Maritime Security

Maritime security is an issue for all major seaports of the world. Because of the importance of the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to both the regional economy (25 million residents in southern California) and the national economy, securing the ports from both natural and anthropogenic disasters is a high priority issue for the ports and their tenants. USC Sea Grant can best serve our clients at the ports by bringing university research to bear on these critical issues of port operations but also by bringing to the table diverse partners whose expertise in maintaining the supply chain is critical to the success of their own businesses. We have been more successful in the latter than the former but maritime security is so vitally important to the region and nation that any contribution we can make helps us better understand how to keep these important elements of the national goods movement infrastructure viable. 

Outreach Projects

• Port Continuity Planning: Maintaining the Region's Economic Lifeblood. (May 18, 2007, San Pedro). Conference co-sponsored by USC Sea Grant in collaboration with FuturePorts.
• Maritime Cargo Security: Protecting Our Seaports and Communities and the Goods that Move Through Them. (March 4, 2005, Los Angeles). Conference sponsored by USC Sea Grant 

Related Research

• Fawcett, J.A. (2010). Challenges to Apprehension and Prosecution of East African Maritime Pirates. Maritime Policy and Management, 37(7), 753-765.
• Fawcett, J.A. (Ed.) (2007). Port Continuity Planning: Maintaining the Region's Economic Lifeblood, Proceedings of a Conference on Maritime Cargo Security (USC Sea Grant Technical Report, USCSG-TR-04-2007). Los Angeles: University of Southern California Sea Grant Program.

For more information, contact Dr. James Fawcett | 213.740.4477

National Focus Area

Sustainable Coastal Development