Yes here is our local article.
Local Coast Guard on heightened alert
By Susan T. Wehren
Of the News-Times
Heightened security from terrorist attacks along the West Coast includes Yaquina Bay.
That is the word from United States Coast Guard Station Yaquina Bay in Newport. Spokespersons from Station Yaquina Bay said that following a nation-wide alert, the local station has been told to keep "an eye out" for strange activities, especially involving swimmers and divers.
Keeping track of all incoming and outgoing commercial and pleasure craft and additional checking around the docks are also part of the routine, said Erik Watson, boatswain's mate second class.
Coast Guard vessels are also patrolling off shore. "We always have cutters patrolling off the Pacific coast," said Petty Officer Robert Lanier of the Coast Guard's Seattle office. He said that while some of the patrols may have been stepped up, he does not see them doing anything beyond their normal duties of policing fisheries and performing search and rescue missions.
The Coast Guard cutter Orca from Coos Bay was in Yaquina Bay this week for a regular call as part of its normal drill activities, according to the Yaquina Bay station. On July 3, the Coast Guard is expecting the arrival of its first of four quick response teams created in response to terrorism.
The team, known as the Marine Safety and Security Team (MSST), will be stationed in Seattle and be responsible for the Northwest.
Other teams will be Long Beach, Calif.; Portsmouth, Va.; and Houston, Texas.
The teams will each have 30-foot boats designed to travel up to 40 knots. The boats can be put on a trailer and then placed on aircraft and flown to other ports for use to stop ships at sea before they come into a port.
The teams will have bomb-sniffing dogs that can be flown out to ships at sea along with their handlers.
In a related matter, Melissa Dickason, manager of Newport Water Sports dive shop in South Beach, said the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has contacted her about any sales the shop might have had of scuba "rebreathers."
This diving apparatus allows for recycling of exhalation by filtering out the nitrogen that is exhaled.
The rebreather allows divers to stay underwater longer, and more importantly does not show the bubbles normally seen with regular diving equipment.
Dickason said she told the FBI that her store had never sold any rebreathers. She said that at one time, the device cost as much as $7,000. "We do not even know where to order them," she said.
According to Petty Officer Lanier, the Coast Guard does not have any divers and must call on other branches of the service, such as the U.S. Navy, for diving.