VISITING— U.S. Coast Guard Vice Admiral Peter Gautier visited Nome October 2 during a trip around the state of Alaska. He sat down with The Nome Nugget to discuss current USCG operations.

US Coast Guard Vice Admiral discusses geopolitical tensions

During his short tour around Alaska, U.S. Coast Guard Vice Admiral Peter Gautier made a stop in Nome last Wednesday to meet with local leaders with the goal to better understand the enormity of the state and the local challenges faced by a community on the front lines of increasing tensions between U.S. and foreign powers.
On October 2, Gautier sat down for an interview with the Nugget to discuss plans for Coast Guard operations in the region, oil spill preparedness, communications with Russia and adapting to climate change.
“We really have a responsibility to make sure that the people of Nome and elsewhere in Alaska have the same kind of services as people around the United States have,” he said. “And this is a particular moment where things are changing right in Alaska and in Nome, in terms of climate, in terms of the port expansion, and I think more broadly in this region, in the geopolitical tensions that we face, in particular with the Chinese and the Russians,” Gautier said.
Gautier is the Deputy Commandant for Operations of the U.S Coast Guard. From his office in Washington, DC he oversees all Coast Guard operations, strategy, capability and policy and ensures they are ready with the right equipment to be successful and deliver on their services, he said.

Foreign actors
Coincidentally, Gautier’s visit occurred one day after Chinese Coast Guard and Russian Border Guard vessels were spotted traveling off Cape Rodney and near Wales, on October 1. Gautier confirmed the Coast Guard was aware of the posturing.
“I can understand how that produces anxiety as we are so close to those sorts of operations here,” Gautier said. “First of all, we are absolutely tracking these movements. We know where these vessels are at any given point in time. And that is something that is of very it’s of considerable interest, not just here in Alaska, but also back in Washington, DC.”
 The Coast Guard District 17, including all of Alaska, has an operation called Frontier Sentinel, and when Russian and Chinese state vessels are observed, Gautier said, the Coast Guard postures itself in a position to be able to meet that presence with presence from the United States Coast Guard.
The activities of Russian and Chinese vessels, he said, have been observed in the last four years. “This is a little bit later in the season than we typically see Russian and Chinese naval or Coast Guard activity up here,” Gautier said. “We have Coast Guard cutters operating in the area, and we make sure that that’s the case so we can meet them where they are, just to let them know that we’re paying attention.” Gautier stressed that these transits are considered to be in accordance with international law. “They’re not violating any specific laws. But nevertheless, we think it’s in our interest to be there to track and we also conduct overflights C-130 overflights.”
Gautier acknowledged the traffic of Russian and Chinese vessels has seen an increase. The Coast Guard has observed more vessels in different locations in 2024 than previous years, and the recent transit of Chinese Coast Guard and Russian Border Guard vessels was later in the season than typical, Gautier said.
“It really is that the combination of situational awareness and understanding where Russian and Chinese vessels are operating at any given time, and it does tend to be seasonal,” Gautier said. “I’ll acknowledge that we’ve seen more and in different locations in 2024 than previous years. But they’re tracked, and we do make sure that we have the Coast Guard assets, cutters, aircraft, so that we can meet them physically in proximity when they’re close to our maritime boundary line to make sure that we’re asserting our sovereignty.”
On September 23, a separate incident occurred. A Russian SU-35 aircraft flew dangerously close to an Alaska-based Air Force fighter jet during an intercept in Alaska’s Air Defense Identification Zone. A video was released by North American Aerospace Defense Command documenting the fly by. This prompted a response from U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan where he called for a response with force and referenced the Port of Nome.
“We need to answer force with force and continue building up America’s military presence in Alaska and the Arctic with more infrastructure, like the strategic Arctic port at Nome and reopening the Adak Naval Air Facility, and more military assets.”

Not Anytime Soon
Even with the deepwater Port of Nome project on the imminent horizon, the Vice Admiral could not confirm any plans to bring USCG operations to the Seward Peninsula.
When asked about the Nome port expansion’s role to support the U.S. Coast Guard presence in this region, Admiral Gautier said “I’m not here to commit to any kind of full time Coast Guard presence right now. Our model is that we’re expeditionary, and we need to be where we are in the seasons in which our activities are going to be best supported. So I think there’s some challenges in terms of a Coast Guard full time presence, in terms of sustaining all the things that we would need, the housing, the things that might support Coast Guard cutters and things of that nature.”
Gautier assured the Coast Guard is ready to respond to anything and are committed through a “persistent presence.” When pushed on what that means, especially with Nome’s distance from USCG Air Stations in Kodiak and Sitka or even the seasonal base out of Kotzebue which holds two helicopters, the Vice Admiral said that means having assets, cutters and aircraft ready to meet them physically when they cross the maritime borderline “to make sure that we’re asserting our sovereignty.”
In July of this year the USCG renamed their Coast Guard Sector Anchorage, located on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, to Sector Western Alaska and U.S. Arctic to “reflect the unit’s geographical area of operations,” as stated in a July 17 USCG press release.
At the time of the Vice Admiral’s visit, the Coast Guard Cutter Stratton was parked on Nome’s roadstead, unable to dock since it requires a deeper draft. Once the port expansion begins and the dredging of Nome’s harbor is complete, Gautier fully expects for cutters to dock in Nome for refueling and shore leave.
While in Nome, Gautier met with members of the Port Commission, Nome Common Council, city administration, Nome Eskimo Community and Port Project Director Joy Baker, who said it was good to hear the vision of the Coast Guard and show Gautier the physical area where the port expansion will take place.
“The city has always envisioned the port to serve the purpose of supporting a national security fleet.” Baker said. “We knew that the ultimate goal was to make it simpler for the vessels to do resupply and refueling rather than go all the way to Dutch [Harbor].”

