Hawai'i on target with port security
By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Transportation Writer
By land and by sea, the Coast Guard is ratcheting up security around Hawai'i port facilities.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
With a July 1 deadline for implementing new protection plans drawing near and the Department of Homeland Security worried about a possible summer strike by terrorists, officials here are confident that Honolulu Harbor and smaller facilities across the state can be protected.
Second Class Machinery Technician Robert Gamez checks the Sand Island bridge and the nearby shoreline as part of new port security efforts.
The protection measures, many of which have been in place for over a year, include regular patrols of the harbor by crews using boats, autos and helicopters.
The key is keeping a lookout for anything out of the ordinary, officials say.
"We're out here every day, constantly on patrol. After a while, you get to recognize pretty quickly when something looks out of place," said Machinery Technician Kevin Towery during a recent three-hour land-based sweep of the harbor that started on Sand Island and ended at Fort Armstrong.
While the patrols have become routine, Congress has ordered even tighter security measures to be fully in place by July 1.
The new changes will mean more work and higher costs for both the Coast Guard and dozens of maritime businesses and agencies, which have been scrambling to implement security plans that were due at the beginning of the year.
Among the changes for the Coast Guard will be more boardings of ships entering harbors, evaluating compliance with U.S. and international security requirements and working with foreign port officials to push back the first line of defense.
"This is going to be a team effort by everyone on the waterfront," said Coast Guard Capt. Tim Skuby, the captain of the port. "It's the people who are out there every day who know what belongs there and what doesn't. They're the ones we have to rely on to spot something that doesn't look right."
For Towery and his patrol partner, Robert Gamez, the best security starts with a good, trained pair of eyes.
The two have been on land-based patrol duty almost since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and by now they know every nook, cranny and backwater of the harbor.
Their daily rounds take them past big, vital components of the operating harbor like the Matson Navigation and Horizon container yards, and into cozy, out-of-the-way corners, where they sometimes have to chase away a local fisherman who hasn't gotten the word that the harbor is now off-limits.
"We still get Jet Skiers, kayakers, divers, people and others finding their way into the harbor sometimes," Towery said as he scanned for suspicious activity under the Sand Island Bridge, which is considered a key security point because it provides the island's only link to the main cargo yards.
"Most of them don't give a hoot until they see we have guns," Gamez said.
The harbor contains dozens of vessels, businesses and agencies that could be a potential target, Gamez added as he stopped to check the credentials of several men working inside a locked fence near a big fuel tank on the edge of the harbor.
"You know you might have a problem if you see a Chevron truck inside a Tesoro facility," he said.
While most of the problems are no more serious than a wayward recreationist or a homeless person trying to find a quiet spot to sleep, each intrusion is taken seriously, especially the time earlier this year when one of the watchers spotted a diver surfacing near a Coast Guard boat in Honolulu Harbor just before midnight.
The sighting launched a 12-hour search that included personnel from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, Sheriff's Department, Honolulu Police Department and a Joint Terrorism Task Force.
The diver was never found.
"It was a pretty eye-opening moment for me," Gamez said. "You get called out in the middle of the night and, of course, the adrenaline is flowing. It makes you realize that what we do with our routine is very important."
Lowery, who is 27 and lives in 'Ewa Beach, said he never expected to be doing most of his work shoreside when he joined the Coast Guard eight years ago.
"The whole focus changed after Sept. 11," he said. "We've had so many new hats thrown in our directions. Ultimately, the goal is to make security at the harbors as tight as it is at the airports."
Reach Mike Leidemann at 525-5460 or mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.
