Multiple agencies are collaborating at local, state, provincial, federal, tribal and international levels to protect the shared maritime space along the boundary between Washington State and British Columbia.
Article by Edward Lundquist
Reposted with permission from SEAPOWER, the official magazine of the Navy League of the United States
Canada and the United States have implemented close working relationships to promote the safe and secure movement of vessels, protect the maritime space they share and prevent the movement of criminals along the 125-mile-long international maritime boundary between Washington State and British Columbia.
Both U.S. and Canadian agencies are sharing radar information, intelligence and even patrols on the water to enforce the laws of both countries while maintaining safety and security in Puget Sound. Key players include the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
According to Mark Ashley, director of the U.S. Coast Guard Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) in Puget Sound, Wash., the Port of Puget Sound is one of the most complex in the United States.
“There are 12 VTSs in the United States. The other 11 can easily fit within the geographic size of the port complex that we have here that we’re managing,” he said. “We manage 640 daily movements of vessels that are required to participate with us. Those are the ones that are required to make active radio reports and exchange information. That’s about 233,000 a year, a pretty significant number.
“The size of the port is 3,500 square miles of water. That’s larger than some East Coast states. The com plexity of the waterway and all the different activity that occurs on the waterway is such that the VTS can help instill order and predictability in the flow of all of that traffic,” Ashley said. “Cruise ships, tank vessels, container ships, bulk vessels, naval submarines, tugs and tows, fishing vessels that go to and from Alaska, 1.2 million recreational vessels registered in the State of Washington, 14 different tribal nations that are all fishing at the same time, in addition to the state regulated fisheries, and on and on and on. Plus, the largest ferry system in the nation that has nearly 500 movements a day.
“Although our primary purpose is navigation safety, we assist in all 11 Coast Guard statutory mission areas. So that includes law enforcement, search and rescue, marine environmental protection and response, and all of our homeland security functions — all while supporting our sector command center. We are often the eyes and ears of our Captain of the Port, and see things and hear things that maybe don’t make sense, and so we will communicate immediately with those on watch in our command center, and do what we can to work together to address that situation,” he said.
“The San Juan Islands and the Strait of Juan de Fuca encompasses approximately 300 named islands and 700 square nautical miles of water border that we patrol. It’s such a vast area that you can’t do it by yourself,” said Michael Hoffman of the U.S. CBP Office of Air and Marine in Bellingham, Wash.
While VTS is focused on safety of navigation and efficiency of the port, there are other eyes watching for illicit traffic.
“We can see what the Coast Guard’s VTS sees, but they’re looking for large ships to ensure safe navigation. It’s not a small boat detection system,” Hoffman said.
He said there is considerable coordination even with his own agency. The Office of Field Operations monitors the ports of entry, such as the land border crossing just up the road at Blaine. There is also the U.S. Border Patrol, which patrols the land border between the ports of entry. The Office of Air and Marine at Bellingham includes the air branch, with fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, and a marine branch equipped with high-speed boats. The CBP marine branch conducts patrols with 38-foot SAFE Boats International Interceptors with four 300-horsepower Mercury engines, and can achieve speeds of 50-plus knots.
“We have the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations Border Enforcement Security Team co-located with us here in Bellingham. It’s a Homeland Security-led investigative team made up from multiple agencies. We work directly with them with maritime investigations,” Hoffman said. “We also have a direct link with the CBP Air and Marine Operations Center — the AMOC — in Riverside, Calif. They’re watch ing the big picture, and they have analysts and field operators. If they identify something questionable in our area, they call us and we check it out.
“One of the unique things about this area is the bidirectional nature of the smuggling,” Hoffman said. “There is cocaine, currency and firearms that are transiting north. Over the years, we’ve had ‘B.C. bud’ marijuana coming south, and a lot of MDMA/ecstasy production in British Columbia that’s coming this way.”
The U.S. Coast Guard and CBP and RCMP all conduct maritime patrols in the area, but crossboundary investigations are hindered by the fact that law enforcement officers lose their peace officer status if they leave their jurisdictions. Organized crime groups are aware of these limitations and use this to their advantage to evade arrest and sub sequent prosecution when trafficking contraband across the border.
But that advantage may be coming to an end.
“We’ve been engaged in cooperation, coordination and collaboration for a long time. We’ve taken it to the next level: integration,” said Inspector Andris Zarins, officer-incharge of the Federal Coordination Center-Canada/United States of the RCMP, in Ottawa.
Shiprider
“We see the key as being the integrated model. The best example is Shiprider, with vessels that are jointly crewed by specially trained and designated U.S. and Canadian personnel,” Zarins said.
The Shiprider program employs cross-designated officers to patrol the shared waterways between the U.S. and Canada, while other initiatives, such as Integrated Border Enforcement Teams and Border Enforcement Security Task Forces, support joint investigations and law enforcement action at and between ports of entry.
Shiprider is one of the initiatives established by the Beyond-the-Border Action Plan, a set of joint initiatives to increase security and expedite trade between the U.S. and Canada. Referred to as “A Shared Vision for Perimeter Security and Economic Competitiveness,” it was signed by President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in February 2011.
According to Zarins, while there are other agencies involved, the main players are the RCMP and the U.S. Coast Guard. The central authorities responsible for the direction, management and implementation of Shiprider are the Coast Guard commandant and the RCMP commissioner. Designated officers are able to respond to and interdict criminal activities on either side of the border.
