Who: U.S. Coast Guard boating safety experts from Station Honolulu and Sector Honolulu.

What: Members of the media are invited to interview search and rescue specialists and boating safety experts who will be providing information about how Hawaii’s mariners can be safe this holiday weekend.

Where: Coast Guard Base Support Unit Honolulu (BSU), 400 Sand Island Parkway Honolulu, Hawaii 96819-4398. 

When: Thursday, July 1, 2010, at 10 a.m.
 
Media members who are interested are asked to reply to Petty Officer 3rdClass Mike De Nyse at 808-535-3230 prior to the event. All media will be greeted and escorted from the BSU's main gate. 

HONOLULU — Hawaii Lt. Gov. James R. “Duke” Aiona Jr. is scheduled to proclaim May 22-28, 2010, as National Safe Boating Week during a signing ceremony held at the Hawaii State Capitol at 10 a.m. Tuesday.

National Safe Boating Week is designed to raise awareness of safe boating practices such as the importance of life jackets, carrying communication equipment, obtaining safe boating education, utilizing the services of the U.S. Coast Guard, Coast Guard Auxiliary, Department of Land and Natural Resources, and the Honolulu Sail and Power Squadron.

Rear Adm. Stephen E. Mehling, the 14^th Coast Guard District chief of staff, and representatives from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Hawaii Sail and Power Squadron, and the Coast Guard Auxiliary are scheduled to attend the ceremony.

The ceremony will be held in Lt. Gov. Aiona’s office on the 5^th floor.  

Media are invited to attend the event and are asked to contact Petty Officer 3^rd Class Anthony Soto at 808-535-3230 to confirm attendance.

HONOLULU — The U.S. Coast Guard-supported Day at the Docks at the Marina & Outdoor Recreation Center on Kaneohe Marine Corps Base Hawaii has been postponed due to inclement weather.

The boating safety event has been rescheduled for May 9, from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m.

Scheduled activities include: a children’s fishing tournament; paddle board races; kayak excursions; boating safety classes; water safety tips; a Coast Guard helicopter search and rescue demonstration; free vessel safety checks by the Coast Guard Auxiliary; and a small boat display from Coast Guard Station Honolulu.

The Day at the Docks will be hosted by the marina, which offers a boating safety course and a sailing skills and seamanship course. 

Media members who are interested in attending the Day at the Docks should contact Marine Corps Base Hawaii public affairs at 808-630-8295.

For more boating safety information, please visit http://www.uscgboating.org/. 

HONOLULU — The U.S. Coast Guard is supporting a Day at the Docks at the Marina & Outdoor Recreation Center on Kaneohe Marine Corps Base Hawaii to raise awareness for boating safety from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. Sunday.

The event is scheduled to include a children’s fishing tournament, paddle board races, kayak excursions, boating safety classes, and water safety tips.

Crewmembers from Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point are scheduled to perform a search and rescue demonstration for the public at approximately 10:45 a.m.

The Coast Guard Auxiliary will conduct free vessel safety checks near the ramp area and will have a booth with life jacket displays and boating safety brochures. A small boat from Coast Guard Station Honolulu will also be on display for the public.

The Day at the Docks is being hosted by the marina, which offers a boating safety course and a sailing skills and seamanship course. 

"Safety on the water is our number one concern,” said Robert Barr, a retired Coast Guard chief warrant officer, who is the general manager of the marina. "I'm proud to have the Coast Guard here because they represent safe boating and safety at sea."

Media who are interested in attending or viewing the Day at the Docks should contact Marine Corps Base Hawaii public affairs at 808-630-8295.

For more boating safety information, please visit http://www.uscgboating.org/. 

HONOLULU –  Federal, state and local law enforcement and fire-fighting agencies will be joining the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Guard’s Civil Support Teams to conduct a Homeland Security Exercise at Pier 19 along Honolulu Harbor starting Tuesday. 

The purpose of the exercise is to test existing security response plans, communication protocols, and law enforcement tactics. Multiple fire department and law enforcement vehicles and vessels will be in the area testing response procedures and tactics.

Involved agencies include:

• Hawaii National Guard 93rd Civil Support Team
• California National Guard 9th Civil Support Team
• Honolulu Police Department
• Hawaii Dept. of Public Safety
• Dept. of Transportation – Harbors Division
• Customs and Border Protection
• Honolulu Fire Dept.
• Hawaii State Civil Defense

For more information regarding this excersise, please contact 535-3230.

