The investigating officer (IO) on duty for the US Coast Guard Sector New Orleans responded to the report of a collision between two towing vessels on the Lower Mississippi River, on May 16, 2017. The investigation revealed that an endorsed master assigned to one of the vessels had impersonated another mariner during phone contacts with the sector command center and IO.
The mariner had been working under a revoked Merchant Mariner Credential (MMC) for years after testing positive for drugs in 2014 and failure to complete the terms of a settlement agreement.
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Suspension and revocation settlement agreements for drug-related offenses require the mariner to surrender his or her credential to the US Coast Guard, except it has been lost. In this case the mariner submits an affidavit attesting to its loss in place of an actual MMC.
The mariner had submitted an affidavit falsely stating that his MMC was destroyed, but he retained the MMC and continued to seek and gain employment until the 2017 collision investigation. Finally, the case was referred to the local US Attorney for prosecution, and led to the mariner’s conviction and a sentence that included 24 months incarceration.
Attempts by mariners to operate vessels using invalid MMCs do occur, and the US Coast Guard has an online MMC verification tool to alert them to the few cases that surface each year. The MMC verification tool provides immediate information regarding whether the subject mariner has a valid MMC and medical certificate.
This system works effectively when the US Coast Guard logs the date on which a mariner’s credentials become invalid, and when prospective employers verify a mariner’s status and report discrepancies to the US Coast Guard.
After the 2017 case, USCG examined the online MMC verification tool and found out that certain database management and technical issues were causing some mariners with revoked credentials or who had been deemed medically unfit for medical certification to appear as having valid documentation.
Following this finding, the US Coast Guard resolved the database and technical issues and confirmed that the verification tool is being refreshed daily with accurate results for MMCs and medical certificates.