Correspondence – Professional Mariner

Regulators respond to casualty incidents, harassment cases across the maritime industry

During the early morning of Sept 2, 2019, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Sector Los Angeles/Long Beach received an abrupt distress call. “Mayday, mayday, mayday! Conception. Platts Harbor, north side Santa Cruz. Help [unintelligible] three-nine P-O-B. Help. I can’t breathe!” Conception was a 75-foot-long dive boat anchored off Santa Cruz Island that caught fire in the middle of the night.…

Pilots sound alarm on proposed federal right whale rules

It has been nearly two years since the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) proposed radical changes to the existing North Atlantic right whale vessel speed regulations. During this time, the American Pilots’ Association (APA) has warned that the proposal will have the unintended consequences of endangering lives, increasing fatigue, negatively impacting navigation safety and weakening the maritime supply…

ABS outlines safety considerations for methanol bunkering

Methanol fuel gives vessel operators another option for reducing greenhouse gas emissions With more than 90 percent of global gross domestic product now covered by a net-zero target, the growing consensus to tackle climate change is matched only by a deepening understanding of the immensity of the challenge. For the shipping industry, there’s a real urgency to reverse the 20…

The shortage of mariners willing to work for less

In the recent debate in gCaptain about the shortage of qualified American mariners is the reality that life at sea has become increasingly austere and isolating. The wage and benefit differential between a career at sea and one ashore is a thing of the past for licensed and unlicensed mariners alike. When an AB can earn as much working at…

Vessel discharge rules: What mariners and ship operators should know

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has indicated that new federal discharge standards for vessels will be published in autumn 2024, some four years after its original deadline. In the meantime, the agency has seemingly strengthened its inspection and enforcement efforts to ensure compliance with the extended Vessel General Permit scheme and warns that noncompliance can result in significant penalties. Regulatory…

The U.S. Coast Guard has yet to fully address slow processing times for medical cards. Capt. Sweeney has some suggestions.

Imagine for a second driving your car through traffic in a strange city with missing or misleading road signs, traffic lights and lane markings. Over the last decade, that is exactly the kind of navigation western rivers mariners have increasingly been expected to perform. Technology that would permit 100 percent virtual aids to navigation (ATONs) may become available someday, but…

Captain in Exxon Valdez oil spill dies at 75

Joseph Jeffrey Hazelwood, captain of the tanker Exxon Valdez when it ran aground in Alaska in 1989 and spilled an estimated 11 million gallons of oil, died July 21. He was 75. His family is planning a future memorial service. The tanker was carrying more than 1.2 million barrels (more than 50 million gallons) of oil when it struck…

Coming ashore (for good) takes preparation and perseverance

It was during my last hitch that I decided I would not be coming back to shipping. It was not because of bad experiences, because I had plenty of good ones, too. I wanted to get married, have a family and be able to go home every day. The decision was years in the making and not one I made…

Cruise ships are not the answer for more U.S. maritime jobs

Editor’s note: The following letter responds to Capt. Sean Tortora’s article “Americans pay for cruise industry’s flags of convenience” that ran in Professional Mariner’s Oct.-Nov. issue. Capt. Tortora wonders how many Americans planning on cruising would be appalled to know there is only one U.S.-flagged ocean cruise ship, while all others operate under flags of convenience (FOC). The answer: They wouldn’t care. Cruising is popular because the model…

Western Great Lakes Pilots Association debuts new pilot boats

The 2022 Great Lakes shipping season is seeing some new boats plying the St. Mary’s River, which separates the western corner of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and Canada. The Western Great Lakes Pilots Association (WGLPA) of Brimley, Mich., has added two vessels to its fleet of St. Mary’s River-based pilot boats, which numbers six vessels. Pilotage District 3 on the Great…