Coast Guard Exercises Option on Overhaul of USCGC Polar Sea (WAGB-11)

SEATTLE - Todd Shipyards Corporation (NYSE:TOD) announced today that the U.S. Coast Guard has awarded to its wholly owned subsidiary, Todd Pacific Shipyards Corporation (”Todd Pacific”), a $6,340,256 modification to previously awarded contract HSCG85-04-C-625509 in support of repairs and alterations performed during the Planned Maintenance Availability (”PMA”) of the icebreaker USCG Polar Sea (WAGB-11). The contract modification provides for the alteration and repair of ship’s systems, engines and shipboard equipment. The work will be accomplished at Todd Pacific’s shipyard in Seattle beginning immediately and is expected to be completed in September 2008.

The PMA of the Polar Sea is being performed pursuant to the Company’s five-year Multi-Ship Multi-Option (”MSMO”) contract with the Coast Guard for the overhaul and continued maintenance of the two Polar Class Icebreakers stationed at Seattle, Washington. The cost-type contract was awarded to Todd Pacific in 2004.

Todd Pacific performs a substantial amount of repair and maintenance work on commercial and federal government vessels engaged in various seagoing trade activities in the Pacific Northwest and provides new construction and industrial fabrication services for a wide variety of customers. Its customers include the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Coast Guard, NOAA, the Washington State Ferry system, the Alaska Marine Highway System, and various other commercial and governmental customers. Todd has operated a shipyard in Seattle since 1916.

-Todd Shipyards Corporation Press Release-

Coast Guard Cutter Healy returns to Seattle from Arctic deployment

SEATTLE — The nation’s largest icebreaker, the Coast Guard Cutter Healy, will return to its homeport here Saturday after two months in the Bering Sea for its first Arctic West Summer 2008 Deployment.

During the deployment, the icebreaker traveled more than 8,000 nautical miles and conducted more than over 1,100 individual science evolutions in the course of completing two separate science missions. Healy will spend six weeks in Seattle conducting routine maintenance and training before departing on the second Arctic West Summer 2008 Deployment in late June.

Healy’s missions this spring were part of the National Science Foundation’s Bering Ecosystem Study (or BEST) and the North Pacific Research Board’s Bering Sea Integrated Ecosystem Research Program. They were timed to study ecological processes as sea ice retreated through the Bering Sea. The recent decline in the extent and duration of arctic sea ice has stimulated scientific as well as public interest in how the productive Bering Sea ecosystem will change if current warming trends continue. Scientists aboard Healy conducted a suite of studies to provide insights about how marine microorganisms, plants and animals, including fish, marine mammals, and birds, as well as local human communities, will be affected by the on-going changes in the region. The two chief scientists who coordinated the missions explain that their work at and near the ice edge used different sampling strategies, but focused on a common goal of improving the ecological understanding of the Bering Sea.

The cutter embarked the first team of scientists from Dutch Harbor, Alaska, in mid-March and proceeded into the central Bering Sea. The first two weeks mapped walrus foraging in relation to the supplies of the smaller seafloor animals that walruses eat. A team of walrus researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey successfully tagged 10 walruses with satellite radio tags. At the same time, several other groups of scientists led by chief scientist Dr. Lee Cooper of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science worked off Healy’s aft decks and on the ice near the cutter. Collections were made of water, sediment, sea ice and biological specimens at more than 30 stations just south of St. Lawrence Island. According to Cooper, “The cold conditions were brutal, and made the work challenging, but I think everyone got off the ship very pleased with getting so many samples during the late winter-early spring period that seeds the later plankton bloom. You really need a ship like Healy to get into the central Bering at that time of year.”

