My employer, the U.S. Coast Guard announced today that it expects to make difficult reductions in operational capacity in the next fiscal year. This follows the submission of the President’s Fiscal Year 2011 Budget Request to congress, which includes the Coast Guard’s request for $10.08 billion dollars. The FY11 request is down from the FY10 $10.42 billion appropriation.

For readers familiar with shipping on the West coast of the U.S. and Europe, then you are familiar with the reason driving ABS to develop guidance and requirements for its ship operators regarding the use of low-suphur fuels.

It’s a mess for the folks down in Port Arthur Texas this weekend, as crews work to clean up the estimated 11,000 barrels of crude oil that spilled from the Singapore flagged crude tanker Eagle Otome after it collided with a barge being pushed by the towing vessel Dixie Vengeance in the Sabine Neches Waterway near Port Arthur.

These photos were sent my way.  I don’t know who originally took them, but I thank whoever it was for helping us see the devastation that occurred to the port facilities in Haiti.  A few of them appeared to have been taken immediately following the earthquake.  They give a perspective of just how powerful the earthquake was.  Let’s hope [...]

There is a white ship that normally sits moored in Baltimore, forgotten by most.  Today, that ship became the most important ship in the U.S. Navy.  Today, the USNS Comfort arrived in Haiti.