Page 11: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (September 2017)

on enforcement of marine accident reporting. an emphasis on timeliness. The Coast Guard reports should be redacted prior to posting,

Recommendations

As a result, the Coast Guard has been de- The Coast Guard should devote more ef- should also get its reports of marine casualty but the redaction should be accomplished layed in identifying the causes of accidents, fort toward completion of marine casualty investigations posted on the Internet immedi- in a timely manner. Quality control efforts initiating corrective actions, and providing investigations in a timely manner. Part of ately after ? nal action has been taken by the should be continued so as to ensure that ma- the ? ndings and lessons learned to mariners, the problem is undoubtedly due to resource Commandant. New reports should be written rine casualty investigations and the reports the public, and other government entities. At constraints, but a signi? cant issue is the en- so that privacy information (such as names of same accomplish their principal purpose: the time of the report, there were more than tire lack of any direction or guidance placing and addresses) is in a separate appendix. Old enhancement of marine safety. 6,000 open marine casualty investigations in the Coast Guard system. A number of the de? ciencies identi? ed in the 2013 report had also been identi? ed in the 2008 report.

Practice

The Coast Guard posted a document enti- tled “Marine Casualty Reports 1904 – 2012”.

This 13-page document contains links to 333 marine casualty reports over the 65 year pe- riod. One casualty, that of the fatal ? re on passenger vessel General Slocum, occurred in 1904. The next oldest report dates from 1947, evidencing a gap of 43 years. Of the remaining 332 reports, 156 occurred in the 1950s.

The document includes a link to the Coast

Guard’s MISLE database. This database al- lows one to search for marine casualties in the IIR ? le. Such a search though yields cur- sory information. And it is incomplete.

The most recent of the 333 marine casualty reports linked is that concerning the 31 De- cember 2012 grounding of the MODU Kul- luk in Alaska. That 152-page report shows a

MISLE activity number of 4509675. If one goes to the MISLE database search page and types in 4509675 in the appropriate spot, the computer states that there is no such activity report. If one types in Kulluk in the vessel name box, the search reveals eight MISLE reports. Unfortunately, none of these con- cern the 31 December 2012 grounding. Only © marekuliasz/Shutterstock one of the eight is for a report that directly relates to Kulluk and that is for the accidental discharge of ? ve gallons of hydraulic ? uid into Elliot Bay on 12 June 2012. The most recent of the eight MISLE reports is for the 8 November 2012 loss of primary steering by

LEADING THE WAY IN the offshore supply vessel Aiviq in the Arctic

Ocean while working the Kulluk’s mooring

SUBCHAPTER M SOLUTIONS system.

Each of these reports, like others in the

MISLE system, consists of two pages with

ABS provides fully integrated solutions to help owners and operators achieve and very limited factual information.

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and implemented by the Coast Guard in-

With more than 30 locations in the U.S. supported by a seasoned team of surveyors, cluded the hiring of civilian marine casualty auditors and engineers, ABS has the geographic coverage and experience to help industry investigators and establishment of National meet Subchapter M requirements.

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determine how much improvement there has been subsequently in the marine casu- alty investigation and reporting process since www.eagle.org LEADING CLASS INTO THE FUTURE complete marine casualty reports seldom are publicly posted.

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