t would be almost impossible to live in Alaska without maritime vessels, and while there are different regulations for different types of boats, all of them must meet certain standards to be considered seaworthy and to ensure the safety of crew and passengers.

“Commercial vessels like fishing boats, crude oil-carrying tankships, tugboats, and cruise ships all fall under different sets of safety regulations, and it can get a little murky depending on the industry,” explains Mike LaBarge, assistant professor of maritime studies, UAS Ketchikan, whose background includes fifteen years in the maritime industry as a captain and dive instructor. “Private vessels, which are not considered ‘inspected passenger vessels’ by the US Coast Guard, don’t have to follow such stringent rules.”

If a ship is considered an inspected passenger vessel, it is required to go through annual Coast Guard inspections and drills.

“The Coast Guard will come on board on a regular basis to do vessel stability inspections that determine how many passengers can be on board and where they can be,” says LaBarge. “If a vessel has two decks and is qualified to have 100 passengers, for example, they determine if all of those passengers can be safely on the upper deck, or if the vessel needs to limit the number of people or set a weight limit.”

The Coast Guard also does regular inspections to determine the integrity of vessels, including thru-hull checks to make sure that systems are operating as they should. “If there’s a problem, such as worn fittings or seals, they need to be replaced before the ship will be allowed to get underway, which typically involves pulling the boat out of the water,” says LaBarge.

Inspected passenger vessels are required to make sure that crews are properly trained and are mandated to hold drills once a month in firefighting, flooding, man overboard, abandon ship, and more.

“The goal is to train muscle memory, so if a fire breaks out or there is a man overboard, crew members automatically know what to do,” says LaBarge, adding that the Coast Guard will have crews perform these drills during annual inspections to make sure they are prepared.

Inspections also include making sure that all required lifesaving equipment is on board and appropriate types of life vests are available for passengers and crew members, including children if necessary. Equipment must also be appropriate for the type of water in which the ship is sailing.

“Depending on the vessel’s route or the cargo that it is carrying, it may need to meet regulations from organizations other than the Coast Guard as well,” says LaBarge. “These may include International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea [SOLAS] and International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers [STCW] requirements.”

SOLAS sets minimum safety standards in the construction, equipment, and operation of merchant ships, and STCW sets qualification standards for personnel on seagoing ships.

“STCW ensures that mariners get the same level of training whether they come from the United State or are trained in a foreign country,” LaBarge says. “If a country is a signatory to the STCW convention, it is held to the same minimum standards and training as all other members, which includes using the same vocabulary so that mariners who speak different languages can still understand each other.”

AVTEC has the only approved ice navigation course in the United State: sea ice, accurately modeled in Polaris software, can be adjusted to any type of thickness, compression, or drag on vessels.

Steve Fink | AVTEC

No matter what position a person holds aboard a vessel, it is important that they know how to do their jobs safely and efficiently—and imperative to know what to do in case of emergency. Maritime training programs, such as those offered at the UAS Maritime Training Center at UAS Ketchikan and the Alaska Maritime Training Center at AVTEC in Seward, provide opportunities for mariners to learn everything from the basics of shipboard safety to marine welding and navigation.

“We offer a number of shorter courses for those new to the industry or for incumbent workers who want to strengthen their knowledge in areas where they may have weaknesses,” explains Doug Hoftiezer, construction trades instructor at AVTEC. “For example, our Marine Vessel Repair and Maintenance Training program includes fifteen courses in seventeen weeks, ranging from confined space entry and rescue to marine mechanical systems to marine refrigeration and electrical.

“If they want more in-depth training in a subject, they can come back and take AVTEC’s longer-term courses, such as our nine-month marine welding course,” he adds.

While AVTEC’s courses are classroom-based, Hoftiezer says that they are also hands-on, with students working on vessels or parts of vessels, such as sections of a hull. “This training is not specific to any one type of vessel,” he adds. “We have people taking courses who work on large commercial ships or who want to take them for personal use because they own sportfishing boats.”

According to LaBarge, the need for these types of maritime classes is in high demand. “Because the state has a primarily maritime economy, it makes sense to have this training here,” he says, adding that students come from all over the state as well as the Lower 48 for instruction. UAS’ student population includes AMHS ferry workers, members of the Southeast Alaska Pilots Association, crews from tugboats and workboats, oil and gas industry workers, charter fishermen, members of the tourism industry, and more.

