Above Nav Safety Info Bulletin mandates wearing masks on vessels.
While I wear a mask because I CHOOSE to, to mandate wearing one under penalty is UNCONSTITUTIONAL and violates my right to choose.
If, in my opinion, the mask presents a hazard to navigation by preventing me by lessening my ability to communicate effectively with another vessel, I WILL REMOVE IT and may not wear one at all when on watch.
Just curious, but which one of the Bill of Rights guarantees the Right to Choose?
In general, mask wear will be required unless their wear would pose risks to personal/workplace safety or prevent compliance with personal protective equipment by regulation. This exception obviously includes communication with other vessels.
You have an obligation to your fellow man and public health to wear your mask. You have no right to choose.
Wear your mask or walk the plank. That is your choice.
Be vaccinated as soon as possible, or don’t expect to be allowed onboard any airplane or up any gangway. That is your choice.
If we’d had better public health leadership, closed the borders, and if people had responsibly and diligently worn good masks, hand sanitized, socially distanced, and avoided unnecessary travel, we’d have already beaten Covid, just like Australia, New Zealand. and Taiwan have.
The only reason that Covid is still a problem in the US is that we have too many fools and crazy people running around without good masks bleating about their rights.
I’ve worn a mask every day for almost a year now, and communicate via radio. Speak as clearly and loudly as your ALL CAPS indicate and it’s really no issue to hear.
Bringing up the constitution in the context of wearing a mask is disingenuous. It’s like using the constitution to defend your right not to wear clothes in public. Good luck with that.
If you feel so strongly about the constitutionality of it, you could always not comply, get a fine from the CG, fight it in front of hearing officer, lose, appeal it to an administrative law judge, lose, file suit in a federal district court, lose, appeal it to a circuit court, lose, and petition the Supreme Court to hear your appeal. If you succeed in getting it determined unconstitutional there a full eight years later, you’ll be a hero!
Of course, in the meantime, you’ve accumulated hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal bills that you can’t pay because the CG took your MMC for continued noncompliance, but that won’t matter because you won and don’t have to wear your mask anymore.
Just treat it like all other USCG safety bulletins if you don’t like it. If you carry passengers or have an inspection you should follow the guidelines though.
I’ve witnessed bigger hazards to navigation simply because some people were able to get a license and stand a watch.
Have you not heard some of those thick accents on the radio in Fourchon??? People didn’t even have masks and I couldn’t understand what they were saying. Can I remove them because they are obviously a hazard to navigation.
Its only for US flagged vessels.
Do you wear seat belts in your private vehicle? Do you go shirtless/shoeless into stores where they have a sign on the door saying “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service”?
KR: you’re lucky you can hear even every other word in Fourchon. Cajuns, like me, use our hands a lot when we talk. That can cause some problems if you’re holding the mic in one of those hands.
What if your with the same crew for more then 10 days and no one got sick. Can we take our mask off.
Below is the MSIB. It doesn’t say anything about vessels with the same crew that hasn’t had any outside contact for 10-14 days. Not a word about seismic, research & other vessels on long transits that won’t see port for weeks or months. It doesn’t say anything about those of us who have to quarantine in a hotel for 14 days. It doesn’t mention anything about those who had Covid19 already or those who have the small card certificate that you get after your second vaccine. It does say this, "Persons that wish to report vessels not operating in accordance with the Executive Order or CDC Order may email the Coast Guard at wearmask@uscg.mil " which tells me this is 100% politics by means. The same Bolshevik litmus test tactics that the far left has been known for for over a hundred years. Wear whatever piece of clothing, badge or patch they tell you to & repeat the words they want to hear when they tell you to say it & you will be okay. Or have your picture taken & emailed to Big Brother at the email address provided & see what happens. Simple as that.
USCG-MSIB-Number-02-21-2020_01.pdf (159.7 KB)
You’ve sure come to the right place to get the answer to this question. Instead of asking the USCG or CDC though just follow the time proven advice of a wise fellow.
When in danger
Or in doubt
Run in circles
Scream and shout.
…and while you’re shaking in your boots,
make sure you blow at least five toots…
You can give that same response to almost all questions asked on this forum? Even when Mr. Cavo expertly answers licensing & NMC questions he almost always backs it up with a link or pdf already in the public domain. This is a “forum” from an old Latin word, a place where people historically go to discuss & ask questions? At least his was an original question, I noticed many of the questions & topics brought up here have been asked countless times already. I’m interested to hear how others, especially those without passengers, with pre-embark quarantine, who have been vaccinated & on long trips are handling it.
Hanlon’s razor: “never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity”.
Or more kindly this seems like it can be explained by bureaucratic inefficiently. Many countries have a process for a vessel to get “free pratique” where the vessel asserts everyone on board is healthy. A port or voyage memo must also be summitted showing a list of ports called.
The proper way for the CG to comply with the CDC’s requirements would be to use a similar system but the U.S. does not have such a system in place. To do so presumably would require some bureaucratic type stuff to happen.
From Wikipedia:
Pratique is the license given to a ship to enter port on assurance from the captain to convince the authorities that she is free from contagious disease. The clearance granted is commonly referred to as free pratique. A ship can signal a request for pratique by flying a solid yellow square-shaped flag. This yellow flag is the Q flag in the set of international maritime signal flags.[1]
In the event that free pratique is not granted, a vessel will be held in Quarantine, according to the customs and health regulations prevailing at the port of entry, typically until a customs or biosecurity officer makes a satisfactory inspection.[2]
If you read the CDC guidance document from which the USCG made their own policy, you can pretty quickly see that the maritime transportation sphere was really not the main target of this. It was air travel. Nevertheless, the policy is stated and companies will be following the policy until it is changed. 
Someone finally read between the lines.