thursday.

The Littoral Combat Ship, USS Freedom, built in Marinette, Wisc. is currently conducting sea trials as Coast Guard Station Sturgeon Bay Response Boat crews provide security for the 379-foot combat ship.

The Coast Guard crews are responsible for enforcing a Naval Vessel Protection Zone, which is a 500-yard regulated area of water surrounding large U.S. naval vessels that is necessary to provide for the safety and security of these U.S. naval vessels.

• All vessels within 500 yards of a U.S. naval vessel must operate at the minimum speed necessary to maintain a safe course.
• Vessels are not allowed within 100 yards of a U.S. naval vessel
• The official patrol can be reached on VHF-FM channel 16

“The Naval Vessel Protective Zone does not limit people from viewing the ship but it does identify a no-travel buffer zone for everyones’ safety,” said Cmdr. Billy Mitchell, Assistant Branch Chief for Enforcement of the Coast Guard Ninth District.

Coast Guard Crews from Stations Michigan City and Wilmette Harbor are also assisting with the security details.

Area residents and vacationers have reported the USS Freedom was conducting high-speed trials in the bay of Green Bay on Saturday, August 2nd.

By Paul Srubas | Source: Green Bay Press Gazette

Remote operation of Green Bay’s three downtown bridges would compromise safety and inconvenience shippers, motorists and pedestrians, Green Bay’s bridge tenders say.

… the consulting firm doing the study says that operating three bridges from a single bridge house could result in a safer, more convenient operation and a cost-savings.

Currently, three bridge tenders operate the Ray Nitschke Memorial, Walnut Street and Don A. Tilleman bridges over the Fox River — opening them for freighters and pleasure crafters and closing them for vehicles and pedestrians.

Clark Dietz Inc., a consulting firm out of Wausau, has been studying the possibility of one bridge tender operating all three bridges.

Tenders operate multiple bridges in Milwaukee, Menasha and Manitowoc and soon will be operating two bridges in Sturgeon Bay, according to Mark Porlier of Clark Dietz Inc.

The purpose of remote operation is to cut costs, improve safety and reduce wear and tear on equipment, all without loss of the level of service to boating, shipping and land-based traffic, Porlier said.

Read the full story, including bridge tender interviews and projected financials, at the Green Bay Press Gazette >>

By Nate Reens | Source: Grand Rapids Press

GRAND RAPIDS — Vacuum-sealed and frozen for four years, a thumb size piece of wood, possibly from the French sailing vessel the Griffin, was to be handed over to U.S. marshals today.

It marks a measured move — the first step forward in a four-year court battle between the state and an Ohio diving and salvage group — toward solving a 329-year-old international mystery that may end with the shipwreck being identified.

Steve Libert was expected to surrender the artifact, which has been carbon-dated to the 1600s, under a federal warrant issued last month.

Libert, a Virginia resident who heads Great Lakes Exploration Group, sought to keep the wood piece to protect his team’s interest in the wreck.

“We’ve been fighting this long just to try and get the right to make an identification that it is the Griffin,” Libert said. “We believe the rest of the ship, or its artifacts, are scattered.”

Historians consider the Griffin to be the first European trade ship to sail lakes Huron and Michigan. It was built for French explorer Robert de La Salle and was carrying furs from Green Bay, Wis., when it disappeared in 1679.

Libert believes his group has found the vessel on the Lake Michigan floor, identified only as an area between Escanaba and the St. Martin Islands, near Wisconsin.

While the state has contended that Libert’s piece of wood is nothing more than barn timber, it has fought to preserve the government’s right to the potential find. The state lays claim to all shipwrecks discovered in its waters.

Since Libert filed suit seeking salvage rights in 2004, his group and the state have wrangled over the ship. Under the arrest warrant, Libert now must disclose the location to the state so it can inspect the wreckage.

Under federal law, ownership would belong to France, which supports Libert’s salvage efforts and is prepared to send a team to help confirm the ship is the Griffin.

There is still more to this story at the Grand Rapids Press >>

Source: Green Bay Press Gazette

A fast-spreading virus recently killed thousands of round gobies near Milwaukee, and officials fear the same fate may await fish elsewhere in Lake Michigan.

The gobies washed ashore May 28 after dying from viral hemorrhagic septicemia, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The virus causes fish to hemorrhage and suffer organ failure.

The Milwaukee incident made Lake Michigan the fourth of the five Great Lakes to suffer a large VHS-related fish kill. Only Lake Superior has avoided the disease.

Read the full story at the Green Bay Press Gazette >>

Source: USCG

GREEN BAY, Wis. - Federal, state, local, non-governmental and private sector organizations conducted a full scale exercise at the Port of Green Bay on May 21, 2008 to practice, assess and improve the Lake Michigan Area Maritime Security Plan as well as the Lake Michigan Area Contingency Plan.

