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| Courtesy of Marine Exchange of Alaska |
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On Wednesday, February 21, Captain and Executive Director Ed Page and Assistant Director Brett Farrell gave CIRCAC and Prince William Sound RCAC staff a tour of the non-profit
Marine Exchange of Alaska
(MXAK) located in Juneau. The MXAK provides Automatic Information System (AIS) monitoring coverage for vessels operating in Alaska waters.
In 2000, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) adopted new requirements that all vessels over 300 gross tons be fitted with AIS, a communications technology that broadcasts the vessel's name, type, size, position, heading, speed, and other operational information several times a minute. After the marine safety benefits of this new technology became evident, the Coast Guard raised the bar requiring all commercial vessels over 65' in length, including fishing vessels be equipped with AIS. The MXAK built and operates a network of 130 AIS receiving stations throughout Alaska from Ketchikan, west to Adak and north to Barrow to receive AIS reports from vessels. MXAK's modern, state of the art Operations Center monitors vessels' AIS reports 24-hours a day and alerts the Coast Guard, owner/operator and first responders when a vessel is detected to be disabled and in need of help. MXAK also built and maintains weather stations at many of their AIS receiver sites. There is an MXAK AIS and Weather station co-located with CIRCAC's Kenai River ice forecasting camera, located at the mouth of the Kenai River.
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| Courtesy of Marine Exchange of Alaska. |
The vessels monitored and the information received are shared with vessel owners, operators, ports, the Coast Guard, the State of Alaska and other authorized users via the MXAK's secure PacTracs display system. The information transmitted from each vessel and received by other vessels helps to identify vessels operating in the proximity of each other by displaying the vessel's name, position, speed, and heading, which can be very important when trying to locate a vessel of opportunity to respond to a vessel in trouble. The information provided by AIS promotes safe, secure, efficient and environmentally responsible maritime operations and to date, many lives have been saved by the operation of this Alaska maritime safety net.
If you are in Juneau, it is worth visiting MXAK, whose staff are very receptive to providing tours. To see more photos, click here.
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