A Panama-based shipping company will pay $4 million for illegally dumping 6,000 gallons of oil-contaminated sludge and bilge waste in December 2009 during the voyage from Gibraltar to Baltimore, officials said. Irika Shipping S.A., a ship management corporation, pleaded guilty Thursday to concealing the dumping from the M/V Iorana, a Greek-flagged cargo ship that made stops in Baltimore, Tacoma, Wash., and New Orleans, according to the U.S. District Court in Baltimore. Crews used a bypass hose to avoid pollution prevention equipment required by law, court documents state. As a result of the penalty, Maryland will receive $750,000 to be used for Chesapeake Bay projects, officials said. In addition to the fine, Irika Shipping will be placed on probation for up to five years, and be subject to the terms of an Enhanced Environmental Compliance Program, the plea agreement said. In January, a crew member passed a note to the Customs and Border Protection inspector alerting them of the dumping. "We are asking help to any authorities concerned about this, because we must protect our environment and our marine lives," the note read. (Baltimore Sun)   

By MANIK BANERJEE (AP) CALCUTTA, India — India detained a Pakistan-bound ship carrying undeclared military hardware, including rocket launchers and anti-aircraft guns, police said Saturday. The Panama-registered vessel MV Agean Glory sailed from Monrovia, Liberia, to Bangladesh via Mauritius. It then traveled to Calcutta, police said. The origin of the weapons was not immediately known. The vessel offloaded civilian goods including a car in Calcutta, which also serves as a port for mountainous Nepal, top police official Bhupinder Singh told The Associated Press. Authorities detained the ship on Friday after finding that the clearing agent did not specify that it was carrying weapons — the information given by the ship captain — Singh said. Police were questioning the crew of the ship near Diamond Harbor in the Bay of Bengal, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of Calcutta. Other details were not immediately available.

In September, India briefly detained a United Arab Emirates air force plane after its crew failed to declare that it was carrying arms and ammunition to China. The cargo was discovered during a routine check of the plane when it stopped in Calcutta for refueling. The plane was allowed to leave for China after UAE authorities formally regretted not clearly indicating the items carried by the aircraft.   

By Hetal Vyas - DNA - Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Friday directed the Mumbai port authorities to arrest ‘Global Purity’, the merchant vessel owned by the Panama-based company Asian Shipping, which has been accused of sinking the Indian Coast Guard ship ‘Vivek’. The coast guard ship sank near the Mumbai port on March 23 this year. Justice RY Ganoo was hearing an admiralty suit (referring to maritime offences) filed by the Government of India, seeking arrest of the merchant ship. The Indian government moved the HC early this week, claiming damages worth around Rs169 crore. Represented by the additional solicitor general DS Kambata, advocate Afroz Shah and advocate Rahul N, the Indian government informed the court that Global Purity that was carrying a cargo of yellow peas, weighed about 28,000 metric tonnes, whereas ‘Vivek’, which was guarding the Indian coast, weighed only 1,100 metric tonnes.

Asian Shipping has also filed a suit for limitation of liabilities and has argued that they are liable to pay only Rs20 crore. The court will now hear the case on June 14. Earlier, the Yellow Gate police arrested a Philippine national and captain of Global Purity. The arrested captain has been identified as Sarigumba Sarjeovillas. After detailed investigation, a case was registered against Global Purity, following which Sarjeovillas was arrested. The complaint was registered by Aneesh Arvind Hebbas, a Kandivli resident and commandant with the ICG. The police are also investigating whether it was a deliberate move to sabotage the armed coast guard vessel.   

