By Theresa Goffredo
Herald Writer
EVERETT — U.S. Coast Guard officials said Sunday they have buoyed their presence in the Puget Sound and called up 148 reservists to help heighten security around the area’s five Naval bases, including Everett’s, after Tuesday’s terrorist attacks.
Part of that beefed-up security will include escorting Navy ships into port and establishing a perimeter around all Naval installations, Coast Guard public affairs petty officer Anthony Juarez said.
"We’ll establish a perimeter, and if someone goes through it, we would tell them this is a Navy installation and they need to turn around," Juarez said.
Coast Guard personnel also will create a more heightened presence with more cutters and patrol boats motoring throughout the Puget Sound waterways. Juarez could not disclose how many additional boats that would mean.
Though they already do this, Coast Guard personnel also will board commercial vessels "if there is something we don’t recognize," Juarez said.
"We board anything anyway, but there’s definitely a heightened security," he said.
As an example of that heightened presence, Juarez pointed out that normally the Coast Guard cutter that uses Elliott Bay in Seattle transits out of that port immediately to head up to the Strait of Juan De Fuca. But now, the Coast Guard has had patrols in Elliott Bay since the beginning of the crisis.
The reservists were called up Wednesday and "the account now is 148 reservists, and it’s growing," Juarez said.
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reported that U.S. officials have established a 500-yard security zone around all Navy ships and barred other vessels from coming within 100 yards of them.
Juarez could not confirm Sunday night if that 500-yard security zone has yet been applied to Naval bases in Puget Sound.
This was the latest step to tighten security at the country’s ports after four U.S. airliners were hijacked Tuesday, three of which were used in attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.
"This restriction has been used rarely in the past, but never nationwide," said Lt. Rick Wester, a Coast Guard spokesman in Washington, D.C.
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