USCG Looks for Invalid Licenses

Coast Guard Marine Safety Office (MSO) St. Louis is requesting the assistance of the marine industry, maritime unions, and individual mariners in helping to locate potentially invalid licenses issued from Regional Examination Center (REC) San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Licenses containing the following serial numbers are in question: 765001 through 765100; 864001 through 864100; 878001 through 878100; 878601 through 878700; 919901 through 920000 The license certificates themselves may be representative of a variety of license transactions including original issues, renewals, duplicates and upgrades. The issuing port may be represented as San Juan, Puerto Rico, however, it may appear as another location. MSO St. Louis requests that marine employer's and maritime unions carefully scrutinize the license of their personnel to determine if any have licenses with these serial numbers.

If an employer finds one of these licenses or questions the validity of a license or mariner document, they should contact the Regional Examination Center in Miami, at 1-800-982-9374 or 305-536-6549 to verify the validity of the license or document. Any mariner, whose license bears a serial number in question, and is confirmed to be valid, will have their license reissued by a local REC at no cost to the mariner.

Because Merchant Mariner's Documents (MMDs or Z-Cards) have no assigned serial numbers, the Coast Guard is looking to the marine employers and unions for assistance in identifying anyone that does not appear to possess the qualifications needed for the position being filled. Any mariner who has been recently hired and has no long-term employment or affiliation with a company or union, should have their MMD verified by the Coast Guard.

Marine employers, unions, and mariners may contact MSO St. Louis at 314-539-3091, ext. 268, for information that may help identify improperly issued licenses and documents.

The Coast Guard is working diligently to mitigate the situation and regrets any inconvenience caused.