The port security exercise built on multiple interagency training workshops, planning sessions, and tabletop exercises held over the past year. Phase One, conducted 21-25 January, tested threat communications and intelligence information sharing among various agencies. Phase Two, on 30 April, tested the implementation of a Unified Command structure and development of an Incident Action Plan.

May 21st’s full scale exercise utilized a multi-faceted security, hazardous materials, and terrorism scenario. Multi-agency response teams conducted vessel boardings, dive operations, hazardous materials response, and casualty evacuations. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: Superior Daily Telegram

Gov. Jim Doyle is expected to sign legislation Tuesday to strengthen protection for the Great Lakes.

Doyle plans to act on the bill during a ceremony on the Green Bay waterfront, according to a news release issued by his office this morning. A coalition of lawmakers, environmental groups and local officials join him as he signs legislation designed to protect and preserve the Great Lakes.

Full story at the Daily Telegram >>

Source: University of Wisconsin-Green Bay

GREEN BAY-John Austin, an economic and environmental researcher who is an expert on the Great Lakes Region, will be on the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay campus and in the community May 1-2 to explain why it’s vital to protect and enhance the United States’ “North Coast.”

Austin will make a free, public presentation at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 1, in the auditorium of the Brown County Central Library, 515 Pine St., Green Bay. He is expected to meet on campus with UW-Green Bay faculty and students prior to that.

On Friday, May 2, Austin will meet on the UW-Green Bay campus with invited area business leaders, UW-Green Bay faculty, local legislators and government officials and other Great Lakes experts for a breakfast discussion.

Austin is a nonresident senior fellow with the Brookings Institution, as well as vice president of the Michigan State Board of Education and senior fellow with the University of Michigan’s School of Education-National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: USCG and local reports

The US Coast Guard has advised that the cutter Hollyhock will be breaking ice and clearing tracks in the lower bay of Green Bay.

The week’s local Notice to Mariners continued to state the CGC Mobile Bay, home ported in Sturgeon Bay, would be breaking ice. The work was expected over the past three weeks. However, the Wednesday marine broadcast over Coast Guard VHF radio stated the ice breaking and track cutting would be performed by the Hollyhock.

Satellite photos and local reports indicate the the upper bay north of Chambers Island has cleared of ice. However solid “fast ice” remains in both Little Bay de Noc at Escanaba, as well as from just south of Chambers Island south to the city of Green Bay.

Resources:

• Satellite photos of Great Lakes
• Ice Analysis by NOAA
• Current Printed Notice to Mariners

GLSW Exclusive

During the early morning hours of Monday, March 24, conditions changed and the freighters PAUL R. TREGURTHA, ARTHUR M. ANDERSON, CHARLES M. BEEGHLY and EDGAR B SPEER were able to free themselves from the ice near Sherwood Point, and head northward through the bay of Green Bay.

The trip was long and arduous.

By 6:30 AM, the TREGURTHA and ANDERSON had arrived west of Porte des Mortes passage in northern Door County, with the BEEGHLY and SPEER shortly behind. The four vessels stacked in a line waiting for the USCG cutter MOBILE BAY and tug ERICA KOBASIC to clear a track through the ice north of Washington Island, through Rock Island Passage.

Rock Island Passage is a narrow stretch between Rock Island and the U.P.’s Garden Peninsula, and where an LCA shipping lane connects the bay of Green Bay to Lake Michigan.

Although a tongue of seemingly open water stretched from Porte des Mortes about 0.25 mi into the bay of Green Bay, Porte des Mortes passage was full of loose ice chunks and sheet ice, which the Coast Guard did not want to disturb for fear of blocking transit of the Washington Island Ferry. The ferry makes daily trips across Porte des Mortes passage.

After several hours of ramming, cutting and clearing, the TREGURTHA was the first cleared to enter the track and exit into Lake Michigan. By early afternoon, all four vessels had cleared the passage and were headed eastward across the lake toward the Straits of Mackinaw.

The BEEGHLY transited Round Island Passage in the Straits at about 11 PM Eastern time Monday.

Meantime, three more ships departed Sturgeon Bay’s Bay Shipbuilding on Monday. Tugs were seen assisting the KAYE E BARKER as early as 6:30 AM local time, and the JAMES R BARKER departed later Monday morning. The KAYE E BARKER and PHILIP R CLARKE also left Bay Ship on Monday, heading north into the bay of Green Bay.

The northerly wind was now replaced by a building southerly wind which obliterated most of the tracks cut by the MOBILE BAY and ERICA KOBASIC Sunday.

