Rec Boaters Beware

Uncle Sam wants you, boaters, to patrol our waters for threats! Recreational boating is a popular pastime for Americans and the next frontier in homeland security. The threat of small boat attacks is growing in the United States and our waters are grossly under protected. The 80 million recreational boaters in the U.S. are being asked to keep an eye out for suspicious activity and to report this activity to the government and Coast Guard.

There are millions of small watercraft off our shores that are not regulated by the nation. These dinghies, fishing boats, and other small craft are “Al Qaeda’s weapon of choice in the maritime environment” because of their “ease in arming and deploying, low cost, and record of success”. The government is enlisting the aid of rec boaters to find potential terrorist attack boats and help secure our tankers, supply ships, ports, power plants, dams, and other terrorist targets.

The Coast Guard wants boaters to help prevent an attack similar to the bombing of U.S.S. Cole off the coast of Yemen in 2000. This attack, which involved terrorist slamming a dinghy filled with a cargo of explosives into the destroyer, killed 17 American sailors. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen believes that “the vulnerability is there” even though “there is no intelligence right now that there’s a credible risk”.

Unknown boaters are often spotted taking pictures or measurements of bridges and while not all of these incidents are terrorist threats and many are never checked out. There are not enough guards in the water on patrol to check out every intelligence report or sighting. Maritime security expert Stephen Flynn suggests that the best way to police the water “is to get as many participants who are part of that community to be essentially on your side”. Boaters are more than happy to aide the country fend off terrorists but are against a federal license for boat operators, a measure that would help regulate boaters off our shores. The government does want a way to register and regulate recreational boats in order to separate our citizens and allies from our threats and enemies.