Passenger Ferries Could Be Prime Terrorist Targets

Nov 12, 2003 12:00 PM, Paul Rothman

Large passenger ferries, such as the ones that carry citizens between Manhattan and Staten Island, N.Y., pose the greatest risk of terrorism in maritime transportation, the U.S. Coast Guard and Department of Homeland Security warn.

According to a Coast Guard study, large ferries received the highest risk assessment score among 80 maritime terrorist scenarios, tying with a ship carrying hazardous cargo near an urban area. Large passenger ferries pose the greatest terrorist risk in maritime transportation because they confine several thousand people in one space far from land and have little or no passenger screening.

Even before the risk assessment, however, the Coast Guard was taking steps to shore up security aboard passenger ferries. First, a 100-yard security zone — which routinely applies to tankers and military vessels — was expanded to include passenger vessels more than 100 feet long.

“It’s additional security so people feel safer on the ferries,” Coast Guard spokesman Robert Lanier says of the security zones. “The main thing we’re looking for is any malicious activity within 100 yards of ferries.”

When interim Coast Guard regulations requiring new security precautions on maritime vessels were released in September, more technology was brought into the picture. Ferry operators are now required to design their own security plans, and will be expected to have them implemented by next summer.

The interim regulations (see chart at right), require installation of closed-circuit television monitoring and other electronic-surveillance hardware to view passengers on vessels.

“We have to come up with ways of deterring attacks on these vessels without completely stopping traffic, and that is a challenge,” Capt. Kevin Dale, the Coast Guard’s chief of port and vessel safety, says. There are two U.S. ferry systems considered “large” by the Coast Guard: The Staten Island ferry system and the Washington State Ferry —each system includes boats that carry more than 2,000 people. An average of 62,000 people a day — 22 million a year — ride the five-mile, 25-minute route between Staten Island and lower Manhattan. The Coast Guard rules will have an impact on residents and travelers in other states with significant ferry service, including California, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Maine.

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