Hawaii Ocean Industry Magazine Archives

October - November 2001

Coast Guard Tightens Hawaii Port Security

Harbor Contamination Assesment Underway

Leases Pending for Commercial Fishing Village

Hawaii's Longliners: Where Are They Now?

Salutes

Terry O'Halloran, vice president of business development for Atlantis Adventures, has assumed responsibilities to oversee and manage Navatek Cruises on an interim basis, following the departure of Navatek President Valerie King. O'Halloran joined Atlantis Reef Divers in 1990, then transferred to Atlantis Submarines in 1993. He assumed his current position as vice president in 1996. Atlantis Adventures acquired Navatek Cruises in April 2000.

As part of its ongoing management development program, Matson Navigation Company announced new executive assignments. Branton B. "Bal" Dreyfus will transfer from Honolulu to San Francisco to work on special projects related to growing the earnings base of the company. Dreyfus has been vice president, area manager, Hawaii and Guam, since 1998. He joined Matson in 1993 as general manager, sales, mainland.

Richard S. Bliss returns to Hawaii to succeed Dreyfus as vice president, Hawaii and Guam, and will transfer from Seattle to Honolulu. Bliss has been vice president, area manager, Pacific Northwest, since 1998 and was vice president, area manager, Hawaii and Guam from 1995 to 1998.

Robert L. Dawdy will succeed Bliss as vice president, area manager, Pacific Northwest, and will transfer from San Francisco to Seattle. Dawdy has been vice president, West Coast operations since 1995. Prior to that he served as vice president, area manager, Hawaii, from 1989 to 1995.

Randy Cates of Cates International is one of the recipients of City Bank's 2001 TIGR Awards, which recognize leadership in emerging growth industries in Hawaii. Cates International is establishing a commercial open-ocean aquaculture venture off Oahu's Leeward Coast. The Targeted Industry Growth Report (TIGR) appears monthly in Hawaii Business magazine.

News Briefs

CSX launches "container availability" calculator

CSX Lines now provides "Just in Time" data on the Internet that will save money for its customers shipping containers to Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Through the company's NetCaptain e-business services, www.csxlines.com, customers are able to estimate container availability online, in real time.

"With this new container availability calculator, our shippers can now reduce by several hours the amount of time truck drivers sit at the port of discharge waiting to pick up containers, which enables them to plan in advance both their trucking and warehousing operations," said Cathy Pitt, CSX Lines e-business product manager.

To achieve "Just in Time" data, CSX Lines e-business group has integrated two pieces of data: the location of the container on the vessel and the hatch discharge sequences from the vessel planners. The system reads this data against the stowage location of the cargo and is able to provide, to the minute and hour, accurate cargo availability to the shipper via the NetCaptain portal. This data enables customers to more efficiently manage loads that have urgent delivery time requirements.

Guide to coastal issues available

The federal government has released a resource book on coastal environments to help communities implement coastal management programs.

Coastal Challenges: A Guide to Coastal and Marine Issues,
published by Coastal America, a federal multiagency partnership, helps people learn about and better understand challenges and benefits of America's coastal environments. The guide covers major coastal and marine issues such as population, pollution, hypoxic waters, habitat loss, oil spills and global climate change. It also presents key laws and associated programs and highlights the importance of coastal and marine resources, including plant and animal species, energy and mineral resources, wetlands, commercial and recreational uses, shipping, ports and harbors, and waste disposal.

Publications may be ordered via the Superintendent of Documents Online Bookstore at http://bookstore.gpo.gov or by phone (toll-free 866-512-1800 or 202-512-1800 in DC area). The cost is $12 ($15 international orders) and includes shipping and handling.

Matson Intermodal ranked first

Matson Intermodal System, Inc. was ranked as the number one intermodal marketing company (IMC) in Logistics magazine's 18th annual Quest for Quality readers' survey.

More than 3,000 readers - all of who buy transportation or third-party services - responded to this year's questionnaire, which asked for input in five key areas vital to logistics excellence: on-time performance, value, information technology, customer service, and equipment and operations. Matson Intermodal received the highest performance scores for an IMC in all five service areas.

Young Bros., HTB expand community giving

Young Brothers, Ltd. and Hawaiian Tug & Barge have formed community advisory boards on three islands to expand the company's community giving.