“The borders on our shared waterways have been eliminated,” Zarins said. “If we’re interested in somebody and they cross the border, they can’t give us the slip. We can enforce the laws of both countries.”
While CBP does not participate in Shiprider, there is close coordination.
“We coordinate on a daily basis with Coast Guard, and the Shiprider patrols with Coast Guard and RCMP, to determine area coverage,” Hoffman said. “We either support and overlap their coverage, or independently schedule our patrols to allow for more coverage.”
The present method is to have a Canadian and U.S. boat exchange designated personnel at sea.
“We’ll meet up at a pre-arranged spot, we’ll swap officers,” said Chief Warrant Officer Chris Robinson, commanding officer of Coast Guard Station Bellingham, which operates Shiprider on the American side. “We usually keep the U.S. asset on the U.S. side of the border, with the Canadian asset maintaining more of a presence on the Canadian side. If we have a target of interest on the U.S. side that’s failing to stop, we can pursue it toward Canada without getting any permissions.”
One of the keys to the success of the Shiprider Program is the mandatory training that has been jointly developed and delivered by the Coast Guard and RCMP.
“It’s become a new mission for the Coast Guard, and it’s a new set of certifications and qualifications that members have to meet,” said Robinson.
The eight-day Shiprider course is taught at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, located in Charleston, S.C., at the site of the former Charleston Naval Base. The class instruction includes roles and responsibilities, legislative frameworks, information sharing and the use of force. It ensures that there is a clear understanding of the rights under the U.S. Constitution and Canadian Charter.
“We study the framework agreement, U.S. and Canadian law; the 4th and 5th Amendments [to the U.S. Constitution] and the Canadian counterpart to that; and people’s rights and searches. We cover Coast Guard inspection pro cedures and the Canada Shipping Act. This way, we see the way the other side does it and kind of practice it and get a feel for it,” said Boatswain’s Mate 1st Class Jacob Her man son, a Shiprider-qualified crew leader at Bellingham.
The training then shifts to scenarios on various platforms during which there are simulated boardings conducted by joint crews of Coast Guard and RCMP personnel. “We do a lot of mock boardings,” Hermanson said.
“The scenarios are pretty realistic.”
Intelligence-led
Better situational awareness and intelligence allows patrols to be more efficient and effective — and intelligence-led. The ability to identify threats early allows for an integrated and joint response.
“Patrols are great for establishing presence, but we base our activity on intelligence,” Zarins said. “We have radars, sensors and other types of technology on both sides of the border. We use our fusion center and operations center to plan and direct patrols to respond to suspected threats and criminality.”
The RCMP leverages two types of operational centers that are focused on the border. The Border Integrity Operations Centre (BIOC) in British Columbia provides direct tactical direction and support to border integrity operations, and the Marine Security Operations Centres that provide broader integrated marine-related intelligence products from centers in Nova Scotia, British Columbia and Ontario.
A BIOC is a fully functioning command and control center from which on-water operations are directed, supported and monitored. This includes database queries, confirmation of exact locations of vessels for the purpose of determining country of jurisdiction, advising partner agencies and situational awareness.
The BIOC includes staff from partner agencies so that quick and direct lines of communication are available. Intelligence and information obtained from vessel boardings are captured and either processed or appropriately forwarded for such processing.
“We have good sensor coverage — and we share as much as can legally be exchanged. The sensor data can be back-hauled to wherever you want it” Zarins said. “There’s some overlap, and there are some shadows, but these gaps are being addressed.”
Ashley said there are 12 VTS radars within the Puget Sound area of responsibility. A total of five U.S. radars and three Canadian radars look over the international boundary area. Those radars were established to de tect and track VTS participants, which are typically larger vessels. So those radars are configured to detect and track large VTS participants at ranges of 12 to 14 nautical miles.
The Terma Scanter radars used for VTS in Puget Sound could be readily upgraded to provide better resolution, according to Jim Moore, Terma North America’s vice president of Command, Control & Sensors.
“The present radars can be configured to track both large and small targets or long range or close-in, depending on what you are looking for, but generally you have one set of criterion and optimize the settings for that. The newer solid-state radars will perform in all of those roles simultaneously without having to adjust settings. In addition, the resolution and clutter suppression features are greatly improved making it possible to discern even smaller targets in high-clutter situations,” he said.
“Our major mission is navigation safety,” Ashley said. “We provide advisories and information to allow the person operating the vessel — the master, the pilot — to make their own on-scene decisions based on what they see, based on their knowledge of the operating characteristics of that vessel and based on the international collision regulations. We always monitor a vessel’s progress to ensure safety, and will intervene only when necessary.
“We communicate by radio on our own VTS frequency, but we’re also listening on Channel 13, which is the bridge-to-bridge navigation safety frequency, and expecting to hear appropriate passing arrangements. If we don’t, then we have authority in our regulations to recommend, and in rare circumstances we can also direct,” he said.
Forty times a year, we direct the movement of vessels. Forty times a year, we can say we averted a collision or a grounding of a vessel in Puget Sound, and you didn’t read about it in the paper,” Ashley said. “That’s the big takeaway for the public and for the value of our service.”
