Pubdate: Sun, 25 Aug 2002
Source: Sun News (SC)
Copyright: 2002 Sun Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://web.thesunnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/987
Author: Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Los Angeles Times

PORT SECURITY USES MORE OF COAST GUARD'S TIME

WASHINGTON - The Coast Guard spent 2,263 fewer duty hours on search and 
rescue this spring and 4,322 fewer hours than last year on drug 
interdiction, fanning concerns that port security duties will limit 
traditional missions.

A new congressional analysis - among the first to measure trade-offs among 
competing priorities as a result of the war on terrorism - found Coast 
Guard boats and aircraft devoted 9 percent fewer operational hours to 
rescue missions from April through June of this year compared with the same 
period last year.

Other missions were squeezed harder, from drug interdiction, which saw a 15 
percent drop in hours, to environmental protection, which plunged by 53 
percent.

Instead, Coast Guard units spent 30,805 additional hours on port security - 
more than an eight-fold increase.

"The traditional missions haven't disappeared," said Sen. Patty Murray, 
D-Wash. "We still need the Coast Guard to keep drugs and illegal migrants 
off our shores, to protect our environment ... and to protect the lives of 
our fishermen."

Murray chairs the Senate transportation appropriations subcommittee, and 
her staff analyzed the data, which is the most recent available. An aide 
said the April through June period was chosen for its distance from the 
aftermath of the terrorist attacks.

While port security has become a top responsibility since Sept. 11, Cmdr. 
Jim McPherson, a senior Coast Guard spokesman, said rescues always will 
take precedence.

"If we get a search-and-rescue case, we are going to prosecute it to the 
end," McPherson said. "We would be able to shift assets from port 
security." He also questioned whether comparing two three-month periods is 
enough.

No reports have emerged of lives lost at sea as a result of security duties.
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