Relationship with Russia in disaster response
Gautier said the U.S. Coast Guard has “functional communication” with the Russian Border Guard. This “open path for communication” is necessary in case of an incident like an oil spill and has remained in effect even as U.S. and Russian relations have changed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In June of 2023 a Mutual Spill Response Plan tabletop exercise was carried out, while the Russian Border Guard was not an active participant, they were allowed to listen in.
The last joint exercise took place in 2018.
Climate Change
The Coast Guard has put together a three-part strategy in response to climate change, which Gautier says is impacting operations.
The first part is to reinforce facilities currently affected by climate change, this is done through reinforcement of existing Coast Guard piers and shoreside facilities.
Second is being prepared to respond to more frequent and severe climate events, like ex-typhoon Merbok. Gautier said the USCG recently upgraded facilities across Alaska including replacing C-130H fleet with C-130J planes, stationed out of Kodiak. Six new Coast Guard cutter vessels will be ported in Alaska, three in Kodiak and three in Ketchikan, able to operate in the northern parts of the state. The Coast Guard is also purchasing an icebreaker, which will be very important in their operations at higher latitudes, Gautier said.
The third part of the strategy is minimizing the Coast Guard’s contribution to the warming climate by reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. Gautier referenced the International Maritime Organization’s Revised Greenhouse Gas Strategy which set a target of net-zero emissions by 2050. “That’s a pretty big deal, because shipping internationally, if you look at their emissions, they’d be the seventh largest country in terms of carbon emissions.”
Climate change also means that the lack of sea ice allows for more ship traffic in the Bering Sea region. The longer the strait is open, the more time vessels have to travel through it. Gautier acknowledged this and the increase of Liquified Natural Gas transports from northern Russia to China.
When it comes to oil spill response at sea, the Coast Guard takes the lead in coordinating the response, gathering relevant parties like the ships owners, cities, tribes or state. They also take charge of preparation, organizing spill exercises and meeting with shipping companies that handle hazardous materials to understand the potential situations USCG would respond to.
“Now responding in Alaska, whether that be search and rescue, whether that be fisheries enforcement, whether that be oil spill response, we call it expeditionary. It’s an area where we have to mobilize the resources necessary, and typically from a lot farther away, just given the geography of Alaska,” Gautier said.
Both the state and the Coast Guard have containers with pre-positioned oil spill equipment in Nome.

Oil spill response policy-making
Recently, Congress passed a statutory requirement to reopen conversations around the Coast Guard’s establishment of a baseline oil spill response plan. Last month, Coast Guard Captain Trey Wirth visited Nome with a similar goal of Gautier, to better understand the needs of the region so he can develop policy for vessel response plans for ships over 400 gross tons.
For vessels in this region, Wirth is working with oil spill removal organizations to develop Alternate Planning Criteria to fill the gaps that are often present in policy concerning Alaska, and especially Western Alaska’s unique needs, Wirth said in an interview with the Nugget.
Each vessel over 400 tons needs to have their own response plan. Identified gaps are the insufficient ability to respond, as there aren’t enough organizations for cleanup. Alaska Chadux Network is one of several oil spill response organizations in Alaska, responding to Southcentral and western Alaska. In Nome, they have equipment located at Crowley Marine Services fuel terminal.  
After his travel to Nome, the Nugget reached out to see what Capt. Wirth will take to Washington DC to inform the policymaking for vessel oil spill response plans. He said while two weeks in Alaska were not nearly enough time to meet with all relevant stakeholders and tribal representatives, he did identify several key concerns that he aims to address. “Everyone we spoke to agreed that creating an oil spill criteria specific to Western Alaska and the U.S. Arctic region is necessary,” Wirth wrote. “It is a universal understanding that it is a challenging problem that requires deliberate execution and compromise.”
He added that Alaska presents unique challenges, western Alaska even more so. “Within the state there are tremendous variations in vessel and facility operations, environmental conditions, cultural concerns and type and availability of response resources. This may require the Coast Guard to consider sub-region-specific guidance and regulations that are appropriate for the area,” he wrote.
In addition, Wirth noted that people he spoke with identified the need for risk-based decision-making, and to ensure all impacted tribes and stakeholders are included in defining risks. “I heard important feedback that each stakeholder and tribal organization has a different perspective on what constitutes risk,” Wirth wrote. “Such efforts may lead to the development of sub-regions within Western Alaska and the U.S. Arctic as a way to address the multitude of risks and concerns.”
He also emphasized the need for ongoing and comprehensive consultation. “It was highlighted that the need for comprehensive outreach is more important than the need for swift rule-making,” he said.

 

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