As a result, vessel owners often purchase more than one insurancepolicy since it is not clear under which statute an injured observermight choose to file a lawsuit. Congress should clarify the status ofobservers and help contain insurance costs for vessel owners. Obviously, such adesignation substantially increases program costs, which either makesan observer program less practical or results in significantly scaledback levels of observer coverage. Beyond observer programs, monitoring and enforcement is beingenhanced in Alaska and other regions through application of varioustechnologies, including onboard cameras and Vessel Monitoring System(VMS) units. These technologies can often offer significant costsavings over labor intensive observer programs, but regulationsrequiring onboard surveillance technologies raise privacy issues, amongother concerns.