GSN 2014 October/November Digital Edition

UPFRONT
Ebola by Sea
BY DENISE RUCKER KREPP
Over the past several days,
governors in New York, New Jersey,
Illinois, and Connecticut issued
quarantine guidance for individuals
who’ve been in contact with African Ebola patients.
The state guidance focuses on individuals who’ve
returned to the U.S. via airplanes. At some point a
mariner is going to arrive, sick with the dangerous
disease. Unfortunately, the federal government has
yet to address this possibility and state governors
won’t be willing to wait for the bureaucratic federal
machine to churn out vague policy guidance. They’re
going to issue state guidance and this guidance could
significantly impact U.S. port operations nationwide.
The U.S. Coast Guard is the federal agency
responsible for port operations and the Coast Guard
Captain of the Port manages port operations on a dayby-day
basis. This individual can prevent a foreign flag
ship from entering a U.S. port. He or she can also require
foreign flag vessels who have ported Sierra Leone,
Guinea, and Liberia, Ebola stricken nations, to undergo
additional scrutiny before they are allowed in U.S. waters.
The agency released a marine safety information
bulletin last week that everyone in the maritime industry
should read. The bulletin recommends that “local
industry stakeholders work with the Coast Guard Captain
of the Port to review and be familiar with their Marine
Transportation System Recovery Plan.” These plans were
mandated after the 9/11 attacks and the agency issued
guidance earlier this summer on how to draft them.
As someone who doesn’t believe in re-inventing
the wheel, I strongly support using existing guidance
to address current crises. The problem in this situation
is that the recovery plans don’t address Ebola-like
catastrophes. These plans focus on terrorist attacks
and natural hazards similar to Hurricanes Katrina and
Sandy. They don’t address a ship manned with mariners
decimated by Ebola.
The Coast Guard appears to recognize the shortcomings
of the current recovery plan by recommending
in the October 22nd bulletin that the local stakeholders
“consider conducting a
table top exercise to plan
and address items such
as an evaluation of how
to handle a vessel arrival
with a suspected Ebola
case... what steps need to
be considered if a medical
evacuation is needed, and
possibly how a ship would
be decontaminated in
order to commence cargo
transfers.” Good idea.
A seaport is a finely-tuned machine. According to
the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, in 2011, 7,662
oceangoing vessels made 67, 929 calls at U.S. ports.
Time is money for vessels owners – they want to enter
a port, discharge their cargo, taken on new cargo, and
depart as fast as they can. They are not going to want
to wait for the Coast Guard Captain of the Port and local
stakeholders to decide how to address a vessel with a
suspected Ebola case.
A simple answer would be to ban all ships that have
stopped in Sierra Leone, Guinea, or Liberia in their
last five previous ports of calls. Sadly, that won’t work
because the U.S. government is sending U.S. ships to
these countries to provide food aid and medical support.
People in Ebola areas need to eat and U.S. grown crops
are helping them to survive. It would immoral to stop
shipping food to those in need.
If the U.S. can’t ban all ships that have ported in
Ebola-stricken countries, then the U.S. Coast Guard must
develop a more comprehensive plan to address the
possibility of Ebola victims arriving in the U.S. by sea. The
agency can’t merely recommend that local stakeholders
conduct table top exercises. These exercises should be
mandatory and the Coast Guard must be ready to provide
substantive guidance.
Keeping in mind that several governors have already
issued isolation guidance for air travelers, the Coast Guard
must work the governors now to address the maritime
sector. How are sick mariners evacuated? At sea via
helicopter or a smaller vessel? At the port by ambulance?
How is the vessel decontaminated? How and when are
the necessary personnel going to be trained to carry
out the evacuation and decontamination procedures?
What happens to the other in-coming vessels during the
decontamination process? If the Coast Guard can’t answer
these questions, the state governors will because they
won’t their ports contaminated with the Ebola virus. Ports
bring in revenue and the revue can’t drop.
The Coast Guard prides itself on being Semper
Paratus. Now, more than ever, it must live up to its motto.
The nation’s ports can’t be shut down because of Ebola
and they won’t be if the Coast Guard develops more
comprehensive guidance before the first ship arrives.
Pre-planning with local stakeholders, including governors,
will ensure that the country’s supply chain continues to
operate. Call your local Captain of the Port and ask him
or her to schedule the table top exercise. Ω
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