Safety of Floridas Ports and Tourism Industry at Risk from Special Interests

COUNTER-POINT By Captain Joe Brown, President, Florida Harbor Pilots Association

Florida’s waters are typically calm this time of year with the end of hurricane season and no real weather threats on the horizon, but in coming months the main threat for Florida’s 97 licensed harbor pilots will be from a group called the Florida Alliance of Maritime Organizations (FAMO). FAMO is a front group for foreign cruise and shipping interests that want to increase their bottom-line profits and do away with professional harbor pilots in Florida.

The Florida Harbor Pilots Association (FHPA), together with all of the pilot associations from the Panhandle to the Keys, has been battling back the relentless attacks from these foreign entities for the last year. Initially, these foreign entities asked the Legislature to stop a state review board, created by the Governor and Legislature, from holding rate hearings even though the process is impartial and was set in statute at their request years before. When that failed, they asked the Legislature to examine the harbor pilots’ profession and then sought to influence the Legislature’s independent study by releasing an economic study they paid for and manipulated.

FAMO has attempted to shop around this flawed study in Florida, but their study has been quickly dismissed because of its biased conclusions, reckless claims and inaccurate data. Many have recognized this “third-party study” as inaccurate, pointing out that it was paid for by the groups that have been trying to harm the Florida pilots for months.

FAMO’s study is not only an insult to the Florida pilots but an insult to all professional pilots in the U.S. From FAMO’s erroneous numbers and irresponsible conclusions to the obvious lack of any data collected from a professional pilot or pilot association in Florida, their study is an attempt to manipulate the facts and lawmakers in Florida.

To compare harbor pilots with airline pilots and even point to the salaries of air traffic controllers and firemen is not logical or fair – they are comparing apples to oranges. To be clear, this is not meant to be an insult to these professions, but rather a need for a distinction between their duties and ours. Comparing our maritime training, job duties and physical demands to that of an air traffic controller who sits high in a tower reading technological equipment is further evidence that their study was never intended to fairly or logically “study” the rigors or dangers of our profession.

Florida’s 14 deepwater ports are at risk if FAMO is successful in its attempt to lessen the qualifications and statutory procedures in piloting. According to Chapter 310, Florida Statutes, piloting is of such paramount importance that its continued existence must be secured by the state and not left open to market forces. In addition, the statutes regulate Florida’s harbor pilots by requiring that they must have extensive maritime qualifications and sit for competitive boards and exams to be fully licensed, allowing for only the best-of-the-best maritime pilots to guide mammoth ships and tankers into Florida ports.

FAMO will claim that if more pilots are allowed to seek licenses, it will drive down pilotage rates and the private earnings of our professional pilots. But logic dictates that if an impartial state rate review board is in place, which it has been since 1994, rates will be fairly set and regularly reviewed for maximum efficiency. FAMO will also claim that Florida’s licensed and privately-paid pilots make too much money – a laughable claim from cruise lines that make billions in profits from Florida alone. But what they fail to point out is pilot earnings are based on their workload and rates set by the state at levels that are amongst the lowest on the Eastern seaboard.

What FAMO won’t say is their goal is to lessen the expenses of foreign cruise lines and increase their bottom line by doing away with the requirement to have a Florida pilot who is versed in the channels and local ports. What they also won’t tell you is that if they cannot have absolute control over their ships in Florida ports, they would want to increase the “pilot pool” so they will have a harbor pilot who will be beholden to them and will bring their ships in regardless of dangerous conditions, which puts our state’s public welfare and environment at risk.

FHPA will continue to stand up to these foreign interests who have wrapped themselves in a false banner of impartiality and fairness. Our harbor pilots are Floridians who have decades of local experience and expert training and take the safety of our jobs and Florida waterways seriously. We know what can happen if a port or channel is compromised, and we know what such a tragedy would do to Florida’s economy, the safety of Florida’s ports and the tourism industry of the Sunshine State. – MarEx

Captain Joseph “Joe” Brown has been a licensed Florida State harbor pilot for the past 15 years and has served as the president of the Florida State Pilots Association since 2007. He graduated from New York Maritime College with a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical Engineering, an unlimited 3rd mate’s license and a commission as an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve. From there Captain Brown went to sea and rose to the rank of master mariner. Captain Brown sailed in command as master for nearly five years before becoming a state pilot in Jacksonville, Fla. Captain Brown has federal pilotage for the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, Fla., and St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. He has held the position of president for both the St. Johns Bar Pilot Association and the Jacksonville Marine Transportation Exchange. He is a current member of the Nautical Institute and has served as a committee member for the Northeast U.S. Branch.

The Florida Harbor Pilots Association represents the interests of Florida’s 97 professional state pilots, advocating on their behalf on various state and federal issues that impact the state pilots. The Florida Harbor Pilots Association encourages its members to perform their function as pilots in a professional manner and subscribes to the philosophy that all state pilots should cooperate with all federal, state and local governmental authorities and regulatory bodies to the fullest extent possible in the preservation of life, the environment and property. For more information, visit www.floridapilots.com.