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1 2 Bill No. 36-0209 An act amending Title 23 Virgin Islands Code, Chapter 10 to establish civil penalties for disregarding marine advisories and to create the Territorial Marine Safety Fund PRESENTED BY Daryl D. Jaschen DIRECTOR VIRGIN ISLANDS TERRITORIAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY Submitted to SENATOR NOVELLE E. FRANCIS, JR., CHAIRMAN Senate Committee on Budget, Appropriations and Finance Earle B. Ottley Legislative Hall in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands December 15, 2025 2 | P a g e Good afternoon, Senator Novelle E. Francis, Jr., Chairman, Committee on Budget, 3 Appropriations, and Finance, other committee members, 36th Legislature Staff, and 4 those in the viewing and listening audience. 5 6 I am Daryl D. Jaschen, Director of the Virgin Islands Territorial Emergency 7 Management Agency (VITEMA). I am here today to provide testimony to Bill No. 8 36-0209, an act amending Title 23 Virgin Islands Code, Chapter 10 to establish 9 civil penalties for disregarding marine advisories and to create the Territorial 10 Marine Safety Fund, dated September 29, 2025, sponsored by Senator Hubert L. 11 Frederick. 12 13 VITEMA supports Bill No. 36-0209 to establish a penalty for any person who 14 disregards an official marine advisory and causes the deployment of emergency 15 response resources. As to what constitutes an official marine advisory for the 16 waters of the US Virgin Islands, the National Weather Service located in San Juan, 17 Puerto, which is an agency within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 18 Administration (NOAA), is the only authority VITEMA recognizes and 19 coordinates with to advise boaters of deteriorating marine conditions or to pass 20 along marine advisories, costal hazards warnings, or other weather related notices. 21 22 The area of responsibility for the National Weather Service in San Juan to provide 23 weather forecasts, to include marine advisories, encompass a rectangular ocean 24 area within the following coordinates; North latitude 19.5 degrees to South latitude 25 17.0 degrees which is a range of 167 miles North-to-South and East longitude 64.0 26 degrees to West longitude 68.0 degrees which is a range of 270 miles East-to- 27 3 | P a g e West. This rectangular area includes the land masses of Puerto Rico, Vieques, 28 Culebra, all the US Virgin Islands, and all the British Virgin Islands. 29 30 These advisories include an effective date and time, area of coverage, details of the 31 type of marine hazard, and an anticipated expiration date and time, which may be 32 extended by the National Weather Service if conditions continue to remain 33 hazardous. 34 Distribution of these advisories are done through various official media outlets 35 such as the National Weather Service webpage at www.weather.gov , Facebook, 36 and for media outlets, they can request access to a NWS Puerto Rico weather 37 products application called Slack for mobile devices and desktops. Special 38 sections focus on weather related watches, warning, and advisories based on 39 geographic areas. NOAA, NWS, and the Federal Communications Commission 40 maintain a weather radio all-hazards (NWR) Emergency Alert System, which 41 includes more than 1000 transmitters, covering all 50 states, adjacent coastal 42 waters, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the U.S. Pacific Territories. NWR 43 requires a special radio receiver or scanner capable of picking up the signal. 44 Broadcasts are found in the VHF public service band on one of seven frequencies 45 (MHz). For the US Virgin Islands, the NWR transmitter is located on the east end 46 of St. Thomas, with broadcast frequency 162.45 Mhz, covering a range of 47 approximately 40 miles. The NWR transmitter operates a recorded weather 48 message 24-hours a day, and relays weather watches, warning, and advisories at 49 the same time as the announcements are published on NWS-PR website. The 50 National Weather Service in Puerto Rico also maintains, as part of its Emergency 51 Alert System, the ability to broadcast watches, warning, and advisories to 52 smartphones which are connected to cell towers. For the marine community, 53 4 | P a g e broadcast coverage is limited to the signal strength of the tower. The US Coast 54 Guard Sector San Juan also broadcasts the NWS-PR watches, warnings, and 55 advisories on VHF Marine Channel 16 and Channel 22A. 56 57 While VITEMA posts the NWS-PR weather watches and warnings automatically 58 for subscribers to its Alert VI, advisories require human action and are not 59 automatically sent. VITEMA’s focus for advisories is land based events and is 60 usually limited to heat, flood, and drought related weather events. Marine 61 advisories, if broadcast, are around coastline conditions, such as rip currents. 62 63 Of special note is the British Virgin Islands Department of Disaster Management 64 receives its official weather advisories from the Antigua and Barbuda 65 Meteorological Service based on a Memorandum of Agreement. Any calls for 66 marine rescue in the British Virgin Islands are made through their Police marine 67 units and volunteer marine rescue group. Marine calls for emergency response 68 beyond 12 miles from the BVI coast are responded through a MOU with the US 69 Coast Guard in Sector San Juan. 70 71 While the US Coast Guard Sector San Juan does not publish its own marine 72 advisories for the public, it does use a technology called Rescue 21, which is 73 an advanced command, control and communications system covering Puerto Rico 74 and the U.S. Virgin Islands, basically a maritime version of 911 which facilitates 75 better communication in emergency situations. Rescue 21 allows for direction 76 finding, which if a boater in distress has a VHF radio, and mariners are supposed to 77 have one in their vessels, when they click it on and call Mayday, the US Coast 78 5 | P a g e Guard antennas will cross reference that signal and pinpoint the location up to 20 79 miles off the coast. 80 81 Other measures used by the US Coast Guard to curtail marine traffic during times 82 of hazardous marine weather conditions is to publish the Marine Safety 83 Information Bulletin or MSIB which announces deteriorating port conditions. The 84 MISB is used during tropical storms and hurricane threats, and ranges from Port 85 Condition Whiskey, where tropical storm force winds are expected within 72 86 hours, to X-Ray, to Yankee, and finally to Zulu, where tropical storm force winds 87 are expected within 12 hours and the port is closed. 88 89 As to any monetary penalty to boaters who require assistance or rescue, during 90 times when a marine advisory has been issued, VITEMA is not a regulatory 91 enforcement arm of the government will look to agencies such as the Department 92 of Planning and Natural Resources (DPNR) and the Virgin Islands Police 93 Department (VIPD) for their input to this bill. 94 95 Thank you for the opportunity to present testimony on Bill No. 36-0209, and again, 96 VITEMA supports this Bill. I am prepared to answer any questions any members 97 of this committee may have at this time. 98