> About Tidal Thames
   News

   Thames passenger
   growth targeted

> Tilbury handles largest
   cargo vessel

   Thames: The green
   motorway

> Safe and sound New
   Year's eve

   Britain and the sea,
   co-starring PLA pilot
   John Stafford

> New PLA Chief
   Executive

   PLA's new
   maintenance
   vessel under
   construction

> Historical landmark
   restoration takes off

   'Trekker' targets
    the Thames

   Mini firmly in the dock

> Annual rowing
   safety awards

   New pilot vessels

   Making waves

> OPDR arrives and
   expands at Tilbury

   Seal of approval
   for Thames

   Pilot Portable Unit

> Tall ships back
   on the Thames

   Oxford and
   Cambridge boat
   race

SHIPPING firm OPDR has announced plans to increase the number of services it operates out of the Port of Tilbury – just two months after it began using the port's container terminal. Hamburg-based firm Oldenburg-Portugiesische Dampfschiffs-Rhederei and London Container Terminal (LCT) struck an agreement in November last year for the shipping firm to make 200 calls a year at Tilbury, with ships heading to the Canary Islands, Spain and North Africa. From the middle of January, two more Canary Island services per week started to call at Tilbury.

Teams of volunteers carried out a count by air, land and water of grey and harbour seals in the Thames Estuary for the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) survey, sighting 708 animals! The survey, last August, was the first large-scale survey of grey and harbour seals carried out by scientists in the Thames estuary. The aerial element enabled researchers to count seals on the outer sandbanks of the estuary where colonies of up to 120 seals were recorded in remote and undisturbed spots away from people and boats.

Work continues on the development of the Pilot Portable Unit (PPU). The Thames application of PPU was developed principally to help in the safe navigation of large container vessels such as Maersk's Triple E class to London Gateway. It assists the pilots in navigating vessels through the main approach channels and is particularly helpful in the fine manoeuvring required to berth larger vessels.