(AFP) SYDNEY — Australian police have arrested three men after a bulk carrier illegally entered the Great Barrier Reef, just days after another ship ran aground and leaked tonnes of oil at the world-famous site. Police said one man from South Korea and two from Vietnam will appear before magistrates after the Panama-flagged MV Mimosa sailed through a restricted area of the world heritage-listed marine park without permission last week. "Federal agents... executed a search warrant on the vessel yesterday at Bowen, Queensland," said a statement released on Sunday. "Navigational equipment and charts were seized and the three men were arrested." Authorities pledged to probe claims ships were using the ecological treasure as a short-cut after China's Shen Neng 1 strayed off-course and crashed into a shoal at full speed last week, leaking tonnes of oil. Emergency teams are now engaged in the delicate task of pumping nearly 1,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil from the stricken, 230-metre (750-feet) carrier, which is not expected to be refloated and towed away for several days. Police said the MV Mimosa used an unidentified shipping route in a region between the tourist hotspots of Magnetic Island and the Whitsunday Islands, did not register with authorities and ignored attempts to make contact. The maximum penalty is a 220,000 dollar (205,000 US) fine. Australia is on the brink of a resources export boom to Asia, meaning an increase in the number of ships using the country's ports.   

Successful counter measures by the Panama-flagged container ship helped beat off pirate attack near Yemen-Somalia border early Friday, the European Union Naval Force said. The Naval Force Commander John Harbour said the MV Nada which is registered with MSCHOA was reporting to the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He said the attack on the MV NADA, Panama flagged with a crew of 24 (nationality unknown) and deadweight of 35,100 tonnes, occurred approximately 100 nautical miles east of Socatra," Harbour said. "The ship, which increased speed and conducted other best management practices with appropriate counter maneuvers, are now safe. It is understood that all the crew are safe and well," Harbour said. The Horn of Africa nation's coastline is considered one of the world's most dangerous stretches of water because of piracy. Somalia is at the entrance to the Gulf of Aden, which leads to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, one of the world's most important shipping channels. The country has been plagued by factional fighting between warlords and hasn't had a functioning central administration since the 1991 ouster of former dictator Mohammed Siad Barre. Source: Xinhua   

Manila, Philippines (AHN) - Rescuers have found the bodies of two Filipino workers who went missing after their tanker caught fire last week in the Yangtze River. Renard Donadilla and Michael Narigaron were the only crew members of the Panama-flagged Golden Crux 18 who were unaccounted for after fire spread inside the vessel Sunday. The repatriation of their remains is being coordinated by the undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs, the Philippine Foreign Affairs Department said on Thursday. The Golden Crux 18 was on its way to South Korea from Nantong in eastern China to load liquefied petroleum gas when the fire happened. A dozen other crew members, 11 of whom are Filipinos, survived the blaze by boarding a lifeboat. Donadilla and Narigaron are believed to have been trapped in the cabin when an explosion occurred in the engine room.   

BEIJING, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The Ministry of Transport (MOT) said Monday 12 sailors of the wrecked Panama-flagged cargo ship were saved and the fire was under control. The "Golden Crux 18" ship, with 14 crew on board, were sailing near the mouth of Yangtze River late last night when its engine room exploded suddenly. Twelve sailors abandoned ship on life rafts after the fire spread uncontrollably while two others who were on duty in the cabin became trapped. The East China Sea Salvage Bureau (ECSSB) sent a vessel to rescue the sailors the moment it received the alarm. Due to its efforts, 12 sailors were rescued around midnight. The ECSSB said it would continue to search for the two missing sailors, both of whom are Filipinos. The 12 rescued sailors are all from the the Philippines except one from Myanmar. The Panamanian liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tanker which was 95 meters long and 15 meters wide was on its journey from Nantong in Jiangsu Province to the Republic of Korea for LPG loading when the accident happened. The cause of the explosion remains unclear.   

