Mariners, Too: The maritime sector reckons with sexual harassment
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Mariners, Too
The maritime sector reckons with sexual harassment
By Pamela Glass, Washington Correspondent
Vessel companies and the federal academy that trains mariners for the industry are facing new requirements to address sexual harassment and assault, as more victims come forward with harrowing allegations of abuse by superiors.
Sexual misconduct has long been under-reported amid the hushed undercurrent of the maritime industry. But with incidents becoming more frequent as more women enter the industry, and more victims willing to talk publicly, the problem is gaining national attention and has spawned new rules and a period of reckoning in the industry.
Sexual assault and harassment, known as SASH, and what to do about it, is now a frequent discussion topic at major shipping conferences, maritime schools, the Seamen's Church Institute, and in Congress, the media, company boardrooms and vessel wheelhouses.
Many are calling it the maritime industry's "MeToo" movement.
"In recent years, many sectors, institutions and communities in America have been reckoning with the harms of sexual assault and harassment," U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttegieg told graduates of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) last June. “Now is the time, long past time indeed, when we must confront the unique challenges around sexual assault and harassment present across the maritime sector and impacting students at this academy."
Meanwhile, some in the maritime industry worry that the new rules will create a climate for false accusations, while also scaring away potential recruits at a time when companies face a widespread and persistent labor shortage and pressure to create a more diverse and inclusive workforce.
SASH in the maritime sector exploded nationally in 2021 when a 19-year-old engineering cadet at USMMA anonymously alleged that she was repeatedly harassed and eventually raped by her superior while on the U.S.-flagged Maersk Line Ltd. (MLL) ship Alliance Fairfax in 2019 during the Sea Year training program, a graduation requirement.
Sea Year training typically consists of a sailing period during a cadet's sophomore year and a longer sailing period during a cadet's junior year, and enables cadets to obtain the training days at sea necessary to become eligible for a Coast Guard merchant officer license examination.
Published on the website of Maritime Legal Aid & Advocacy Ltd., a non-profit law firm, the account detailed the attack, its aftermath and discussed the larger problem of SASH in the industry and at the academy. Known as "Midshipman X," Hope Hicks, the former USMMA cadet, later agreed to go public, take her allegations to the Coast Guard, and share the experience with Congress and with CNN.
She has since graduated and is an officer in the Navy. Her account led to the USMAA suspending the Sea Year program, and prompted many other victims to come forward, filling Maritime Legal Aid's website with dozens of abuse stories from women working on merchant vessels as well as female cadets from USMMA and state academies who say they have experienced abuse on campus and during their at-sea training programs.
The academies and many vessel companies have since adopted stricter policies of zero-tolerance for sexual misconduct and on responding to SASH incidents.
NEW OVERSIGHT RULES
Congress passed new rules in December to improve oversight and investigations in the maritime industry and within the Coast Guard. Provisions in the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, signed into law in December, will:
• Give the Coast Guard authority to revoke the credentials of a mariner who commits sex crimes.
• Establish a process for mariners to report crimes to the Coast Guard.
• Direct the Coast Guard to provide care to a victim as soon as possible while at sea or in a remote location.
• Require "the responsible entity of a vessel," which could be the master of the ship or the vessel company, to report all allegations of harassment, sexual harassment, or assault to the Coast Guard, while increasing civil penalties to up to $50,000 for non-compliance.
(The Masters, Mates & Pilots union said this provision “will multiply the potential legal liability of senior vessel officers,” and urges them to invest in comprehensive license insurance.)
• Require companies to incorporate new training on prevention, bystander intervention, reporting, response, and investigations of SASH into the company's safety management system.
• Require that each berthing area in a ship include information on sexual assault policies and that oceangoing vessels with accommodations for more than 10 crewmembers install and maintain a video and audio surveillance system.
• Require the Maritime Administration to track and store data on abuse allegations at USMMA in Kings Point, N.Y., create a student advisory board to identify "health and wellbeing, diversity and sexual assault and harassment challenges," and designate an attorney to be a victim advisor and offer legal assistance.
