I wanted to take this opportunity to wish you a happy and safe New Year. 2004 has come and gone with many changes in our industry. 2005 promises to be a great year in the Maritime industry, with the economy on the rebound and more tonnage moving through our ports in record numbers.

With a new year before us, it’s the appropriate time to introduce the Seebald Security Info-Gram -- our updated Security Newsletter for the Maritime Security professional. The focus of this publication will be to keep Facility, Company and Vessel Security Officers up to speed on the latest trends in our industry, including modifications to legislation, government issues, and the latest changes in Coast Guard Guidance. Our goal is to provide your security professionals with information that will assist them in evaluating how changes and trends may affect your business and industry.

One of the major problems today is the vast amount of information that is available to us. It is difficult, if not impossible, to sift through all the information and continue to perform regular work duties. If they are performing all their normal job duties, your CSO, FSO or VSO does not have the time to be sitting in front of a computer searching the Internet for changes to regulations, modifications of the Federal Register or checking internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) protocol and procedural changes, that might affect your operations. The end result could be costly in terms of time and money. The Seebald Security Info-Gram is intended to deliver that very information to you in a concise and consolidated format, allowing you and your security personnel to focus on your core business.

We welcome feedback from you -- this Info-Gram will only be outstanding if we are fulfilling our subscriber’s needs. So if you have questions, or issues that you would like addressed, please feel free to contact us. We gather and process information from numerous sources, but your input is invaluable in delivering information on the problems and issues that you deal with on a day to day basis.

We are blessed in this country to have heroes in the Armed Forces to keep us safe and secure. The ultimate sacrifices made by these folks are incredible, and I feel honored to know many of them. As they fight the terrorists overseas, we, as Maritime Security Professionals, have an obligation to keep our little piece of the U.S. border safe and secure by ensuring that no foreigners, documents or materials, that can be used by terrorists, pass through our property (33 CFR Facility). That is the goal of all these security regulations. If your FSO, CSO and VSO are all doing their jobs correctly, it is making our country a more safe and secure place to raise our families.

Please feel free to forward the Seebald Security Info-Gram to any of the 3000+ Facility Security Officers that you know. Our strength in security is if each and every one of us takes care of our own little piece of the sandbox.

-Edward Seebald
CEO Seebald & Associates

The USCG Marine Safety Office New Orleans issued a Marine Safety Bulletin advising masters and operators to be alert to stowaways trying to gain access to and hiding in rudder trunks on deep draft vessels. The COTP may require a fax from the master of ships bound for the Port of New Orleans that requires the following information: (1) That a thorough search for stowaways was conducted upon getting underway from a foreign port; (2) Whether or not stowaways were found on board; (3) Stowaway history in the past 24 months; and (4) Whether or not the rudder compartment was checked during the search. The MSO also distributed information on installation of grid work to make the rudder trunk inaccessible from outside. Note: the hassle resulting from carrying a stowaway into the United States these days far exceeds the manpower expended in conducting a thorough shipboard search for stowaways when getting underway.