The Coast Guard announced in a news release May 24th that it is soliciting for members of the public to participate in a Ports and Waterways Safety Assessment (PAWSA) workshop for the Straits of Mackinac that will take place in St. Ignace, Michigan, July 24 and 25.

A PAWSA is a joint effort involving waterway users, stakeholders, and agencies to focus on identifying major waterway safety hazards, estimating risk levels, and evaluating risk mitigation measures. The Coast Guard has sponsored and led more than 60 PAWSA studies nationwide since 1999.

Participants will convene for a structured workshop with facilitated sessions aimed to ensure the environmental protection and safe navigation in the Straits of Mackinac. The Coast Guard will announce the workshop location at a later date.

The Coast Guard will select participants based on their waterway expertise and to create a broad cross-section of Straits of Mackinac waterways users and stakeholders.

Members of the public who wish to serve as participants in the workshop should provide their name, contact information, connection to the waterway, experience, and related skills to Lt. Sean Murphy, Coast Guard Sector Sault Ste Marie, at Sean.V.Murphy@uscg.mil, by June 15. Formal invitations to selectees will follow.

This blog is not a replacement or substitute for the formal posting of regulations and updates or existing processes for receiving formal feedback of the same. Links provided on this blog will direct the reader to official source documents, such as the Federal Register, Homeport and the Code of Federal Regulations. These documents remain the official source for regulatory information published by the Coast Guard.