I had the pleasure to meet with executives from the marine insurance industry yesterday in New York City -- something I've wanted to do for some time.
I was joined by Judge Advocate General RADM Bill Baumgartner, Asst. Commandant for Marine Safety, Security and Stewardship RADM Brian Salerno, and Director of the National Pollution Funds Center Mr. Craig Bennett
Marine insurance is as old as commercial seafaring itself. The collective action of traders to hedge against the risk of plying the seas goes back to antiquity. This is a sophisticated industry that is vital to trade and transportation.
The Coast Guard and insurance industry often work together, but today was unique in my memory. My top leaders and I sat down with hull, cargo, P&I (liability), pollution, reinsurance and brokerage executives to discuss common objectives across the industry sector.
Not surprisingly we share a lot of similar thinking about reducing maritime risk. It's also a pleasure to work with experts who think systematically about the entire maritime environment. Our conversation criss-crossed safety, security and environmental concerns. In today's global maritime system, this kind of integrated thinking and action is essential to addressing risk.
This was an important time to meet, too. Broad trends in the size and scale of shipping are mixed with today's sharp downturn in the economy and trade. We touched on these trends and related risks. We also discussed pollution response and incident command structure, safety management, fishing vessel safety, data sharing and shortfalls, terrorism risk and security measures, theft loss trends, value accumulation and much more.
I enjoyed the morning and thank everyone who participated. This gathering follows the spirit of last September's Evergreen strategic workshop, where we met with key shipping industry sectors to think about how the future will shape business and government. Such in depth discussions with industry are an essential part of our marine safety improvement plan, and I intend to continue regular meetings with the insurance industry on risk reduction.We hope to focus on pollution risk and response in the next month.
ADM A
