More coverage of Admiral Allen’s Polar Star announcement

by Tim Flanagan on March 11, 2010

Coast Guard Reactivates Polar Star

Video by PO3 Tara Molle of the USCG District 13 Public Affairs team.

 
Icebreaker docked in Seattle to be refitted for duty

By Mark Rahner at the Seattle Times. Mark Harrison took the photo.

2011311974The Coast Guard’s top brass landed in Seattle on Wednesday to announce the refitting of an old icebreaker, along with the need to act in the face of global climate change.

Standing on the deck of the cutter Polar Star at the U.S. Coast Guard base on Pier 36, Adm. Thad Allen described the ship’s $62 million facelift as well as what he said was "a clarion call for action regarding ocean policy, regarding climate change and regarding what’s going on in our Arctic." [Read more]

Coast Guard: Icebreaker to be reactivated by 2013

By George Tibbits of the Associated Press.

SEATTLE — After a $62 million overhaul, the Coast Guard will have its third icebeaker back in service in 2013, filling a critical need as the fleet takes on new responsibilities, the commandant of the service said Wednesday.

Adm. Thad Allen said that within weeks, the icebreaker Polar Star will travel the few hundred yards between its berth at Seattle’s Coast Guard station to Todd Pacific Shipyards, where it will undergo the 2 1/2-year restoration.

The work is aimed at keeping the ship operational for another seven or eight years. Before then, Allen said, the country needs to decide whether to build a new generation of icebreakers capable of handling expanded missions and situations well into mid-century.

In Arctic and Antarctic waters, "the only surface presence this country has are the three icebreakers operated by the Coast Guard," Allen said. [Read more]

Admiral Thad Allen announces reactivation of Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star

Multimedia release by the USCG 13th District Public Affairs team.

SEATTLE – The Commandant of the Coast Guard, Admiral Thad Allen, announced the reactivation of the Cutter Polar Star, one of the nation’s two Polar Class icebreakers Wednesday.

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"The immediate salutary effect in this region will be 250 new jobs and the knowledge that the Coast Guard will be taking a ship that has not been used in a long time and putting it back into service," said Allen.

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The Coast Guard is the principal federal maritime enforcement agency in the Arctic with broad safety, security and stewardship missions.The scope of Coast Guard operations in the Arctic is expanding.

The Coast Guard is the only federal  agency currently operating surface vessels, two powerful icebreakers, capable of asserting a U.S. sovereign presence in Arctic ice covered waters.

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Admiral Allen visits Seattle to reactivate USCGC Polar Star

by Tim Flanagan on March 10, 2010

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I attended today’s formal announcement of the reactivation of USCGC Polar Star, one of three icebreakers (along with Healy and Polar Sea) homeported in Seattle.

Admiral Thad Allen, US Coast Guard Commandant, visited Seattle to make the formal announcement. I won’t try to duplicate the coverage that the conventional news sources will provide, but I would like to add my own perspective:

I had met some of the “caretaker” crew of Polar Star last spring, and my impression then was that this small, dedicated crew has been doing their best to keep this vessel as ship-shape as possible with very limited resources. So it was no surprise that I observed lots of smiles among those faces today.

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Here’s a picture of the crew attending the announcement. Seriously, this is MOST of the Polar Star’s current crew! You can really appreciate that they’ve had their work cut out for them, and today’s announcement must feel like a kind of reward; an acknowledgement that all that work has not been in vain.

More coverage of today’s event as it comes in from other sources. But I do want to share one highlight from the question-and-answer period that followed the announcement:

Reporter: “So are you operating from the standpoint that climate change is real?”

Admiral Allen: “I’m not a scientist, so I’m agnostic on the science. But I do know that there’s water where there didn’t used to be, and I’m responsible for it.”

Nice.

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Gray whale lingers in Budd Inlet near Olympia

March 10, 2010

John Dodge has the story in the Olympian:
A single gray whale was spotted in lower Budd Inlet Wednesday for the third day in a row, according to Cascadia Research office manager and researcher Lisa Schlender.
"It’s still poking around Budd Inlet," Schlender said. "It’s still surfacing and it still has a strong blow."
Read more

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Port of Friday Harbor plans a memorable 60th birthday; Jensen’s Shipyard celebrates its 100th

March 10, 2010

This announcement appears in the San Juan Journal:
The Port of Friday Harbor celebrates its 60th anniversary this spring and summer with tall ship visits, a fly-in, and a beach party.
The celebration comes on the heels of the town’s centennial.
[San Juan Journal file photo]
The fun begins the last week of [...]

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Commissioner opposes Port Townsend-to-Seattle ferry; fears creation of bedroom community

March 10, 2010

[The Port of Kingston's newly purchased 149-passenger ferry, Spirit, prepares to dock in the Port of Port Townsend Boat Haven marina recently. -- Photo by Jeff Chew/Peninsula Daily News]

Jeff Chew has the story in the Peninsula Daily News:
PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson County Commissioner Phil Johnson became the first elected [...]

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Looking for a captain’s job? Ride the Duck!

March 10, 2010

Thanks to Captain Richard Rodriguez for this item from the Seattle Weekly:

The only thing worse than trying to find a job is trying to find a job during a recession. To that end, we present Wanted: A weekly look at the weirdest ways to pay the bills in Twenty-Ten.
The Job: Duck Captain for Ride the [...]