The JAMES R BARKER reached the northern end of the bay of Green Bay at about midnight Monday night. As of 3 AM Tuesday, the tug ERICA KOBASIC had suspended ice breaking operations, and the PHILIP R CLARKE had dropped anchor in 140 ft of water near Washington Island. The CLARKE and KAYE E BARKER both experienced handling difficulties in the rapidly moving ice on the bay of Green Bay throughout Monday night and early Tuesday morning, transiting northward with the ice floes at 0.5 MPH for much of the time.

The KOBASIC plans to resume ice breaking operations at daylight Tuesday. The CLARKE and KAYE E BARKER both intended to seek shelter from the gale force winds and high waves on Lake Michigan Monday night and into Tuesday.

GLSW Exclusive

The best-laid plans were brought asunder by a stiff northerly wind and cold temperatures over the weekend, which stacked and re-froze thick ice on the bay of Green Bay, in western Lake Michigan.

By 11 AM, the lakes’ largest ship, the PAUL R. TREGURTHA, had departed Sturgeon Bay’s Bay Shipbuilding and was struggling against the ice in the shipping channel at Sherwood Point. The ARTHUR M. ANDERSON was moving out of her berth, and the EDGAR B. SPEER and JAMES R. BARKER were in the queue, getting ready to go.

And then the TREGURTHA became stuck in the ice.

The USCG Cutter MOBILE BAY was on-hand to assist with breaking the ships out of the ice, but it became quickly apparent that the ice breaking efforts the MOBILE BAY had completed throughout the past 72 hours in the bay of Green Bay, had been jammed shut and stubbornly refrozen by the recent turn in the weather.

Tug ERICA KOBASIC assisted the MOBILE BAY in breaking tracks northerly through the bay all afternoon and late into Sunday night. The MOBILE BAY spent much of their time attempting to break ice at Washington Island’s Boyer Bluff, reporting that it was “very tough, very very tough” and finally conceding to the KOBASIC that it might be better to route ships around the Boyers Bluff ice, transiting them farther north towards Little Bay de Noc, and then turn them easterly toward Rock Island Passage, to gain entry to Lake Michigan.

The MOBILE BAY and ERIC KOBASIC suspended ice breaking operations at 11:15 PM, and planned to resume their efforts again at 8:00 AM Monday.

In the meantime, several freighters remained stranded in the ice off Sturgeon Bay.

Although the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal and Lake Michigan was clear of ice, and seemingly a clear egress for the vessels departing Bay Shipbuilding, the water depth near Bay Shipbuilding is insufficient to turn the vessels. The waters on either side of the 200 ft. wide channel are also still covered by thick, non-navigable solid sheet ice. Additionally, the brisk northerly winds would have created a crosswind situation for the freighters, which are sitting high in the water while ballasted. Such conditions would have made transiting the three bridges through the city extremely difficult.

More ships are scheduled to depart Bay Shipbuilding on Monday.

The vessels are also attempting to beat a high pressure system which is causing winds to swing westerly, then southerly and increase to gale strength Monday night into Tuesday. Sixteen foot waves are forecasted for northern Lake Michigan on Tuesday, which are sufficient height to cause most sub-1000 ft. freighters to seek shelter in calmer waters along lee shores.

Source: USCG

ESCANABA — The U.S. Coast Guard will be expanding ice breaking operations in Little Bay de Noc as well as the Fox River and lower Green Bay, Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal and the entrance channel into Marinette and Menominee.

Everyone is reminded the 2008 shipping season will be commencing and vessel movements are expected in these waters beginning Monday. All anglers are reminded to remove ice shacks. Recreational ice users should plan activities carefully, use caution near the ice and stay away from shipping channels and the charter Lake Carriers Association track lines.

By DAN EGAN | Source: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

Tired of waiting for Congress to enact ballast rules to prevent the next zebra mussel from invading the Great Lakes, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is moving toward writing its own rules to control what overseas ships are allowed to dump into the world’s largest freshwater system.

In their memo to the resources board, [DNR] staff said they would be working closely with colleagues in Minnesota, which is pursuing similar rules, to ensure that the regulations are compatible.

Wisconsin DNR officials also informed the Natural Resources Board at its monthly meeting in Madison Tuesday that the agency is steaming ahead with a $6 million pilot program that would treat ballast water not on ships but in onshore wastewater facilities.

DNR officials said that Gov. Jim Doyle identified $6 million that could be used for the Wisconsin ports in Milwaukee, Green Bay and Superior.

Roger Larson, deputy director of the DNR Bureau of Watershed Management, said Milwaukee would be used as a test of the technology, with treatment starting in the 2009 shipping season.

Read the full story at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel >>