In the wake of the alarming increase in crime on the seas, the nation's first comprehensive conference on the subject was held last September in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Billed as "Security of the Seas" (S.O.S.) and sponsored by the New Jersey Marine Science consortium, the New Jersey Sea Grant Extension Service, and the Center for Maritime Criminology at Rutgers University, the timing of the conference took on dramatic overtones. The concluding topic of the three-day conference was "Terrorism, Sabotage, and espionage." The following week, the world witnessed one of the decade's most daring acts of piracy: the midocean hijacking of the Italian cruise liner, the Achille Lauro.
In organizing the initial conference, the sponsors created a diversified schedule of topic discussions on ocean-related crimes. Modern day piracy was put into sharp perspective for participants who ranged from law enforcement and criminal justice professionals, law students, military personnel, marine trade and commercial industry representatives, government officials, and the general public.
A roster of national and international experts on the maritime crime problem was invited to speak at the conference. They included Professor G. O. W. Mueller and Freda Adler, a husband-wife team from Rutgers Maritime Criminology Law Center, whose book, Outlaws of the Ocean, was used as a text for the conference. Incidentally, Muller was much in demand during the Achille Lauro crisis, and appeared on virtually every television network as one of the nation's leading maritime crimes experts.
Other speakers included Kaiser Zaman, assistant regional representative of the United Nations high Commissioner for Refugees; Captain Gary Crosby, U.S. Coast Guard; Jock Wilson, investigator for Security and investigation Services of London; Dennis L. Bliss, New Jersey's assistant attorney general; Burdick L. Britain, Citizens for Ocean Law; Lieutenant D.C. Mac Gillis, Florida Marine Patrol; Dr. Robert Abel, New Jersey Marine Science Consortium; T. Alexander Pond, Rutgers University; Alexander Pond, Rutgers University; Alex Wypyszinski, lawyer and New Jersey Sea Grant Extension; Eldon Greenberg, lawyer; and Donald Carr and Judson W. Starr, Justice Department lawyers.
From the opening the conference, Professor Muller emphasized the diversity of ocean crimes.
"Maritime terrorism takes many forms," Mueller said. "Some are subtle, such as the smuggling trade that has grown around the exportation of Western technology, and some are obvious, like the bombing of a Spanish destroyer by Basque terrorists in 1983." Mueller noted that "…at least part of the problem of ocean crime lies with nations that control 80 percent of the ships at sea, yet have no policing activities."
High marks for the Coast Guard
The U.S. Coast Guard, on the other hand, which patrols primarily U.S. waters is considered among the top ten "navies" in the world, according to Capt. Gary Crosby, who was the featured speaker for the first day of the conference. Crosby offered a comprehensive and entertaining account of the Coast Guard's role in the national strategy against drug smuggling.
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