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Editorial Note: Being actively sailing mariners, the editorial team at gCaptain is concerned by recent changes to US Coast Guard policy on the licensing of mariners. We feel this is a topic of importance to mariners worldwide but questioned our ability to write on this issue objectively so we sent a note to someone we trust; Joe Keefe of The Maritime Executive. This article is reprinted with his permission.

Charlotte, NC: When you are trying to re-qualify your marine license as your 50th birthday looms large in the Radar hood, it doesn’t hurt to improve your cardiovascular footprint in preparation for the impending physical examination. Accordingly, I was going to go for a quick run this afternoon at my favorite Municipal Park, but all of our service stations are out of Gasoline today. Note: If anyone can help the Colonial Pipeline get primed up with some much needed RNL for the mid-southeastern corridor, everyone in Western North Carolina will really appreciate it. In any event, and in the absence of wheels to get me to a softer running medium, I said, “What the heck: I’ll just get rolling on this week’s column.” And, so I did.

On Monday, the Coast Guard’s National Maritime Center’s (NMC) July 2008 one-page TWIC Alert arrived in the mail. Immediately following that, NAVIGATION and VESSEL INSPECTION NAVIC NO. 04-08 hit the WEB. The contents of both documents gave my ongoing effort to qualify as a true-blue STCW mariner new urgency, as well as a little bit of dread. After all, I had no idea that the TWIC thing would kick in until I actually had gotten my license into compliance. Beyond this, the Coast Guard NAVIC contains no less than seven documents and countless pages of supporting information. So, and at the risk of offending the greener side of our readers, I downloaded and printed every single one of the latter documents. To my defense, I didn’t realize that the section entitled “MEDICAL CONDITIONS SUBJECT TO FURTHER REVIEW” was 32 pages long. The entire printout has – and I am not making this up – decimated an entire hardwood forest in the Pisgah National Wildlife Area. [Continue Reading →]

(Ed. note: This entry is reposted in it’s entirety with permission from Red Right Returning. Doug Gould is a fellow tower from the East Coast.)

Are you aware of the concept of license creep? When you renew your USCG license, the new license will expire exactly 5 years from the date of issue of the renewed license. So, if you renew 5 months before your current license expires, you will loose 4 or 5 months of the fee you paid when you got the previous license. If you are on your 4th or 5th renewal, you may have lost over a year’s worth of user fees.

Say you got your first license on January 1, 1980. You would have been required to renew in ‘85, ‘90, ‘95, 2000 and 2005 to be current today. So, you should be on the 6th issue of your license. But, if you always tried to be a good scout and renewed 6 months early each time, you would actually already be on your 7th issue rather than your 6th.

Here is the deal: you pay about $100 in fees to get a 5 year license, but you can only use all 60 months of that if you wait to the very last day to renew. Over the course of your career, you end up getting cheated, because you’re paying fees based on a 60 month renewal cycle, but you are forced to “surrender” some of those months when you renew.

Well, the Coast Guard calls this license creep. They recognize that it happens, and they have put in place system to keep it at a minumum. Here is a link to the official Policy Letter that explains to the REC how to deal with the problem.When I renewed in December, I asked about this issue, but I didn’t have this Policy Letter in hand, and the license examiner didn’t seem to know anything about this policy and just kinda shrugged his shoulders and said “too bad”…If your renewal is coming up, print this out and request “delayed issuance” of your next license.

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This post was written by Richard Rodriguez, Rescue Tug Captain, and US Coast Guard approved instructor for License Training. You can read more of his articles at the BitterEnd of the net.

The Contra Costa Times article “Critics Fear More Barge Disasters” of February 19, 2008 and the KGO TV Channel 7 report on tug boat licensing presented eye opening views on the crewing and operations of harbor tugs. Although in excellent detail the views expressed and the comments made by active tug operators presented a deeper problem than just the shortage of qualified people. It illuminated the government intervention into unfamiliar fields using academic research techniques. Such data gathering processes are excellent in determining sales, production and pedestrian patterns but when dealing with people’s, livelihoods and professional experience and knowledge, they are inappropriate.Of concern, in this case, is the process used to publish intentions to make new or change rules. Obviously, by the limited number of reported written responses (14) to a possible population of several thousand the sampling was insignificant.

Therefore to continue further is ineffective. A better and more effective sampling technique is warranted. The USCG criteria “to make a good case” is certainly not convincing or professional.

There is no doubt that the tug people, like so many other transportation occupations need to improve their safety, education and training. An example of an acceptable level of effort put forth is the airline industry; however, the public pays. In my experience, I have found tug people, inland and off shore, to be concerned about the petty bureaucratic confusion of government officials, but angry about managerial mis-management. The law relating to tugs and tug operation as capsulated in ” Parks on the law of Tug, Tow and Pilotage” is mind boggling but almost essential reading for the guy in the pilot house. Most tug operators are given tasks and provided two options: either do the job, or some one else will. Few will support them in confrontations with management involving risk, safety and lawful precedence, mostly it is: up to the tug skipper to decide. A tug operator has little choice in task, crew, time or condition although the laws hold them accountable.

It is appropriate, under the circumstances cited above, that the USCG reconsider their position based on the little response previously acquired and conduct a series of on-scene visits to the major tug boat areas and determine what is actually needed and how to accomplish it. A small professional. representative experienced team could effectively accomplish a meaningful result in a few months. The result may not be perfect, but the effort should be.

It is not what one achieves, but the effort that prove its worth.