The Coast Guard is now working through these directives and proposing regulations. In January, the agency released Marine Safety Information Bulletin 01-23, “Reporting sexual misconduct on U.S vessels,” that for the first-time outlines processes for investigating, enforcement and reporting sexual misconduct on U.S-flagged ships.
To make it easier for victims to report an incident, the Coast Guard has created a CGIS TipsApp (or email at CGIS-TIPS@uscg.mil) and promises that all reports will be reviewed by its Investigative Service. Offenders will be held accountable through criminal prosecution or revocation of merchant marine licenses, the Coast Guard said.
In addition, the Transportation Department launched a policy over-haul at USMMA that added the "Every Mariner Builds a Respectful Culture" (EMBARC) program that outlines measures that shipping companies and the academy must follow to keep cadets safe during their commercial training. It requires shipping companies that participate in the Sea Year program to have a trained sexual assault and harassment coordinator who is in regular contact with cadets, develop crew training, and prohibit crewmembers from entering cadets' bedrooms, which must have door locks.
The American Waterways Operators said its companies "are all in" for preventing sexual assault and harassment and are committed to provide a safe, diverse, and inclusive workplace, according to President and CEO Jennifer Carpenter. She said AWO is launching a virtual series focused on harassment, bullying and sexual assault, and educating companies on how they must comply with the new rules, support their crews, and create supportive work environments.
But AWO said some of the new rules are vague and need further clarification, such as what should be reported to the Coast Guard or can be handled by a company. Carpenter also believes that requiring surveillance cameras "doesn't add a lot of value on a towing vessel.”
HARSHER PENALTIES NEEDED?
Ryan Melogy is a maritime lawyer who founded Maritime Legal Aid & Advocacy (MLAA), a non-profit legal advocacy organization. In his private practice, Melogy currently represents six victims, including Hope Hicks, who have alleged sexual misconduct on large commercial ships and runs the MLAA whistle-blower website. Melogy said these changes are long overdue and will make a difference in deterring and acknowledging abuses, especially requiring reporting of incidents to the Coast Guard and surveillance on vessels.
But some of the rules fall short, Melogy said. The civil penalties for not reporting are too low and the statute of limitations for filing lawsuits should be extended from three-to-five years, which will be hard to do given industry opposition, he said. And there's uncertainty whether the Coast Guard can handle all the new responsibilities given its manpower and budget.
The CNN investigation, which examined hundreds of pages of Coast Guard records and conducted interviews with shipping company and union officials, current and former government employees, and dozens of mariners, concluded that the Coast Guard “has failed to use its power to prevent and punish sexual assault and misconduct for decades, despite growing evidence that this kind of behavior is a longstanding problem at sea.”
The agency told CNN that it has opened 25 criminal investigations into alleged sexual assault but couldn't cite a single successful criminal prosecution of a credentialed mariner in the last 30 years. CNN also reported that the Coast Guard hadn't revoked a single credential for sexual misconduct on a ship over the last decade, but mariners who failed drug tests after using marijuana or CBD oil have lost their licenses.
The Coast Guard said it's often difficult to gather evidence, find cooperative witnesses, and sometimes victims are reluctant to come forward as they are still working on a ship and are fearful of retaliation. Most cases take months or years to resolve, officials told CNN, and in the meantime accused mariners can keep their licenses, which allows them to continue to work and move from ship to ship.
In a related development, CNN further reported in May that the Coast Guard is taking steps to revoke the merchant mariner credential for one year of Edgar Sison, the mariner accused of raping Hope Hicks, the USMMA cadet, in 2019. More than a year after Hicks reported the incident to the Coast Guard, the agency filed administrative charges against Sison for alleged alcohol violations related to the assault accusation.
In November, Hicks settled a civil lawsuit with Maersk, while a decision from the Justice Department is pending on whether criminal charges for the alleged rape will be filed.
Attorneys for Hicks and Maersk mutually agreed that neither side would disclose details of their agreement.
-Fin