The dependable operation of a cruise ship to and from the larboard of Miami depends in large depart on person who few cruise passengers will ever meet – a pilot from the Biscayne Bay Pilots .Cruise ships, tankers and cargo ships are all piloted in and out of the narrow channel of Miami ’ s Government Cut by a highly trained and feel “ harbor pilot. ” Before the embark enters the port, a harbor pilot will board the ship by climbing up a run from the pilot burner gravy boat onto the ship. The officer in charge of the ship ’ mho navigation will then turn the command of the embark over to the pilot burner, who will use his acquaintance with the unique characteristics of the larboard to safely bring the ship into ( and belated, out of ) the larboard .
There is overwhelm pressure on the ship captains employed by the cruise lines to depart from and arrive at ports on time. The cruise lines pay bonuses to these captains for keeping their schedules. There are holocene instances where the captains have been forced to imprudently take their cruise ships into dangerous ocean conditions ; a dear case was reported by the Washington Post last class regarding Royal Caribbean ’ s Anthem of the Seas in an article titled 4,000-Passenger Cruise Ship Inexplicably Sails Into Atlantic Mega-Storm .
The harbor pilots, whose rates are determined by state police and are not under the hitchhike of the cruise lines, are at the front line of keeping safety overriding over economic blackmail.
The Miami-based cruise lines, through their trade association, the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association ( “ FCCA ” ), is however seeking to reduce the compensation to be paid to the Biscayne Bay Pilots Association for its services .
The Florida Pilotage Rate Commission is holding a hearing this workweek on the FCCA ’ s petition to lower the rates paid to the pilot ’ mho association. No early maritime ship owners or operators, like the majority carriers or cargo transport owners, have objected to the fender ’ randomness rates .
There appears to be no legitimate rationality for the cruise lines to try and reduce the compensation paid to the local pilots .
There has been no rate increase for the pilots since 2002 ; the rates have remained flatcar or have trended downward over the last 15 years. In contrast, the billions of dollars in revenues collected by the cruise lines, like Carnival and Royal Caribbean, have increased substantially during this time menstruation. Cruise lines enjoy a virtual tax-exempt status by incorporating their business in countries like Panama or Bermuda and flying foreign-flags of convenience. The compensation earned by each of the local anesthetic pilots, in line, has decreased by $ 100,000 in the last 15 years. The pilot rates have not been adjusted to keep up with the consumer price index ( “ CPI ” ). Taking into account ostentation, each local original has lost another $ 90,000 in real number dollars, while the cruise lines have all substantially increased their profitableness by billions of dollars .
royal Caribbean ’ s Senior Vice President of Marine Operations William Baumgartner, testified on behalf of the FCCA. Admiral Baumgartner initially praised the pilots but promptly criticized everything about their services. He characterized the port of Miami as a “ bare, safe and easy to access ” port, particularly compared to early ports like New Orleans, Tampa, Bayonne or New York City, implying that the pilots ’ jobs were easy. This argument was efficaciously rebutted by Stuart Lilly, Biscayne Bay pilot program and past president of the united states of the Florida Harbor Pilots Association, who explained the difficulty of piloting 
the increasingly broad and cryptic post-Panamax ships in and out of the narrow port of Miami channel which has not been widened since 1968. The groove into the busy port of Miami, with heavy traffic by pleasure boats, sail boats, work boats, fishing boats, ferries and petroleum tankers, is only approximately 500 feet wide, with tight turning basins, erstwhile called “ malfunction junctions, ” ( watch television here ) in line to the channel in Bayonne, New Jersey with a width of around 2,000 feet .
The greatest hazard is a cruise ship striking the hard rock side of the specialize channel at the port, alike to the norwegian Dawn which ran aground near Bermuda in 2015 or the Costa Concordia which struck rocks near Giglio in 2012. A long, salvage effort similar to that involved in the Costa Concordia calamity would cause fiscal ruin to the port of Miami and the cruise industry.
Read more: Maritime search and rescue – Documentary
The cruise lines besides criticized the business model of the pilot program association. The FCCA ’ s accounting expert criticized the fact that the pilots pay for “ wide insurance ” for their employees as “ unreasonable ” and besides labeled the retirement plan as “ ample ” and besides called it “ excessive. ” This was an dry argument given that the cruise lines have all terminated the retirement plans of their crew members or have agreed to pay only a small pittance ( a token amount of $ 5,000 to be paid after 10 years of 8-10 calendar month contracts which few crew members will always reach ). Meeting the policy and retirement needs of employees are ethical steps to take, and are actually grounds to increase the navigation rates. There is besides irony in the fact that the cruise executives of the of the larger lines, like Carnival and Royal Caribbean, make around $ 10,000,000 a year each .
A review of the schedule of ships which will be piloted into and out of the port of Miami tomorrow by the Biscayne Bay Pilots provides an insight into the vital services provided to the ship commerce at the larboard. The pilots will be in command of three cruise ships into the larboard of Miami early on tomorrow morning, the norwegian Sky, Carnival Victory and Enchantment of the Seas between 5:00 A.M. and 6:00 A.M. The pilots will then take these cruise ships out of the port deep tomorrow afternoon between 4:00 P.M. and 5:00 P.M .
In addition to the cruise ships, the pilots will provide in-bound services to container ships MSC Antonella, Hansa Augsburg, Arsos, and Seaboard Patriot, the general cargo ships Tango III and Sara Regina, and the pallet mailman Betty K VII, a well as fender the ro-ro ship San Gwann and the container ship Arian to and from the port .
due to economies of scale, the average navigation rates per cruise passenger are minimal. The handle rate for the norwegian Sky, for example, is only $ 1.16 per passenger .
The rate reduction which the FCCA is seeking for the cruise lines amounts to only $ 0.25 per passenger, which is a $ 1,800,000 discount rate to be spread amongst all of the cruise lines .
The effect of this proposed reduction on the pilots will be black. It will reduce the recompense to each pilot by $ 100,000, even though the navigate compensation has already decreased over the years and has not been adjusted for ostentation for a decade and a half. It will be well below the national recompense paid to pilots of peer experience and coach ( not the meager salaries of the foreign-flagged cruise ship captains ) and will undercut the efforts of the pilots to attract skilled pilots to Miami who are needed to handle the increasingly complex ships calling here at the cruise ship capital of the earth.
Read more: A Man Quotes Maritime Law To Avoid Ticket
My view : The cruise industry likes to demand restraint of everything, whether it is the taxes imposed by the state of Alaska for environmental protection and infrastructure, or the minimal headway taxes of the poor Caribbean ports. It steals the tips intended from its powerless foreign crew members. And it nickels and dimes all of its passengers to collect every penny it can. When the diligence acts badly, like Princess Cruises did leading to a $ 40,000,000 environmental fine last December, it just passes the fines on to its customers via higher fares. But when it comes to reasonably paying a group of highly skilled local pilots who are full of life to the condom theodolite of cruise ships into and out of Miami, it shows its true cheeseparing colors .
Have a thought ? Please leave a comment below or join the discussion on our Facebook page.
photograph credits : Biscayne Bay Pilots Facebook page .
