Founded in 1987, the Netherlands Coastguard is a civilian agency headquartered at the country’s main naval base in Den Helder. According to its official website, the Kustwacht (Dutch for Coast Guard) is tasked with three key missions:
- Ensuring responsible use of the North Sea
- Providing services that contribute to safety and security at sea
- Upholding national and international laws and duties
These missions are further broken into 15 operational tasks divided between law enforcement and “provision of service.” Examples of law enforcement tasks include border control, constabulary missions, customs responsibilities, and enforcing environmental laws. Provision-of-service tasks are very much like the U.S. Coast Guard’s non–homeland security missions, such as search and rescue, responding to natural disasters, and maintaining aids to navigation.
The Kustwacht performs these missions for six different government ministries: Infrastructure and Water Management; Defense; Justice and Security; Finance; Economic Affairs and Climate Policy; and Agriculture, Nature, and Food Quality. The Kustwacht also is a model for interagency cooperation. Some of its leading partners are the Royal Netherlands Navy, Royal Netherlands Airforce, Royal Netherlands Marechaussee (military police), Maritime Police of the National Police Force, Radio Medical Service of the Royal Netherlands Sea Rescue Organization, Royal Netherlands Life-Saving Society, and Rescue Coordination Centers in neighboring North Sea countries. Without these partners, the Kustwacht would be unable to carry out its assigned missions.
The Kustwacht is unique among the world’s coast guards as it does not own any aviation or surface platforms. To perform its taskings, the service relies on the six ministries and their fleets. As of March 2019, a partial inventory of assets the Kustwacht relies on to complete its taskings includes:
- 13 Governmental Shipping Company vessels
- 1 Ministry of Justice and Security patrol vessel and 1 AgustaWestland AW139 police helicopter
- 2 private salvage company vessels
- 3 Royal Netherlands Sea Rescue lifeboats
- 1 Ministry of Defense Mine Combating Vessel and 2 Dornier 228-212 aircraft
Since November 2015, Ronald J. Blok, MSc, has been director of the Netherlands Coast Guard. He is an officer in the Royal Netherlands Navy. One challenge he would like readers of Proceedings to discuss among friends: “In view of law enforcement and maritime security challenges in the 21st century: should ‘freedom of navigation’ be replaced by ‘freedom of destination’?”