The EPA and Coast Guard have adopted an initiative that would overrule a federal court ruling on ballast water regulation.
Ballast water is a vector for invasive species and efforts to remedy the problem are in development at local, state and federal levels. The EPA/CG initiative is key because the International Maritime Organization is developing
On the shoreline front, KITV did an investigative piece about a growing dispute between Kahala oceanfront lot owners who are said to use vegetation to curtail access laterally at the beach.
Busy week in Washington, D.C. with a big fight between Congress and the Administration over whether the Coast Guard should be responsible for securing Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) facilities or whether that cost is properly paid by the facility owner. The White House threatened a veto. The Commandant of Coast Guard issued a statement
The Ninth Circuit just affirmed the conviction and sentence for a Chinese sailor who killed a Taiwanese Captain and Chinese First Mate on a Seychelles-flagged, Taiwan-owned fishing vessel sailing on the high seas. USA v. Lei Shi, No. 06-10389.
Disclosure: At the time of this incident, I was a Judge Advocate with the
I earlier posted the Draft Environmental Assessment for the Hawaii-based vessel, M/V Moku Pahu. The U.S. Coast Guard released other Ballast Water Treatment Draft Environmental Assessments relating to vessels in the Atlantic Ocean.
For anyone interested in comparing the EA’s, they are posted below:
The U.S. Coast Guard announced the availability of a Draft Environmental Assessment for the Shipboard Technology Evaluation Program on the M/V Moku Pahu. Matson is undertaking a ballast water treatment project using Ecochlor technology. The U.S. Coast Guard is seeking comment on the Draft Environmental Assessment.
The comment deadline is June 3, 2008.
Apparently, the bill to restrict fuel types in use at Nawiliwili Harbor is dead for this session. Earlier, I posted on problems with the bill.
One alternative to consider is the "carrot" approach. The Port of Long Beach, which lost its "stick" approach earlier this month, is proposing incentives to encourage the use of more
In a very interesting case, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals just held that U.S. vessels documented with a fishery endorsement, but operating under a registry endorsement are not “fishing vessels” for the purposes of the Shark Fin Prohibition Act.
A Hong Kong company chartered a Hawaii-based, U.S. documented vessel, King Diamond II
Today, I attended a lecture presented on the Seascape Strategy for the Main Hawaiian Islands. This is a collaboration between Conservation International, the Harold Castle Foundation, and the Environmental Law Institute. It aims to comprehensively analyze the concerns, issues, laws and policies relating to the nearshore marine environment of the Main Hawaiian