Adm. Papp spoke about the service’s fiscal year 2012 budget request and provided committee members a snapshot of recent Coast Guard operations including vessel traffic management on the St. Marys River in Michigan, anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden, the rescue of workers from an oil platform fire in the Gulf of Mexico, interdiction of a semi-submersible, self-propelled vessel in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and the recent repatriation of migrants interdicted in the Straits of Florida.

“These missions protect U.S. national interests, and they’re missions that only the Coast Guard has the authority, competency and capability to do,” said Papp.  “No one else can do what we do.  Our homeland is safer and more secure because Coast Guard men and women perform them so ably.  But what concerns me is that our aging fleet of cutters and aircraft continue to cost us, both in dollars and mission performance.  It is vital that we protect our waterways by sustaining front line operations while continuing our recapitalization efforts.”

Click here (PDF) to read Adm. Papp’s written testimony. Click here for a fact sheet on the Coast Guard’s fiscal year 2012 budget request and click here (PDF) for the Coast Guard’s 2011 Posture Statement with a detailed look at the fiscal year 2012 budget.

Photo: U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Patrick Kelley

It is currently considering retroactively amending the Death on the High Seas Act [DOHSA] and the Jones Act to bring judicial fairness in allowing a court to consider non-pecuniary damages when a father, spouse or child is killed at sea. Currently, the law is grossly unfair and is an anomaly in only allowing pecuniary [economic] damages and the seaman’s conscious pain and suffering prior to death if not killed instantly. For example, it currently would not allow a child or spouse to make a claim for their obvious emotional injury due to the loss of the love, care, guidance, etc. of their father, mother, husband or wife. This is clearly out of line with all states’ wrongful death laws as well as even DOHSA as it applies to air crash victims. Seamen play a vital and long standing role in commerce; are considered wards of the court; and are even given special treatment in the U. S. Constitution in the Savings to Suitors Clause. It is time to bring DOHSA and the Jones Act in line with modern day recognition of damages.

Congress is also considering legislation repealing the Exoneration and Limitation of Liability Act from 1851. This arcane law is completely outdated with modern day communication; deprives seaman a choice of their forum which has always been judicially protected; allows a vessel owner to limit its liability to the dead and injured to the value of a vessel’s hull and cargo as it sits on the seabed floor without even including available liability insurance which has been bought and paid for; allows a vessel owner, like Transocean, to receive a hull insurance payment for its hull of $401MIL+ [current value of the Deepwater Horizon] and try to limit its liability to $26.7MIL which is grossly unfair; and should be immediately, and retroactively, repealed, OR, at bare minimums, it should be amended to require the vessel owner to always include all available insurance in the “limitation fund” amount available to the injured and killed seamen.

Congress should also use this time to pass all laws which support the protection of seaman (1) ever being included in multidistrict litigation, e.g., not lumping injury/death Jones Act claims with environmental claims, loss of tourism claims, ecological injuries, etc., which drag out for years and years; and (2) in enforcing the cabotage aspects of the Jones Act, e.g., foreign flagged vessels operating in our waters have skirted USCG manning far too long and not only does this pose safety risks but it also does not support American shipbuilders and American workers’ jobs.

If you are a US citizen and this issue is important to you please CLICK HERE ]]> http://gcaptain.com/jones-petition-time-running/?15494/feed/ 0 http://gcaptain.com/factors-accounting-for-piracy-the-rand-corporation-weighs-in-on-piracy-in-somali/?6474 http://gcaptain.com/factors-accounting-for-piracy-the-rand-corporation-weighs-in-on-piracy-in-somali/?6474#comments Wed, 11 Feb 2009 04:54:43 +0000 John Konrad http://gcaptain.com/maritime/blog/?p=6474

Last week the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation held hearings on the state of International Piracy On The High Seas. Along with the usual speach with Q&A session (Video Link) was excellent written testimony from well known figures in maritime security including  Rear Admiral William D. Baumgartner USCG, Giles Noakes BIMCO and Peter Swift, INTERTANKO. The testimony of most interest however  was that of Peter Chalk, Senior Political Scientist at the RAND Corporation.While all of the testimony was worth reading, it was Chalk’s unbiased eye that caught our attention. How do we know it’s unbiased?  Well you won’t find the following statement in INTERTANKO‘s testimony:

At the outset I would like to stress one main point: piracy is, above all, an economically driven phenomenon. This is true both with respect to those who engage in the practice – profit being the main objective – and those against whom attacks are directed, ship owners – where the desire to keep operating costs as low as possible has frequently outweighed imperatives for more concerted on-board security.

