HMCS Halifax

The Canadian patrol frigate HMC HALIFAX is exercising in and out of Halifax harbour. She is shown here taking a turn around George's Island and heading outbound again.

In the foreground is the new waterfront wharf at the foot of Salter Street. Construction should be complete in time for the visit of the Tall Ships in July.

Herring Seiners

After unloading their catch Monday, the herring seiners remained in port over night, tied up in the area of the Tall Ships Quay, at the foot of Morris Street. LEROY AND BARRY NO.II (2)is typical of the medium sized steel seiners.

The fleet consists of SILVER HARVESTER I, TASHA MARIE, LADY MELISSA, MORNING STAR, SEALIFE II and ISLAND PRIDE.

It's a Ford?

The yacht UNITY at Queen's Wharf. Its owner is reported to be Elena Ford, the great great grandaughter of Henry Ford.

CBC Information Morning/ Harbour Watcher

As you know I am CBC Information Morning's Harbour Watcher in Halifax.
My usual spot has been pre-empted this week due to ongoing coverage of the provincial election. I usually appear at 6:40 am on alternate Tuesdays to report on something of interest in Halifax Harbour. This week the Tuesday Information Morning broadcast will be from a remote location, and thus Don Connolly will not be in the studio for our usual session.
I will be on next week instead.
I am not sure if I will return the following week to get back on the usual schedule or if it will be two weeks later. We will see.
So what was I going to talk about tomorrow?

Topic #1 - the herring seiner fleet is back. Every year the herring fleet follows the migratory fish as they work their way up the coast. This week the fish are close enough to Halifax, to make Halifax the base for the seiners. The boats fish at night and come into port in the morning to unload to tanker trucks. The fish are pumped out of the boats into the trucks, and then driven away to the herring plants in southwestern Nova Scotia or New Brunswick.
The boats catch the fish in a purse seine, a large circular net, which is set around the fish and drawn close to gather the fish in. Each boat is equipped with a seine skiff, that takes one end of the net out and after coralling the fish, brings the end of the net back to the boat. The top and bottom of the net are drawn in - forming a purse shaped bag - which is lifted onto the boat. The fish are emptied out into the boat's fish hold.
The larger seiners are fitted with pumps and conveyors to transfer the fish to trucks, and the smaller seiners rely on mobile shore based pumps.
Herring is a versatile fish - their scales are used in paint, nail polish, and other finishes, their roe is highly valued in Japan for food and their carcasses are rendered for feed.

Topic#2 - the yacht UNITY is in port again for a visit. The luxurious 130 footer has been in port several times over the years, usually to coincide with a concert in Halifax (such as Elton John last year and Cirque de Soleil this year.)
Most of these large yachts are owned anonymously, to protect the privacy of their owners. This one one however is widely known to belong to Elena Ford, the great great gandaughter of Henry Ford. The yacht is based in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, and after wintering in Florida, makes the trek to the Great Lakes each summer. It is tied up at Queen's wharf, just north of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.

Topic#3 - shipping business. We have been following the ups and downs of the world shipping business. This week the charter rates for bulk carriers continue to rise, and there have also been many purchases of these ships, mostly by Chinese owners. China seems to be stockpiling bulk commodities such as iron ore and coal, while the prices are low.
Tanker owners are still having a hard time, with many large tankers accepting charter rates that are below operating costs. This at least gives the owners some cash flow, and is preferrable to laying up the ships. China is importing large quantities of crude oil, but the tanker market is still quite depressed.
Ship scrapping continues apace despite worries about new environmental regulations, which may prevent shipbreakers from operating on open beaches. The new regs may require them to work in enclosed docks, which would put the Indian and Pakistani breakers out of business.
Container ships are having the hardest times, with more than 10% of the world's fleet tied up for lack of work. Container lines are returning chartered ships to their owners, and there is no alternative but to put the ships in layup. The layup fleet represents 1.3 million TEUs of capacity, and consists of more than 500 ships at last count. Even though many older ships are going to the scrap yard, new ships are still being delivered and owners are cutting back capacity to meet reduced demand. Until the demand for consumer goods in the US and Europe increases, the container business will remain depressed.
Several shipping companies are in dire financial straits and many owners of tankers, container ships and bulk carriers are cancelling new build orders, and paying huge penalties. Shipyards, particularly in the west, including eastern Europe, but also Korea are facing major cutbacks in their order books.

Stay tuned!

Infomation Morning is aired on CBC Radio 1, 90.5FM in Halifax, but is also live streamed to the internet. www.cbc.ca/informationmorningns

RIG ON THE MOVE (2)

Another view of ROWAN GORILLA III with her flotilla of tugs.

RIG ON THE MOVE

After a full day's delay due to fog, ROWAN GORILLA III got underway this morning for Sable Island and the Deep Panuke gas field. It took a lot of horsepower to get the platform moving, with VENTURE SEA (12,280 bhp) , HEBRON SEA (8,500 bhp) and PANUKE SEA (7,200 bhp) towing and the harbour tugs POINT HALIFAX (4,200bhp) and SVITZER BEDFORD (5,000 bhp) providing braking and steering.

SEAJACKS KRAKEN was also supposed to sail today, but she's still at anchor with technicians working on various chores.

FOG SEASON

One of the delights of living in Halifax is fog season. Every year about this time, and often extending into July, fog descends upon Halifax. This wonderful atmsopheric phenomenon brings with it the greenest of grass and the amplified transmission of noise.
And so it is that ships arriving in fog emit their distinctive signals. Big ships - big deep sounds at regular intervals as they wend their way into port. Smaller ships - more shrill and higher pitched. (Missing of course is the George's Island fog signal, turned off a few years ago because hotel guests were deprived of sleep.)
These sounds do not resemble the steam powered signals still, strangley, dubbed into movies long after the death of steam, but are in fact air horns - cousins of the air horns on trucks and railway locomotives. There are horm afficionados who can identify the horn manufacturer by the sound they make and there are even some web sites devoted to this arcana.
As I wrtite this fog has "descended" once again and the big tanker HEATHER KNUTSEN can be heard on her way in to Imperial oil, with her deep, slightly asthmatic, fog signal booming away.
Earlier in the evening the fog amplified the horn of another ship. For over half an hour from about 7:10 to 7:40 she constantly repeated seven short and one long blast in quick succesion. Telephone lines lit up and VHF radios crackled with concerned citizens and knowledgeable mariners, wondering what was going on, for this is the signal for fire aboard ship.
Eventually the coastal tanker ALGOSCOTIA fessed up as the culprit. While conducting a regular fire drill, the signal button apparently stuck in the ON position and would not stop! It took most of the half hour for the electrician to find the circuit and disable the horn.
The fog transmitted the sound quite nicely to the south end of the Halifax peninsula. But the fog also concealed the source, as it was impossible to see any ships from land. ALGOSCOTIA was tied up at the Imperial Oil, Esso refinery in Dartmouth, but she sounded as if she was right in the backyard.
Harbour traffic carries on, fog or not, day and night, and the fog horns are (usually) a gentle and comforting reminder of our connection to the sea.