By: Iscander al-Mamari - Pirates seized a cargo ship on Monday with 24 crewmembers from the port of Aden. The vessel, Iceberg 1, was boarded just 10 miles from Aden, and was being taken toward the Somali coast, confirmed the Ecoterra maritime agency in Kenya. Crewmembers of the ship, which flies the flag of Panama, are from Ghana, Pakistan, India, Sudan and Yemen, according to the East Africa Seafarers Assistance Program, headquartered in Kenya. A spokesman in Mogadishu, Somalia, said that seven other ships had been seized in the Indian Ocean over the weekend. “The ship was at a distance of 198 nautical miles which means it was in international water. The pirates told Civil Control about the hijacking,” said Brigadier General Lutf Abdullah al-Barati, the Director of Coast Guard in Aden. Upon being questioned regarding the identity of the ship and its cargo, he replied that he had no further information at this time.   

Nairobi - Somali pirates seized a Panama-flagged freighter off the coast of Aden on Monday, the European Union maritime mission in the region said. The MS Iceberg was captured 10 nautical miles from the port of Aden while en route to the United Arab Emirates, a spokesman for Atalanta mission said. The ship, with a cargo of technical equipment and a 24-member crew, was now on its way to Somalia, the spokesman added.    

By Greg Palkot - FoxNews.com - It’s being called by one insider “a dangerous ratcheting up of the arms race” between pirates and good guys. It’s being reported a Panama-flagged cargo ship off coast Somalia on its way to Mogadishu was attacked by pirates using guns and RPG’s. On their second try against the ship, one of pirates was hit and killed allegedly by an armed private security guard board. The pirates are tough guys, tough. When a nearby Spanish navy ship responded and also fired (warning) shots, the pirates didn’t stop. The Spanish finally caught up with them and nabbed 6 pirates and took possession of the corpse. The pirates’s boats were full of holes. It’s not known if anyone was hurt on the targeted ship. Piracy expert Andrew Linnington told Fox News the incident is “deeply worrying.” As international navy’s pile on the pressure pirates taking more extreme measures. In the last six months there has been an increase in violence on the high seas. Add into that mix, private security guards which are increasingly being used by ships who are not always well-trained. Fox News has learned,in fact, the guards on board the targetted ship included a Somali and Kenyan who might not have been up to western standards. Still, with international forces themselves saying they can’t guard all ships use of private guards would seem inevitable. The fight goes on.   

By KATHARINE HOURELD (AP) – NAIROBI, Kenya — In the first killing of its kind, private security contractors shot dead a Somali pirate in a clash that left two skiffs riddled with bullet holes, officials said Wednesday. The killing raises questions over who has jurisdiction over a growing army of armed guards on merchant ships flying flags from many nations. There's currently no regulation of private security onboard ships, no guidelines about who is responsible in case of an attack, and no industrywide standards, said piracy expert Roger Middleton from the British think tank Chatham House. "There's no guarantee of the quality of individuals you are going to get," said Middleton. "If you're a shipping company, that could be legally concerning. It's also concerning to everyone if you have individuals with guns and not much oversight out on the seas." The exact circumstances of Tuesday's shooting are unclear, but the European Union Naval Force said guards were onboard the Panama-flagged MV Almezaan when a pirate group approached it twice. On the second approach, there was a shoot-out between the guards and the pirates. An EU Naval Force frigate was dispatched to the scene and launched a helicopter that located the pirates. Seven pirates were found, including one who died from small-caliber gunshot wounds, indicating he had been shot by the detachment onboard the Almezaan, and not by the helicopter gunship, said Cmdr. John Harbour, the EU Naval Force spokesman. The pirates had two small skiffs and a larger ship — a whaler — believed to be a mothership for food and fuel.

"Once the skiffs and the whaler had been intercepted it was discovered that one of them contained a dead body that had sustained several small-caliber bullet impacts. Numerous bullet impacts were also visible on the skiffs and bullet casings as well as arms and munition of different caliber were found aboard," said a statement from the Spanish Ministry of Defense. Spanish forces aboard the warship Navarra arrested the six remaining pirates, took custody of the pirate's body and sunk the larger boat, the ministry said. Spain planned to give the body to the Somali government and transfer the suspects to Kenya or the Seychelles for prosecution if the cargo ship's crew identified the detainees as their attackers.

