This past Tuesday, Feb 8th 2010 marked the end of one of the longest running terrestrial radio navigation systems, the U.S. LORAN-C (LOng RAnge Navigation) system. In accordance with the 2010 DHS Appropriations Act, the U.S. Coast Guard terminated the transmission of all U.S. LORAN-C signals on 08 Feb 2010 at 2000 GMT. This termination does not affect U.S. participation in the Russian American or Canadian LORAN-C chains. U.S. participation in these chains will continue temporarily in accordance with international agreements, although Canada has announced it will cease transmissions on or before 01 October 2010.

The U.S. Coast Guard has completed a dramatic rescue of 28 crew members from the Taiwanese-flagged F/V Hou Chun 11 in the Pacific Ocean, just North of Kingman Reef, approximately 1000 NM South of Hawaii. The fishing vessel apparently caught fire, forcing the 28 crew members to abandon ship into liferafts. There are reports of several crew members suffering burns from the incident, but it appears all have survived. The rescue was conducted by the Coast Guard Cutter Alex Haley and with air support from a U.S. Navy P-3 and a Coast Guard C-130 from Air Station Barbers Point in Hawaii.

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.