You may have heard people talking about it or seen a flyer or placard talking about it, but maybe you’re not quite sure what it is. I want to take this opportunity to give you an idea of why America’s Waterway exists and how you can participate.
The United States has more than 95,000 miles of shore line and over 300,000 square miles of water that it is responsible for. Think about that for a moment. If you still can’t grasp the enormity of that, let me put it into perspective; you could travel from New York to Paris and back again 13 times before you equaled the length of America’s coast line…
Now, let me throw another staggering fact at you. The primary Federal Agency in charge of securing the entire coastline (the US Coast Guard) is an agency that has less people in it than the entire NYC Police Department…sobering isn’t it? In the post 9/11 world, the Coast Guard quickly realized that in order to gain a better idea of what’s happening on our waterways (what we call Maritime Domain Awareness), they needed help. Here’s where America’s Waterway Watch comes in; America’s Waterway Watch is essentially a neighborhood watch program for anyone who lives, works or spends time on or near the water.
What AWW provides is information so that when citizens (like you!)on or near the water see suspicious activity (or anything that just seems wrong – more on what to look for in a later post, but for now lets just say anything that ‘just doesn’t seem right’), they know what to do. They can call our national hotline (1-877-24-WATCH) or their local law enforcement to report that activity. Once AWW gets the call the Coast Guard will investigate the incident together with local and national law enforcement agencies.
That, in a nutshell, is the case for why we need America’s Waterway Watch and why we need you to participate. As always, please feel free to post your comments or ideas. The more collaboration we can foster, the safer we can make this country!
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