We encourage everyone interested in the topic to read his full report (Click HERE) but for those with limited time here is the part of most interest;

Factors Accounting for the Emergence of Piracy in the Contemporary Era

Piracy has traditionally been “fed” by two underlying drivers, which when taken together, have
provided an almost limitless range of vulnerable targets from which to choose: the enormous
volume of commercial freight that moves by sea; and the necessity of ships to pass through
congested (and ambush-prone) maritime choke points such as the Panama Canal, Suez Canal,
the Straits of Hormuz, Strait of Bab el-Mandab, the Malacca Straits and the Bosphorous Straits.
The emergence of piracy in the contemporary era age reflects the continued salience of these
basic causal variables in addition to at least seven other contributory factors:

First has been a growing trend toward the use of “skeleton crews,” both as a cost-cutting
measure and as a reflection of more advanced navigation technology. Although this reduced
manning is undoubtedly more efficient, the smaller number of sailors now found on board many
vessels has reduced the options for concerted anti-piracy watches and has made the task of
gaining control of ships that much easier.

Second, the general difficulties associated with maritime surveillance have been significantly
heightened as a result of 9/11 and the concomitant pressure exerted on many governments to
invest in expensive land-based homeland security initiatives. This has further reduced what in
many cases are already limited resources for monitoring territorial waters.

Third, lax coastal and port-side security have played an important role in enabling low-level pirate
activity, especially harbor thefts against ships at anchor. Problems of this sort have been
particularly evident in Brazil, East Africa and across South and Southeast Asia. In many cases
there is either no functioning maritime police presence at all or the units in place are devoid of
adequate staff, boats, equipment and training.

Fourth, corruption and easily compromised judicial structures have encouraged official complicity
in high-level pirate rings. The nature of this involvement has been extensive, ranging from
providing intelligence on ship movements and locations to helping with the rapid discharge of
stolen cargoes.

Fifth, the endemic anarchic situation in Somalia has directly contributed to the rampant scale of
piracy that we are currently seeing being witnessed off the Horn of Africa. With no sovereign
government in place, gangs have virtual free-run of the area, enjoying widespread latitude to
enforce “rules” that further and protect their own vested interests.

Sixth, the ready willingness of shipowners to pay increasingly large sums of money for the return
of their vessels and cargoes has provided added incentive to engage in maritime crime. Somali
pirates are projected to have netted at least $20 million in ransoms last year, with the negotiated
deal for the release of the Saudi-registered Sirius Star allegedly running to an unprecedented $3
million. For many gangs, the prospect of windfall profits such as these far outweighs any
attendant risk of being caught or otherwise confronted by naval and coast guard patrol boats.

Finally, the global proliferation of small arms has provided pirates (as well as terrorists and other
criminal elements) with an enhanced means to operate on a more destructive and sophisticated
level. Originating from a variety of sources in Africa, Asia and Europe, these munitions include
everything from pistols, light/heavy caliber machine guns and automatic assault rifles to anti-ship
mines, hand-held mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. Most commentators generally agree
that the availability of weapons such as these, most of which are readily transportable, easy to
handle, cheap and durable, is one of the main underlying causes that has contributed to the
growing level of violence that has come to typify piracy in recent years.

Read Peter Chalk’s testemony HERE and the RAND Corporation’s full report on piracy HERE.

Prior to being asked to comment the Chronicle’s lead maritime reporter contacted our friend Captain Kelly Sweeny who discussed industry wide problems with marine technology. The article states;

Sweeney said the AIS is “occasionally unreliable,” has blind spots such as when a ship is behind islands or structures, and is “antiquated” when compared with modern electronics.

