Breaking the mould
US ports continue to be firmly wedded to and dependant on the alliance of 14 marine exchanges that cover 85% of national vessel movement details.
The business model is simple and direct – they are all non-profit, no tax payer or government money is involved and they depend almost entirely on revenue from customers for funding. They have a quasi-official status, with the Coast Guard (often referred to as the Fifth Branch of the military) relying on their information.
Southern California is the busiest region, extending from San Diego to Port Hueneme. The Los Angeles/Long Beach sector monitors 80 movements a day, of which about 30 are commercial and the rest general harbour traffic and private vessels. Yearly operating cost is $2.4m for the 19 staff.
The 14 exchanges link themselves into MISNA (Maritime Information Services of North America) and have developed their own proprietary systems because of the need to adapt them to particular uses. As an example, Portland in Oregon is also responsible for fire fighting on the Columbia River and has to include that function in its information distribution.
Southern California has developed a proprietary programme called MARIS. There are hopes for selling it domestically and internationally, but a formal marketing effort has not yet been set up.
Vessel automatic identification systems provide the most important information for the service, with Southern California able to monitor traffic from 100 nautical miles out. “AIS is the most important feature of our Vessel Traffic Service, however our maritime information, used for our reports, is derived strictly in house from our customers. This, plus access to Coast Guard hard copy vessel movement information, we share. Together with our Vessel Traffic partnership this is primarily responsible for how smoothly the system works,” says Richard McKenna, executive director at Marine Exchange of Southern California.
Discrepancies in arrival and movement are flagged instantly. Mr McKenna says an indication of just how well the system works is shown by the fact no vessels in the last seven to eight years have had to be ordered to anchor outside the 12 mile limit off Southern California for breaking the 96 hour rule of arrival notification.
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