Short-term failure of the reporting systems due to communications
problems will not result in a loss of life, and will have minimal
impact on the safety of vessels. NAVTEX Broadcast Notice to Mariners
can be used to notify mariners of the temporary failure of the system
and can provide mariners with basic information necessary to avoid
right whales. Downtime is likely to be minimal and is not expected
to result in increased ship strikes and whale mortality. For those
ships reporting through INMARSAT C or direct printing radiotelegraphy,
the standard protocol now used for such systems will be used to re-route
incoming and outgoing communications through an alternate address
and it is expected that this will minimize the system's downtime,
though some delay may occur.
The Coast Guard operated MF, HF, VHF voice communications
systems, by design, have built in redundancies and overlapping coverage
areas and an individual equipment or site failure are unlikely to
affect the ability of a mariner to contact a Coast Guard facility
to make a required report.