This morning the Deep Panuke Platform was towed from Halifax to sheet harbour, where it will be recycled. The platforms recycling marks the end of the offshore in Nova Scotia, with recent exploration bids coming up dry, and the Sable Gas field now dis-assembled and sent for recycling in the UK.
Nova Scotia has tremendous capability to do work offshore. A transition to offshore wind development would be a good play. many ofthe same skill sets need for offshore O&G work translate well to other projects.
O&G is gone and done. Its not coming back, and the time to move on is now, while we still have the Skills and expertise locally.
When it was built in 2005, Hapag-Lloyds Colombo Express was the largest containership in the world. That record is now held by the 24,346TEU MSC Irina (2023). Until 2015, the Port of Halifax featured a regular slate of Panamax and Post Panamax ships in the 5-6000teu range.
Below is the list of Record Holders, sorted by teu.
CMA-CGM Marco Polo
16,022teu
May 17 2021
(Canadian Record)
CMA-CGM Brazil
15,072teu
Sept 10 2020
(Canadian Record)
MSC Auriga
15,000teu
Sept 21,2021
(Prince Rupert BC Record) did not call in Halifax
COSCO Himalayas
14,500teu
Nov 14,2017
(Prince Rupert BC – Canadian Record) did not call in Halifax
CMA-CGM T. Jefferson
14,414teu
March 21, 2020
Antwerpen Express
13,200teu
May 8, 2017
(Deltaport BC – Canadian record) Stands as Delta port record. Ship did not call in Halifax
CMA-CGM Libre
11,365teu
Jan 12, 2019
APL Salalah
10,960teu
March 17, 2018
ZIM Antwerp
10,064teu
June 29, 2017
CMA-CGM Tage
9365teu
May 28, 2016
USAC ZAMZAM
9036teu
Oct 19, 2015
Budapest Express
8749teu
Aug 8 2015
CMA-CGM Vivaldi
8478teu
Aug 3, 2015
MSC Melissa
6730teu
July 22, 2021
Montreal – Port record holder. This ship has called in Halifax.
The Amy Lynn D with the barge moved to Fairview cove this morning, where the gantry crane will lift the two tugs off the marge and place them in the water. you can see the container spreader has been fitted with a lifting hook.
Since arriving in May, IT Telecoms new cable ship IT Integrity has been undergoing fitout at Pier 9. The ship now looks to have cable handling gear installed, and the rear deck is considerably more cluttered then when the ship first arrived.
Dominion Diving has added a pair of new Damen Stan Tug 1205s to its fleet. The two tugs arrived on the barge Jacob Joseph C towed by the tug Amy Lynn D. The new tugs are named Dominion Rumbler and Dominion Enforcer. They are likely at Pier 25 to clear customs, and will then move to the Cherubini Dock to be offloaded by crane tonight.
The third tug, Saint Georges is bound for Montreal. Curiously, the new Dominion tugs are marked Pilot, Suggesting they may have picked up a pilotage contract somewhere.
the first complete medium icebreaker conversion from Davie arrived in Halifax today where it will be based. the First Ship, the CCGS Captain Molly Kool, was rushed into service, and only received a paint job. It will get the full conversion later.
UPDATE – the ship docked at BIO, on the proper side of the jetty and facing in the correct direction. Below, CCGS Jean Goodwill entering Halifax for the first time, via Novascotiawebcams.com.
The Ship operated as Balder Viking between 2000 and 2018, the ship is named for Jean Goodwill (1928–1997), a Canadian Cree nurse who, in 1954, became Saskatchewan’s first Aboriginal woman to finish a nursing program
This post is going to describe a process to create a nautical chart. It will be done using Open Data, and QGIS 3.14 and is intended to be suitable for general interest audiences, as well as GIS Professionals.
nautical chart production begins with a Survey. In times past, surveyors would go out in a small boat and take soundings with a lead line. those soundings would be located via triangulation to survey monuments located on land, themselves accurately positioned by use of a sextant. the problem with this method however is that lead lines can only tell you the depth of the single spot. multiple soundings will give you a good idea of the general depth, of an area, but can miss isolated rocks and other hazards. Modern Chart production begins with Multi-beam Sonar scan.
Bathemetry
Multibeam sonar results are then rendered into a GeoTiff. A geoTiff is basically an image file that is geographically referenced, and each pixel contains height (or in this case depth) data. in this case we will make use of the CHS Nonna-10 data set. This data set is “non-navigational”, in that it is not considered reliable enough to use for navigation, but is suitable for our exercise.
