Legal matters of maritime concern in Hawaii, Oceania, and beyond.
The Coast Guard issued an interim rule with a request for comments by July 21, 2008.
The rule intends to implement the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers qualification requirements for vessel security officers.
I had earlier posted about the UFO Chuting v. Smith case. The Ninth Circuit held that the State of Hawaii’s partial ban on parasailing off the coast of Maui did not violate the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution and was not preempted by federal law.
The parasail operator filed a Petition for a Writ…
On Monday, May 19, 2008, I will be giving a presentation to the Hawaii State Bar Association’s Admiralty Section. The title is "Federal and State Regulation of Hawaiian Ocean Waters."
Co-presenting is Deputy Attorney General Bill Wynhoff, who represented the State of Hawaii in the UFO Chuting case posted here.
The talk will be…
The Coast Guard has proposed new safety regulations for commercial fishing industry fishing vessels. The Notice includes a good history of the Coast Guard’s attempts to oversee the safety of the commercial fishing fleet.
They are available for download here. Public comment is due by July 29, 2008.
I wrote an earlier post about this case, here.
Prof. Shaun Martin of California Appellate Report has some interesting analysis about the opinon.
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…