The second research mission, which ran from late March to early May, was one of the most ambitious scientific deployments Healy has ever undertaken, according to chief scientist Dr. Carin Ashjian of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The research program focused on the ice, water, and seafloor of the Bering Sea ecosystem and how these change as the ice melts. The cutter deployed sediment grabs, video plankton recorders, water samplers, ice corers and a wide variety of other equipment to study everything from tiny plankton and seabirds to the chemistry and physics of the Bering Sea. In addition to work done from the ship, the second mission also involved on-ice work where teams of five to 15 scientists escorted by Coast Guard safety personnel would collect cores, deploy a small, remotely operated vehicle to survey under the ice, and conduct a variety of other scientific procedures. During the five-week cruise, Healy sampled at almost 200 locations throughout the Bering Sea. Ashjian said the expectations and goals of the science party were met or exceeded. “Overall, we were impressed by the importance of ice algae as early spring food for the animals in the water and on the seafloor, as well as the animals that actually live on the bottom of the sea ice,” she said. “We have made a significant step toward understanding how the Bering Sea ecosystem relies on the presence and persistence of sea ice.”

Both chief scientists participated in sharing and exchanging information with local residents of the Bering Sea region, who are dependent upon subsistence hunting and fishing and are greatly concerned about the prospects for climate change. Perry Pungowiyi, a St. Lawrence Island Yupik from Savoonga, participated in the first mission as a member of the walrus tagging team, and Ashjian gave a presentation in Gambell, the other St. Lawrence Island community, during the second mission.

Anchorage, Alaska, middle school teacher Craig Kasemodel also participated in the first mission through an International Polar Year research immersion program for teachers called PolarTREC. For the second mission, Emily Davenport participated in PolarTREC as a graduate student. High school and middle school students across the U.S.A. participated through conference calls and interactive blogs while Healy was underway. Ann Fienup-Riordan, a participant on the second cruise and expert on Alaska’s native communities, also wrote a series of articles that were published in local coastal Alaskan community newspapers.

Commanded by Capt. Ted Lindström, Healy is the newest and largest of the nation’s three heavy icebreakers and the only one with extensive scientific capabilities. The 420-foot cutter was commissioned in 2000 and has a permanent crew of 80. Scientific support is its primary mission, but as a Coast Guard Cutter, Healy is also a capable platform for supporting other potential missions in the polar regions, including logistics support, search and rescue, ship escort, environmental protection, and the enforcement of laws and treaties.

Coast Guard Icebreaker Returns From Mission with Canadian Coast Guard

NEW YORK- The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Penobscot Bay will return to Bayonne, N.J. Tuesday, Apr. 15, after conducting joint ice-breaking missions on the St. Lawrence Seaway with the Canadian Coast Guard since Mar. 5.

“The Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway saw their worst ice season in over a decade,” said Lt. j.g. Jamie Collins, the Executive Officer of the Cutter Penobscot Bay. “On the lakes themselves, the percentage of ice cover was the highest it’s been this late in the season in 12-13 years.”

The Canadian Coast Guard made a formal request for assistance from the United States, the first time such a request has been made in four to five years.

“For a crew of just 18 U.S. Coastguardsmen to spend 45 days hundreds of miles away from home engaged in this mission is incredibly impressive,” said Lt. Michael Sarnowski, commanding officer of the Penobscot Bay. “Icebreaking on the St. Lawrence Seaway is one of those unique Coast Guard mission areas that require international teamwork - not just at the diplomatic level, but at the crew-to-crew level between two ships from the Coast Guards of two different countries.”

The Penobscot Bay is the first cutter to be deployed to the Seaway. The last cutter from the east coast to deploy in support of operations on the Great Lakes was the Coast Guard Cutter Morro Bay in 2003.

The St. Lawrence Seaway crosses international boundaries and it is the only shipping link between the Atlantic Ocean, the American Midwest and the Canadian heartland, including Toronto.

The Penobscot Bay will be arriving at approximately 10:00 a.m.

Great Lakes Ice Season Second Toughest in Over a Decade

CLEVELAND - Ninth Coast Guard District cutters continue to break ice and maintain navigable waterways during the second toughest ice season on the Great Lakes in 11 years.