AVTEC has three full mission bridge simulators, each of which provides users with 300-degree views. Only four or five training centers on the West Coast have full mission bridges, which are required by the International Marine Organization and USCG for their approved courses.

Steve Fink | AVTEC

“If you work on a large passenger vessel such as a ferry, you are going to be subject as a crew member to basic safety training; at the very least, you will participate in regularly scheduled emergency drills,” he explains of the range of courses offered. “If you want to move up in the maritime world and become a mate or master, there is a whole suite of USCG- and STCW-approved courses that are standard for certain types of licenses. If you work in an engine room or as a deckhand, there is a different set of required courses, depending on the type of vessel.”

Both UAS and AVTEC boast Class A full mission bridge simulators, which are used for several training courses and can also be rented out by companies in different industries.

“One of the best uses of the simulator is for electronic navigation—teaching students to read radar, electronic charts, depth gauges, and more,” explains Steve Fink, AVTEC maritime simulator technician and operator. “We also use it for our Bridge Resource Management requirement, in which students have a full complement of crew in the bridge and have to safely navigate a ship into or out of port; it is also required for our Rating Forming Part of Navigational Watch course.”

AVTEC has three full mission bridge simulators, each of which provides users with 300-degree views. “Only four or five training centers on the West Coast have full mission bridges, which are required by the International Marine Organization and USCG for their approved courses,” says Fink.

The simulators enable users to adjust to new areas and situations at their own pace. “Almost all courses that use simulation start out with familiarization,” explains Fink. “We don’t just throw someone unfamiliar with our simulator into an exercise and expect them to know where everything is located.

“Once they get familiar with the buttons, the location of equipment, the handling of the simulator ship, and the area database, then the actual training starts,” he adds. “We may add inclement weather that makes it difficult to see well, or make the electronics fail, or make the GPS off by a couple of degrees. This sets them up to be ready to go back to basics if their navigation systems fail.”

All of the simulated ships are designed to react like the real ships they model, including hydrodynamic and aerodynamic characteristics. The area databases use data from NASA for the terrestrial features and the bathymetry (ocean bottom topography) data comes from NOAA, and both are tied to precise GPS coordinates that are reflected accurately within the simulation environment.

According to LaBarge, UAS’ full mission bridge simulator, which is used primarily for navigation-related courses, can simulate any waterway around the world. “For example, we can develop training simulations for waterways around San Francisco or simulations that allow users to dock a cruise ship in Skagway,” he says.

“These simulators are as realistic as users can get without being on an actual vessel,” he adds of the equipment at the UAS Marine Training Center, which just underwent a $200,000 renovation. “We’ve had people facing heavy seas and rough weather feel seasick—they are that realistic.”

In addition to students, outside companies rent the simulators to try out different scenarios for their own vessels. “They may be trying to figure out if they can put a specific boat on a berth with 40-knot winds from the East or are practicing docking and undocking maneuvers on a variety of vessels because individual ships handle differently,” says LaBarge.

“We can also create simulations to deal with traffic management,” he adds, giving the example of navigating a 1,000-foot cruise ship around float planes, tugs, and barges on a busy day in the Tongass Narrows.

Not only do mariners need to protect passengers and vessels from emergencies and environmental hazards, but they also need to keep ships and cargo safe.

“Typically, there is going to be some form of security on board a vessel, especially on oil and gas rigs or on those that carry high-dollar items,” says LaBarge, adding that security can also be found on large passenger vessels like ferries.

While it is typical to have a security plan drawn up for each vessel, in practice, this can be as simple as having a crew members trained as VPDSD (vessel personnel with designated security duty) or having a master or a mate trained as a vessel security officer (VSO).

“A VPDSD or VSO may keep a gangway watch while the vessel is in port, keeping track of who is coming and going from the ship and knowing when to expect deliveries of ship stores, food, water, and fuel,” says LaBarge. “A vessel may also have roving watches onboard, with crew members doing inspections of the interior and exterior, and making sure that the ship is secure.

“You don’t normally see armed guards on vessels, though this is a hot topic in international shipping, especially for container and cargo ships subject to piracy off of places like Somalia,” he adds. “There is a lot of debate about whether there should be an actual security force on these vessels.”

Port facilities typically have their own security systems in place to keep track of who enters shipyards or major ports. The Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC), put in place by the TSA, is also required in some areas and includes a background check as part of the process.