Why are Ship Pilots Necessary?

• Pilots have trained many years on navigating Louisiana’s many narrow and winding channels as opposed to foreign ship captains – who have not.
  
  
• Language barriers. Foreign captains speak limited English, except for basic maritime language.
  
  
• National security.
  
  
• Weather. Fog, blinding rain storms, wind gusts, and water current can individually, and collectively, make navigating a large vessel in close quarters even more challenging.
  
  
• Knowledge of traffic flow. Louisiana’s waterways are shared by many masses – from recreational boats to barges to large cargo ships.
  
  
• Experience in close quarters navigation. Most ship captains are only trained for open sea navigation.

Louisiana Pilots work closely with the U.S. Coast Guard and law enforcement officials for homeland security. They are an American presence on every foreign ship that enters the state, and each pilot is trained in emergency ship handling procedures in the event of a crisis.

The U.S. Coast Guard will attest to the fact that the Mississippi River is unsurpassed in traffic density. Swift currents and shifting sandbars increase the unpredictability and difficulty of navigation on the river. Yet, over the last decade, with 159,646 vessel movements, 12.5 million miles transited and 5.7 billion deadweight tons moved, the Crescent Pilots have a safety record of 99.9%. Likewise, the Bar Pilots have had 135,000 ship movements between 1991 and 2001, while maintaining a safety record of 99.9%. In the Lake Charles Pilots’ 77 years, there has never been an incident where a pilot was found negligent. The NOBRA Pilots’ have a safety rating of 99.9%.


The Louisiana River Pilots help safely transport valuable freight to and from our ports.

Cargo ships typically carry:

• Crude oil
• Gasoline
• Liquefied natural gas
• Chemicals (in many varieties)
• Aggregate
• Bulk agriculture and bulk pet-coke

These cargo ships range from 400 feet to 968 feet in length and can easily consume a small channel. If not navigated safely, the ship can be dangerous to our waterways, economy, and way of life. This is why we have experienced pilots that are continually trained for ultimate safety on our waterways.

When a pilot boards a ship, he or she must assess:

• Weather conditions
• Traffic density
• Fitness of crew members
• Competence of officers
• Activities on the ship
• Status of the instrumentation
• Ship handling characteristics
• Configuration of the bridge
• Language barriers
• Develop a passage plan

ALL THESE THINGS IN A MATTER OF MINUTES!

Why It Works
The state commission system of oversight provides several benefits which are unattainable via alternate systems including:

1. Local Knowledge – Each Commissioner has intimate knowledge of the river, the facilities, and in most instances, the vessels which transit the river.
   
   
2. Continued Involvement – Unlike the U.S. Coast Guard, which utilizes a rotation system, the Board of Commissioners serves at the pleasure of the Governor, generally four years or longer.
   
   
3. Resources – Funding for the needs of the Commission, or time dedicated to an investigation, do not deter the Commission from completion of their duties. The Commission’s primary objective is safety.

After Sept. 11, there was a need to improve existing port security measures and increase port security awareness. VTS is currently up and running and the equipment is being used to guard ports and facilities along the Lower Mississippi River. Coast Guard Reservists were brought in to man the facility and provide Maritime Domain Awareness. By tracking vessels categorized as high interest or those carrying hazardous cargo, they are able to supply an accurate database for law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

Both Crescent River and NOBRA pilots take shifts at the Vessel Traffic Center, advising the Coast Guard on traffic management, HIV vessels and emergency situations.

The pilots have been well trained in operating the system. VTS courses and the day-to-day valuable hands-on-experience have allowed pilots to achieve a very high standard. This will be valuable in the facilitation on commerce and port security on the Mississippi River. Pilots are a key part of VTS. Without them, the moving dots on the computer screen would simply pinpoint locations. The pilots, with their extensive knowledge of the river, are able to take that location and calculate an entire list of guidelines. Using factors such as direction and speed of the current, direction and speed of the wind and other environmental factors, determine the vessel’s speed and direction and it’s “cpa” closest point of approach, “tcpa” time of closest point of approach, and “gcpa” geographic closest point of approach, to other vessels underway or vessels moored to various port facilities.

Presently, ships are tracked on the Lower Mississippi using radars, low light CCTV, and contacts from the vessel’s bridge, but this method does not provide a comprehensive “real-time” picture. This traditional method of monitoring vessel traffic, known as a Vessel Movement Reporting System (VMRS), relies on ships to report their locations every 20 miles.

The plan is to require every vessel entering the Mississippi River, in fact all ports world wide with an onboard transponder, (AIS). Automatic Identification System (AIS), will give continuous, real-time updates along with critical static and dynamic vessel information, i.e. type of ship, ship’s identification, ship’s location, cargo, draft, speed, course, pilot on board. AIS was slated to be fully functional by 2008, yet after the urgency of Sept 11, Senator Breaux’s push for action cut the time frame in half to 2004. This system is required under International law to be aboard all tankers by July 1, 2003 and is required on all other sea going vessels by July 1, 2004. This same system will be required on most domestic vessels under U.S. law by July 1, 2004.

AIS will pinpoint every movement of the vessel, transmitting important information back to the pilots. It will function as the eyes for a pilot when the river is covered in fog or a hidden ship is approaching from below a point or bend in the river AIS will provide pilots with the ability to keep the decision-making on the vessel. The land-based VTS operators will use AIS to inform mariners (pilots) of potential hazards ahead and may recommend or issue directions for avoiding them.

The New Orleans AIS based VTS system will be fully operational by the end of 2004. All major U.S. ports want the same state-of-the-art VTS system being put in place here, but the New Orleans/Baton Rouge port area, being the largest in the world, is number one on the VTS port list. Other U.S. ports will be retrofitted soon after New Orleans is completed.