Open season on dredges?

Open season on dredges? The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating a collision Friday morning between a 623-foot freighter and a 216-foot dredge in the upper bay of New York Harbor about one mile north of Staten Island, N.Y.
   The collision comes less than two months after an orange juice tanker and another dredge collided in the Newark Bay Jan. 28.
   In the latest incident, the freighter Osprey I, carrying scrap metal, collided with the dredge Delaware Bay while traveling outbound for sea, about 9 a.m. Friday.
   The Delaware Bay is dredging the channel for a federal project contracted by the Army Corps of Engineers.
   The Osprey I sustained a 25 to 30-foot by three-foot breach of the hull, five feet above the waterline along its right side. The vessel is not taking on water and is in stable condition.
   The Delaware Bay reportedly sustained minimal hull damage.
   The Coast Guard said inspectors were investigating what caused the accident, but a spokesman for the Army Corps said the Delaware Bay was expected to resume work by the mid-week.
   In an earlier incident, the dredge New York, owned by Great Lakes Dredge & Dock, sustained extensive damage as a result of being struck on Jan. 28 by an orange juice tanker in the approach channel to Port Newark, N.J.
   The dredge is currently in dry dock undergoing repairs, which are to be completed by June.
   Great Lakes said the vessel is fully insured for hull, collision and pollution exposures under the insurance coverage of Great Lakes.
   But the company said on Feb. 26 that insurance related to the loss of use of a vessel is not economically viable in the marine market and that “consequently we are pursuing a claim against the vessel which struck the New York.”