Coast Guard Seeks Comments on Guidelines

In the August 6, 2002, Federal Register, the Coast Guard seeks comments on proposed assessment criteria to be used by Designated Examiners when evaluating candidates for licenses as officers of towing vessels, specifically when evaluating mariners' execution of certain prescribed tasks. These standards appear on the Department of Transportation's website. To access them, (1) go to http://dms.dot.gov/; (2) click on "Simple Search" on the bottom of the page; (3) type "12973" in the search box next to "Docket Number," (4) hit "Enter" on your keyboard. You will then see a page from which you can access the four (4) sets of Performance Assessment Criteria for Towing Officer Assessment Records ("TOAR") tasks. Once on the proper D.O.T. docket page, you can access the Criteria for "Near Coastal/Oceans TOAR," "Western Rivers TOAR," "Great Lakes/Inland TOAR," and "Limited TOAR" via hyperlink to either a PDF or TIF format file. The License Implementation Working Group of the Coast Guard's Towing Safety Advisory Committee ("TSAC") developed these standards. Comments on these standards are due to the Department of Transportation's Docket Management Facility by October 7, 2002. Source: Marine Legal Update