NONNA-10 data comes in individual tiles. once the tiles are loaded, we can perform a raster merge function to join them into a single file. Then change the render type to Singleband Pseudocolor, and apply a suitable color ramp. I chose a ramp that would give a blue highlight around the coast line, and white for waters 20m and deeper.
Next I Ran a Raster Extraction Contour, and set the Interval between contour lines to 5.00, to generate 5m contour lines.
to get spot depths, i created a new point shape file, creating a bunch of points. those points then get used in the Sample raster values tool, which pulled the depth value from the raster file and generated a new point layer. We set the transparency of the points on that layer to 0, making them invisible, and then applied a labels with the depth. Our Values came back with a – sign in front, so we used the equasion editor for the source set to replace(rvalue_1, ‘-‘,”)
Land Features
Terrestrial Features were derived from the StatsCan boundary files and the Marine facilities and inland lakes from the Nova Scotia Topographic Database – Water Features Shapefile. Halifax open data has a street centerline layers that can be used to populate terrestrial areas. the center lines were adjusted so only the major streets were symbolized, all with a dark grey symbology.
the open data portal also includes a building outline layer and buildings over 6 stories were symbolized. unfortunately a number of buildings lack floor data, so significant ones will need to be edited to add values so they display – theses are mostly features such as the grain elevator, Emera Building, and various transit sheds at the port.
Nautical features are generated from a number of sources.
The list of Lights Buoys and Fog signals was converted into a point shape file, and then each type of buoy symbolized used the appropriate symbol from chart #1. The table includes the features name, code, position, characteristics and type.
the symbols are literally svg files taken form chart#1, and and then the individual buoy expanded. The Symbols are assigned based on the values in Field 7, and the features labeled with the light characteristics (field_6) and code (Field_3)
The anchorage data was provided by an open data set of Canadian anchorages. The inner anchorages are symbolized as above, and the outer Anchorage area was defined as a hollow polygon with a dashed line. The warning data was contained in the data set.
The traffic separation Scheme came from open data Vessel Traffic Routes. The traffic lanes in the outer approaches were edited to conform with CHS Charting practice, and to improve Appearance. The scheme also included data for Ranges, and the ferry track which were cleaned up and simplified.
VTS Call in points were generated by creating a csv file of all the points taken from VTS Zone Regulations which define the Call in Points, then running the Points to path tool to connect them.
The Call in Points were then symbolized with a line, and the a label applied, using the SVG Callin point symbol as a background for the Label. Placement was arranged to centre the point number in the centre, and have the symbol span the line.
Producing the Chart
With all the elements digitized, its time to produce the actual chart. In this case we will produce Chart 4202 – Halifax Harbour Point Pleasant to Bedford Basin.
to Produce the chart, we create a new print layout, i called mine Chart 4202. i edited the page size to be Arch E paper, which is 36×48. add the map box, and the chart will render. Nautical charts are typically 1:10000 scale, so i set the scale to 10000, then adjusted placement so that the inner harbour is covered.
Then we need to change the projection to Mercator. to do so we adjusted the CRS to NAD83 CSRSv6 MTM zone 6
to get the border we want, we add two grids. the first is the standard 1minute interval using a value of 0.016660. we offset by X =20 and y=3 to get the grid to line up to even numbers. The second grid is a frame only, with the X and Y interval set to 0.001666666667 to give us 10ths of a minute. Both grids were done with the Zebra Nautical style. both grids use the WGS84 CRS.
The inset Chart of the South end terminals is created much the same way – its simply a second map window sitting on the first.
from here we can add a couple of compass roses. these are svg images, with the inner getting rotated and set to the correct position.
then all that’s left is the title block, and any additional notes you want to add.
Please note that for the sake of time, not all details were rendered in the chart at this time (Some buoys are not symbolized, not all depths are present. title block is mostly blank, etc.)
the general cargo ship Boreas sailed for Havana Cuba today after loading a cargo at the grain elevator at Pier 28.
the ship was built in 2008, and is a petite 116m in length. and has been in the Cuba trade as of late making trips to the Island from Dakar, Spain, Las Palmas, and Jamaica.
PSA Halifax has begun to disassemble and remove the last of the original Halterm cranes from alongside pier 36. The crane has been out of service for the last year, after it suffered a mechanical failure.