HONOLULU -- The U.S. Coast Guard, Honolulu Fire Department, and Honolulu Ocean Safety Division are scheduled to conduct a two-day, multi-agency search, rescue and communication training exercise at Kapiolani Park Monday and along the reef at Diamond Head Wednesday.

The goal of this drill is for all partners involved to gain a better understanding of mass rescue operations and to make first responders more prepared to mutually react to any kind of disaster in Hawaii's waters. The agency partners will test and evaluate inter-agency communications and response plans for this quarterly simulated exercise.

"The knowledge we gain from this exercise will improve our coordinated operations and help keep the Pacific safe for all mariners," said Lt. James Garland, a Sector Honolulu response division representative. “This opportunity is important to both the Coast Guard and its partner agencies, as it allows each agency to interact with one another in a realistic rescue scenario.”

This full-scale exercise will include the deployment of many resources from both county and federal agencies. All agencies will conduct the communications check portion of the event Monday morning at Kapiolani Park in preparation for the large-scale event Wednesday off the reef of Diamond Head. The exercise will last six hours each day.

The Coast Guard will issue a broadcast to mariners during the drill to keep mariners in the area informed during the exercise. During the drill, the Coast Guard will communicate on VHF-FM channel 23A and all transmissions will include the phrase, "This is a drill, this is a drill." No transmissions related to the drill will be made on the maritime distress VHF-FM channel 16.

Please contact the Sector Honolulu command center at 808-842-2600 for any questions about the drill.

For any media inquiries regarding this release, please contact:

Petty Officer 3rd Class Anthony Soto, 14th Coast Guard District External Affairs, at 808-535-3230;

Capt. Terry Seelig, the Honolulu Fire Department public affairs officer, at 808-478-7703;

Bryan Cheplic, the Hawaii and Honolulu City and County Emergency Services public information officer, at 808-221-8752.

HONOLULU — Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann is scheduled to sign a proclamation announcing National Safe Boating week at the Waikiki Yacht Club Thursday at 12 p.m.

National Safe Boating Week, which runs May 22-28 2010, is designed to raise awareness of safe boating and ocean practices, the importance of life jackets, carrying communication equipment, obtaining safe boating education, and utilizing the services of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, Department of Land and Natural Resources, and the Honolulu Sail and Power Squadron.

Media are invited to attend the event and are asked to contact Kent Richards at 808-535-3424 to confirm attendance.

HONOLULU — The commanding officer of the Coast Guard Cutter Jarvis is scheduled to conduct a news brief Tuesday at 7 p.m. on Sand Island to discuss his ship's recent two-month mission to enforce international fishing regulations in the South Pacific.

The commanding officer, Capt. Aaron Davenport, and his crew aboard the Jarvis supported a multinational effort to reduce illegal fishing in the South Pacific, both within individual countries’ Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) and on the high seas. The U.S. Coast Guard cooperates with more than two dozen nations to enforce fisheries laws in the South Pacific. On this patrol, the crew directly coordinated with law enforcement representatives from French Polynesia, the Cook Islands, the Republic of Kiribati and Australia.

Crewmembers conducted multiple fisheries boardings, both under U.S. authority and in cooperation with an embarked Kiribati ship rider during this patrol. During these boardings, the crew identified a range of fisheries and safety violations, ultimately terminating two fishing vessels for operating under exceptionally hazardous conditions. 

As fines from a single fisheries boarding can reflect more than 1 percent of a Pacific Island nation’s yearly gross domestic product, and with commercial fishing being the backbone of Pacific Islanders’ fragile economies, enforcement of national and international fishing laws is critical to their well being.  Also, enforcing safety regulations preserves fishermen’s lives and increases the response effectiveness of search and rescue operations in remote locations, often hundreds of miles from land.

In addition to their high-seas missions, the crew hosted onboard receptions for many high-ranking military and political officials from both Western Samoa and Tahiti. Jarvis crewmembers also supported two community outreach projects in Apia, Western Samoa, by donating three large pallets of tsunami relief supplies to the Samoan Red Cross in support of the U.S. Navy’s Project Handclasp, and working alongside local residents to help Habitat for Humanity build traditional fala houses for families in need.

Editor's Note: Media representatives are asked to contact Petty Officer 3rd Class Anthony Soto at 808-535-3230 or 808-341-9849 no later than 4 p.m. Tuesday to confirm attendance.