in a manner that minimizes environmental impacts, and in support of the nation’s military and security needs.

These varied federal responsibilities and functions are carried out by several agencies. Each is described in this chapter in relation to the national interests listed above. Consideration is given to how these federal agencies coordinate their MTS-related policies and programs in pursuit of these interests.

The U.S. Coast Guard is the principal federal agency responsible for the safety of marine operations. It shares some safety-related functions with other agencies, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, but the Coast Guard has overarching responsibility for ensuring that the navigation environment and operations are safe for vessel operators, crew, and passengers. It pursues this safety mandate through numerous programs and activities, as described in the following subsections.

As part of its traffic management responsibilities, the Coast Guard places and maintains the aids to navigation that mark the nation’s channels. This service can be traced back to creation of the U.S. Treasury’s Lighthouse Service by Congress in 1789, which preempted state authority over navigable waters. In addition to providing lighthouses, the Lighthouse Service was charged with installing, operating, and maintaining beacons, buoys, and public piers. In 1939 the Coast Guard assumed these responsibilities (USCG 2000).

The Coast Guard’s Aids to Navigation Program’s main purpose is to prevent groundings and collisions with other vessels and structures (USCG 2003). After World War II, the agency aggressively pursued many new navigation technologies to achieve these goals more efficiently and effectively. For instance, most lighthouses were automated, and short-