Stephen A. Van Dyck Retires as Maritrans' Chairman of the Board.

TAMPA, Fla. -- Maritrans Inc. (NYSE:TUG), a leading U.S. flag marine petroleum transport company, announced today that Mr. Stephen A. Van Dyck is retiring as Chairman of the Board, effective immediately. Mr. Van Dyck will be succeeded by William A. Smith, who was elected by the Board to serve as a non-executive Chairman of the Board of Directors. Mr. Van Dyck will no longer be an employee or officer of the Company, but will remain as a consultant to the Board. In addition, Mr. Van Dyck will continue to represent Maritrans' interests in various industry trade associations and insurance clubs, including Board Chairman of INTERTANKO, West of England, and the Chamber of Shipping America and a member of the Board of the American Petroleum Institute.

Mr. Van Dyck was originally hired by Interstate Oil Transport, predecessor to Maritrans, in 1974. He later became Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Maritrans when the Company went public in April 1987. Mr. Smith commented, "The Board and I would like to thank Stephen for the contributions he has made to Maritrans and we wish him the best in all future endeavors. We respect his decision to retire in order to concentrate on other industry commitments, such as his position as Chairman of INTERTANKO. Under Stephen's leadership, the Company embarked on an innovative rebuild project, which will keep Maritrans in a pre-eminent position in the US Jones Act Trade. During his 31-year tenure, Maritrans successfully committed itself to earning a reputation for providing customers with economic high quality tonnage and achieving service, safety and environmental excellence. The strong management team Stephen leaves behind is committed to not only continuing those high standards, but taking them to new levels. Maritrans' core operational strengths combined with its renewed commitment to profitable growth make this a time of great opportunity for the Company."

Mr. Smith has served on Maritrans' Board since 2003 and most recently was a member of the Company's Audit and Compensation Committees of the Board of Directors. He has over 30 years of experience in the energy industry, including his current position as Managing Director at investment banking and energy consulting firm Galway Group, L.P. where he has worked since 2002. Previous to this, Mr. Smith held various executive positions at Sonat Inc., the former parent (prior to 1987) of Maritrans, and El Paso Corporation, and most recently was Chairman of El Paso Merchant Energy's Global Gas Group.

ABOUT MARITRANS

Maritrans Inc. is a U.S. based company with a 77-year commitment to building and operating petroleum transport vessels for the U.S. domestic trade. Maritrans owns and operates one of the largest fleets serving the U.S. coastwise trade. This fleet consists of four oil tankers and eleven oceangoing married tug/barge units with an aggregate fleet capacity of approximately 3.6 million barrels, of which 64 percent of capacity is double-hulled. Maritrans is headquartered in Tampa, Florida, and maintains an office in the Philadelphia area.

SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT

The information in this news release includes certain forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, levels of activity, growth, performance, earnings per share or achievements to be materially different from those expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. These statements are based on assumptions the Company believes are reasonable, but a variety of factors could cause the Company's actual results, goals, targets or objectives to differ materially from those contemplated, projected, forecast, estimated, anticipated, planned or budgeted. Such factors include, among others, changes in oil companies' decisions as to the type and origination point of the crude that it processes, changes in the amount of imported petroleum products, competition for marine transportation, domestic oil consumption, the continuation of federal law restricting United States point-to-point maritime shipping to U.S. vessels (the Jones Act), the timing and success of our double-hull rebuilding program, demand for petroleum products, future spot market rates, demand for our services, levels of foreign imports, changes in interest rates, the effect of war or terrorist activities and the general financial, economic, environmental and regulatory conditions affecting the oil and marine transportation industry in general. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date hereof.