BARRY PARKER Image: patrolling oil terminal.jpg MAIN HEAD Security - the latest DECK HEAD Our New York correspondent Barry Parker reports on the rush to comply with ISPS code and improve maritime security around the world BODY Shipping companies have been working flat out to prepare for the implementation of the ISPS Code on July 1. The Coast Guard will check ISPS compliance for all non-US vessels, boarding them, either at anchorage or at their berth, on their first U.S. call after July 1. Information contained in advanced notices of arrival, regarding previous ports of call and ISSC (International Ship Security Certificate) status, will be considered by the Coast Guard, along with intelligence that may be available through a beefed up inter-agency information sharing program. The boarding may be merely perfunctory, but the Coast Guard may be taking a closer look at a vessel's security status, especially when it has come in from a non-compliant port. SUBHEAD Reporting your arrival With more importance placed on the advanced Notices Of Arrival (a-NOA), the U.S. Coast Guard has been working to streamline the process of submitting them. Shortly after its inception in late 2001, the Coast Guard's National Vessel Movements Center (NVMC) provided a MS Excel template of its notice form that could be submitted in the form of an email attachment. Still, ungainly cargo lists and crewlists were included in required submissions to the Coast Guard, which was duplicative of requirements to forward manifests to Customs and crew lists to Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). In December 2003, Customs (by then, re-named "Bureau of Customs and Border Protection", or CBP) set down rules whereby it would be the recipient of the cargo manifest, with submitters to work through a electronic system called Automatic Manifest System (AMS). Around the same time, in late 2003, the NVMC (National Vessel Movements Centre) began accepting web based submissions through its website at www.nvmc.uscg.gov, after abandoning an earlier attempt to promulgate a PC based application for submitting advanced notices. Prior to 9/11, owners or their agents would notify local Coast Guard offices of a vessel's pending arrival in a 24 hour time window. But security concerns have completely changed the process. Over the past three years, the old U.S. Customs, the old Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the Coast Guard have been joined in the newly formed Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and finally the information flows will more closely mirror the boxes in the re-jiggered DHS org chart. The actual rules, which require carriers to post bonds with CBP (rather than working through an agents bond) can be found in the Code of Federal Regulations at 33 CFR part 160 (Coast Guard) and 19 CFR part 4 (CBP). In late April 2004, the NVMC updated an XML schema and Business Rules, released a month earlier, that will enable applications developers, maritime exchanges and shipowners (who may find it more efficient to centralize all their submissions) to create electronic submissions that conform to the new rules. The CBP submissions to AMS (including the Form 1302) will go to the appropriate office in CBP, either directly or through a third party service. Crew and passenger lists, using the same data inputs that are presently found on the electronic form I-418, will go directly to the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard, which conducts inspections of vessels transporting hazardous cargo, requires vessels to notify them about "certain dangerous cargo". Meantime, another US Government initiative, the Transportation Worker Identity Card (TWIC), has continued forward. SUBHEAD Straits of Malacca A major battle in the war between maritime security and territorial sovereignty was being fought during April over the Straits of Malacca, a hotbed for piracy. At issue were reports that U.S. Navy Admiral Thomas Fargo, who commands the Pacific operations for the U.S. military, said that U.S. forces would be positioned in the narrow Straits to assist in interdicting pirates, drug traffickers and terrorists. Admiral Fargo allegedly told a U.S. Senate Budget committee that the U.S. would deploy personnel from the Marines and Special Forces on high-speed boats. After a firestorm of opposition from Malaysia (which borders the waterway along with Indonesia), US interests back-peddled, blaming the Press for mis-quoting the Admiral. Nevertheless, with numerous sensitive cargoes, including LNG, moving through the Straits, there is a fear that the terrorists will copy with the techniques of the pirates. As usual, the political questions are far more vexing, preventing an intelligent implementation of technologies that can help protect against maritime terrorism. The immediacy and intensity of the flap over Admiral Fargo's alleged remarks underscore the unease and outright suspicion, in the Region about an ongoing programme of cooperation between the US and the Asean nations- the Regional Maritime Security Initiative (RMSI). Still on the drawing boards, technologies will play a key role as RMSI is built out. In a speech at a Military Operations conference early in May 2004, Admiral Fargo described the project as a "collective effort will empower each participating nation with the timely information and capabilities it needs to act against maritime threats in its own territorial seas. As always, each nation will have to decide for itself what response, if any, it will take in its own waters." He went on to explain that "information sharing will also contribute to the security of international seas, creating an environment hostile to terrorism and other criminal activities." In the same speech, he outlined the key aspects of the RMSI, many of which echo the conversations that were heard in the halls of Coast Guard HQ in 2002 and 2003. - Increased situational awareness and information sharing - Responsive decision-making architectures - Maritime interdiction capabilities - Littoral security - Inter-agency cooperation The RMSI will also raise the usual questions of unilateral actions (ie one country, or here, a region) versus multi-lateral consensus (ie waiting for the IMO's lugubrious processes). One must also question whether the U.S. Navy and one or two like-minded ASEAN partners would, in a pinch (ie with an ongoing incident) really have the patience to construct a carefully architected information scheme in the overly non-transparent arena. Even though Admiral Fargo was initially focusing on the potential role of AIS as a security device (as other political newbies to the world of ship tracking have done), a proper team building effort would seek a more important role for existing vessel tracking systems in the area, for example the Singapore Marine and Port Authority's (MPA) VTIS around since 1990. A more vexing question concerns the potential role for the STRAITREP system implemented jointly in 1998 by Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, where ships are required to report in via VHF. Consider also that the World Bank is developing a Marine Electronic Highway in the Straits (with cooperation from Intertanko and others!), raising a further question of how any RMSI initiatives would interface with quasi-governmental efforts. SUBHEAD Iraq oil terminals In late April, a handful of U.S. service personnel from the Navy and Coast Guard were killed as suicide bombers blew up an explosive laden boat that had been challenged during a security patrol, protecting Iraq's export oil terminals at Khawr Al Amaya and Basrah. The U.S. Navy has now set up a multi-tiered zone extending 5000 meters (approximately 3 nautical miles) outward from the terminals. Vessels inbound to the terminals will need to notify the Navy of identities and intentions, prior to entering the inner zone, extending 2000 meters outward. Means of notification will likely include VHF radio contacts. According to the Navy, "If vessels ignore warnings , coalition forces will destroy suspect vessels before they are able to threaten the terminals." RELEVANT WEBSITES Admiral Fargo's speech http://www.pacom.mil/speeches/sst2004/040503milops.shtml National Vessel Movement Center http://www.nvmc.uscg.gov/