Legal experts said there is no consensus on who is responsible for investigating the incident, and there are several possibilities: Panama, whose flag the Almezaan flies; the United Arab Emirates, where the ship's owners are based; or the nation which the security contractors come from, which has not yet been made public. "This will be scrutinized very closely," said Arvinder Sambei, a legal consultant for the U.N.'s anti-piracy program. "There's always been concern about these (private security) companies. Who are they responsible to? ... The bottom line is somebody has been killed and someone has to give an accounting of that."

So far, laws governing private security contractors have generally reacted to specific abuses rather than attempting to prevent such abuses, said Patrick Cullen, an international relations lecturer at the Barcelona-based International Politics Institute and the co-author of an upcoming book on private maritime security companies. "Regulating maritime security companies is a very gray area," he said. Violent confrontations between ships and pirates are on the rise. Crews are becoming adept at repelling attacks by pirates and many more ship owners are using private security guards. Pirates are becoming more aggressive in response, shooting firearms and firing rocket-propelled grenades at ships to try to intimidate captains into stopping.

The International Maritime Bureau says 39 ships were fired off Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden in 2008, but that number increased to 114 ships by 2009. Earlier this month there were four separate shoot-outs in a single day between pirates, security guards and military personnel aboard commercial vessels. Several organizations, including the International Maritime Bureau, have expressed fears that the use of armed security contractors could encourage pirates to be more violent in their approach. In Somali waters, it is often difficult to distinguish between pirates and fishermen until the boats are very close. Maritime experts have expressed fears that jittery security guards could accidentally open fire on ordinary Somalis. Pirate attacks have not declined despite patrols by dozens of warships off the Somali coast. The amount of ocean to patrol is too vast to protect every ship and pirates have responded to the increased naval presence by moving attacks farther out to sea.

Experts say piracy is just one symptom of the general collapse of law and order in the failed state of Somalia, which has not had a functioning government in 19 years. They say attacks on shipping will continue as long as there is no central government capable of taking on the well-armed and well-paid pirate gangs.

Associated Press Writer Harold Heckle in Madrid contributed to this report.   

Mumbai, March 23 (IANS) A Coast Guard ship sank after a privately-owned merchant vessel rammed into it in the Mumbai Harbour Tuesday evening, an official said. No casualties were reported. The collision took place at the commercial Indira Dockyard in Mumbai and over 40 sailors and technicians on the ship, identified as Indian Coast Guard Ship Vivek, were rescued, the official said. The defence ministry, the Mumbai Port authorities and the Directorate General of Shipping have ordered separate inquiries into the accident. The accident took place around 6.30 p.m. when ICGS Vivek was undergoing repairs and refit at Berth No. 10 of Indira Docks. The private merchant vessel MV Global Purity rammed into Vivek, creating a deep hole in the Coast Guard ship. It sank within an hour, the official told IANS on condition of anonymity. The offshore patrol vessel had the capacity to carry helicopters and was used for search rescue and relief operations, the official said. Though the cause of the collision was not clear, it is believed that the private ship rammed into Vivek when the Coast Guard ship’s berth door was suddenly opened up. Top Coast Guard, defence and port authorities have rushed to the site for preliminary investigations into the incident. ICGS Vivek was a 20 year-old platform inducted into the Coast Guard on August 19, 1989. It was anchored when the private Panama ship crashed into it.   

NAIROBI (Reuters) - A Panamanian-registered cargo ship seized by Somali pirates two months ago has been released after a ransom was air-dropped on to the vessel, maritime officials said Sunday. The bulk carrier Navios Apollon was hijacked about 800 miles off the Somali coast north of the Seychelles while on its way from the United States to India with a cargo of fertilizer. "The last gunman disembarked from the ship last night. She is steaming out to safe waters," Andrew Mwangura of the Kenya-based East Africa Seafarers' Assistance Program told Reuters by telephone. The vessel is managed by the Greek firm Navios ShipManagement and a Greek government official confirmed its release. "The Navios Apollon was released yesterday evening. The ship is now sailing to Oman and its final destination is India. They are all well and safe," a Merchant Marine Ministry official told Reuters in Athens. An unspecified sum of money was air-dropped on to the ship as a ransom, maritime officials said. All 19 members of the crew, one Greek and 18 Filipinos, were safe, Mwangura added. Piracy attacks rose by almost 40 percent worldwide last year, with gunmen from the failed Horn of Africa state of Somalia accounting for more than half the 406 reported incidents, according to the International Maritime Bureau.   

