09-02-2010
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Junior Member
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Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 8
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I wouldn't go quite so far as to say this could lead to an enemy navy taking hold of the AIS system and causing havoc on the high seas. Although AIS is a very useful tool for collision avoidance, it is secondary to other methods. Having all those screens, monitors and displays available is all well and good, but don't forget to take a look out the window every once in a while.
Yet another black eye for the Coast Guard is more the point. IMO the Coast Guard should be ashamed of the way they carry out their mission. They have completely knuckled under to industry pressure and are allowing commercial carriers to get away with murder. Further, their own day-to-day role in enforcing Homeland Security and the Maritime Transportation Security Act is becoming more and more cumbersome and ineffective.
When all is said and done, inadvertently reprogramming AIS transceivers is not that big a deal and can be rectified with no long-term harm or expense. But it is another slip-up in a long list of poor performances.
There's no end to the discussion about safety or lack thereof with recreational boating. Much of the lack of safety with recreational boating can be passed off to individual states, but not all of it. When was the last time you were out on the water and said, "Who let that crazy person behind the wheel of a boat?" Today? Yesterday? The Coast Guard has just as much a role in implementing and enforcing safety standards as individual states do.
And then there are many more chapters about Coast Guard carelessness on the water causing death, injury or damage when they are supposed to be setting the example.
The entire branch needs a good clean sweeping out, starting right at the top.
(HighSeasHarry is a professional mariner who also loves to get out there and race sailboats around the buoys on Saturday afternoon.)
Last edited by HighSeasHarry; 09-03-2010 at 12:00 AM.
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