The CANARY ISLANDS OCEANIC PLATFORM (PLOCAN) is a new facility for
oceanic research, created as a Consortium of the Spanish Ministry of Education and
Science and the Canary Islands Government, as part of the implementation of the
Spanish Roadmap. The Platform is located offshore, at the continental platform
border in the proximity of Gran Canaria island, where the Consortium headquarters
is located. The Consortium has been created on December 12th 2007 for a period of
fifteen years.

The objectives of the consortium are to establish:

- A multifunctional integrated oceanic observatory of the deep ocean bottom, the
water column and the atmosphere.
- The national base of underwater vehicles and instruments for operation in Deep
Ocean.
- A technological testbed of materials, instruments and experiments in increasing
depths.
- An innovation platform based on the interaction of the Public science and
technology used in PLOCAN, with the enterprises interested in these subjects.

All these objectives will be carried out under sustainable environmental conditions.

-Marine Offshore R&D infrastructure
-Technological innovation platform
-Test bed
-Base for underwater vehicles and instruments
-Multi-disciplinary deep-sea water observatory
-High level training centre

Official Website PLOCAN

Salvage of the French cement carrier 'Nemo' in Antwerp is in full swing. The operation is being coordinated by the 'Maritime Access Division', part of the Flemish Government.

The vessel was carrying a cargo of liquid cement and sank June 17 in the Royerssluis in Antwerp. Currently no vessels are allowed access to the locks and it is unclear when traffic will resume.

Somali pirates have released a Belgian dredging ship and its crew two months after they were captured, the Belgian prime minister has said.

"We were... informed that the entire crew is in good health," Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy said in a statement.

Officials say a ransom was paid for the release of the ship, MV Pompei, and its 10 crew: a Dutch captain, two Belgians, three Filipinos, and four Croats.

It was hijacked on 18 April some 150km (93 miles) north of the Seychelles.

The Pompei was the first Belgian ship to be seized by Somali pirates.

At the time of its capture, it had been on its way to South Africa from Dubai, where it was helping to build artificial islands.

Defence Minister Pieter De Crem told reporters in Brussels that 10 pirates had abandoned the ship early on Sunday, a day after a plane dropped the ransom cash into the sea near the Pompei, reported AP news agency.

Belgian officials said the money had been paid by the insurance company of the ship, and that the goverment had provided assistance in the long drawn-out negotiations.

The director of the Belgian government's crisis centre, Jaak Rase told the BBC: "This was the only way to free and to put an end to this hijacking."

He added:"About 160 contacts we had by telephone, and all the time there were discussions about the ransom."

source: BBC News

The UK's seas could provide enough extra wind energy to power the equivalent of 19 million homes, an assessment by the Government showed today.

The Government's strategic environmental assessment (Sea) confirmed projections that an extra 25GW of electricity generation capacity could be accommodated in UK waters.

This would be in addition to the 8GW of wind power already built or planned offshore, bringing the potential total electricity capacity of offshore wind to 33GW - enough to power every household in the UK.

According to the Government, offshore wind has the potential to meet more than a quarter of the UK's electricity needs, provide the UK with up to 70,000 new jobs and generate £8 billion a year in revenue.

The findings of the Sea mean the Crown Estate can push ahead with round three of leasing UK waters for offshore wind farms.

Under round three, the Estate has earmarked 11 areas which have the potential to be viable offshore wind sites, due to the levels of wind, water depth and potential connection to the grid, and taking in shipping and environmental concerns.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) and energy regulator Ofgem also announced today they were opening the tendering process to companies to provide the £15 billion of new cabling needed to connect new wind farms.

Energy and Climate Change Minister Lord Hunt said: "Offshore wind is fundamental to delivering our target of 15% renewable energy by 2020, and looking ahead to reducing our carbon emissions by 80%."

He said wind power presented a "huge opportunity" for the UK industry.

"We're already the world's number one offshore wind power. With the right support, we can grow the industry even further, supporting tens of thousands of high value, green manufacturing jobs."

Maria McCaffery, chief executive of the British Wind Energy Association, said the "extremely ambitious" target could result in every home in the UK being powered by offshore wind farms by 2020 - if the right infrastructure was put in place.

She told BBC Radio Four's Today programme: "In order to achieve this very ambitious target, we have some supply chain issues to overcome and we need a grid and infrastructure that is capable of bringing all this electricity into the UK."

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source: Dash.com

Three years after the nation's port terminals were leased out to private concerns under the then Ports Reform Programme by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), the bill for the Act that would give legal backings to the deal is just being considered by the National Assembly.

Sponsored by three members of the House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and Ka'ba Gora, the bill is seeking an amendment to the 1999 Port Act to accommodate the establishment of Port and Harbours Authority (PHA), to allow public and private participation in port operations besides encouraging the emergence of effective technical regulator for the port system.

Like the present Nigerian Ports Authority, the proposed Port and Harbours Authority, according to the provision of the bill, would provide pilotage services and lights, marks and other Navigational services and aids including cleaning, deepening and improving of all waterway, besides removing of wrecks and other obstructions within the ports harbours and their approaches.

The proposed PHA as contained in the bill before the House of Representatives, if passed into law, would provide facilities for berthing, towing, mooring or dry docking of ships, loading and unloading of goods, embarking and disembarking of passengers from ships at ports.

Besides, the bill seeks to empower the proposed port and harbour authority to provide facilities for warehousing, handling and sorting of goods. It would also encourage and facilitate private sector investments and participation in the provisions of ports services and facilities.

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source: The Guardian

Let's hope they have proper insurance.

MARCH 27, 2008

A collapsed 60-meter-long section of Jintang Bridge falls onto a cargo ship after an accident near the eastern seaport of Ningbo of east China's Zhejiang Province on March 27, 2008. China's maritime search and rescue authority said on Thursday that an empty cargo vessel hit a bridge under construction near the eastern seaport of Ningbo leaving four crew members missing. (Xinhua Photo/Huang Shengang)