But AWW, as it's called, is still largely a public relations effort, and high-tech vessel identification schemes – such as requiring vessel owners to obtain licenses and photo-identification cards, or mandating that small boats carry transponders, as airplanes must do to identify themselves – don't seem likely to gain acceptance anytime soon.

TOO COSTLY AND INTRUSIVE?

Boating industry groups protest that such measures would violate boaters' privacy, that the equipment they would require would cost too much, and, in the long run, that they would not accomplish much in identifying and tracking would-be maritime terrorists. Some boaters view their right to operate their boats without regulation much as gun-enthusiasts regard the Second Amendment.

Ironically, one problem that homeland security officials face in drumming up support for more protection is that, at least so far, there's been little to demonstrate the seriousness of the small-vessel threat the way the Twin Towers attack did in case of the global war on terrorism. Like the USS Cole incident, all the maritime examples have occurred in other countries.Air Force Staff Sgt. Dominic HauserPetty Officer 2nd Class Corey Chiermonte, Petty Officer 3rd Class Jason Miele, Yorktown, Va., and Petty Officer 1st Class Scott Pardington, Camp Lejeune, N.C., defend the USS Yorktown docked on the Ashley River.

There have been almost daily reports of what authorities call "anomalies" – suspicious-looking people taking photos of bridges, ferry boats and even engineering spaces and loading procedures for big ships – but so far they haven't resulted in any terrorist incidents.

"And we would like to keep it that way," Salerno says.

Where the small-boat security effort will go next still is uncertain. On Monday, Chertoff issued a new "small-vessel security strategy" document that lays out broad goals for coping with the threat and calls for enhanced government-industry cooperation to coordinate efforts to gather data on small vessels and track those that seem suspicious. But it didn't contain any specifics.

The Department of Homeland Security has conducted regional government-industry meetings on small-vessel security in Cleveland, Orlando, and Long Beach, Calif., and is slated to hold one in Buzzard's Bay, Mass., in June, but authorities say they aren't likely to result in any new regulations.

The Council on Foreign Relations' Stephen Flynn says the Coast Guard might be able to nab more suspected small-boat terrorists if it stopped treating intelligence about them as classified material and instead began disseminating substantially more information to the public, much as authorities did during World War II when they wanted citizens to help find and expose saboteurs. Today, only law enforcement officers who have proper security clearances can gain access to such material.

"What they're doing now is the wrong approach," Flynn says. "There never will be enough Coast Guard personnel to keep tabs on these cases, and the information now being provided to the public about what we're worried about and what we're doing about it is practically useless. They should be assuming that people would be patriots, and engaging them in the effort."

It's difficult to tell whether the Coast Guard will take up that suggestion anytime soon, but for now one thing is clear: Talk about licensing recreational boaters, requiring them to obtain photo-identification cards or requiring them to carry high-tech transponders to help track their vessels is dead in the water.

"If there's going to be any requirement for tracking [systems], it's likely to have very limited application – say, only for commercial vessels, and even then at the larger end," says the Coast Guard's Salerno.

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard and the industry are pondering some beginning steps. Among them are the possible creation of national boat registry that can be used by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies; research into less expensive transponder technology and a more effective procedure for reporting suspect terrorist activities.

"The dialogue is ongoing," Salerno says.