Civilian coastal watchers sought

Jul 27 2005

By RHONA SCHWARTZ Staff Writer

Residents on the coast could help Coast Guard with on-site reports of spills, accidents. Peeled eyes are wanted to patrol Washington’s 3,000 miles of shoreline.

To help keep the waterways safe, the Coast Guard is calling for civilian volunteers to join its Northwest Watch program and provide information in times of emergency.

“We can’t be everywhere at once,” said Coast Guard Public Affairs Specialist 3rd Class Adam T. Eggers, who handles program management in addition to his regular duties. That’s why residents who live on – or have a view of – water are asked to register for the program and offer eyewitness accounts of what they see from their home when someone from the Coast Guard’s command center calls about a reported incident.

The call could be about a reported oil spill, a boating accident or sudden dense fog.

The six-month-old program is designed for people who care about the waters and what happens to them, Eggers said. Besides a view, all volunteers need are a telephone and a willingness to pick it up in the event the Coast Guard calls.

Northwest Watch was two years in the making. It sprouted from the Seattle area Coast Guard district’s Eyes on the Sound program.

“We made it a lot easier to use and a lot quicker to use with new technology,” Eggers said.

Eggers’ command district uses specially designed computer-tracking GPS maps and volunteer forms that relay a description of each volunteer’s view.

Eggers gets a GPS number from that and plugs it into his computer. Now the location is marked with a little square.

Say someone in a boat thinks he sees an oil slick by Bainbridge Island and calls it in. A Coast Guard vessel can’t get there in two minutes, but Eggers can check his computer to see if a volunteer lives at the spot. He clicks on the icon that brings up a name and the command center calls that person and asks, ‘What do you see from your house?’” Even if the report turns out to be a false alarm, the Coast Guard saves time and taxpayers’ money by not sending a boat or helicopter in response.

If the report is founded, resources are dispatched, Eggers said.

Eggers is putting together a training manual to help volunteers understand what they’re looking for and learn Coast Guard terminology, such as “slick” and “sheen.”

Included is a laminated page with blanks for points of information that the command center absolutely has to know from volunteers. Volunteers can take it on their deck and mark such points of information as color of boat and number of people aboard.

“We need people to say, ‘I see 10 percent coverage’ and know what it is,” Eggers said. “The manual will include pictures.”

Already the program has saved lives. According to Eggers, a transient stole a couple of yachts and didn’t know a young girl was in one.

“He changed the name of the vessel with a knife. We were working with the sheriff’s department. Somebody heard a scream from the beach. We called seven or eight of our volunteers and said if you see a boat of this description call us back. Someone did, he called in and we ended up catching the guy,” he said.

“If you don’t see anything, for us that’s still something. It can help us cut down our search area. On the south side of Puget Sound, a plane went down. Someone saw it, and we knew within a very condensed area where to look.”

Eggers regrets not having the program running when the Dalco Passage oil spill occurred last October.

“We almost had it ready,” he said. “It would’ve been so helpful.”

The only way to spot an oil slick is to get above it.

“If I have people living on a bluff above the beach, it’s a lot better then being on the water and trying to see it. They can tell how long it is if we can’t get overhead ourselves,” he said.

Volunteers cover a spectrum of personalities, including many retired Navy and Coast Guard personnel. In Olympia, an entire cul-de-sac is on board.

Eggers has signed up a former Washington state senator, boating association members, Coast Guard auxiliary and a half-dozen people from People for Puget Sound, including a top director.

“I can’t think of a better group to test out the merits of the program,” Eggers said.
A 95-year-old man called to say he likes sitting on his deck watching the water and could he become a volunteer? Absolutely, Eggers said.

As Eggers told one volunteer, “If in five years you save three people with one call, it’s worth it.” Northwest Watch has 124 volunteers in Washington and Oregon and saves the Coast Guard an estimated $5,000 a day. Correction – a (Month)

The more volunteers it has, the more money it will save. Eggers would like to see more volunteers in commercial fishing and tanker traffic areas and along beaches and river bars.

“The Coast Guard commandant is very excited about the program and told me to get a huge following and take it national,” Eggers said.

“The beautiful thing about the program is we thought we needed something and we made it happen. We are only limited by our imaginations.”

There’s a certain kind of attitude and way of life that goes with living on the water and Bainbridge Island is no exception.

“(People there) don’t want to buy a salmon and wring (oil) out first or find out the family next door had passed in a boating accident,” Eggers said.

“It’s such a small commitment to be able to do so much.”