PORT CANAVERAL, Fla. – This year, Port Canaveral has slipped to the second busiest cruise ship port in the world, just behind Miami, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. But that ranking doesn’t directly affect Central Floridians and the nearly 7 million passengers who cruised last year from our port.
Most cruise ship passengers, more than anything, care about coming home safely. And the Coast Guard’s special unit – the Marine Safety Unit (MSU) based at the port – makes sure of that every day.
The MSU inspects all cruise ships, and for that matter, all ships that dock at Port Canaveral, twice per year.
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Commander Sarah Brennan oversees the 29-member unit housed at their new 21,000-square-foot multi-mission facility.
“The last building we were in was built in the seventies and this particular building is a show of how much the Coast Guard is investing into this area,” Brennan said.
The MSU is a very specific section of the Coast Guard.
“There’s an enormous amount of studying and on-the-job training that you have to go through in order to be a proficient inspector,” Brennan said. “Like ‘MARPOL’ is marine pollution. It’s what regulates the oil, waste, garbage even.”
Brennan showed News 6 stacks of books that inspectors refer to on a daily basis.
“For this particular side of the Coast Guard, there’s an enormous amount of knowledge that these petty officers and inspectors need to know,” Brennan. “You’ll sometimes find a group of us huddled around a book trying to look through the regulations or policies that might put even a nuance or clarification on each one of these rules - maintenance, how they get rid of garbage, how they train their crew, anything that’s going to happen on board that vessel.”
Besides cruise ships and terminals, Port Canaveral is home to public boat ramps, daily deliveries and departures of fuel and concrete from the on-site cement plant and the fuel depot that supplies the Orlando International Airport.
“The footprint for the entire port is so small, if you really think about it,” Brennan said. “There’s a lot going on here. And that’s what’s unique about Port Canaveral. I have been stationed at the largest ports in the United States but what’s so different about here there’s so much in the Port and for the public.”
MSU inspectors check inside, outside and even underneath all commercial vessels. They inspect terminals and docks. And they wear safety equipment that protects them and the public, like radiation detectors, to detect leaking radiation or even nuclear weapons.
“Yep, maybe radiation leaks, maybe they didn’t tell us about some kind of cargo that they have,” Brennan said. “And if you could imagine some kind of disaster on a ship that happens in the port, the economic impact that would have if we had to shut the port down because of that disaster. Can you imagine? Having to hold cruise ships offshore?”
The MSU has grown because the port has grown. Fifteen cruise ships are now based here, according to the Coast Guard.
Space, of course, has also grown. The MSU assists the Air Force, Space Force, NASA and SpaceX.
Cruise ships depart and arrive regularly under the path of rockets lifting off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
“For every ship, there is one way in and one way out,” Brennand said. “For larger vessels, they all come out and take a right. Almost right under rockets lifting off from the Space Force Station. That is something we’re always tracking and very aware of all times.”
Brennan introduced News 6 to the MSU’s three-person Space Launch Support Team inside the multi-purpose facility.
“All three individuals will support each and every launch that happens from the Cape, the only three in the Coast Guard that are detailed and assigned to Space Launch Support,” Brennan said. “One of these folks is in the control room for each and every launch for every rocket that leaves Space Coast.”
The Space Launch Support Team is responsible for notifying boaters of rocket launches and making sure boaters are clear of the launch hazard area before a launch.
“We would call out to that vessel and say either stay where you are or hey you need to divert and move to a different area and get out of this particular zone, and it’s for their own safety,” Brennan said.
In 2022, a Royal Caribbean ship that ended up in the launch hazard area caused a launch scrub.
Rockets that veer off course or explode mid-air can rain debris and dangerous chemicals on people below, including those on cruise ships.
Some cruise ships cram in close to 10,000 people who must be protected from the risk of a fire and even evacuated in an extreme emergency.
The MSU conducts on average 350 commercial vessel inspections every year to ensure crew members know exactly what to do in life-or-death situations.
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