Coast Guard Publishes First Domestic Vessel Annual Report

The U.S. Coast Guard’s Office of Commercial Vessel Compliance announced the publication of the 2017 Domestic Vessel Annual Report.

The announcement was posted December 11 by Lt. Amy Midgett on the Coast Guard’s Maritime Commons blog.

For the first time ever, the report highlights U.S. domestic fleet deficiencies, inspections, and marine casualty statistics. No vessels were identified by name; only aggregate data were disclosed.

It is intended to serve as a baseline to study trends, identify key performance indicators and bring attention to issues in the fleet. The numbers were compiled using data from the Coast Guard Marine Information Safety and Law Enforcement (MISLE) database, which is used to record details about U.S. flag vessels, inspections, deficiencies issued and reportable marine casualties.

According to the report, in 2017, the Coast Guard’s “fleet of responsibility” contained 12,189 vessels with active COIs. There were 905 marine inspectors assigned to field units who conducted 18,424 inspections.

The report includes a message from Rear Adm. John P. Nadeau, assistant commandant for prevention policy, who said, “It is worth noting that at any given moment of any given day, there are thousands of U.S. flag vessels safely transiting our inland rivers, Intracoastal Waterway, coastal waters, or the high seas.”

A few key findings discussed in the report are:

• Coast Guard marine inspectors conducted 18,424 inspections on 12,189 U.S. flag vessels.

• During these inspections, 21,629 deficiencies were documented, which is an average of 1.77 deficiencies per vessel.

• The number of inspections and deficiencies have increased 7.5 percent and 3 percent, respectively, over the last five years.

The following vessel populations are represented in this report:

• Barges

• Cargo vessels

• Passenger vessels

• Units on the Outer Continental Shelf

• Research vessels and school ships

• Towing vessels

• Fishing vessels

Any questions should be directed to CG-CVC@uscg.mil.

The report is available here.