The companies established annual funds to provide financial contributions to deserving 501(c)3 charitable organizations, up to $1,000 per organization. Projects that fall into the areas of health, education, civic and community service, youth activities, cultural enrichment, the environment and special community projects are eligible to apply for grants.

Applications are available via the Internet at www.htbyb.com.

Coast Guard Tightens Hawaii Port Security

Following the recent terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, DC, the U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Area has established Naval Vessel Protection Zones, which will be in effect to June 15, 2002. The agency also announced it will continue to implement security zones for incoming cruise ships until March 19, 2002.
Three heavily armed Coast Guard cutters homeported in Hawaii are enforcing security zones for offshore moorings and anchorages of cruise ships and for Honolulu International Airport's reef runway.
The Coast Guard also is working to ensure heightened security at all large passenger vessel terminals. Each cruise ship departing their port of origin will be required to provide the Coast Guard with a manifest of its passengers.

Naval Protection Zones

The Naval Vessel Protection Zones have been established by temporary final rule and provide for the regulation of vessel traffic in the vicinity of U.S. naval vessels in the navigable waters of the United States. The regulations are issued under the authority contained in 14 United States Code 91.
The following notable details are excerpted from the temporary regulation:

All vessels within 500 yards of a U.S. naval vessel must operate at the minimum speed necessary to maintain a safe course and proceed as directed by an official patrol.
Vessels are not allowed within 100 yards of a U.S. naval vessel, unless authorized by the official patrol.
Vessels requesting to pass within 100 yards of a US. naval vessel must contact the official patrol on VHF-FM channel 16.

It is anticipated that commercial vessels anchored in a designated anchorage area may be permitted to remain at anchor within 100 yards of passing naval vessels.

Though restrictive in nature, the effects of the temporary regulation should not prove to be significant because the protection zones are limited in size and the official patrol may allow access to the zone, according to the Coast Guard. Additionally, the naval vessel protection zones will affect a given location for a limited time while the vessel is in transit, along with notifications made by the Coast Guard so mariners can make adjustments.

Violation of these regulations may be punishable as a felony, and may result in vessel seizures or other penalties against the offending vessel.

Harbor Contamination Assessment Underway

by Mele Pochereva

A survey of subsurface petroleum contamination in the Iwilei area of Honolulu Harbor, launched in early September, should be completed by mid to late October, according to the Hawaii Department of Health. Then, the 130 soil samples drilled from the area between Piers 24 and 38 will be analyzed so that a cleanup plan can be developed.

The survey is just the first increment of what is expected to be a long-term, multi-million-dollar effort to assess and remove oil contaminants from the Honolulu waterfront.

The Department of Health (DOH) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are overseeing the investigation, which is part of a voluntary cleanup agreement between 12 property owners and operators known as the Honolulu Harbor Participating Partners, or HHPP.

DOH first entered into a cleanup agreement with the state Department of Transportation and five other Honolulu Harbor property owners in February 1998. Since then, the HHPP has grown to 12 participants, including BHP Companies, Castle & Cooke (Dole Food Co. and Oahu Transport Co.), Chevron, City Mill Company, DIL Trust, the DOT-Harbors Division, Hawaiian Electric Company, Phillips Petroleum Company, Equilon Enterprises, Texaco Inc., Tosco Corporation and Unocal.

The group has agreed to pay the cost to clean up the waterfront from Fort Armstrong to Sand Island, a bill that could add up to millions of dollars over the coming years.

"This collaborative endeavor by this group should go a long way in reducing the potential risk posed by this contamination and allow harbor economic redevelopment to continue," said state Director of Health Dr. Bruce Anderson.

What is not known at this time is how the cleanup cost will be divided among the participants. It will be up to the group to determine who pays how much, says Gary Gill, DOH deputy director for environmental health. That's an area of potential legal conflict between the parties, Gill notes. The Iwilei project area comprises approximately 120 parcels, and multiple parties have owned or operated portions of the area during the past 60 to 100 years. Sorting out liability will be a "historical tangle," says Gill

Three "hot spots" under study

The investigation now underway is focused on three areas where oil releases are known to have occurred: Piers 24-29, the former site of Young Brothers' operations; Pier 32, formerly occupied by Pauley Petroleum; and Piers 35-38, where the state's Commercial Fishing Village is now under construction.

