US Coast Guard defines terms of regulations for OUVP certification for Alaska.
Last week KDLG reported that the US Coast Guard dropped new regulations for the summer that require 90 days of experience on a body of water before a person can qualify for an Operator of Uninspected Passenger Vessels certification. The OUPV’s are used by many southwest sport fishing guides.
The Coast Guard is not dropping those requirements but instead they are trying to define certain terms of the regulation in a way that is acceptable to the sport fishing industry.
For example, Lieutenant BrierleyOstrander, Assistant Chief of Inspections with the US Coast Guard in Anchorage, says that ‘body of water’ is not defined in the regulation. The Coast Guard is deciding that locally that means all the contiguous waterways in a single drainage system.
“Wood Tichik State Park, all of the drains into one river into the sea, so we can call that one body of water. So its 90 days of service on pretty much any body of water, any waterway in the Wood Tichik State Park,” said Ostrander.
There will be a phase in of this new rule until 2019.
“Any new applicant who has service acrewed prior to March 2014 is not subject to the 90 days of experience on that waterway requirement,” explained Ostrander.
Lieutenant Ostrander says the Coast Guard is trying to make the new certification requirements work for local industries, like sports fishing, while still staying within the new regulations and policies they have to follow.