By Mark Edward Nero
A group of US maritime and intelligence agencies have devised a new US Maritime Advisory System that they say establishes a single federal process to expeditiously provide maritime threat information to maritime industry stakeholders, including vessels at sea.
The US Maritime Administration, in partnership with the US Departments of State, Defense, Justice, Transportation, and Homeland Security, as well as the intelligence community, and maritime industry stakeholders played a part in the development of the system.
MarAd says that the new US Maritime Advisory System streamlines, consolidates and replaces maritime threat information previously disseminated in three separate government agency instruments: Special Warnings, MarAd Advisories, and global maritime security related Marine Safety Information Bulletins.
This new system establishes for the first time, a single, whole-of-government maritime security notification mechanism, and represents the most significant update to the issuance of U.S. government maritime security alerts and advisories since 1939, according to MarAd.