It is believed that leaks from storage tanks and pipelines and oil conveyed by drains and sewers over the past decades have contaminated the Honolulu Harbor area. Many pipelines have been abandoned that still may contain oil.

Significant subsurface oil contamination may be the result of former and current oil storage and transportation in the Iwilei area, while storms, groundwater flows, tidal fluctuations and physical barriers have resulted in discharges at various locations in the harbor at various times of the year.

Preventive measures

Since last February, repairs to sea walls and drains have been completed to prevent further oil leaks into the harbor. So far, the measures appear to be working, according to Gill. The next step, once the current survey is completed, is to locate and remove remaining pockets of subsurface oil from the area.

Under a separate voluntary agreement, yet to be finalized, current property users will be required to check pipelines and storage facilities to ensure that their operations are properly contained to prevent future leaks.

Cruise Ship Delivery Delayed

Northrop Grumman Corporation and American Classic Voyages Co. announced 12-month delays in the delivery dates of two new passenger ships for service in the Hawaiian Islands, following the settlement of business disputes in recent months. The new projected delivery dates are Feb. 1, 2004 for Ship I and Feb 1, 2005 for Ship II.

The price per ship also will be increased by $19 million from the original contract price of $440 million to cover the increased costs of the interior finishing package.

The agreement between the two companies has been endorsed by the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) with the support of U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta. The program to build the first cruise ships in the United States in 40 years, named Project America, is a pilot project to reinvigorate U.S-flag cruise ship construction and operation. MARAD has provided a $1.1 billion loan guarantee for the program.

American Classic has committed $42 million and Northrop Grumman has committed $44 million to acquire through 2005 a new issue of stock in AMCV's Project America subsidiary. The additional equity will help offset the price increases and associated costs for the delivery extensions, and will provide additional funding for Ships I and II. In addition to the equity committed as part of this agreement, AMCV has already committed $100 million to fund the construction of the two ships.

"We are extremely pleased to reach an amicable resolution," said Phil Calian, CEO of American Classic. "We look forward to having a state-of-the-art luxury cruise ship, built in an American shipyard, sailing the Hawaiian Islands in 2004. Despite the current challenging economic environment, American Classic believes that Hawaii is a fantastic growth opportunity for the company as the Hawaiian cruise market is in its infancy."

The 1,900-passenger ships, which will sail under AMCV's United States Line brand, are being built at Northrop Grumman's Ingalls Opera-tions in Pascagoula, Miss. More than 1,600 Ingalls Operations personnel are currently working full-time on the project. The design of the ships is virtually complete, and the first ship is one-third finished.

Leases Pending for Commercial Fishing Village

by Mele Pochereva

With a 32,000-square-foot multi-tenant building completed; a new 500-plus-foot concrete pier ready for use; roads, utilities and landscaping installed; and several major leases waiting for final signatures, the state's 16.5-acre Commercial Fishing Village at Piers 36-38 is poised for business.

However, several prospective tenants will not sign leases until an environmental survey and remediation of suspected subsurface petroleum contamination is completed (see story page 6). The fishing village has been planned for more than a decade as a place to consolidate the commercial fishing activities that are now scattered from Kewalo Basin to Honolulu Harbor.

United Fishing Agency and Pacific Ocean Producers both plan to build major stand-alone facilities at the village and have pending leases with the state Department of Transpor-tation. Several companies are considering leasing space in the multi-user building, according to the DOT.

Construction on the $14.6 million project began two years ago and was expected to be completed in late 2000.

Jim Cook, president of Pacific Ocean Producers, is optimistic that his company will sign a lease in the next few months and begin construction of its new facilities in the first quarter of 2002. Cook says his fishing supply company will spend around $2 million to build a new showroom, store and administrative offices that will occupy 20,000 square feet on the ground level and another 8,000 square feet on a second floor. The company's existing facilities at Pier 35 will be used for its ice supply business and cold storage.

United Fishing Agency plans a 15,000-20,000-square-foot facility to house its fish auction operations, which, along with other businesses, are being nudged from their Kewalo Basin location as part of the state's redevelopment of the Kakaako waterfront area.

