Page 26: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2002)

Maritime Security

Additional Funding Urged for Port Security

U.S. public port authorities discussed the need for Federal legislation and con- tinued Federal funding for maritime security. Urging Congress to appropriate additional funds for Fiscal Year '03 dur- ing their Legislative Policy Council (LPC) meeting on September 23, 2002, port authorities met recently at the 91st

Annual Convention of the American

Association of Port Authorities (AAPA), at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach,

Ha.

John A. Flaherty, Chief of Staff of the

Department of Transportation, said that ports have an historic opportunity to influence reauthorization of the Trans- portation Efficiency Act (TEA 21) next year, when the current legislation expires in September. TEA 21, AIR 21, and Amtrak reauthorization will be debated at the same time. The House

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Appropriations Transportation Subcom- mittee also approved $150 million for port security grants in Fiscal Year (FY)'03 appropriations, with the full

Appropriations Committee taking action on September 26. Earlier this year the

Senate approved $100 million to contin- ue the port security grant program in

FY'03. The Administration recently agreed to reprogram additional funding of $125 million in port security grants for FY '02.

Procedures for Detaining

Crewmembers on Board

The U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S.

Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) have developed a Standard Oper- ating Procedure (SOP) for identifying crewmembers on board vessels coming to U.S. ports who need to be detained on board during the port call and for taking steps to ensure that those crewmembers remain on board and depart with the vessel. Under this policy, which is scheduled to come into effect in

Delaware Bay, Chesapeake Bay, and

Savannah on October 28, 2002, the

USCG will share crewmember data from the Advance Notice of Arrival with the INS. The organization will then determine whether any or all crewmem- bers should be detained on board. If so, the USCG will order the vessel to remain at least three n.m. offshore until the vessel submits a crewmember secu- rity plan that is acceptable to the INS.

Limburg Probe to be

Carried Out Jointly

The Yemen Government released a

Statement on October 10, 2002, reveal- ing that the Yemeni and French investi- gations into the incident on the French oil tanker Limburg are to conducted jointly. The IMO will send an expert to help assess the environmental effects of the oil spill.

At the Briefing of October 10 con- ducted by the U.S. Department of State, the spokesman said that "terrorism has not been ruled out as a possible cause."

In a related development, MarAd issued an Advisory warning of non-specific threats, apparently by al Qaeda leaders, against U.S. economic interests.

Mariners are advised to be on a height- ened state of alert and U.S. vessels required to file AMVER reports and operating in the North Arabian Sea, Gulf of Oman, Persian Gulf, Gulf of Aden,

Red Sea, and the Suez Canal are reminded to file position reports every 24 hours vice every 48 hours.

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