Marine Safety - Environmental and Homeland Protection

Protecting the environment, and contributing to keeping our homeland safe, are everyone's responsibility. In the marine domain, the United States Coast Guard has been mandated by Congress to be be in charge of these two important missions – both on the prevention side, and on the response. But they can't do it alone.

On the prevention side, the Coast Guard, with the assistance of the Auxiliary, has established outreach missions in each of these areas, designed to inform you, the general public, how you can make a sensitivity to threats to the marine environment – both environmental and tactical – part of your everyday awareness.

Our joint environmental outreach mission is called Sea Partners, and it is principally an education program, that we cannot do full justice to here. It is supported by a substantial Website of its own, maintained by the Coast Guard.

The Auxiliary supports Sea Partners and environmental outreach through its formal public education courses, public awareness booths at tradeshows, literature distribution through our Visitation Program, and even visits to elementary schools as part of teaching our children about boating safety.

If you have further interest in this important topic, please see "Environment Protection" in the extensive "Marine Safety Links" to the left.

Since the events of September 11, 2001, we have all adopted a heightened sense of security for the protection of our homeland, particularly our critical ports and waterways. The Coast Guard's appointed mission is called Marine Domain Awareness, and they have enlisted your help.

In a fashion similar to the citizen Coast Watchers during World War II, the public today is being asked to share in that increased awareness, by participating in "America's Waterway Watch", an informal program of increased vigilance. With over 92,000 miles of coastline to protect, and thousands of points of entry, the mission is simply too large for the Coast Guard; it's got to be all of ours.

For more information about America's Waterway Watch, what to look for, and how to respond, please visit "America's Waterway Watch", to the left, as well as the extensive AWW website referenced in the links.