The DOT says that Pacific Fishing Supply is interested in leasing 15,000 square feet in the multi-user building. Two other prospective tenants that were not named are waiting to sign leases until after the environmental studies are completed.

Lease rents in the multi-user building will be 45 cents per square foot per month plus common area maintenance amounting to approximately 11 cents per square foot per month.

Construction Facts

Pier 38 Improvements
Construction of new +/- 500-foot concrete pier for fishing vessel loading/offloading.
Contractor: Healy Tibbitts Builders, Inc.
Cost: $6,646,000
Completion: November 2001

Site Improvements
Demolition of existing structures; clearing and grading; site improvements, including utilities, roadways and landscaping.
Contractor: Goodfellow Bros., Ltd.
Cost: $4,064,000
Completion: October 2001

Multi-User Building
Construction of 90' x 360' multi-user building shell with surrounding roadway and utilities. Interior slabs and space buildout by individual tenants.
Contractor: QMC Corp.
Cost: $3,932,000
Completion: October 2001

Hawaii's Longliners: Where Are They Now?

by Mele Pochreva

A year after U.S. District Judge David Ezra banned Hawaii's longline fleet from swordfishing in Hawaiian waters, an estimated 80 or 90 boats out of a fleet of 125 remain in the Islands fishing for tuna.

The other three dozen or so have turned in their Hawaii longline permits and relocated to California, where they can continue the more lucrative swordfishing, according to Jim Cook of Pacific Ocean Producers who, along with partner Sean Martin own five longliners.

With California permits, these fishermen Ñ and a host of foreign longliners - frequent the same Hawaiian fishing grounds that are off-limits to Hawaii-based longliners. The banned area covers about 6.5 million square miles surrounding the Hawaiian Islands. Cook estimates that for every Hawaii longliner fishing tuna in the area, there are 17 non-Hawaii longliners fishing for tuna and swordfish. Unable to land their catch in Hawaii, they use high-seas freezer boats to keep it fresh during the long trips they must make to and from the middle of the Pacific.

"This is a very important fishery for Hawaii," says Cook. Without swordfishing, the value of the fish landed has dropped from an average of $55 million annually to about $30 million - a big loss for the Hawaii commercial fishing industry, he says.

In December 1999, Judge Ezra first imposed a ban on swordfishing within a 1.5 million square mile area north of Hawaii, following a lawsuit filed against the National Marine Fisheries Service by the Center for Marine Conservation and Turtle Island Restoration Network. The lawsuit was aimed at protecting several species of endangered sea turtles inhabiting the area. Unlike tuna fishing, which is not banned, swordfishing gear is run shallow, posing a greater risk of hooking sea turtles.

In August of last year, the banned area was expanded to the current 6.5 million square miles. Since that time, the NMFS has completed an environmental impact study of the fishery. The Hawaii Longline Association, in turn, has filed suit against the NMFS, hoping to get the agency to conduct a broad-based experimental fishery in an effort to mitigate the turtle catch. The goal would be to come up with new methodologies that would both reduce the turtle take and increase the take of target fish species.

Cook, who has coordinated the Longline Association's legal response to the ban during the last two years, suggests this information could be shared with foreign fishermen as a way to encourage more turtle-friendly fishing practices.

Local longline fleet has new addition

The first new longliner to be built in Hawaii in more than two decades is expected to be headed for tuna fishing grounds on November 1, following sea trials in early October.

The 72' x 19' whaleback longliner Kawika, owned by Vessel Management Associates, was built by Hawaiian Steelboat Building Inc., whose sole proprietor, Alex Jaqubenko, framed and plated the boat himself. It features an aluminum tophouse and shelter deck, carries 10,000 gallons of fuel and accommodates seven crew.

The only other large fishing boat built in Hawaii in recent years is the 78-foot, steel-hulled aku boat Nisei, designed and built in 1996 by Kewalo Shipyard.

Vessel Management Associates is owned by Sean Martin and Jim Cook.

