USCG Port Security Advisory 2-10

Background: The Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 (MTSA) has mandated that the United States Coast Guard evaluate the effectiveness of anti-terrorism measures in foreign ports and provides for the imposition of conditions of entry on vessels arriving to the United States from countries that do not maintain effective anti-terrorism measures (MTSA, 46 USC § 70108). The Coast Guard has determined that the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste is the most recent country not maintaining effective anti-terrorism measures in its ports. Actions required as listed in paragraphs C and D of this Port Security Advisory take effect for vessels that arrive in the United States on or after March 29, 2010, after visiting ports in the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste as one of the their last five ports of call. Actions Required by Vessels Visiting Countries Affected -All vessels arriving to the United States that visited the countries listed in paragraph B of Port Security Advisory 2-10 (with exceptions noted) during their last five port calls must take actions 1 through 5 listed below while in the countries listed in paragraph B as a condition of entry into U.S. ports: 1. Implement measures per the ship's security plan equivalent to Security Level 2; 2. Ensure that each access point to the ship is guarded and that the guards have total visibility of the exterior (both landside and waterside) of the vessel. Guards may be: · Provided by the ship's crew, however, additional crew members should be placed on the ship if necessary to ensure that limits on maximum hours of work are not exceeded and/or minimum hours of rest are met, or · Provided by outside security forces approved by the ship's Master and Company Security Officer. 3. Attempt to execute a Declaration of Security; 4. Log all security actions in the ship's log; and 5. Report actions taken to the cognizant U.S. Coast Guard Captain of the Port prior to arrival in the U.S. Actions to be Taken by USCG -Vessels that visited the countries listed in paragraph B of Port Security Advisory 01-09 (with exceptions noted) during their last five port calls will be boarded or examined by the Coast Guard to ensure the vessel took the required actions. Failure to properly implement the actions listed above may result in delay or denial of entry into the United States. Actions Required by Vessels in U.S. Ports -Based on the findings of the Coast Guard boarding or examination, the vessels subject to the conditions of entry in paragraph B may be required to ensure that each access point to the ship is guarded by armed security guards and that they have total visibility of the exterior (both landside and waterside) of the vessel while in U.S. ports. The number and location of the guards must be acceptable to the cognizant U.S. Coast Guard Captain of the Port. -For those vessels that have demonstrated good security compliance and can document that they took the measures called for above, the armed security guard requirement will normally be waived. For Additional Information -For a complete list of the countries and ports subject to these additional measures please see paragraph B of Port Security Advisory 2-10 which can be downloaded by clicking the previous link of visiting the USCG Homeport website: http://homeport.uscg.mil/mycg/portal/ep/home.do. -For general inquiries regarding this subject, please do not hesitate to contact us at inquiry@obriensrm.com.