The closest thing Alaska has to air-traffic control for ships is getting a new control tower.<\/p>\n
On Thursday afternoon at the Juneau Moose Lodge, Marine Exchange of Alaska Executive Director Ed Page told the weekly crowd at the Juneau Chamber of Commerce luncheon that a three-story tower will soon rise from the edge of Harris Harbor.<\/p>\n
Sleek and modern, the tower will be the flagship of an operation unlike anything else on Earth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no other vessel tracking system this large in the world,\u201d Page said.<\/p>\n
From its control room in Juneau, the Marine Exchange tracks every vessel in Alaska waters that carries a small transponder \u2014 and almost every boat larger than 65 feet carries one.<\/p>\n
[STORY: Alaska’s mariners benefit from technological advances]<\/a><\/p>\n On display screens in the Exchange\u2019s second-floor offices above Juneau Electronics, ship-shaped icons are sprayed across a map of Alaska. There are fishing boats, tankers, freighters, cruise ships and more. They\u2019re close to shore and far out to sea.<\/p>\n Some of the icons seem scattered almost at random. Others form defined and regulated lines marking shipping routes that stretch north from California, through the Aleutians, and disappear off the chart in the direction of China and Japan.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like I-5 out there,\u201d Page said on a tour, referring to the California Interstate highway.<\/p>\n In speeches and on tours, Page compares the Marine Exchange\u2019s operation to ones run by national governments around the world. Norway and Iceland have something similar, but they only have 60 or so tracking stations. The Marine Exchange has about 130, monitoring everything from the Bering Sea to Dixon Entrance and the far tip of the Aleutians.<\/p>\n The government of Australia runs a high-tech monitoring system that supervises every boat near the Great Barrier Reef.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s 100,000 square miles of water that they\u2019re monitoring. We\u2019re monitoring 1.5 million square miles, with a little, small nonprofit organization with 20 people in Juneau, Alaska,\u201d Page said.<\/p>\n [STORY: Juneau tech works to avert world’s shipping disasters]<\/a><\/p>\n In the 15 years since its founding, the Marine Exchange has become a critical piece of Coast Guard operations and American monitoring of Arctic waters. When government agencies or port planners want to know how many ships are sailing through the Bering Strait, they contact the Marine Exchange. When a ship enters Alaska waters and needs to know the correct route, it contacts the Marine Exchange. If a ship breaks down in Alaska waters, the Marine Exchange sees it and can notify the ship\u2019s owner in London or Singapore.<\/p>\n The Marine Exchange collects, sorts and displays its information, then sells access to shipping companies, governments, the U.S. Coast Guard and anyone else with an interest in the ability to turn on a computer or navigation plot and know exactly what ships are nearby and what they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you turn off the switch right now, the Coast Guard\u2019s going, where did the ships go? Where are my own ships?\u201d Page said, referring to the way the Coast Guard relies on it. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing how much information we\u2019re bringing in here.\u201d<\/p>\n [STORY: Marine Exchange earns public service award]<\/a><\/p>\n Fifteen years ago, Page, Paul Fuhs and a handful of others started the Marine Exchange of Alaska as a way to share information about vessel locations.<\/p>\n Fuhs was a diver in Dutch Harbor; Page was the chief of marine safety and environmental protection for the Coast Guard in the Pacific.<\/p>\n While both were in the Aleutians, the fishing vessel Arctic Rose sank in the middle of the night, killing all 15 people aboard. There was no distress call for help, and the only sign that something was awry came when the ship\u2019s emergency locator beacon sent out a ping.<\/p>\n By the time the Coast Guard overflew the site, it was too late \u2014 the water of the Bering Sea was too cold to support life for long.<\/p>\n Tragically, the Arctic Rose\u2019s sister ship, the Aleutian Rose, was only six miles away, \u201cand nobody knew about it,\u201d Fuhs said by phone on Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe said, \u2018We need to do something better than this,\u2019\u201d he recalled. \u201cThat\u2019s how it started.\u201d<\/p>\n Each new tragedy has given the Marine Exchange another boost. After the Selendang Ayu disaster in 2004, the Marine Exchange was a key agency in laying out shipping routes through the Aleutians \u2014 which are on the shortest route between the West Coast and Asia \u2014 then enforcing them with electronic fences that are triggered if a tracked ship goes the wrong way.<\/p>\n It\u2019s tracked Yu\u2019pik and Inupiaq whaling boats, and skiffs working in Southeast Alaska. It\u2019s a remarkable experience, Page said, to be out boating and have a cruise ship be able to identify your skiff and radio your boat by name and talk to you.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s gone way beyond what I thought, which is way cool,\u201d he said. \u201cOur office is not really adequate for what we\u2019re going to be doing.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s why, over the next few months (Page is eyeing an opening in June), the Marine Exchange\u2019s new headquarters will take shape. \u201cWe\u2019re pretty excited about it,\u201d Page said. \u201cIt\u2019s like the gateway to Juneau.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Contact Empire reporter James Brooks at james.k.brooks@juneauempire.com or 523-2258.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Get more news:<\/strong><\/p>\n Optimism and pessimism collide among Alaska’s telecom leaders<\/a><\/p>\n State Representative triggers investigation over Beyonc\u00e9 image<\/a><\/p>\n