By Abdi Guled and Abdi Sheikh MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali pirates said they received a $3.1 million ransom on Tuesday for a Panama-flagged ship which they hijacked in October and planned to free in the coming hours. "Some of our friends have already disembarked and the rest will get off the ship soon," one of the pirates, Hassan, told Reuters by telephone from the coastal pirate base of Haradheere. "We hope it will peacefully sail away in the coming hours." The name of the vessel was not immediately clear, but a regional maritime source said it was believed to be the MV Al Khaliq, thought to be carrying 24 Indians and 2 Burmese crew. The source said negotiations for the release of the MV Al Khaliq had been going on for weeks. It was loaded with wheat grain when it was seized on October 22 west of the Seychelles. The number of piracy attacks worldwide leapt almost 40 percent last year, with gunmen from the failed Horn of Africa state accounting for more than half the 406 reported incidents, according to the International Maritime Bureau. Typically, the heavily armed Somali pirates hold captured ships and their crews hostage until ransoms are paid.   

By BASSEM MROUE (AP) BEIRUT — A senior Lebanese army officer says a ship carrying 83 crew members has sunk off the Lebanese coast in stormy weather. The officer says the Panama-flagged ship sent a distress call Thursday afternoon and a Lebanese navy ship was dispatched, but by the time rescuers arrived the ship had sunk 11 miles (17 kilometers) off the coast. He says two crew members have been rescued. A civilian vessel and a ship from a U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon were also called to help. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media. He said the army believes the ship was heading to or coming from the Syrian port of Tartous. He said Britain was asked to send two helicopters from Cyprus.   

Maritime Global Net - The Panama Maritime Administration (PMA) says it has cancelled the registration of 73 vessels a 101others are going through the same legal process and that tough action is cutting the number of detentions. The actions comes as part of drastic measures announced earlier this year to improve the the quality and detention record of the Panamanian flag after its inclusion last year inclusion in the Paris MOU black list. In its latest newsletter the PMA says detentions fell dramatically from 8% in January of this year to 5% at the end of October. Average detention rate was 9% in 2007, 8% in 2008 and fell to 6% for the period January to September 2009. Panama imposed stringent requirements for ships older than 20 years which are now required to submit to a check by an inspector from a Recognized Organization before calling at a port within the Paris MOU. PMA says: “Any vessel failing to go through such inspection could be fined or deleted from the registry; additionally [the registration of] any 20 year-old vessel detained twice in six months will automatically be cancelled. (Editor's Comment: This is a multi million - if not billion - dollar business for Panama. There are more ships flying the Panamanian flag than any other in the world. Panama is a "flag of convenience" which normally means lower standards and less cost for ship owners. However, this crackdown is aimed at maintaining a perception of quality for the registry.)   

MEXICO, November 8 (RIA Novosti) - Four of the 11 Russian sailors from the a cargo ship stranded off Panama's coast since April flew to Russia on Saturday, the ship's captain, Vladimir Verevkin, told RIA Novosti by phone on Sunday. "The tickets... were bought by Panama's authorities," the captain said. The Panama-flagged Piruit bulk freighter with 11 Russian sailors on board has been stranded since it ran ground while crossing the Panama Canal. The sailors have received no wages since, and were running low on food supplies. If the ship's owner fails to settle the dispute with the sailors amicably and to pay them over $300,000 in wage arrears, the vessel will be auctioned off. "We are set to stay in Panama until wage arrears are paid in full as we and our families have no other sources of income," Verevkin said. If the ship's owner fails to settle the dispute with the sailors amicably and to pay them over $300,000 in wage arrears, the vessel will be auctioned off. The deadline is November 16.   

