Don’t know anything about what happened yet other than it is an AML barge and that it is flooding in the stern.
Did find this to share
Was not being towed by a Western tug but by Dunlap towing. Obviously, the weather at the time the photo was taken looks pretty benign and as long as the flooding is not progressing beyond those compartments in the stern of the barge, the master of the Malolo should be able to get the barge to Shearwater nextdoor to Bella Bella. Then comes getting divers under it to find and hopefully patch the bottom then to dewater the flooded compartments. Hopefully they will not be forced to transship all those conex boxes onto another barge. That could take some time to accomplish.
Apparently this thread isn’t much interest here but this morning found this story with additional photos of the barge
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17kGeRXVj5/?mibextid=oFDknk
2 Likes
If you’re a vessel operator using the Inside Passage this is very bad news. Politically speaking, that area is the most sensitive area of the entire IP. Most American vessels using the B.C. portion of the IP do so using a pilotage waiver.
A grounding in this area in 2017 put the whole program in peril, with threats from the Heiltsuk Nation to shut it down, because of the threat of groundings polluting their fishing and shell-fishing. Now?
You don’t have to leak one drop of oil for this to be a huge mess.
7 Likes
I was about to post something with the exact same sentiment. Oil or not, these incidents will continue to put strain on the pilotage waiver program for American vessels traversing the IP. Kirby nearly blew it for everyone last time. The broader political situation between the US and Canada isn’t helping either.
2 Likes
Is it individual US-flag vessels that is exempt for pilotage, or individual Masters/Mates?
So, no Bahamas-style wrecker plunder on this barge. Canadians are nicer, eh? 
Hoping for a no-pollution solution!
3 Likes
The company gets the waiver after satisfying rules having to do with bridge equipment, watch standing, and experience of officers.
BTW the same program applies to Canadian vessels entering WA-state waters. So any draconian action taken by one side re: the program will be inflicted on the other side.
2 Likes
The Norwegian system for pilot exemption applies to individual, regardless of nationality of the person, or which flag the vessel is flying:
In WA, it’s not a “program” per se such as it is with the PPA.
Canadian vessels trading on the west coast are specifically exempted from WA state pilotage by RCW 88.16.070. That is a legal statute that can’t be changed by the Board of Pilotage Commissioners. It would need to be done legislatively, which is most likely a much higher burden than the PPA discontinuing its waiver program.
The WA BPC can only grant case by case waivers to foreign yachts (Canada is automatically exempt) and small passenger vessels, provided they only operate in Puget Sound and lower BC with either American or Canadian crews (Victoria Clipper being the prime example).
2 Likes
Very large barge (~700teu), small tug (~30m), tight channels. (hopefully more rules than tug/barge combos in Biscayne Bay!) I admit that I have never really thought about the IP in the past, never been there, but it seems to be a popular area for problems…
Help arrives for massive fuel-laden barge stranded near Bella Bella, B.C. | CBC News
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/nathan-e-stewart-spill-2016-heiltsuk-nation-sentencing-1.5213264
Now if it was a ~700teu ship in someone else’s internal waters - very different rules….
My question is where did the barge strike bottom? Fitz Hugh Sound where the tug and barge were transitting is quite wide and free of dangers unless the watch on the tug got far too close to the western side of it as they approached the turn into Lama Pass. If it ends up being blatant human error like with the grounding of the NATHAN E. STEWART, then it will be game over for US vessels transitting the Inside. You have to know that nobody in BC wants Americans transitting their waters because they don’t make diddly from those companies using the route. Now may come transit fees levied to use the Inside to be supposedly used for coastal protection but which really will end up in the pockets of BC’s “First Nations”.
1 Like
Plying a trade with a 700 TEU barge shows the distortion caused by regulation and labour laws. A geared TEU feeder ship would offer a speedier and more seaworthy answer and these days be more environmentally friendly.
2 Likes
But then such a ship would require a 14 to 17 man crew as opposed to the 6 manning the MALOLO.
Up until the early 70’s Alaska Steam was still running their venerable Knotships for their cargo services between Seattle and Alaska including SE but very quickly all freight services went tug and barge. Smaller crews needed and lower capital costs so no incentive left to run a self propelled ship even if it could turn around faster.
2 Likes
A 900 TEU 9800 DWT vessel with 90 reefer connections running with a shaft generator and 6000kW is specified with accommodation for 15 but should run with 12. The service speed at design draft is 17 knots.
If the inner route is closed tug and barge operation becomes more difficult.
What involvement do the tug crew have in loading and discharging the barge?
I can see the savings a tug and barge make in capital cost but there seem to be other costs.
3 Likes
You seem to suggest N-bound. From the articles I’ve read, and Malolo details on MarTrfc, they were south bound to Seattle. Malolo is in Fisher Channel - so they had done Lama Pass etc.
1 Like
In reply to several posters that touch on this:
1 Like
In the reporting both bound to and from Alaska is stated so the fact that there are vehicles being transported per the photos tells me it was headed to Alaska when this occurred but either way it is a black eye casualty which gives those who want US vessels gone from the Inside more ammunition to use in Victoria and Ottawa.
Regardless of any existing treaties which exist, the BC government can enact regulations which may well effect the viability of US vessels to transit the route. All one needs to do is look at how the NATHAN E. STEWART turned everything on its head?
They are Canadian controlled waters and they will get the last word.
1 Like
Casualties from Titanic (SOLAS) to Exxon Valdez & Erika (double hulls & MARPOL) changed the rules. More barge incidents like this will eventually do the same for I.P.
2 Likes