The Coast Guard Marine Safety Center issued the seventh U.S. Coast Guard Ballast Water Management System Type Approval Certificate to Techcross, Inc., after a detailed review of the manufacturer’s type approval application determined the system met the requirements of 46 CFR 162.060.
Source: USCG
Link: 6/5/2018: Marine Safety Center issues Ballast Water Management System Type Approval Certificate to Techcross, Inc.

These new forms may be obtained electronically in a PDF fillable format at the NMC’s website. The Coast Guard will not stock the CG-719 series of forms in paper format.
Source: USCG
Link: 6/4/2018: National Maritime Center announces implementation of new CG-719 form series

Adm. Karl Schultz relieved Adm. Paul Zukunft as commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard during a military change-of-command ceremony held Friday at Coast Guard Headquarters. Zukunft also retired from the Coast Guard after 41 years of service to the nation as part of the same ceremony and received the Homeland Security Distinguished Service Medal from President Donald J. Trump.
Source: USCG
Link: 6/4/2018: New commandant takes helm

The Office of Investigations and Analysis released Marine Safety Alert 07-18, “Ethylene vapors activate Carbon Monoxide alarm: Take action, retreat, and avoid harm,” regarding reports that Port State Control Officers received alarms on their portable 4 gas meters giving a reading of 60 to 100 parts per-million carbon monoxide during a recent examination of a liquefied gas carrier that had cargo tanks containing ethylene vapors.
Source: USCG
Link: 6/1/2018: Marine Safety Alert – Ethylene vapors activate carbon monoxide alarm

The Office of Investigations and Analysis released Marine Safety Alert 06-18, “Don’t Let Your Vessel Get Underway Unexpectedly: Bollard Failures at Marine Facilities,” to inform mariners of recent reports of shore side marine bollard failures whereby moored vessels were cast adrift. In some cases this resulted in damage to the involved vessel as well as other nearby vessels and shore side structures.
Source: USCG
Link: 5/31/2018: Marine Safety Alert – Bollard failures at marine facilities

The EU is building Galileo, a Global Navigation Satellite System similar to the U.S. GPS, and their GSC has looked at NAVCEN as a model service center for civil GNSS. The bilateral talks are allowing and encouraging full cooperation between the two service centers and NAVCEN is sharing its 30 years of experience in representing civil users in the U.S. GPS program. The two service centers discussed their roles and respective responsibilities to support civil users of GPS and Galileo, along with how they can continue to improve the sharing of relevant navigation information.
Source: USCG
Link: 5/31/2018: Navigation Center visits European counterparts to discuss global satellite system information sharing

The following products are available from the Navigation Center website:

• The Eighth (Gulf) Coast Guard District Local Notice to Mariners (22-2018): https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/pdf/lnms/lnm0822g2018.pdf
• The weekly update to the 2018 USCG Light List, Volume Four: https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?pageName=lightListWeeklyUpdates
  
• The Summary of Corrections: https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/pdf/lightLists/corrections/V4D08GM.pdf

If the links above do not work, you should either copy and paste the links into your web browser or follow the LNM links from the Navigation Center LNM page.

The Local Notice to Mariners, Light List, and Summary of Corrections are in Portable Document Format (PDF) and viewing them requires a PDF reader.  PDF readers are readily available on the internet, generally free of charge.

To download the latest information:

• Place your mouse over the “PDF” symbol next to the corresponding week.
• Right click for PC / Control click for Mac.
• Choose “Save Target As”.
• Save the PDF to your computer and open using your PDF reader.

If you have questions regarding this message, please contact the Navigation Center (use “LNMs, Charts, Chart Corrections, or Light Lists” as the subject from the pull down menu).

Source: LNM District 8
Link: District 08 (GULF) Week 22 LNM Now Available on Navigation Center Website

In January, Maritime Commons informed our readers about a proposal by the United States and Russian Federation for a system of two-way routes for vessels to follow in the Bering Strait and Bering Sea. The nations jointly developed and submitted the proposal to the IMO to establish six two-way routes and six precautionary areas. We are pleased to provide an update, as reported to us by Coast Guard members attending the 99th IMO session in London this week.
Source: USCG
Link: 5/25/2018: IMO approves U.S.-Russian Federation proposal for Bering Strait routing measures

This international recognition enables Iridium to enter the market for the IMO-required distress communications system alongside the current provider, United Kingdom-based Inmarsat.
Source: USCG
Link: 5/24/2018: U.S.-based Iridium to expand GMDSS to Polar regions

The Marine Safety Center recently updated two tools posted to its ballast water management system website to assist industry when completing the ballast water management system type approval process, or when accessing letters of intent.
Source: USCG
Link: 5/24/2018: Latest updates to Marine Safety Center’s ballast water management system website