The Federal Register of March 16, 2009, announced the Final Rule on the "Consolidation of Merchant Mariner Qualification Credentials."  Effective April 15, 2009, the previously separate documents - the Merchant Mariner's License, the Merchant Mariner's Document (MMD), the Standards of Training Certification and Watchkeeping Endorsement (STCW), and the Certificate of Registry (COR) -- will be combined into a single passport-sized document called the Merchant Mariner Credential (MMC).  NMC has created a slide-show to explain and illustrate the new document.

The expectation is that since credentialed mariners are required to hold a TWIC (Transportation Worker's Identification Credential) by April 15, 2009, the Transportation Safety Agency will share the TWIC information with the USCG.  There will no longer be any need for mariners to be fingerprinted and profiled separately by the USCG.

The National Maritime Center has prepared a slide show to describe the MMC and will be issuing a series of bulletins to clarify terminology and intent:

The 71-page Rule and accompanying discussion includes the following highlights:

• New Merchant Mariner Credential Terminology (NMC Bulletin)
• The TWIC will be used as the primary identification document aboard US vessels and at US facilities.  The MMC may be used as an identity document in other places, but primarily serves as the mariner's qualification and service document.
• As of April 15, 2009, no mariner will be eligible for a Merchant Mariner Credential unless he or she has a TWIC or has applied for one.
  
• The term "license" will be replaced by "endorsement" as in "deck officer endorsement" or "engine officer endorsement."
  
• Come April 15, 2009, no more of the traditional paper licenses (suitable for framing or hanging in the rack) will be issued.
  
• The first MMCs will be prototypes.  Eventually the USCG hopes to bring the document into full ILO 185 compliance.  
  
• 46 CFR Part 10 is re-designated  "Merchant Mariner Credential" and the contents of former 46 Part 10 ("Merchant Mariner Officers and Seamen" have been relocated to a new 46 CFR Part 11 ("Requirements for Officer Endorsements").
• While the change to the MMD will not reduce any particular fee that a mariner must pay, it will reduce the number of fees the mariner must pay.
  
• The MMD may be renewed at ANY TIME before the current credential expires and up to one year after the expiration date, although the mariner may not sail under the authority of the credential after its expiration.
  
• MMCs will be phased in over a 5-year period as documents currently held are upgraded or renewed.
• Since the fingerprinting and criminal background checks will be done by TSA as a requirement of the TWIC, there will be no need to make a separate trip to the REC for these procedures.
• Most Mariner Credential transactions may be done online or by mail.
• This Rule does include at least one change in a licensing (officer endorsement) requirement.  In 46 CFR 11.462 (formerly 10.462) one path to Master Fishing has been removed.  Service as "unlicensed master" is no longer a route to an Original Master Fishing license as it had been in the past.