Rainbow Nelson - THE Panama Maritime Authority has been forced into an embarrassing U-turn on a zero tolerance policy towards Panama-flagged vessels detained in Paris MOU port state control inspections before the end of the year. An advisory sent to the 7,100 commercial vessels flying the Panamanian flag on October 14 warned of “immediate cancellation” of those vessels detained by Paris MOU “from the date of the present notice until the end of 2009”. The authority that oversees the world’s largest ship register also threatened to ban surveyors failing to identify deficiencies that were later picked up by port state control. PMA director of the merchant marine Alfonso Castillero said the measures were necessary to address Panama’s presence on the Paris MOU blacklist of flag states but a week later he had been forced to tone down the policy. With two months remaining before next year’s blacklist is finalised, Mr Castillero said the advisory was designed to “re-focus and to strengthen” instructions issued by the PMA last year. Panama appeared 19 places off the bottom of the Paris MOU black list of flag states in 2008, with an average of 222 detentions a year between 2006 and 2008 and is understood to be as few as 30 detentions away from making another repeat appearance on the blacklist. Appearing on the list increases the likelihood of inspection for Panama-flagged vessels operating in European waters. Panamanian lawyers met with the PMA last week to urge the authority to tone down its threats and clarify the implications for class societies and owners that have vessels detained in European waters. (more)    Click Here To Read The Full Article (423 words)

AFP - Pirates have hijacked a Panamanian-flagged carrier in the waters off Somalia, taking hostage its crew, including 24 Indians and two Burmese nationals. "The MV Al Khaliq, a Panamanian-flagged bulk carrier, has been hijacked early this morning off Somalia," AFP quoted a spokeswoman for NATO's London-based anti-piracy mission as saying. Pirates also opened fire on Italian vessel Jolly Rosso as it was sailing north of the Seychelles, she said on Thursday, adding the 32,000-tonne carrier 'managed to evade the pirates at 18 knots'. NATO's closest ship in the Somali basin was eight hours away from the Al Khaliq when it was stormed by the heavily armed gunmen. Since last year, an armada of foreign warships has been patrolling the Gulf of Aden in a bid to stem piracy in the notorious region, which is viewed as one of the busiest maritime trade routes on the globe. The attack takes to 47 the number of ship-jacking cases during the first nine months of 2009 in the coast of lawless Somalia, which remains a hotbed of piracy despite the presence of multi-national navy forces in the troubled waters. But the number released by International Maritime Bureau (IMB) indicates a sharp rise in the attacks in Somali waters compared with the 12 cases reported in the same period in 2008.   

HAVANA, October 3 (RIA Novosti) - Russian sailors, who have been stranded in Panama since early April, are unable to come ashore "for financial reasons," the vessel's captain told RIA Novosti on Sunday. "A special permit is required to leave the ship and to visit the port... which is impossible for us under the present conditions," Vladimir Verevkin said. The Panama-flagged Piruit vessel, with 11 Russian seamen onboard, ran aground while crossing the Panama Canal. The company which repaired the vessel's front part, damaged in the accident, seized the ship in the port of Colon, but released it after payments have been made. Both the vessel's owner, registered in the British Virgin Islands, and the Vladivostok-based management company currently refuse to pay $25,000 in maintenance costs and $110,000 in wage arrears. The companies also refuse to pay $50,000 to renew the permit allowing the vessel to fly the flag of Panama. Electricity at the ship has been cut off since August 20. "For about 20-25 days we have been using rainwater for cooking. We eat mainly vegetables; we are unable to store meat as electricity had been cut off," the captain said. A spokesman for the Russian embassy in Panama has earlier said it was negotiating with all the parties to the conflict.