Rewinding to my conversation with the reporters, the first question asked was; “Captain Sweeny believes the system used by San Francisco’s Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) is antiquated, do you agree?” After requesting further clarification I was asked why the pilot’s data on his Electronic Chart Display was trusted over VTS’s radar and AIS information.

My answer was “VTS’ AIS system is susceptible to the delay inherit in the VHF transmission of AIS data” BUT, to be honest my initial gut reaction was, “no AIS is not antiquated… it was fully implemented less then 3 years ago”, I quickly corrected myself. My second answer was quoted in the article and reads;

“The maritime industry is slow to act on electronic devices,” said Capt. John Konrad, who runs a Web site called gCaptain. “By the time they get approvals on electronics, they are obsolete.”

Why the quick change of opinion? It’s because I love AIS.

This technology, properly called Automatic Identification Systems, allows me to overlay important data on my radar displays. It also allows me to contact a ship with a zero cpa (collision course) with great ease. For example, prior to AIS I would have to say “Calling the vessel in position x.xx degrees N, x.xx degrees west on a course of 267 and speed of 6knots this is the xxx on channel 16″ where now I simply look up the ship’s name and say “This is the xxx calling yyy on channel 16″. Furthermore the AIS display gives me the vessels MMSI number which opens up new and creative ways to avoid collisions. Finally, my AIS digital read-out really saved the day (and my career?) when our radars, as the Cosco Busan’s Pilot John Cota said “conked out”.

That was not my only hesitation. San Francisco Pilots are some of the most respected individuals in our profession (a dream job for myself) and I only have positive things to say about my dealings with VTS. So could they be wrong in their choice of equipment? It seemed unlikely.

In defending VTS and the Coast Guard’s systems another respected expert, Rear Adm. Craig Bone – Coast Guard district commander, commented on questions raised by myself and others. In covering today’s hearing The Chronicle reports;

Bone said he could think of no excuse for the crash. He denied reports by maritime sources claiming the electronic systems the Coast Guard uses are out of date. The pilot equipment and onboard navigational equipment are some of the most advanced, he said.

“There is no basis in my mind for this to have ever occurred,” Bone said. “Something on that ship had to go terribly wrong. It was totally preventable.”

So the question becomes; “If AIS is a loved safety improvement endorsed by maritime experts worldwide why does Captain Kelly (and myself!) consider it antiquated?”

The reason is because we can do better! In the world of cutting edge technology solutions are available now that would have given Cota and VTS a much better chance of avoiding the incident. The problem, that I suspect is an industry wide tendency, is two fold. First we are so far behind the technology curve small improvements, like AIS, seem large and exciting. Second, most licensed captains are Luddites (my self included) who want to make sure a new system is reliable before implementing it aboard ships.

I come to this conclusion because, despite my writings on the need to improve shipboard technology (most notably HERE and HERE), I initially had the same reaction as Adm. Bone but quickly changed my mind. Why? Because Capt. Kelly is correct, our systems are antiquated and when new lifesaving improvements become available we must break away from the statement that has been rehearsed by ship captains for centuries; “Only history will tell if this is a good idea”. Exciting changes are happening worldwide and improvements in communications (the number one failure in all good incident chains) are leading the way. We must change with the times and embrace technology as the benefit is a reduction of incidents and a preservation of the environment and human life.

For more information on this topic visit our Archives.

Still agreeing with Admiral Bone? Take a look at technology used by Tampa Pilots or Maine Pilots, upcoming portable ECDIS units, the VTS tracking system in Valdez, well documented problems with AIS Ask yourself “Can I send an area specific sitor message via GMDSS” or “Why can my son video chat with a pen pal in China while I’m having trouble raising a vessel 1000 yards away… and closing?”

Captain John Konrad is a USCG licensed Master Mariner of Unlimited Tonnage currently working aboard an 835′ship in the Gulf of Mexico. Since graduating from SUNY Maritime College he has sailed 4 of the world’s oceans and reports from his ship via satellite.

Click on the above image to see video on today’s congressional hearings into the Cosco Busan Incident and resultant oil ship in San Francisco Bay.

Final Result; A DHS official inquiry was requested by Nancy Pelosi.