Some of Cook County’s fishing guides and outfitters were a bit alarmed last year when the Coast Guard put them on notice that it intended to start enforcing regulations requiring credentialing for commercial boat operators who transport passengers. This could significantly affect businesses that rely on college students who work for them only during the summer months — employees would need to arrive on the job fully trained and licensed as boat captains. Finding time and money to get temporary employees credentialed could be a hardship.
With the summer season fast approaching, the Cook County News- Herald decided to investigate how that enforcement is going. The word from the Coast Guard is that it is working on creating new levels of licensure that would be more fitting for businesses on inland lakes.
Laws protecting commercial boat passengers have been in place for about 100 years, according to External Affairs Officer Lieutenant Dave French of the Ninth Coast Guard District office in Cleveland, and they were designed so consumers could be reasonably assured that they would be safe. Boat operators with licenses have demonstrated that they have the skill to do what they do, he said.
“[The law] is designed to keep passengers safe,” French said, but he added that it could be important for the boat operators as well. “The license is for their protection, too,” he said. If an operator is insured but not licensed and an accident occurs, the insurance company might not cover the accident since the operator was not following the law. The cost of licensure is likely to be taxdeductible, French said, as part of the cost of doing business.
Nothing had changed in regard to the law that requires commercial boat operators who transport passengers to have the same licensing that Lake Superior charter captains must have. Last year, however, a bad accident involving an unlicensed boat operator on Lake Texoma on the Texas-Louisiana border caused the Coast Guard to rethink its enforcement.
Traditionally, Gunflint Trail outfitters have helped canoeists get an easier and safer start by transporting them and their canoes across Saganaga Lake to the border of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. In these situations, boat operators were not being checked for licensure.
Former Duluth Coast Guard Commander Mike Lebsack met with resort owners, outfitters, and guides in Ely and on the Gunflint Trail last year to inform them that they would be checking boat operator credentials on the lakes in those areas, which are under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Coast Guard. Vessels that carry seven or more passengers for hire would be inspected as well, he said.
According to French, the Coast Guard was trying to educate businesses that operate commercial boats. When they heard some of the concerns that were being expressed, he said, they wanted to figure out what they could do “to make things easier for folks.”
What they have been working on is a regionalized exam that would be much easier for seasonal operators to pass and more applicable to what they do on the inland lakes in the Northland. Instead of requiring people to travel to Toledo or St. Louis for testing, they are talking about bringing proctors here.
Although taking coursework is not required for licensure, it is encouraged. “Mariners must complete a Coast Guard examination or an approved course may be taken in lieu of examination,” French said. The Coast Guard is working with community colleges on offering a curriculum that would include everything a boat operator would need to know to prepare for licensure in one course. Private companies offer Coast Guard-approved courses as well, he said.
“What we’re trying to do is make [the] process easier,” French said.
Those interested in licensure can call the Coast Guard’s Marine Safety Unit in Duluth at (218) 720-5286. More information on credentialing for mariners can be found on www.uscg.mil/nmc, the Coast Guard’s National Maritime Center web page. A list of approved course providers can be found there. Coast Guard personnel are also available to answer questions at boating and sports shows.
The levels of licensure being considered are:
“Operator of Uninspected Passenger Vessel” (OUPV) endorsement – the highest level of licensure.
“Restricted” OUPV licensure – limited to a particular geographic location such as the Gunflint Trail.
“Limited” OUPV licensure – for very specific activities on a single route, such as outfitter employees transporting canoeists to a starting point.
Mariners may be interested to know that the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010 removed the requirement that all merchant mariners have a valid Transportation Worker Identification Card (TWIC) unless the credential holder is allowed unescorted access to a secure area, according to External Affairs Officer Lieutenant Dave French of the Ninth Coast Guard District office in Cleveland.
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