Falmouth is enjoying its busiest period for shipping movements since the invasion of South West waters by the Eastern Bloc fishing fleets in the 1980s when communist fish factory ships loaded mackerel from Scottish trawlers.
Ships continue to come in from the Atlantic to load low sulphur fuel oil (LSFO) before heading eastwards to ports on the Continent, in the Baltic and North Sea.
The imaginary five degrees west meridian of longitude close to St Anthony's lighthouse marks the start of the Channel SECA (Sulphur Emissions Control Area) and ships sailing eastwards entering the SECA have to be burning LSFO.
World Fuel Services appear to be concentrating on supplying LSFO with thousands of tonnes of the product being shipped to vessels in the bay each week.
The Falmouth pilot boat Arrow is burning hundreds of litres of diesel every day ferrying pilots to and from ships. In amongst the bunkering business 15 cruise ships are arriving this month.
In the Falmouth Harbour Commissioners operations room, modern technology is playing an ever important role assisting pilots and pilot boat crews to monitor inbound ships on their computer screens by using the AIS (Automatic Identifying System.) This works by integrating a VHF transceiver system with a Global Positioning System receiver, and other navigational sensors on board.
On the harbour office computers ships in the Western Approaches from Ireland to the Channel can be monitored allowing better management of pilotage requirements during peak times.
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