They tell us:

The U.S. Coast Guard’s National Maritime Center has apparently made more than one unannounced change to Form CG-719K, the Merchant Mariner Credential Medical Evaluation Report. This form, which is available on the National Maritime Center (NMC) Web site, is required as part of the submission of files for a new or renewal Merchant Mariner Credential.

On more than one occasion, it would seem the text contained in the last page of this form has been revised and the form reposted to the NMC Web site with no announcement. There have now been reports of the NMC rejecting applications from mariners seeking a new or renewal Merchant Mariner Credential because the most recent revision of CG-719K was not submitted, and older versions of the form — obtained from the NMC Web site — were submitted with the application packages.

For the NMC to accept an application for a new or renewal Merchant Mariner Credential, the most recent revision of the form — CG-719K Rev. (01-09) — must be submitted with the application. This form is available on the NMC Web site.

Those who have who have completed a physical exam to include with an application for a new or renewal Merchant Mariner Credential, but have not yet submitted the application package, are being instructed to check that most recent revision of for CG-719k is being filled out by your physician.

The following are a list of the changes,

• Mariner Medical Point of Contact
• Increase in head count  of government medical personnel on staff
• New Medical Services Contract
• Adjustments to medical screening procedures aimed at reducing application processing delays

For the full details of these changes, you can read the USCG bulletin by clicking here.

Getting medical clearance to go to work is an important issue to our industry.  Feel free to give the Coast Guard feedback in the gCaptain FORUM.

This post pertains to almost none of our readers. Why? Because being color blind precludes you from working on ships (at least as a deckie). Dan Kaminsky fills us in on the details:

So, for the past year or so, I’ve had a secret side project.

Technically, that shouldn’t be surprising. This is security. Everybody’s got a secret side project. Except my side project has had nothing to do with DNS, or the the web, or TCP/IP. In fact, this project has nothing to do with security at all. Instead, I’ve been working on correcting color blindness.

The above sceenshot are Ishihara test plates. You might be familiar with them.

If you can read the numbers on the left, you’re not color blind.

You can almost certainly read the numbers on the right. That’s because DanKam has changed the colors into something that’s easier for normal viewers to read, but actually possible for the color blind to read as well. The goggles, they do something!

Welcome to DanKam, a $3 app being released today on iPhone and Android

Now we only hope Dan’s next project is something those of us who did pass all our initial exams can use. Maybe an integrate hearing aid for those of us who have spent too much time near heavy machinery.

If you’re looking for more mind bending apps be sure to check out World Lens from Quest Visual. This app from the future does the unbelievable…. take a photo of anything written in Spanish and watch it miraculously transform into English before your very eyes. I’m surely going to have this aboard for my upcoming trip through the Panama Canal!

Via Kottke.org

Last week we brought you information on marine license insurance and in our continuing quest to look at non-traditional protection available to mariners we bring you Global Rescue – Maritime!

Mariners work in conditions that make getting immediate medical treatment extremely difficult. Most mariners and shipping companies do not have the assets to quickly and smoothly move injured or ill mariners off the ship and to qualified medical facilities much less to a hospital of their choice. When they do, Aeromedical transports can cost well over $100,000US and are rarely covered by insurance.

Even when a shipping company has a track record of evacuating injured mariners they rarely offer the level of service a good third party company can provide. For example:  Will your company send you to a hospital in the nearest country or get you home fast? Will they provide a qualified medivac team at the closest point of land? Will the patient and their family’s concerns remain top priority?  With Global Rescue the answer is YES!  They also are discrete, important if you worry about your company’s reaction to a medical concern.

Global Rescue tells us:

Through its ability to provide real-time medical consulting anywhere in the world from its specialists at Johns Hopkins Medicine, Global Rescue is able to relay critical medical support to sick or injured mariners while they are thousands of miles from a hospital or out of the range of a medivac aircraft. Since most ocean-going vessels do not possess medically trained and equipped crews, Global Rescue provides ship captains the confidence and peace of mind needed to be sure injured sailors will be well cared for until rescue teams can reach the vessel.

In addition to its medical consultation services, the Boston-based crisis response company has a network of medically equipped, fixed and rotary-wing aircraft on every continent, thousands of vetted hospitals worldwide who can provide treatment in any patient’s language, and a selection of Centers of Excellence around the globe that offer medical care on par with that available in the United States. Its deployable paramedics routinely respond to emergencies in the most remote reaches of the planet.

When a shipmate is injured off an unfamiliar coast, Global Rescue will give you the confidence to stabilize him on board and the knowledge that first-rate medical providers are deployed to the closest point of land. Family members will be comforted in the knowledge that Global Rescue will keep them informed and expedite his return to a hospital of their choice.

While many of us think insurance is an unneccessary expense, it’s important to note that like a firefighting or personal survival training… when ship hits the fan it too late to start preparing.

If your ship travels to unusual places or you simply want a cost effective back up to your company’s medical plan visit their maritime website or call them at +1.800.381.9754. Be sure to mention you are a mariner or shipping company as this is a specialty service they provide to seafarers at no additional cost.

Also be sure to download their Mission Summaries pdf for some truly amazing stories of rescue.

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.

