| Office of Public Affairs U.S. Coast Guard |
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| Press Release | Date: April 3, 2007 Contact: Cmdr. Jeff Carter |
COAST GUARD MEETS SAFE PORT ACT DEADLINE
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Coast Guard announced
today that it met the April 1 deadline mandated by the SAFE Port Act of 2006 to
track all large commercial vessels within U.S. waters.
“Using the full range of classified and unclassified vessel tracking
information available to the Coast Guard, we are meeting all vessel tracking
requirements of the act,” said Adm. Thad Allen, commandant of the Coast
Guard. “Beyond the SAFE Port Act, we need
to focus our attention on closing other gaps in maritime security, including
long-range tracking of vessels outside U.S. waters and coming to grips with
potential threats posed by smaller vessels. While we have done a lot since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, we need to
build a maritime security architecture that does more than just simply react to
the last threat or terrorist event.”
The Coast Guard is working with the International Maritime Organization, the
recreational boating community, small commercial vessel operators, and others
to close existing gaps in maritime security to help keep American citizens safe
and secure.
The International Maritime Organization’s long-range identification and
tracking system will provide an unclassified system for tracking more than
40,000 ships worldwide by the end of 2008. The U.S. will be able to obtain tacking information for ships navigating
within 1,000 nautical miles of the coast under the new system.
As part of its commitment to obtain greater awareness of potential threats in
the maritime environment, the Coast Guard will be participating in a Department
of Homeland Security-sponsored small vessel security summit in Washington June
19 and 20.
“We are working with our partners to identify solutions to potential issues
surrounding the millions of smaller vessels that ply our nation’s waters, many
of which are capable of being exploited for transportation of dangerous weapons
and people from other countries, or being used as weapons,” said Dana Goward,
director of maritime domain awareness.
Information on the small vessel security summit can be found at: http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-m/mp/GMPWebpages/SVS/SVS_home2.shtml
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The U.S. Coast Guard is a military, maritime, multi-mission service within the
Department of Homeland Security dedicated to protecting the safety and security of America.
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