Profile

Oceanic Imaging Consultants

"Lucky we live Hawaii!' they say, an "island paradise" in the middle of the largest ocean on the planet. Even though we may see that ocean every day, whether we surf in it, swim in it, fish in it, or perhaps just sail over it, we barely just scratch its surface. It is trite to say but true, that we know more about the backside of the moon than the depths of the oceans. Oceanic Imaging Consultants, Inc., a Honolulu-based company with offices in Manoa Valley, is doing something about that.

Oceanic Imaging Consultants, Inc. (OIC) was founded in 1993 by Dr. Thomas B. Reed IV as a spin-off of research done at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Reed received his bachelor's degree in geology from Harvard University in 1982 and earned his Ph. D in marine geology and geophysics at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1987. The company, which began with three employees, now has over 15 full time staff, plus agents on the mainland and across Europe and Asia. OIC has clients worldwide and has tripled its gross revenue in the last four years.

OIC develops software and systems that acquire and process data for seafloor mapping applications. The principals at OIC first got their feet wet with seafloor mapping data working with the SeaMARC II sidescan sonar and swath bathymetry system at the University of Hawaii in the early 1980s. That system produced simultaneous sonar imagery, much like an "acoustic air-photo" and a wide swath of bathymetry, mapping the contours of the features on the ocean floor over a swath 5 miles wide.

The chief users for such imagery and data were the geologists and geophysicists at UH and elsewhere, who were involved in mapping and interpreting volcanic activity and faulting, much like what we see today on the Big Island, but on the seafloor, 3 to 5 miles down. OIC got its start by developing and marketing a commercial software package to process such data, originally for university users, but then increasingly for commercial, military and government users who were looking to get away from manual charting to a faster, more automated way of making maps of waterways, harbors and routes for pipelines and telecommunication cables.

In 1994, OIC began work on a system to both acquire and process sonar data in real-time, largely alleviating the need for extensive and time-consuming processing of data after the survey is completed. This system, known as GeoDAS (Geophysical Data Acquisition Software), has become OIC's flagship product, and is currently used globally in commercial, industrial, military and academic seafloor surveys. With its ability to process the sonar data and display it to the user in real-time, GeoDAS does for the surveyors what a Polaroid camera does for any of us - instant pictures and instant gratification.

Along with processing sonar data in real-time, GeoDAS is also designed to create a high quality, geo-coded "picture" of the entire area of the seafloor surveyed, known as a mosaic. While the sonar data visible to the user at any one time provides a detailed, instant look at the seabed right beneath them, the mosaic provides a "big-picture" view of the surveyed area, and can be "dropped in" to a Geographic Information System (GIS) for inclusion in a report, analysis or electronic chart.

In the past, mosaics were constructed manually by cutting and pasting together hundreds of images from rolls of paper records. GeoDAS has simplified this method significantly. Now, mosaics can be made on-screen during the actual survey. Mosaics can also be printed, exported to other software programs, or merged with existing data for a more complete image. Ultimately, GeoDAS allows the user to "see" what is on the ocean bottom and where it is in the world.

OIC's clients include academic, commercial and governmental survey groups. Bob Ballard, the discoverer of the Titanic, recently used GeoDAS in his discovery and mapping of lost cities on the bottom of the Black Sea. On the U.S. Mainland, the Army Corps of Engineers is using GeoDAS to map waterways on the rivers in Philadelphia, New York, Delaware, Baltimore and New Orleans. In Europe, GeoDAS is engaged in projects ranging from searching for Viking shipwrecks in the Baltic to hunting for sunken treasure off the coast of England to clearing debris from the bottom of Aberdeen Harbor and the Port of London.

Closer to home, GeoDAS and OIC have been involved in sand deposit surveys off Waikiki and Windward Oahu, mapping coral reefs off Kaneohe, and defining cable-routes for fiber-optics telecommunication cables across the Pacific.

3-D ROVer

In 1998, Ocanic Imaging Consultants was awarded a contract by CEROS, (Hawaii's Center for Excellence in Research of Ocean Sciences) for the development of a real-time, 3-D virtual reality product that will allow the operator of any underwater vehicle (manned, un-manned or remotely operated vehicle (ROV)) to successfully maneuver in low to zero visibility conditions.

