Page 6: of Marine News Magazine (October 2010)

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I n October I finish a series of articles eminating from my eight day trip on inland towboats on the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. I want to give special thanks to all those who made the trip possible, including key people at AEP River Operations, Marquette

Transportation and the Waterways Council, Inc. I am especially grateful to the crew of the

Theresa Wood for teaching me so much about life on the river and always being ready to explain the workings of the boat and its tow. In the pages of this edition of MarineNews I describe being held up on the Mississippi River by failing infrastructure and compare the sto- ries of an old-time towboater with those of a mariners who just stepped aboard. Look for the series, “A Day in the Life of a Towboater,” on our company’s online channels, such as Marinelink.com and

Maritimeprofessional.com, as well as in the pages of this and the last two editions of MarineNews.

October is also our 2010 Annual Yearbook edition, highlighting four main areas: tugs, towboats and barges; offshore; passenger vessels; and vessel construction. All of these markets report a mixed bag of conditions. While the tug, tow and barge markets tend to be relatively static, the passenger vessel market, especially in the New York / New Jersey area, have some very encouraging trends to talk about as far as public interest in charters and ferry transportation. Builders like All American Marine, who construct quite a few passenger vessels, continue to report strong interest in “green” pas- senger vessel construction projects. While vessel construction has been in a down swing for some time, diversified com- panies like Donjon Marine Co. demonstrated their optimism in that market by opening a new boatyard on the Great

Lakes. The offshore industry, which has been hit very hard, continues in limbo while it waits for a new legal framework to drop from above. But industry analyst Quest Offshore Resources, Inc. described the long-term health for the off- shore markets to be good, despite the current gloom.

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Raina Clark, Managing Editor, [email protected]

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Online Resour ces 6 MN October 2010

EDITOR’S NOTE rainaclark@ marinelink.com