[Luis Gonzalez]

I'm waiting kelly...

Dazzle me with your brilliance.

[Buck72]

I'd say Kelly's estimate is more useful than yours. The 88,000 mile figure includes all the little estuaries, nooks and crannies, a certain distance up the length of rivers, etc. For the purpose of actually patrolling the coasts the 12,000 figure is more useful because it would be done from the water, not land. You wouldn't bother patrolling an entire bay when you can just patrol the opening to the bay and so forth.