Using ROVer's Eye, the operator is able to "see" the surrounding seafloor terrain by "ensonifying" the terrain with sonar, just as a bat or dolphin would. ROVer's Eye then combines this real-time echo data with vehicle position data and displays the resulting "model" of the surroundings, providing a real-time, 3-D virtual picture of the seafloor and objects on it or above it, from the front, side, back, and bird's eye views. As the underwater vehicle moves, ROVer's "view" can be adjusted in real time using a joystick, mouse or keyboard control (just like a flight simulator or video game). ROVer can even add in a model of the vehicle, and any other man-made objects so the operators can effectively "see" themselves in relation to the terrain and other objects in the water, as an aid to navigation, and prevention of collisions.

OIC has delivered its second license for ROVer's Eye this summer to Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, but is always on the lookout for possible partners and applications here in Hawaii.

Predicting Tsunamis

by Priscilla Perez Billig

At 7 a.m. on April 1, 1946, a giant wave crashed over the sleepy coastal town of Hilo on the island of Hawaii. One hundred and fifty-nine people died. Hilo's near-destruction and the pursuant flooding of surrounding low-lying coastal areas totaled $23 million in damages.

This giant wall of water, called tsunami, began its journey 2,500 miles to the north in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. There, a 7.3 earthquake along a major fault line caused the sea floor to buckle, displacing millions of gallons of water and generating a tsunami traveling at speeds up to 600 mph across the Pacific.

Barely perceptible on the surface and stretching across the open sea for a hundred miles, these gently sloping waves traveled across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii in about five hours, slowing as they entered the shallow waters of Hilo Bay, compressing and growing in height. By the time they crashed onto shore, waves had reached heights of 25 feet. No warning system was in place.

Three years later, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) was created to provide warnings of tsunamis and assess their potential impact on the shores and coastal areas in the Pacific.

Since 1992, 10 major tsunamis have generated throughout the Pacific Basin, killing more than 4,000 in Alaska, Japan, and along the western coasts of the U.S. and South America.

PTWC geophysicists monitor data from tide gauges located at shorelines, piers, and harbors throughout the Pacific, as well as deepwater buoys near coastlines for disturbance associated with tsunamis. In the event of a tsunami, the PTWC staff compares the water-level records near the epicenter to those of past tsunamis and determines whether tsunami warnings should be issued to civil defense and disaster management agencies.

Kwok Fai Cheung, professor of ocean and resources engineering at the University of Hawaii, says this is too little information coming from too far away. In the event of a tsunamigenic earthquake in Alaska, they are trying to predict what will happen to Hawaii based on water-level records from 2,500 miles away. Because of the uncertainties, the predictions tend to be conservative.

With funding from Hawaii Sea Grant and Hawaii State Civil Defense, Cheung has recently developed a tsunami height forecast model that will add accuracy to this current warning system. Cheung's model uses the same water-level records used by PTWC, but takes the prediction one step further to provide the tsunami height at a location about 200 miles from Hawaii. The model also gives an assessment of the accuracy of the prediction.

Cheung and his Ph.D. student, Yong Wei, recently completed the tsunami height forecast model for the Alaska source region. All the time-consuming calculations were performed in advance to allow instant predictions of the tsunami heights upon receiving the water-level records near the source.

Since the locations and intensity of future tsunamigenic earthquakes are unknown, the Alaska source region is divided into 41 possible sub-faults based on tsunami events that occurred from 1938 to 1986. The product is a database of computer-simulated tsunamis due to unit slip (vertical displacement) of the 41 sub-faults. When a tsunamigenic earthquake occurs, the forecast model uses the database of tsunamis as building blocks to reconstruct the water-level records near the source, thereby providing the location and intensity of the earthquake as well as the resulting tsunami.

Early confirmation of a destructive tsunami saves lives by giving communities more time to prepare, and early cancellation avoids the costs associated with an evacuation. "If we take the guesswork out of the decision-making process, we can avoid unnecessary warnings or evacuations and people will take tsunami warnings more seriously," Cheung said.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center on Oahu, the Pacific Disaster Center on Maui, and the Pacific Marine Environment Laboratory in Seattle plan to use this approach for tsunami height prediction. Cheung and Wei will next work on expanding their model to include the Japan and South America source regions and to predict inundation for coastal areas of Hawaii.

Priscilla Perez Billig is the communications director for the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program.