INSIGHTS: Clay Diamond, Executive Director - General Counsel, American Pilots' Association

Since 1884, the American Pilots’ Association (APA) has served as the hub for individual state pilot organizations, keeping the matters most important to pilots top-of-mind in Washington, DC and in London at the International Maritime Organization. Tasked to help ships navigate local waterways efficiently, effectively, today’s pilots face a long list of potential hazards to this mission, which Clay Diamond, Executive Director – General Council, APA, discusses with Marine News.

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1. Describe APA and your role with the organization?

APA has been the national association of the piloting profession since 1884. Virtually all the 1,300+ State-licensed pilots working in U.S. ports and all U.S.-registered Great Lakes pilots belong to APA member pilot groups. APA pilots handle over 90% of large ocean-going vessels moving in international trade in U.S. waterways. The responsibility of these pilots is to protect the marine environment as they ensure the safe and efficient movement of maritime commerce. An elected President leads APA. Captain Jorge Viso, a pilot in Tampa Florida for 27 years, has served as APA President since January 2017.

In my role with APA, I represent pilots and the piloting profession before Congress, federal agencies, and State and local legislative and administrative bodies; and advise pilot groups and pilotage authorities on operations, practices, business structures, and oversight of pilots and pilotage systems. I also serve on U.S. Delegations to IMO.

Despite the weather and sea conditions, pilots are essential to delivering ships and their goods safely, efficiently. Image courtesy Virginia Pilots

2. Our readers are familiar with pilotage, but can you provide details?

Pilotage of international trade vessels in the U.S. is regulated by the 24 coastal states. This system dates to the Lighthouse Act of 1789, legislation that gave states authority to regulate pilotage. The courts and Congress have reaffirmed this system many times over the 236 years since passage of the Lighthouse Act.

Coastal state laws require every foreign-flag vessel and every U.S.-flag vessel engaged in international trade moving in state pilotage waters to take a state-licensed pilot. These “international trade vessels” represent over 90% of all merchant ships moving in U.S. waters. Under federal law, U.S.-flag coastwise vessels must be under the direction and control of an individual holding a U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) First Class Pilot Endorsement.

Pilotage regulations are so effective because, unlike other safety regulations which merely direct a ship to take or not take certain actions, pilot regulations place a pilot on the ship to ensure the ship takes appropriate action. This pilot possesses unmatched local knowledge; is an expert ship-handler; leverages emerging navigation technologies; and has the sole objective of protecting the public interest. Further, it is not just that ONE ship is under pilotage; it is that ALL ships in a port are required to take pilots who routinely work and train together.

Houston Pilots is only one of three pilot organizations in the U.S. that still use station boats. Images courtesy Houston Pilots

3. Are there trends that you feel may impact pilots and pilotage operations?

My answer focuses on four trends: (1) rapid growth of ships, (2) environmental regulations with unintended consequences, (3) degradation of the physical aids to navigation array, and (4) autonomous technology.

(1) Rapid Growth of Ships: Ships are getting larger, but channel sizes are not keeping pace. There is little tolerance for even a minor shipping incident. These realities put even more pressure on pilots and make safe, modern, and efficient compulsory pilotage operations more important than ever. Fortunately, I am confident that pilots are up to this challenge.
(2) Environmental Regulation: Some environmental regulations, if not properly structured, can cause significant navigation safety issues. Two examples are marine mammal protection vessel speed restrictions (VSR) and engine power limiters (EPLs) to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Pilots support environmental protection regulations if they do not inadvertently degrade navigational safety. NMFS proposed to expand North Atlantic Right Whale VSRs to cover the entire East Coast, including in narrow off-shore channels, and to apply to pilot boats. This would have compounded the dangers of navigating large vessels in narrow channels by limiting pilots from using the speed necessary to keep large vessels safely in the channel. As these ships have grown larger, pilots and ship captains need more than 10 knots to keep these vessels in the channel. Additionally, the proposed expansion would have negatively impacted the already dangerous pilot transfers between pilot boats and ships by placing an artificial speed restriction on pilot boats. To its credit, NMFS withdrew this proposal following private sector feedback. Regulations limiting ship GHG emissions also initially raised navigation safety concerns. Under an IMO system to reduce GHG emissions, existing ships can be fitted with EPLs. Some EPLs led to ships’ engine power being derated by as much as 75%. Ships are designed for various maneuvering characteristics (e.g., turning radius), and such dramatic power limitations in pilotage waters would be dangerous because it severely restricts the maneuverability of these vessels. APA worked with the USCG and the International Maritime Pilots’ Association to clarify that EPLs may be disabled for navigation safety reasons. To do otherwise would deprive pilots of a critical tool to maintain safety.
(3) Aids to Navigation: APA advised the USCG of our concerns with efforts to “modernize” its AtoN array. Physical AtoNs (i.e., buoys, day markers, ranges, etc.) are vital to safe visual and radar navigation. Physical AtoN will be there even when electronic systems fail (which happens with regularity). Also, smaller vessels - including recreational and fishing - may not have access to electronic charting systems and AIS receivers and may rely exclusively on physical AtoNs to safely navigate. Having these small vessels operating without the benefit of physical AtoN in and around shipping channels traversed by large commercial vessels can be risky.
(4) Autonomy: I have been involved with IMO efforts to develop a Maritime Autonomous Surface Ship or MASS Code since discussions started in 2017. There was a sense then we needed to hurry because uncrewed ships would soon be in wide use. This has not been the case. The initial deadline for completing mandatory MASS Code was 2024, but this has shifted to 2032 — even that is optimistic. While autonomous technology has applications for military, law enforcement, search and rescue, survey, and small domestic commercial applications, large-scale MASS operations are far off. Even when policymakers resolve difficult technology, redundancy, cybersecurity, cost-benefit, and liability questions, there is the political question…will the public accept a large fully laden oil tanker barreling at the U.S. coast with nobody onboard? This is not a criticism of emerging navigation technology. Pilots have long been drivers of such technology. The portable pilot unit, introduced by pilots, is the most significant improvement to shipboard navigation in decades.