On Patrol

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on patrol Story by Nick Weldon Photos by Steven J. Conway

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t h ro u g h t h e m i d d l e o f l a k e e r i e . b o sto n w h a l e rs p ro t e c t i t it’s hot. the forecast on this mid-august scorcher in port clinton, ohio, called for temperatures to reach the low 90s, but with the soupy humidity, the heat index eclipses the century mark. out on lake erie, both the lorain county sheriff’s 32-foot boston whaler justice and the ottawa county sheriff’s 27-foot vigilant are smothered in haze. the mission is national security, which means there are no breaks for these floating sentinels, even on a day when the lake’s western basin has become a steaming cauldron. “We are directly on top of the U.S.-Canada border right now,” says Olen Martin, the coordinator of this 58-agency task force, known as the Northern Border Initiative (NBI). Established by Ohio’s department of Homeland Security, the NBI brings together, among others, the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, and numerous city and county police units to protect Lake Erie’s lengthy coastline against terrorist incursions as well as the illegal smuggling of goods, people and drugs.


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