Ocean Dumping Surveillance System

Under the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act of 1972, the U. S. Coast Guard is charged with the responsibility to conduct surveillance of ocean dumping activities. In the past, several methods of surveillance have been used by the Coast Guard which have met with varying degrees of success. The Coast Guard´s Office of Research and Development has developed an electronic surveillance system which will be required equipment on all vessels engaged in ocean dumping activities. This system uses Loran-C to determine the vessel´s position, a dump sensor which interlocks the dump controls or mechanisms, a real time clock and various other data which is internally generated and can be used for data analysis. All of the required data will be recorded on digital cassette tape on board the dumping vessel. The Coast Guard will collect the recorded data tapes and through analysis determine where, when and at that rate the dumping occurred.