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RON MATUSThe Coast Guard Auxiliary plays an unsung, but important, role in the area's antiterrorism efforts.
TAMPA - Pat Costello is a captain with many missions.
On some weekends, he uses his 25-foot pleasure boat, the Legal Limit, to ferry friends to beachside barbecues on Pine Island, or to remote spots on Tampa Bay where grouper are rumored to bite.
At other times, he's a non-threatening foot soldier in the war on terror, politely puttering up to fishermen who drop anchor in the wrong spot.
Costello, a systems engineer for Danka Office Imaging, is a member of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, a volunteer navy that has played a quietly vital role in national security ever since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks highlighted the vulnerability of ports, bridges and cargo ships.
In Tampa Bay, hundreds of auxiliary members lead an ongoing campaign to make boaters aware of officially designated security zones, and, often, to shoo them away.
"We're an extra pair of eyes," said Costello, 42, of Apollo Beach.
Formed during World II, the auxiliary boasts more members than the active-duty Coast Guard.
Around Tampa Bay, its 2,000 volunteers outnumber regulars 2-to-1. They assist in everything from search-and-rescue missions to boater safety classes. But since the 2001 attacks, patrolling security zones has become top priority.
Auxiliary members hit the waters of Tampa Bay rain or shine, as they did Saturday during a downpour.
"The Ayatollah doesn't stop their operation when it's raining," said a drenched Joe Lori, 69, a retired mechanic and Korean War veteran who heads the auxiliary unit in Ruskin.
Lori, Costello and fellow auxiliary member Joe Lamb shoved off from the downtown Marriott on Saturday and took a spin around the Port of Tampa.
The port is buffered by a 50-yard security zone that didn't exist before 9/11.
In the past two years, a handful of zones around Tampa Bay have been added or expanded, or become more vigorously enforced. They include the Port of Tampa, MacDill Air Force Base and the Sunshine Skyway bridge.
Authorities don't want anyone near these places.
MacDill is home to U.S. Central Command, which is leading the war in Iraq. The Skyway is a vital transportation artery.
At the Port of Tampa, petroleum storage tanks rise among industrial silos and ships unload toxic liquids such as anhydrous ammonia.
A few months after 9/11, port officials realized how open to sabotage they were.
One day, guards saw two men in a small boat near the oil tanks, recalled port director George Williamson.
"It was like, "Oh my God, they could be terrorists,' " he said.
The guards called area law enforcement, but when nobody showed up, they piled into the port's "environmental john boat." Turns out, the men were fishing.
Auxiliary members have their own stories of suspicious activity that turned out to be innocent. Once, they stopped a boat that was gunning toward a cruise ship, only to be told by the boat's passengers that they "wanted to pass the boat and wave," Lori said.
Many boaters don't know what the rules are. Some security zones are posted with signs. Others are not. Efforts are under way to get more signs, but in the meantime, the auxiliary issues warnings. With 100,000 boats in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties alone, the task is never-ending.
"You could go out to the Skyway today and I guarantee you, you can find somebody fishing within 100 yards," said Petty Officer Robert Suddarth, a Coast Guard spokesman in St. Petersburg.
Most boaters are understanding when told to move on, but every once in a while "they say, "who the hell are you?' " Lori said.
Auxiliary members don't have the power to issue tickets. But if the bad-mouthing continues, they have no qualms about calling in the regulars.
So far this year, the Coast Guard has issued about 30 written warnings in Tampa Bay, Suddarth said.
Written warnings are given to those who are belligerent, or who blatantly ignore signs.
Conviction for violating a security zone can bring as much as $250,000 in fines and six years in prison, Suddarth said. So far, nobody in the area has been charged.
At the Port of Tampa on Saturday, there were no boaters in action near the security zone.
The crew aboard the Legal Limit gurgled back to the Marriott, then prepared for a second run despite persistent rain.
Said Lori: "You have to expect the unexpected."
- Ron Matus can be reached at 226-3405 or matus@sptimes.com