Maine’s coastline is just as long as it always was and the number of people using the state’s oceanfront remains the same. But for the men and women in the U.S. Coast Guard who patrol it, the days are longer and the wear and tear on the service’s equipment is greater since the attack on America a year ago.

Since Sept. 11, the Coast Guard has maintained the highest level of alert and the largest port security effort since World War II.

The Coast Guard’s priority still is search and rescue on the 95,000 miles of U.S coastline (3,500 in Maine) and in the country’s 360 ports, but now the service must be a larger presence with increased patrols, part of new demands placed on it by Homeland Security.

Ensign Gabe Somma, public affairs officer at Coast Guard Group Southwest Harbor, said Homeland Security demands have resulted in at least three new officers at Southwest Harbor, more time at sea and increased workloads for the four stations under group command – Eastport, Jonesport, Rockland and Southwest Harbor.

“Before September 11, 2 percent of our time was dedicated to homeland security. Now 21 percent is devoted to it,” Somma said. Homeland security involves “escorting and boarding cruise ships and other high-interest vessels [10,000-plus nationally since Sept. 11],” making sure nothing untoward is on these ships and that the people aboard are the ones who are supposed to be there. Basically, he said, the mission is to make sure that ship is safe before it pulls into port.

The Coast Guard has performed countless security patrols, Somma said. “[Our homeland security mission involves] having presence out there. We’re in and out of ports, looking at boats – who’s coming and going. The number of patrols has been increased. We’re doing more with less, working more hours, but there has been no compromise in safety, Somma said.

The money for the extra effort has come from two supplemental budgets amounting to around $20 million, Somma said. Some 2,700 active reservists have been called up to assist in the Coast Guard’s efforts. Locally, in addition to the three new officers assigned to Southwest Harbor Group, the extra time at sea has kept officers’ eyes open for crew fatigue and maintenance workers doing extra work to keep busy boats mechanically ready for their primary mission, search and rescue.

Then there are the other facets, Somma added. Besides homeland security and search and rescue these involve: migrant interdiction, drug interdiction, environmental protection, maintenance of aids to navigation, fisheries law enforcement (for example patrols in Grey Zone between Grand Manan and Maine), boating safety checks (for equipment such as Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon, flares, survival gear etc.), maritime law enforcement, boating while intoxicated enforcement, ice breaking and national defense operations.

In this boating season, that began on Memorial Day, the Southwest Harbor Group has handled 184 search and rescue cases, typical for the boating season in Southwest Harbor alone, Somma said.

Nationally, in the year following Sept. 11, the Coast Guard has responded to more than 31,000 search and rescue cases saving more than 3,200 lives; assisted 39,000 people in distress; seized 37,024 pounds of marijuana and 111,903 pounds cocaine; interdicted more than 3,500 illegal immigrants, responded to 4,000 oil and chemical spills through its Marine Safety Office and conducted 6,500 marine safety accident investigations.

On the horizon the Coast Guard is looking to update its fleet. The first phase of Program Deepwater, a plan launched before the Sept. 11 attack, is now under way. It is an ambitious $17 billion one to replace the existing fleet of aircraft and vessels to make the service faster and more capable. In the first part of the plan the Coast Guard hopes to have upgrades of 42 existing cutters and by 2006 to have unmanned aircraft on line to help in searches. All in all the plan calls for 91 new ships including eight national security cutters (421 feet, 28 knots), 25 off-shore patrol cutters (341 feet, 22 knots) and 58 fast response cutters 130 feet, 30 knots). In addition there will be new, smaller boats capable of being launched from the larger ships. These include 82 short-range prosecutors (36 knots) and 42 long-range interceptors (45 knots).

In Maine, Program Deepwater will allow for total refurbishing and lengthening of the two 110-foot cutters in Portland to 123 feet.