“The current backlog is creating very serious problems for mariners and could significantly disrupt shipping operations for many companies,” said Delahunt. “I am urging the Coast Guard take immediate steps to ease the backlog and to consider granting license extensions to mariners whose applications are already caught up in delays.”
Over the past year, the Coast Guard has moved its license recertification operations from regional offices to a single facility, the National Maritime Center (NMC) in Martinsburg, Maryland. Most people that make their living on the water are required to obtain some form of merchant mariner documentation issued by the Coast Guard. Once these documents expire, the mariner is unable to work on the water until they are renewed. Due to these processing delays, many licenses are expiring while in-process at the NMC.
In a recent report, the Coast Guard recognized that shortages of medically trained staff have caused significant delays in processing applications. The report further acknowledges that processing times are averaging 80 days and may be longer in some cases.
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