Small Boat threat along the US coast

[walrus]

Initially the government considered creating a federal license for recreational boat operators, but that informal proposal was immediately shot down by boating organizations. Coast Guard and homeland security officials have toured the country in the past year to sound out the boating industry and its enthusiasts. While the government insists there will be no federal license, the strategy suggests that the government consider registering and regulating recreational boats.

There are about 18 million small boats in the country, contributing to a $39.5 billion industry, according to a 2006 estimate from the National Marine Manufacturers Association.

Fetterman and his officers regularly get intelligence reports about unknown or unrecognized boaters taking pictures of a bridge or measurements of a dam. But he says there just aren't enough officers on the water to address every report.

The only way to police the waterfront, says maritime security expert Stephen Flynn, "is to get as many of the participants who are part of that community to be essentially on your side." Flynn, a fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations, says treating boaters as allies rather than as a threat will go a long way.

There seems to be no limit to the stupidity and passionate hunger for power and regulation of bureaucracies the world over.

It looks like the boating community dodged a bullet with federal licencing regulations, although exactly how a licence (state or federal) is going to prevent the theft and illegal use of a vessel is beyond me. As for a Port Security Hotline, good idea, we have had one here for years.


But then again, if you lived in Australia, you would have the pleasure of paying $182.00 every two years for a new aviation security identification card, like I do, in addition to my medical and flight review, to prove that I am not about to fly my Cessna into a building, and maritime workers have the same charge visited on them every five years to prove they aren't going to run their ships into bridges.


There is no end to the potential threats to infrastructure that can come from the possession of any tool what so ever. So the threat is now a Bayliner loaded to the gunnels with C4? When are they going to regulate the possession of SUV's? Why not legislate against possession of Oxy - Acetylene welding equipment without a licence? Half an hour of undetected use of a cutting torch and most bridges, pipelines and power transmission systems are junk. Why not legislate against possession of SCUBA equipment? You can get at a ship undetected that way.

To put it another way, any article is a weapon in the hands of someone bent on doing mischief. Why single out boaters, and how is identification and licencing going to prevent illegal use? This is yet another kneejerk reaction to sooth the public, at the expense of a group of people, from a silly Department.

Every time one of these new restrictions on personal freedom is enacted, Osama Bin Laden laughs out loud.