#PORTS & SHIPPING REVIEW - Over the last fortnight Jehan Ashmore has reported from the Shipping scene where the Port of Cork Company posted an operating profit before exceptional costs of €1.3 million – down by €700,000 from 2010 – on a turnover of €21.4 million.

Dublin Port welcomed a new cruise operator, MSC Cruises when the 59,000 tonnes MSC Lirica made her maiden 'Irish' port of call, which was followed by visit to Cobh in mid-August. On the same day of MSC Lirica's call to the capital, P&O Cruises Adonia became the second caller so far this season to Foynes on the Shannon Estuary.

The luxury liner returned to Dublin yesterday, coinciding with The Tall Ships Race Festival and where today the fleet set off with the highlight of the 'Parade of Sail' which passed off Dun Laoghaire Harbour and Howth Peninsula. The Ecuadorian Navy's barque Guayas lead the parade, as they sailed past the anchored guardship L.E. Emer offshore of the harbour mouth.

For the first time the National Maritime Museum of Ireland in Dun Laoghaire, broke tradition by opening its doors to the public on Mondays, and this will remain so to the end of the summer.

The heavylift cargo-ship HHL Valparasio (2010/17,634grt), believed to be the largest vessel ever to dock in Fenit, Co. Kerry, loaded two ship-to-shore container cranes built by the Liebherr factory outside Killarney, which were bound for the Elizabeth Port, New Jersey in the US.

Also in the same county, the luxury 5-star cruiseship Hebridean Princess was on a 7-night cruise tour of the south-west coast based out of Cobh, where passengers had flown in from the UK. The cruise was unusual in that the ports were all concentrated in that region.

Also based out of Cork is the headquarters of Ardmore Shipping Ltd, whose first of four product tankers was marked by a keel-laying ceremony at a South Korean shipyard.

Single-route operator Celtic Link Ferries chartered ro-pax Celtic Horizon, is running her first peak-season sailings since introduced on the Rosslare-Cherbourg route in October last year.

During this week the Naval Service detained an Irish registered trawler in relation to alleged breaches of technical fishing regulations offshore of Ballycotton. The OPV L.É. Niamh (P52) escorted the vessel to Cork. This followed another detainment off Ballycotton and again an Irish trawler, for the same reasons, when the CPV L.É. Ciara (P42) escorted the vessel also to Cobh.