On Sep 20, 5:28*am, Short Wave Sportfishing
wrote:
On Fri, 19 Sep 2008 19:05:38 -0700 (PDT), Messing In Boats

wrote:
Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman has introduced S.3377 which supposedly
will eliminate the requirement for most mariners with a captain's
license to have the Transportation Worker's Identification Credential
(TWIC) a completely useless process unless you intend to pilot a
tanker into a federally secure area. (I just want to take a few folks
around Lake Superior, feed them good food and wine, etc. If you have a
minute, please write your senators and ask them to support this
legislation. Capt. Jeff

That's great, but guess what - it aint' going nowhere.

There are those of us who do travel through, in and around waters
where the TWIC is, or will be, required to access to port facilities
if you are running in a 20 foot bay boat or a 60 foot sport fisherman.

Just in Narragansett Bay (RI) alone, there are two areas that are
controlled access areas and one is getting ready to become a
restricted access area - which, by the way, is giving two marina
owners a lot of heart burn because they will be on the wrong side of
the gate. *:)

I don't disagree with you by the way - it does seem a little bit of
overkill to require the whole maritime industry to have a TWIC. I
followed this from the git-go and I have to admit that they had some
good points.

I might also point out that eventually, the TWIC will be folded into
the whole REAL driver's/identification card so you will have completed
the REAL process WAY ahead of time. *:)

In any case, it's here to stay - get used to it.

I agree that there are places in the US where one should have this
credential. The solution should be for that very small minority of
license holders to get one if they need it. But why should we all have
to? It's a stupid idea; hopefully the folks at Homeland Security would
have better things to work on.

Capt. Jeff