The Ninth Coast Guard District, responsible for the U.S. Great Lakes basin and St. Lawrence Seaway, employs eight multi-mission cutters to break ice in the region. The Canadian Coast Guard is an integral partner in the operations and provides an additional four ice-breaking capable ships.

This year’s ice breaking operations facilitated more than $60 million in Great Lakes commerce; and assisted nearly 150 vessels as they transited through ice more than 15 feet thick.

Five 140-foot Bay Class ice breaking tugs (Katmai Bay, Bristol Bay, Mobile Bay, Biscayne Bay and Neah Bay), part of the U.S. fleet, continue to face additional challenges during the ice seasons as they approach 30 years of service. Greater maintenance and repair requirements create added challenges for the Ninth District and contracted support teams to keep the vessels operating at full capacity.

Currently, Katmai Bay, homeported in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., is the oldest of the Bay Class fleet, commissioned in January 1979; while the youngest is Neah Bay, homeported here and commissioned in October 1980.

The extensive ice season, second only to 2003, creates an additional challenge for the Ninth District’s Operation Spring Restore. The largest U.S. domestic buoy operation restores nearly 1,300 navigational aids to their assigned positions, including lighted and unlighted buoys and beacons. Operation Spring restore is delayed due to the ice season and will require increased cutter hours to meet the May 30 deadline.

“The Canadian Coast Guard assists with both operations, ice breaking and Spring Restore, but to complete Spring Restore in a safe and timely manner our (U.S. Coast Guard) cutters are going to have to work overtime,” said Rear Adm. John E. Crowley, Jr., commander of the Ninth Coast Guard District.

“We are charged with providing a safe maritime environment to the Great Lakes community,” he added, “and we will rise above these challenges and answer the call.”

Coast Guard Begins Ice breaking on Kennebeck River

The Pentagon Channel reports on the Coast Guards annual ice breaking operations on Maine’s Kennebec River. There is between 10 and 18 inches of ice on the River.

Spring Means Great Lakes Ice Breaking on Lake Superior-Video

The Pentagon Channel reports on an annual rite of Spring, the Coast Guard breaking ice on Lake Superior.

Coast Guard Breaks Ice in Cleveland Harbor

CLEVELAND - The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Bristol Bay (WTGB-102) departed from here, this morning, and traveled east to Fairport, Ohio, to assess ice conditions at Fairport Harbor and the Grand River.

The 140-foot cutter, based in Detroit, is making this assessment at the request of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. A member of the ACOE is on board.

Bristol Bay started the morning breaking up the ice at the entrance of Cleveland Harbor so the motor vessel Algosar can enter the harbor, and depart on Friday, March 14.

While no flooding has been reported, Bristol Bay and ACOE are scheduled to assess the ice at the mouth of the river and break up some of the ice. Southeast winds are forecast for the next 24-36 hours and these efforts are being done as a flood-preventative measure to get ice out and away from the mouth of the river.

Coast Guard to begin ice breaking on the Kennebec River

PORTLAND, ME - The U.S. Coast Guard Cutters SHACKLE, BRIDLE, and TACKLE will begin breaking ice on the Kennebec River on March 17, 2008. The cutters will break ice from the Carlton Bridge in Bath, ME and clear the river as far north as the Richmond Dresden Bridge by the 24th.

The Coast Guard strongly urges ice fishermen, snowmobile riders, and any motorized vehicles on the Kennebec River to stay off of the area from the Richmond Dresden Bridge area south to Bath, including Merry Meeting Bay. Ice in these areas will be hazardous as the cutters break and move the ice floes down river and out to sea.

The ice breaking efforts are helpful to flood relief on the Kennebec River and will continue North to Gardiner, ME after March 24, 2008.

The Coast Guard has been coordinating the State and local emergency authorities since 2000 to help manage potential flooding.