A long-sought goal of the Passenger Vessel Association for its Great Lakes vessel members has been achieved. Effective immediately, the interval between required inspection of radiotelephones has been extended from the former 13 months to 48 months.
The Great Lakes Agreement (GLA) was a bi-national agreement between the United States and Canada initially entered into in 1954, and then updated and signed on Feb. 6, 1973. The agreement established common radio telecommunication compatibility on the Great Lakes where navigation vessels could and often did transit in and out of the adjacent nation’s jurisdiction. To ensure reliability under the equipment technology of the time the radio installation was required to be inspected every 13 months.
On Nov. 2, 2022, Canada unilaterally terminated the agreement with twelve months written notice. On Nov. 2, 2023, the effective termination of the agreement meant that Canadian waters would now be regulated under its domestic regulations that in part provided for inspections every 48 months instead of the former 13 months.
The U.S. Federal Communication Commission Order (Order) (FCC) adopted on Oct. 30, 2023 established that its regulations that were “predicated on the continued existence of the GLA,” the effective date of the termination of the GLA on Nov. 2, 2023, would render those rules a nullity with no practical effect on any vessels, leaving the Commission with no means of carrying forward the enforcement of important Great Lakes-specific radio-telephone installation requirements in the absence of replacement rules.” The Order removes references to the GLA continuing the effectiveness of the rules. The Order does adjust the inspection interval to match that of the Canadian domestic rules to 48 months.
A long-sought goal of the Passenger Vessel Association for its Great Lakes vessel members has been achieved. Effective immediately, the interval between required inspection of radiotelephones has been extended from the former 13 months to 48 months.
On Nov. 1, 2023, the 9th U.S. Coast Guard District issued a Marine Safety Information Bulletin 05-23 (MSIB) describing the means of cycling inspections to the new inspection interval of 48 months.
Radio certificates of inspection that were valid on the effective date of the GLA termination dated between Oct. 2, 2022, and Nov. 2, 2023, will from the date of inspection as opposed to 13 months be valid for 48 months.
The copy of CGD 9 MSIB Updated Marine Radio Inspection Regulation for Great Lakes Vessels is accessible here. The FCC updated regulations can be found at 47 CFR 80.953.
The process of addressing a bi-lateral national agreement was lengthy, extraordinary and initiated by a question posed by PVA member Peter Lindquist of Munising Bay Shipwreck Tours, Munising, Mich. Why, he asked, was it necessary to inspect Great Lakes vessels’ digital radio equipment, that did not fail, every 13 months when the same radios were inspected on other U.S. waters every five years under FCC rules and every four years under Canadian Rules in service other than the Great Lakes. This was an important question from seasonal, small business operators. The inspection by private sector license radio operators that charge a fee, travel costs, and often per diem could be a significant figure in the yearly budget.
The discussion in the FCC Order noted that negotiations were conducted over three years before Canada withdrew from the GLA triggering the subsequent change to generally applicable domestic regulation in this Order.
The negotiation history goes to the first question that then led to many years of research and questioning of the regulating bodies. Early documentation indicated that inspection failure was rare, not physical equipment and principally failure to post the appropriate regulations.
Before the negotiation between the national parties that were begun approximately four years ago, PVA raised the question of why we could not treat the radios appropriately. The response was yes radios did not fail and the GLA was a continuing exception that was not founded on the equipment capabilities or inspection history.
A short history of PVA involvement was that after raising the issue with the Coast Guard, we met with FCC headquarters staff that was generally receptive but apparently did not result in the hoped-for action.
During the Trump administration, the Coast Guard and Government Accounting Office (GAO) both issued Federal Register notices asking the public to identify regulations and policies that should be repealed or changed. The radio regulation was high on our responses to both notices. As with the FCC there was no resultant action to our knowledge. The PVA and Coast Guard have a chartered partnership where we meet, currently twice a year, to discuss issues of mutual concern and identify potential actions of resolution as necessary. GLA, radio technology, costs to small businesses, and the apparent need for change was regularly an agenda topic that did not rise to a discussion of resolution in this forum.
The parties involved in the bi-national negotiations included the Coast Guard were personnel from the Office of Spectrum Management and Telecommunications Policy Division and the Office of Command, Control Communications, Computers and Information Technology in Coast Guard Headquarters, and Coast Guard District 9 Marine Safety Division.
Peter Lauridsen is a regulatory affairs consultant with the Passenger Vessel Association.