EXISTING OCEAN CARRIER SYSTEMS CONSIDERED IN SECURITY PUSH

EXISTING OCEAN CARRIER SYSTEMS CONSIDERED IN SECURITY PUSH    Retired U.S. Navy Admiral Carl Seiberlich, a member of the International Standards Organization and project manager for the International Maritime Organization’s Ship Port Interface Working Group, believes that international container security automation should begin with the integrated use of ocean carriers’ existing computer systems.
   “We want to use their systems,” said Seiberlich at a Transportation Research Board’s Summer Ports, Waterways, Freight & International Trade Conference in Pittsburgh Monday. “We are developing an international pilot in container cargo identification and tracking using electronic seals. We also seek a seamless exchange of data to permit use of existing databases bases on special intermodal maritime data dictionaries.”
   The working group plans to soon conduct a pilot test of container identification systems and seals in transit. Seiberlich said the test should involve about 40 containers a week through two international shipping firms. Several routes are under consideration: Singapore to Seattle/Tacoma and Los Angeles; Panama to Houston; and Rotterdam to Elizabeth, N.J.
   “Vessel security monitoring requires access to shipboard information,” Seiberlich said. “Much of this information resides in various unconnected shipboard systems. We seek to integrate these systems into a fleet management system which can then be monitored from shore offices.”
   Seiberlich believes that it’s possible to have an international container security system in place by late 2003.
   Another container security concept proposed at the Transportation Research Board meeting was the development of video tapes of container contents at the time of loading.
   “A video packet would travel with the container,” said Catherine Lawson of the State University of New York in Albany, N.Y. “We want surety on what went in the same as what comes out.”