In the NAUTICAL LOG Press Folder this morning was an article about and photo of the PRC Maritime Safety Administration exercise off Oahu, HI with the USCG. The article mentioned that the USCGC Galveston Island looked small and insignificant compared to the China MSA vessel Haixun 31. Of course the two vessels are designed for quite different purposes and the USCG has some large ocean-going cutters.
However what really caught the NAUTICAL LOG eye was a useful, for the PRC, translation of the MSA painted on the hull. In this case the letters stand for Maritime Safety Administration (MSA) but they also stand for Maritime Surveillance Agency (MSA) another marine law enforcement agency of the PRC and the one most engaged with forcing the PRC Ocean Policy down everyone's throat.
The PRC Ocean Policy is of course their desire for absolute control of the South China Sea and East China Sea in complete disregard to International Maritime Law, the Right of Innocent Passage, and the Rulings of the United Nations as to sea boundaries between Nations.
In the PRC the overall Ministry level body is the State Oceanic Administration which controls all maritime activities at government level such as the ocean sciences, hydrographic studies and publications, the issuing of seaman's papers and Officers Certificates of Competency, maritime investigations, and maritime law enforcement.
To do this latter they now have several agencies all with their own vessels and aircraft both rotary and fixed-wing. These agencies are under the China Maritime Safety Administration (MSA) which operates the China Coast Guard and China Maritime Surveillance Agency (MSA) in addition to all the maritime sciences and seaman's services.
NAUTICAL LOG has seen MSA Haixun 31 with China Maritime Surveillance painted on its hull so hull paintings in the PRC are flexible in accordance with the situation at hand!!
Good Watch.
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