GMISS 08 Summary Report

Tab 4: GMISS Summary Minutes (continued)

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Global Maritime Information Sharing Symposium

Notes from presentations and discussions

The views expressed in the symposium and in this summary are solely those of individual experts who attended the symposium, and do not necessarily reflect the analysis, views, or opinions of any individual speaker, company, consortium or U.S. government agency.

Table of Contents

Break Out Sessions

Topic #1: Law Enforcement Information Sharing in the Maritime Environment

Moderator:

Ms. Amy Shapiro, Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services

• Mr. Ed McCarroll? , Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Intelligence and Analysis provided an overview of fusion centers.
• Chief Ronald Boyd, Los Angeles Port Authority briefed on law enforcement information sharing requirements.
• Senior Supervisory Agent Donald Hosso, Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Maritime Liaison gave a presentation on law enforcement/maritime industry liaisons.
• Ms. Maureen Russell, Department of State Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) briefed on public-private partnerships.

The following main points were developed:

• FBI Maritime Liaison Agent (MLA) assigned to the Maritime Security Program (MSP) is facilitating maritime security awareness. MSP supports interaction with industry liaison thus enhancing information sharing.
• Department of State's Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) promotes security cooperation between private sector worldwide and the US government. OSAC provides an example of a collaborative engagement effort between industry and US government working effectively. In this example, the private sector uses government to work for them, generating a "best practices" approach.
• OSAC Country councils enhance the exchange of security information between the local private sector and the embassy, providing impressive breakthroughs in bringing rivals together as equitable partners in information sharing thus enhancing cooperation in regional security issues. This has parallels with what NMCO is promoting with Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) countries in its Spotlight on the Caribbean initiative.

Feed back from the participants and presenters:

• Does maritime industry have a seat at the table when decisions are made by the government, e.g. maritime stakeholders' board?
• Where is the "global" in NMCO with regard to engagement in industry information sharing?
• GMISS is a perfect setting for the exchange of ideas
• Fusion Centers are an essential element to information sharing
• Concept of making information available is the "write to release" not to classify and compartmentalize
• Collaborative information sharing promotes "best practices" approach promoting a continuous improvement environment
• Relevance: 95% of everything you touch is shipped in through a port
• Regional information collection points provide effective information from which to operate
• Problems arise from conflicting policies. Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) and Memoranda of Agreement (MOA) are tools that could help eliminate those issues

Topic #2: Regional Blue Water Information Sharing

Moderator:

CAPT Dave Torma, USN, Naval Cooperation and Guidance for Shipping (NCAGS)

• CAPT William Daily, USN, Naval Cooperation And Guidance for Shipping (NCAGS) briefed on NCAGS.
• CAPT Andy Bjork, USN, Naval Cooperation And Guidance for Shipping (NCAGS) provided an operator's perspective on Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) technology.
• LTC James Love, USA, Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF-S) gave a presentation on protecting the high seas and the military/law enforcement hand-off.

Participants discussed NCAGS' role in combating piracy and JIATF South's success rate in tracking and interdiction. Representatives from the shipping industry expressed concerns that JIATF South was not talking to the shipping community. A JIATF South representative explained a new Sector Command Center is addressing that issue.

Once representative of the commercial shipping industry expressed qualms about information sharing, posing the question "what are the minimum and maximum data essentials that business is willing to give up?"

Also addressed was the existence of many individual entities that deal with commercial ship owners, such as the Japan Ship Owners Association, the Hong Kong Owners Association, etc., followed by the recommendation that NCAGS reach out to these entities.

Topic #3: Industry and Maritime Information Sharing

Moderator:

ADM Harry Ulrich, USN (Ret.), Executive Vice President International Security Affairs Practice, Enterra Solutions

CAPT Curtis Dubay, USCG, Coast Guard Maritime Domain Awareness Program provided a brief introduction to Coast Guard information sharing initiatives, including the following points:

• Coast Guard information sharing is all about safety, security, and commerce.
• It is local, national and international
• The National Response Center role continues to grow.
• The CG is now a member of the International Trade Data System (ITDS).
• The problems facing information sharing are the policy issues not the technology.
• Feedback from the industry will be incorporated into the Coast Guard's Architecture Enterprise with transparency of the feedback available to all member partners through the Coast Guard's Home Port Web site.

LT John Taylor, USCG, briefed on the Coast Guard's Homeport Web site, explaining that:

• The Homeport presentation is publicly accessible for interaction with the Maritime Industry. It was implemented after implementation of the Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA).
• Through Homeport, the Coast Guard is able to communicate with all Captains of the Port and all agencies.

ADM Ulrich pointed out concerns between law enforcement sharing information with the military, but said it was critical not to look at what we don't want to share but at why we cannot share.

Mr. Fritz Heidenreich, Heidmar, Inc. explained Q88.com, a Web site provided by the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners (INTERTANKO).

• Q88.com launched in June 2001
• Created governance in 2003
• Membership by 383 ship owners and managers
• They use the system because it provides the information they want and need.
• Includes 580 forms used by members
• Ship Owners created 6400 in July 2008
• Linked to the Coast Guard PSIX database, and pushes PSIX information about vessels to the industry
• It's free of charge.
• No standard industry format for required forms.
• The owner is responsible for the data in Q88

Mr. Dick Haluska of B&P International Insurance Brokerage, LLC, a division of Arthur J. Gallagher & Company, addressed the underwriter's view of maritime security.

• Crucial information is known but not communicated to the people who make the decisions,
• We assess risk based on what happened in the past instead of looking in to the future.
• How does an underwriter do it?
• The joint war committee represents the London insurance community comprised of the Lloyds market association
• There are also underwriters in the United States, Norway, Europe, and Japan.
• Biggest risk for underwriters is pirates.
• In Nigeria and Somalia piracy is very common
• There is no insurance for the hostage of pirates.
• Aegis Defense Services provides the risk assessment to the underwriters community and tells Lloyds what to charge.
• The URL for Aegis Defense Services is www.aegisdef.com
• War risk covers undeclared war
• This impacts the ship owners through higher rates
• Sri Lanka, Somalia, Georgia, and Indonesia are a few of the piracy zones (war zones) that have been added to the list for war insurance.
• Information sharing helps:
  • If the hot spots are identified
  • Coordinates mitigation efforts
  • Quantifies the real threat
  • Improves preparation and response.

The charter of the vessel determines the level of war risk depending on were the vessel goes in to port and on the level of port security. That is what could change the level of risk.

ADM Ulrich added that, in his experience as CINCUSNAVEUR:

• Navy presence would be requested in certain areas.
• Navy was able to figure out where the terrorist threat was greatest by view how high the insurance rates were in the different areas.
• If we publish the information of the threats in the different ports, each nation's own military can take care of there security and the insurance will be lower because the ports are better protected with less money.

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-- ChadHolmes - 26 Jan 2009