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A new shake-up for shipping from Asia: The warming Arctic Ocean

March 9, 2010

Jon Talton has this article at the Seattle Times:
The challenges facing the ports of Seattle and Tacoma can be neatly listed:

The trade collapse from the Great Recession;
The looming opening of wider Panama and Suez canals, allowing much Asian cargo to bypass the West Coast;
Prince Rupert, a day’s sailing distance closer to Asia, and [...]

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Ecology and Coast Guard responding to diesel spill at Port Orchard marina

March 9, 2010

OLYMPIA – The state Department of Ecology (Ecology), U.S. Coast Guard, The Boat Company and NRC-Environmental Services are responding to a diesel fuel spill at the Port Orchard Railway Marina in Port Orchard.
An initial estimate of 100 gallons of fuel spilled from the Mist Cove, a private, 146-foot commercial passenger vessel moored at the marina. [...]

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Port defends Bellingham’s NOAA bid against attack by Oregon’s Wyden

March 9, 2010

JOHN STARK has the story in the BELLINGHAM HERALD:
An Oregon Senator’s accusations about environmental problems on the Bellingham waterfront are off the mark, Port of Bellingham Environmental Director Mike Stoner said Tuesday, March 9.
Stoner was responding to U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden’s contention that environmental issues should disqualify Bellingham as a potential site for the National [...]

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DNR to Restore one of the last natural beaches on Lake Union

March 9, 2010

DNR’s By Ear to the Ground blog has this:

DNR in partnership with The Seattle Parks Foundation and Friends of Waterway 18, will restore Northlake Beach at Waterway 18—one of the last natural beaches remaining on Lake Union. The restoration is an effort to preserve the natural shoreline environment of the beach to provide better habitat [...]

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Shipwreck tale as full of holes as sailor’s boat

March 9, 2010

Deborah Bach has the story at Three Sheets Northwest:
Questions about the shipwrecked sailor rescued on Vancouver Island last week are no closer to be answered after the man was released from Canadian custody and mysteriously returned to the U.S.
Keith Carver was arrested by RCMP officers at a hospital in Port McNeill, B.C., on Friday, where [...]

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Gray whale spends day in Budd Inlet

March 9, 2010

John Dodge has the story in the Olympian:
OLYMPIA – A gray whale paid a visit to lower Budd Inlet Monday, milling around in the middle of the channel for much of the day.
Several residents reported seeing the whale from land, including Lisa Schlender, office manager and researcher at Cascadia Research, an Olympia-based whale research group.
“It [...]

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Log-export freighter is first in decade to pick up load in Port Angeles

March 9, 2010

Longshoremen stand atop log rafts and sit inside crane cabins while loading logs into the cargo hold of the ship Koombana Bay in Port Angeles Harbor on Monday. It is the first log ship to be loaded in Port Angeles since the year 2000. — Photo by Chris Tucker/Peninsula [...]

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Stillaguamish Tribe’s efforts to clean up Port Susan

March 8, 2010

KING 5 environmental reporter Gary Chittim reported on the reopening of shellfish beds in Port Susan, thanks to the efforts of the Stillaguamish Tribe.

KING 5’s Web site

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The reason the Eldorado sank: ‘It’s just a weird one. It doesn’t normally do that’

March 8, 2010

Top photo: Eldorado owner Richard Olin and the Ecology Department’s Carl Anderson confer at the site of the boat’s raising. Second photo: The Eldorado is raised using a crane and inflatable bags. Third photo: Salvage crew begin pumping water from the boat. Bottom photo: Water is removed from the Eldorado so [...]

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Roland Anderson cowrites a book on one of his life’s obsession: the giant Pacific octopus

March 8, 2010

I can’t hardly believe that Richard Rodriguez hasn’t already posted a link to this article by Erik Lacitis in the Seattle Times. Ken Lambert took the photo of Mr. Anderson.
How it started that Roland Anderson became one of the world’s top experts on the giant Pacific octopus — the largest octopus in the world, and [...]

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Daffodil tradition a tribute to beloved photographer

March 8, 2010

Deborah Bach has the story over at Three Sheets Northwest":
[Photo courtesy of Gerry Henson: Sailor and photographer Kelly O'Neil Henson, with her golden retriever Whidbey, was a fixture in the Northwest sailing community.]
The daffodils tossed into the waters around Blakely Rock Saturday were like the person they signified—sunny, optimistic, [...]

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Anatomy of a sailboat grounding

March 8, 2010

Until Captain Richard Rodriguez starts reporting on the 2010 Vessel Assist season over at his BitterEnd blog, this post by Marty McOmber at Three Sheets Northwest will have to satisfy our appetite for schadenfreude:
Three Sheets Northwest was on hand to shoot a few pictures for a story we were writing on the 2010 Blakely Rock [...]

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Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star to be reactivated

March 8, 2010

Coast Guard News has this item:
SEATTLE — Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, Commandant, will announce the reactivation of the Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star on Wednesday March 10.  The Polar Star is a Coast Guard Heavy Icebreaker. Commissioned in 1976, the ship was built by Lockheed Shipbuilding and Construction Company of Seattle, Washington along [...]

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Salmon net pen may mean more catches for anglers by 2011

March 7, 2010

Mark Yuasa has the story in the Seattle Times. The photo—of a coho salmon smolt being transferred from Gorst Hatchery to the Suquamish Tribe’s net pen near Agate Pass—is by Tiffany Royal of the NW Indian Fisheries Commission.

The Central Puget Sound area could see a boost in catches by the 2011 fall fishing season, thanks [...]

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