News From Neptune

NOVEMBER 2008     JANUARY 2009

December Blog Contents

December 30, 2008 100 Sailing Mistakes

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December 12, 2008 West Coast Boaters Warned Of High Winds And Seas

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December 11, 2008 Coast Guard Safety Inspection

A boarding team from the Coast Guard Cutter Sherman conducts a safety inspection on a fishing vessel in the Bering Sea. The crew members conducted several law enforcement boardings of commercial fishing vessels in the Bering Sea during the month of November. Boarding team members operate in Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats and board vessels to prevent violations of U.S. law. The maritime law enforcement boardings consist of inspecting fishing licenses and permits, the fishing vessel's crew proficiency in emergency alarms and drills, keeping of logbooks and inspecting safety and fire fighting equipment.

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December 11, 2008 Santa Barbara Oil Spill Cleaned Up

The U.S. Coast Guard says all of the oil that leaked into the ocean in Santa Barbara on Sunday has been cleaned up. More than 1,000 gallons of oil spilled from a platform located six miles off the coast in the Santa Barbara Channel. The Coast Guard said the spill was caused by a small hole in a pipe that carries oil to the mainland from a platform owned by DCOR. As of Wednesday, all 1,100 gallons that were spilled have been recovered.

From Kelly Bush at KSBY Action 6

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December 05, 2008 TWIC Deadline Drawing Near For South Florida

MIAMI - The Coast Guard urges maritime workers who have not yet applied for a Transportation Worker Identification Credential to apply as soon as possible before unescorted access to U.S.-regulated waterfront terminals in South Florida including the ports and terminals of Palm Beach, Fla., Fort Pierce, Fla., Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Miami, and the Miami River is prohibited.

Beginning Jan. 13, 2009, maritime workers including terminal employees, longshoremen, truck drivers, agents and contractors must have a TWIC to gain unescorted access to secure areas of any waterfront terminal regulated by the Coast Guard under the Maritime Transportation Security Act.

It can take four to six weeks from the time of enrollment to the time that an applicant receives their TWIC, so maritime workers need to enroll as soon as possible to meet the Jan. 13 enforcement date.

“TWIC will serve as an important layer of security to safeguard the maritime transportation system,” said Capt. Jim Fitton, commander of Coast Guard Sector Miami and Captain of the South Florida Ports. “It is important that people enroll now so that we do not see impacts to employees or the local economy when enforcement begins in South Florida in January.”

Enforcement of TWIC is being implemented in stages throughout the country to avoid a rush to enroll. The Jan. 13 deadline applies to all Coast Guard regulated terminals from Fenholloway River, Fla., southward to Key West, Fla., on the west coast of Florida and continuing northward to include Melbourne Beach, Fla., on the east coast of Florida. To date, more than 590,000 people nationwide have applied for a TWIC.

Starting Jan. 13, terminal or facility security personnel will verify that everyone entering facilities regulated under 33 CFR 105 possesses a TWIC, and may turn away those without valid identification. While the new regulations allow people without TWIC cards to be escorted onto facilities under certain conditions, individuals should not expect security personnel to be available to conduct escorts.

The Coast Guard will be responsible for enforcing TWIC rules, and will be assisted by facility owners, port police and other federal, state and local partners to achieve the security goals of the program. To ensure that all port facilities are complying with the TWIC requirements, Coast Guard and other law-enforcement agencies will conduct routine inspections and random spot checks.

Violations of the TWIC regulations range from on-site education and correction to letters of warning to civil penalties up to $25,000 per violation per day. In addition, operations could be secured at a particular facility depending on the situation.

TWIC Enrollment Centers

To view additional information regarding TWIC, visit the USCG Homeport web site
or the TSA web site.

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December 04 , 2008 Cruise Ship Attacked By Pirates Now Docked

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December 03 , 2008 Pirates Use Grenades Not Swords

The pirates who pursued and opened fire on a U.S. cruise ship off the Somali coast earlier this week bear little resemblance to the swashbuckling buccaneers made popular by Johnny Depp in the role of Captain Jack Sparrow.

Instead of sailing the Caribbean wearing eye patches and gold hoop earrings, looking for ships to loot and burn, these modern day crooks troll the heavily traveled Gulf of Aden in search of vessels they can hijack for ransom money.

And their weapons are a lot more sophisticated than a hook in place of a hand or a sword.

"They have AK 47s and rocket grenade launchers," says John Kimball, an attorney at Blank Rome LLC and an NYU law professor with an expertise in maritime law. "Most of them are very poor people who are recruited to work on these boats, which are very fast."

In the instance of the American cruise ship, fortunately, their boats weren't fast enough. The M/S Nautica, which was sailing along a corridor patrolled by international warships, increased its speed and outran the six pirates in two speedboats.

The pirates reportedly fired eight shots at the liner, which was on a 32-day voyage from Rome to Singapore. "If [the ship] had been captured, you would have had 1,000 people under the pirates and it would have been a real mess," Kimball says. "The captain of the Nautica was able to outrun them and he did a great job."

The incidence of piracy is up dramatically, says Richard DeSimone, president of Travelers Ocean Marine, an insurance company with offices in New York.

"There has been a significant spike in Somalia with more than 100 incidents in the Gulf of Aden alone," DeSimone says. "It's driven by economic circumstances in Somalia. And it is good business for the pirates. They don't have a lot to lose."

Typically these well-armed, well-organized pirates are former fishermen who say their livelihoods have been destroyed by foreign vessels fishing illegally in Somali waters. Dressed in military fatiques, they use satellite phones, GPS equipment and anti-tank rocket launchers. Posing a threat to cruise and cargo ships, they can get a ransom of around $2 million for a vessel captured in the Gulf of Aden, a vital link between Europe and Asia.

The increasingly brazen attacks of the last six months have come about as the pirates have successfully gotten the ransom they demand.

"Success breeds success," says Kimball. "They have had a great deal of success and it is a low risk job."

Edward Chupack, author of a pirate book entitled "Silver," sees a major difference between these 21st-century pirates and the seafaring rogues of the 1700s. "These pirates aren't killing their hostages or burning ships," he says. "They just want money."

The United Nations Security Council has passed a resolution enabling states cooperating with Somalia's transitional federal government to enter the country's territorial waters and use "all necessary means" to "stop piracy and armed robbery at sea, in a manner consistent with international law."

And ships are starting to protect themselves by employing private security firms and the use of water cannons, both of which can be effective deterrents.

"If pirates see a ship with security, they are likely to back away," Chupack says. "There are plenty of other ships out there."

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