This is a good time, in the interests of full disclosure, for me to come clean about my medical history. In 1984, I was discharged (READ: removed) early from a chemical tanker in Beaumont, Texas, after a particularly painful two day run from Tampa. This involved a two day stay at MidJeff County Memorial Hospital in Beaumont, where they decided (after a thorough kidney scan and determining that the seaman patient was NOT afflicted with a social disease) that I had a kidney stone. Not knowing what else to do (apparently), they bought me (and I am absolutely not making this up) a twelve-pack of LITE beer and gave me a cup with a screen with which I was to produce evidence of the calcification. Eventually, my roommates arrived and whisked me back to Houston. A happy ending.

The TWIC thing is a little more troubling; certainly it is more immediate. I also confess to not having actually formally applied for my STCW ticket yet. With a full time job, I fit the courses in as I can, but I am making progress. It is my intention to do the Bridge Resource Management (BRM) and the Vessel Security Officer (VSO) refresher course in November; back-to-back. This will augment my new BST and Crowd Management endorsements and, with a little luck, I’ll fit it all in before the Azaleas bloom at Augusta. I had better, since the TWIC requirement has thankfully been extended to April 15th. The good news is that I am still in “continuity” status, hence it does not become an issue, apparently, until I have all of my STCW certifications.” Remember, failure to get the TWIC card, with or without the STCW endorsement will – and I quote here, “Result in the suspension or revocation of your mariner credentials.” Not much more to say about that.

In all, the new medical rules contain 65+ pages that detail the myriad of ways that any mariner can be disqualified from sea service. The document is staggering in its complexity, confusing in its terminology, and likely to further exacerbate the chronic shortage of mariners in the domestic, Jones Act markets. What it does not do, however, is also regulate the worldwide mariner population which dwarfs the U.S. workforce that it hopes to police. And, while no one doubts the importance of this type of effort – especially in the wake of the COSCO BUSAN debacle – the implications of the latest Coast Guard NAVIC threaten to eclipse the advent of STCW as a driving force in the elimination of American mariners from the global seagoing workforce.

On page 2 of the main document, the NAVIC (04-08) states (4d.) that “The Coast Guard recognizes the need for qualified mariners and the potential shortage of mariners in the U.S. and worldwide. The NAVIC should not result in higher rates of disqualification for service, or in increased processing time for credential applications with physical and/or medical issues.” I’m not so sure about that, quite frankly. In an age where the criminalization of mariners seems to be the rule, rather than the exception, I find myself poring through the labyrinth of medical requirements and rules in search of a place where I might drop the ball. Will someone level charges against me if I do? And, what if I do so honestly, but without malice?

I have, then, gone through all 201 “Medical conditions subject to further review.” There’s good news and bad news: In the “EYES, GENERAL” section, I didn’t find anything particularly troubling. However, this mariner who used to be able to read road signs before other people could even see them now has to wear drugstore glasses in order to digest 8 point pica text. Section 107 (GENITAL, URINARY SYSTEM): tune out here if you are at all squeamish. Yes, I endured a cystoscopy at 34. Beyond that, you’ll have to torture me for more information. Section 115: Nope, no history of gender reassignment (I’m not really sure what means, though). Section 186: I had one glass of wine; my wife drank the rest of it. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. OKAY: I’ve read the entire “Medical Conditions” section twice, start-to-finish; I think that’s it.

My drive towards STCW compliance continues and I have absolutely no doubt that I will succeed. And, when it is all said and done, I will then pursue a seagoing berth, preferably on one of those car carriers with the squash courts. Don’t get me wrong; I loved my three-plus years on the chemical carrier, but you gotta keep active, especially with NAVIC 04-08 lurking about.

This week’s flurry of heightened awareness in terms of what it’s going to take to qualify has given me real pause. But, that’s not the half of it. More than one mariner over the age of 50 who has already done exactly what I am trying to accomplish has told me that their biggest challenge had nothing to do with getting qualified. Instead, the effort to get shipping companies to hire the older mariner was far more difficult. In a world where qualified mariners are supposedly at a premium, that’s just wrong. And, it is a waste of experience and talent.

We live in a world where maritime academies are producing fewer and fewer mariners. This, exacerbated by the new medical standards and the rush to obtain a TWIC Card from a less-than-reliable source (whose deadline seems to be a moving target), is also ensuring that the problem of recruiting and retaining qualified mariners is only going to get worse in the short term. All of which reminds me: my NC driver’s license also expires in about two weeks. And, I think there’s some sort of test involved. * Sigh * – MarEx.

Joseph Keefe is the Managing Editor of THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE. He can be reached with comments or questions on this article or any other aspect of this e-newsletter at jkeefe@maritime-executive.com. This article was originally published via The Maritime Executive Newsletter. Free subscriptions to the newsletter can be found here.

A federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging John Joseph Cota, a U.S. Coast Guard and California licensed ship pilot, with making false statements to the Coast Guard concerning his medications and medical conditions in 2006 and 2007. The false statements arose from annual physical examinations that pilots are required to complete every year to maintain their pilot’s license.

Cota, who was the pilot of the Cosco Busan, was previously charged with negligently causing the discharge of approximately 50,000 gallons of oil in San Francisco Bay from the 65,131-ton container ship when he caused the ship to collide with the San Francisco Bay Bridge on Nov. 7, 2007.

The grand jury’s indictment supersedes and includes charges brought previously by a criminal information that charged Cota with violating the Clean Water Act (CWA), as amended by the Oil Spill Act of 1990, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act by causing the death of protected species of migratory birds.

The full post is here.

Those with medical concerns at sea should also check Global Rescue’s Medical Extraction Insurance for Mariners

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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 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…

Those with medical concerns at sea should also check Global Rescue’s Medical Extraction Insurance for Mariners