Safe seas: new technology exists to allow for a safer passage of seaborne goods.

• Author: Colby, Nicole A. Bonham
• Position: Transportation

With evolving security requirements, expansion at Alaska's largest port, and new technology onboard, Alaska's waterborne shippers face continued operational challenges.

Alaska depends on water transportation more than any other U.S. state, economic analysts suggest. While a small economic sector for employment, waterborne transporters haul the largest tonnage to/from the state compared to other shippers, according to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development's January issue of Alaska Economic Trends. The Port of Valdez hauls the greatest tonnage (oil being the major commodity), according to the report, with Anchorage's port handling "90 percent of all consumer goods sold in the Railbelt (Seward to Fairbanks). Approximately 80 percent of the state's population relies on goods that cross Anchorage wharves." Meanwhile, in water-locked Southeast, barge lines are critical to the flow of commerce.

Safe Passage

In this post Sept. 11, 2001, world of increased scrutiny of all shipping activities, cargo transporters are increasingly under pressure from national security-related agencies to track their freight, to know what's inside the container and thereby protect the nation's borders from surprise infiltration by terrorists. Cargo shipments have been under the spotlight for several years now, ranging from a U.S. Senate hearing back in March 2003 titled "Cargo Containers: The Next Terrorist Target?" to this February's news of "smart" containers under test by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Such containers are equipped with wireless sensors for tracking-and to detect efforts to tamper with the container or its cargo. Already under field test in Pacific waters, folks on the other side of the continent expect to see it in their waters soon. Jeffrey Monroe, Portland (Maine) transportation director, told the Portland Press Herald in February: "You're talking about tracking the entire (shipping) system. You've got an entire history of a container that shows up on the docks without having to go back through the manifests." The newspaper reports that, as well as to test security elements and protections (i.e., ability of unauthorized personnel to access the container manifest), current field tests are also to determine if the sensors are seaworthy and robust enough to survive a marine environment-something of key interest in the northern frigid and rough waters of Alaska.

"Obviously security has been a huge factor this year," reports...