Gemini-Pearl

On Jan 27, 2018, at 10 p.m. the "New Dawn", while en route from Novorossiysk to Genoa, experienced a technical failure at the northern entrance of the Istanbul Strait. The Strait transit passage permission has been cancelled temporarily by the Strait authority until the completion of permanent repairs which were commenced by the crew. On Jan 29 the ship was underway again.

The owner and operator of the "Dubai Star" which leaked more than 400 gallons of oil into San Francisco Bay in 2009 will pay nearly $2 million to local and state authorities in a settlement filed in court on May 8, 2012. The tanker leaked the fuel into the water south of the Bay Bridge during a fuel transfer with a fuel barge early in the morning of Oct. 30, 2009. The spill killed dozens of birds and other wildlife, and affected a lengthy stretch of Alameda County’s shoreline. It was caused by overlapping mechanical, electronic, and human failures, the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office stated. Although the initial cause of the spill was a mechanical failure of the valve, the spill was allowed to occur because warning devices apparently failed and safety procedures and protocols were not followed. The district attorney’s offices from Alameda and San Francisco counties and the state Department of Fish and Game negotiated a $1.96 million settlement with the operator of the vessel, Dubai-based Pioneer Ship Management Services, and its owner, South Harmony Shipping, based in Panama which will ensure that the local environment is restored and help deter such events from occurring in the future.