The National Maritime Security Advisory Committee (NMSAC) from March 3-4 conducted its first meeting in Alexandria, Va.The conference partly served as a get-acquainted forum for the newly created body’s 20 charter members, including Bill Eglinton, director of training at the SIU-affiliated Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education in Piney Point, Md. Several top officials from Department of Homeland Security agencies including the U.S. Coast Guard also were in attendance.
A series of briefings then took center stage. Presentations were given on the Commercial Operations Advisory Committee, Sector Coordinating Councils, and credentials. The status of the nation’s ports, towing issues to include towing vessel inspections, and probable agendas for future International Maritime Organization meetings also were addressed.
Several noteworthy facts surfaced during the presentations involving U.S. ports:
There are 3, 500 different port facilities in the United States.An estimated 9,500 American-flag vessels (inspected and uninspected) utilize these ports annually.Some 8,000 foreign-flag vessels also enter and exit these same ports on a yearly basis.These ports account for about $750 billion to the U.S. economy each year.The committee formed the following four working groups: credentialing, communications, immigration and consistency.
The DHS in January established the NMSAC under the U.S. Coast Guard. Its mission is to provide advice to the DHS via the Coast Guard on matters such as national maritime security strategy and policy, actions required to meet current and future security threats, international cooperation on security issues, and security concerns of the maritime transportation industry as mandated by the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002.
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