Proctor in Admiralty

Monitoring Email Usage

I have been terribly delinquent in posting and I am trying to be better but there never seems to be the time - I am therefore renewing my offer to anyone who wishes to post on maritime law and technology - please let me know as I would be pleased to offer up some space here for guest bloggers.

A few weeks ago, I was speaking with my friend Irene Zanetos regarding my blog, and she sent me a link to an interesting article in Information Week magazine.  It surrounds the well known and often ignored fact that as we all type more and more emails, the amount of documentary evidence in any particular matter grows and grows.  The article discusses good document retention policies and tools/software for managing, archiving and locating email, plus the need to think before committing something in writing - something not enough of us do.

Thanks Irene for the heads-up and I will try to be better about posting more often!

Port Security - Installation of Radiation Monitors

US  Customs and  Border Protection issued a press release advising that the Port of Honolulu has installed a Radiation Portal Monitor to screen vehicles and cargo departing from Pier 1 for radiation.  Use of radiation monitors is part of an ongoing effort to detect and prevent the transportation of  nuclear devices, dirty bombs and other items that could be used in terrorist attacks.

 

Technology finds monster waves beyond estimates of computer models

Researchers aboard the RRS DISCOVERY experienced waves of up to 95 feet in height - the biggest waves ever recorded.  The scientists believe these waves are created by resonance where a storm builds energy into waves over the hours rather than by strong winds which are traditionally thought of the source for large waves.  You can read more about the findings of British National Oceanographic Center researchers aboard the RRS DISCOVERY here.

From an industry perspective, design of vessels able to withstand large waves may need to be reconsidered in the future   As a final note, waves of up to 95 feet give new meaning to so called heavy weather or force majure defenses.  It will be interesting to see the impact of this data on the maritime industry.

What happened to Equasis?

Update to post below: Equasis is back on line.  According to the US Coast Guard, Equasis was having a dispute with its hosting company.  It appears to be resolved and most importantly, Equasis is back online.  I also learned that the popularity of the service is growing all of the time.  I will try to get some statistics on this to report back.

What happened to Equasis, the online database of more that 7500 vessels around the world?  That is the question on the mind of many and I note the comments posted to my orignal entry on Equasis back in May, 2005.  That post is here. 

So far, I haven't been able to find out.  As many of you know, the website is down and they are not answering the telephone in the Equasis head office in Paris - I have called numerous times. 

I am trying to get an update from the US Coast Guard, one of the sponsors of the Equasis project and I will update all of you as soon as I have more information.

For those interested Equasis was an acronym for the European Quality Shipping Information System - I didn't know that until today!

Until more information is available,  if anyone knows of an alternate source of that great data available previously available on Equasis.org, please post a comment here. 

Video Cameras at the Port of Oakland

More on the Port Security Front:

The Port of Oakland is using funds from a $2.4 mil. Federal grant to outfit its cranes with 60 video cameras to be monitored 24 hours per day as part of its security plan. 

See this article in the Alameda Times-Star for more details.

Public/Private Project on Port Security

As promised, I will start to post about port security measures and programs utilizing new and emerging technology to help help reduce the increasingly publicized venerable nature of our nation's ports.

First up is a Public/Private initiative called Operation Safe Commerce. A summary of the program is provided by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is also one of the participants:

Operation Safe Commerce (OSC), is a federally funded program that will conduct vulnerability assessments of sample supply chains and serve as a test-bed for new business processes and security technologies to increase the security of container shipments -- from the point of origin throughout the supply chain to the point of destination. The ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach, New York/New Jersey and Tacoma/Seattle -- the nation's top three major load centers -- will work with private and public entities to identify supply chain vulnerabilities and develop improved methods and technologies to ensure the security of cargo entering and leaving the United States.

Those technologies and processes that prove successful and cost efficient under the OSC initiative will then be recommended for implementation throughout the maritime industry.