JGD

Captain John Denham is a veteran of 66 years maritime experience in seamanship, ship handling, navigation, piloting, and education. he is also author of The Assistant and DD 891 .

Cosco Busan Photo by Noah Berger/Associated PressOctober 15th 2003 the Staten Island ferry crashed into a concrete pier killing eleven people and leaving 71 injured. It was later determined that the captain lost consciousness while at the ship’s controls. He had taken the painkillers Tramadol and Tylenol PM, both of which can cause drowsiness as a side effect. Since that time the United States Coast Guard has put increased scrutiny on the medical records of all licensed mariners, a review process that could get more stringent as details emerge regarding medication taken by the Cosco Busan’s pilot.The Associated Press tells us:

The ship pilot who was at the helm when a freighter spilled 58,000 gallons of fuel into San Francisco Bay in November suffers from a sleep disorder and was on prescription medication to ward off drowsiness, people close to the investigation told The Associated Press.Investigators want to know whether the disorder — or even the medication itself — contributed to the accident.Federal officials and others, speaking on condition of anonymity, said John Cota has sleep apnea, a breathing condition that can disrupt sleep all night long and leave sufferers severely fatigued during the day. Sleep apnea is blamed for countless auto accidents every year in which drivers nodded off at the wheel.Cota, 59, was also said to be taking a sleep-apnea drug whose known side effects include impaired judgment.Prescription drugs are “certainly a part of our investigation,” said G. Ross Wheatley, chief of investigations for the Coast Guard’s San Francisco sector.The disclosure has raised questions among members of Congress about the Coast Guard’s licensing practices and whether Cota should have been deemed fit for a job in which he was responsible for guiding giant cargo ships in and out of port and through the dangerous waters of the bay.Under Coast Guard policy, a sleep disorder can be grounds for disqualification, but is not automatically so. Continue Reading…

Effective January 1, 2008, mariners sailing in the capacity of Ship Security Officer (SSO) will have to show evidence of being “qualified” to hold that position. The SSO training requirement only applies to STCW vessels 500GT or greater operating on international voyages. Evidence of qualification will include the following:

Course completion certificate (in accordance with the Maritime Transportation Security Act [MTSA] and/or in accordance with the International Maritime Organization [IMO] model course for Ship Security Officer).

Company letter or certificate attesting to the qualifications (in accordance with the Maritime Transportation Security Act [MTSA] regulations and the International Ship and Port Facility [ISPS] Code).

The U.S. Coast Guard has determined that any training completed in accordance with 33 CFR, Part 104.215, is substantially equivalent to the STCW requirements. Therefore, no additional training should be required. The Coast Guard has informed Port State Control worldwide of this arrangement.

Before July 1, 2009, the Coast Guard intends to amend 33 CFR, Part 104.215, to create a “Ship Security Officer” endorsement that will be included on the mariners license or documents.

Continue reading for the FAQ. 

Are the SSO laws in you’re country or flag state changing? Let us know in the comments section.

For those mariners awaiting license review at the Coast Guard’s National Maritime Center ( USCG NMC ) here’s a breakdown of the status of all applications.

Capt. David Stalfort has published a memo with the following comments that might help you figure out what this all means.

The Quality Assurance Division at NMC conducted a nationwide analysis of 11,619 applications
that are over 60 days old to identify the cause of delays. The results show that 45% of these
pending applications are sitting on shelves waiting for mariners to send missing information to
their evaluator. A large number of applications (28%) are currently being undergoing security,
medical and professional qualification evaluations. A good number of applications (16%) are
sitting idle waiting for mariners to come to the REC to be tested.

You can download the memo HERE and find out “What’s New” at the NMC HERE.

The USCG just announced efficiency newsletters from the National Maritime Center. They tell us:

The Coast Guard maintains an active public and industry awareness outreach program aimed at communicating information about the Mariner Licensing and Documentation Program. These mailing lists are one of the innovative ways in which the Coast Guard relays important information.

Here are the lists:

National Maritime Center Updates
[Subscribe/Unsubscribe][Archives]
Information concerning the National Maritime Center’s (NMC) operations, process improvements, and important information on merchant mariner credentials.

NMC Performance Reports
[Subscribe/Unsubscribe][Archives]
Information from the National Maritime Center on credential production performance statistics, including processing time, application inventory, and customer satisfaction. These reports will communicate the results of improvements to credential production processes and customer services.

MLD Program Policy Updates
[Subscribe/Unsubscribe][Archives]
Information from the Mariner Licensing and Documentation program manager at Coast Guard Headquarters on changes to regulations, Navigation and Vessel Inspection Circulars (NVICs) and other policy guidance.

REC News/Announcements
[Subscribe/Unsubscribe][Archives]
Announcements concerning Regional Examination Center (REC) locations, hours of operation, contact information and other pertinent REC operations information.

Mariner Information/News
[Subscribe/Unsubscribe][Archives]
Information for individual mariners seeking licenses and/or Merchant Mariner Documents, including changes to the credential application, medical physical and other forms, revisions to checklist, information packets, instruction guides, information for healthcare professionals, selected Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s), NMC Point of Contact (POCs), and other pertinent information.

Coast Guard Approved Courses
[Subscribe/Unsubscribe][Archives]
Information on Coast Guard approved training, courses, examinations, course audits, and other pertinent information.

I’ll been signing up for the “NMC Performance Reports” first as their stats should be unfavorable skewed this month after loosing my wife’s 2/m upgrade. To their credit the application was approved in record time once she was able to get them on the phone.

Looking for some insider information on NMC activities? CLICK HERE for their internal updates and newsletters.