Although this program began in 2003, its goal of providing a testing ground for methods and technologies to improve security is only starting to be realized.  Hopefully, we will see some best practices and technology initiatives come out of this program.

DP World Political Chaos

How does a maritime legal blogger not jump in on the whole Dubai Ports World controversy? - apparently I can't and in fact I am sorry it has taken me this long but I have stood by the sidelines watching in amazement at the "information" being reported in the traditional news, through statements by our elected officials and of course in blogs. Frankly, I am shocked at how out of control this whole thing has gotten and over something that should not be a big deal.

Essentially P&O Ports and DP World are stevedores and terminal operators of terminals around the world including in the United States.   Security at US terminals is governed by individual Facility Security Plans approved by the US Coast Guard and are the responsibility of the terminal owner and operator. The Terminals in question in the DP World takeover of P&O Ports in the US include more than 20 terminals in the US including terminals owned by the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey the Port of Miami, Miami Dade County and the Maryland Port Administration among others. These governmental entities along with the terminal operator are responsible for the port security plans. The regulations can be found here.

Suggesting the a takeover of P&O Ports by DP World would create a security risk is just silly and is clearly being done for political purposes which in no way will result in greater security at our nations ports.

Instead of spending significant airtime on this political debate which has resulted in the odd pairings of George Bush and Jimmy Carter on the same side with Barbara Boxer and Bill Frist on the other, it would be more fruitful to spend time raising consciousness about the venerability of our nation's ports - regardless of the operator in place there.

I have made mention of maritime security technology in the past but I will try to post about specific examples and available equipment over the next few days to do my part in raising the real issue here.

Legal tech, tips and training guru

My friend Adriana Linares is blogging about Legal Technology tips at I Heart Tech.  I have known Adriana since she consulted and trained at my old law firm, and helped bring us from a world of Wordperfect and Groupwise to the Microsoft Office suite.

She is smart, talented and cute - not to mention, she knows her way around a computer.

Her posts have included useful tidbits including, free software for syncing files across multiple computers - here and a free desktop viewing tool, here.

Add her feed, you will not be disappointed.

By the way, thanks to Tom Mighell at Inter Alia, for bringing Adriana's blog to my attention!

Decision in the TRICOLOR Case

The US District Court for the Southern District of New York has issued an opinion as to the cause of the collision between the M/V KARIBA, a container vessel and the  M/V TRICOLOR, a car carrier which resulted in the sinking (with no loss of life) of the TRICOLOR in English Channel in December 2002.  In short, the Court found that the cause of the collision was solely the sudden turn of the KARIBA to starboard  in the close quarters of  a traffic separation scheme, to avoid a potential collision with the M/V CLARY which was tracking to be crossed by both the TRICOLOR and the KARIBA.

The opinion contains numerous references to the technological tools available to the Masters of the three vessels involved including ARPA, radio communications and fog signals,   Yet, despite all of the technology available, and perhaps because of the  misuse or non-use of those tools, human error raised its ugly head and this incident occurred.

Thanks  to Dennis Bryant and his Haight's Maritime Items for pointing out the issuance of this decision.

Wiki legal dictionary and encyclopedia

Thanks to Tom Mighell at Inter Alia, for pointing out Wex, a new collaborative legal dictionary/encyclopedia from the Cornell University Law School Legal Information Institute, in and of itself, one of the greatest free legal research tools available.

As the folks at Cornell describe it, Wex is:

an ambitious effort to construct a collaboratively-created, public-access law dictionary and encyclopedia. It is sponsored and hosted by the Legal Information Institute at the Cornell Law School. Much of the material that appears in Wex was originally developed for the LII's "Law about..." pages, to which Wex is the successor.

As Mighell points out, the contents are currently small, but this has the potential to become a great resource to the legal community.  The site is not open to editing by the public, as Wikipedia is, but they are looking for editors.

I tried out a few different searches, and got this nice summary under Admiralty.