Merchant Marine Interests:

THE ECONOMIC HEALTH OF THE JONE'S ACT FLEETS AND YARDS

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Posted: May 4, 2012

Report No. 2, last report March 9, 2012
Updated 3/11/2016

 The "Jones Act Fleet" refers to the commercial vessels registered in the United States and manned by, or at least officered by Coast Guard documented members of the United States Merchant Marine and providing transportation and other services on our near coastal and interior waters . Typically the fleet includes tugs, towboats, barges, off shore service and support vessels, the Great Lakes grain and iron ore boats, ferries, dredges, excursion boats and a variety of other vessels. All totaled this fleet employs over 126,000 American merchant mariners and an uncounted number of personnel not documented by the U.S. Coast Guard in the inland towing trades below the level of licensed officer or certified tankerman. For a more complete description of the Jones Act fleets and yards and their economic and security importance to America see our first report on this subject dated March 9, 2012. The latest available information on the economic health of this fleet is up to date through February 2012. 

 The slow recovery of drilling activity in the U.S. Gulf in the wake of the British Petroleum disaster continues slow but relatively steady. WORKBOAT MAGAZINE 's April 2012 issue reported a 6% gain for work boat operators whose stock the magazine tracks as part of their "WORKBOAT  COMPOSITE INDEX". This recent (2012) 6% gain is part of an overall rise of 79 points in the "WORKBOAT COMPOSITE INDEX" of commercial work vessel operating, supply, and boat building companies since our last report. According to the April "WORKBOAT " The overall Composite Index rose 182 points in January.  For the month of January Workboat Composite Index stocks had "winners" out numbering "losers" by a ratio of more than 2 to 1. Update 3/11/2016 the offshore oil industry support vessel fleet is undergoing a period of idled vessels , shrinking revenues from both shortages of charter contracts and shrinkage of day rates as a result of the shrinking price of oil. Recent US discoveries on land particularly large shale oil finds have made offshore oil expensive by comparison and uneconomic in many cases given the total amount of oil on present markets. The WORKBOAT COMPOSITE INDEX IS PUBLISHED MONTHLY IN WORKBOAT MAGAZINE 

 Vessel operators were not the only "winners"in 2012. The supplier's index gained 5.7% and the "second tier" shipyards in the index rose 5.4%. Complete details on the performance of the Workboat Composite Index may be found on page 12 of the April 2012 issue of WORKBOAT. We have a hyperlink to the WORKBOAT website and information on how to obtain a free subscription in the "Merchant Marine Interest"section. By 2016 we see a fall in stock prices across the board in the index as the towing industry remains somewhat static, the offshore support vessel industry shrinks, and only the excursion boat and ferry sectors appear healthy.

 The Philadelphia Oil Service Index tracks some stocks that are redundant with certain of the Workboat Composite Index stocks but is more focused on oil exploration and production, major economic drivers of the offshore service and supply vessel industry and a major cargo source for the inland towing industry. The Philadelphia Oil Service Index may at times be something of the canary in the miner's cage for parts of the Jones Act fleets. Fortunately, at present, the index indicates a pretty healthy canary. The Philadelphia Oil Service Index gained 17 points on a slow but steady rise in the post BP oil disaster market that is now 9 points above its close of 245.12 in 2010. In 2016 this index like the WORKBOAT COMPOSITE INDEX does not show much in the way of promise for our Jones Act fleets. 

 The towboat and barge sectors are are predicted to have a good year for the export grain trade (2012). While U.S. harvests of late have averaged a bit below forecasts , the existing world inventories are relatively low. Foreign drought conditions have reduced this year's competitive pressures by nearly 25%. Grain cargo availability is is up while the excessive covered  hopper barge capacity of the past has been reduced. Hopper barge availability has been described this year as "tight", while grain prices are rising. It is difficult for us to imagine a better combination for profitable "ton mile" freight rates for grain. In 2016 ton mile rates for grain carriage remain favorable but there is no over all boost to the system since 2012, the towing sector is stable at best, exclusive of the offshore support segment within the towing sector.

 Another large cargo provider for the towboat and barge industry, particularly for open hopper barges  is coal. Domestic coal burns declined over the winter due to mild weather in the Eastern U.S.. Export coal is booming and a new cargo is appearing. Shale gas production fueled by the Marcellus shale gas boom is generating cargoes suitable for open hopper and deck barges related to the hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling required to extract natural gas contained in shale formations. Ton mile rates for open hopper and deck barges remain profitable and appear to be improving. In 2015/16 both mild winters continued as well as the trend towards the Marcellus shale gas boom. Unfortunately, gas can not be acrried in open hopper barges, so accommodating the transition requires more construction of expensive tank barges. One fleet of barges is being reduced while another is coming into being, while the number of towing vessels employed remains rather steady, a formula for static profits.

 In the tank barge sector heating oil consumption was down due to mild winter weather, gasoline, aviation fuels, and chemical transport volumes for the winter were apparently unremarkable. Despite the slow start to the year for the tank barge sector deliveries of inland tank barges certified for red flag cargoes reached 165 at the close of 2011. Transportation demand for crude oil being generated out of new fields in the Midwest are generating new south bound liquid cargoes that have more than made up for the reduction in north bound refined products due to the mild winter. Again these trends continued through the first quarter of 2016 to a large extent.

 Many of the "second tier" ship yards that service the Jones Act trades are doing well, especially barge builders. At the close of business in 2011; 165 inland tank barges had been delivered with more on the ways as 2012 opened. This is up about 49 hulls over the 2010. At close of Business for 2011 hopper barge construction was up 10% over the previous years with more hulls still on the way and many builders reporting decent starts in the first quarter for their order books. Tank barge giant Kirby Corp of Houston announced record net earnings for the fourth quarter of 2011 of $56.2 million or $1 per share, compared with #31.6 million , or 59 cents per share the year earlier period. The second tier ship yards are not doing as well in 2016 but barge construction continues, along with excursion, ferry, public service ( often fire boats ) hulls. SOme yards profit briefly from increased lay up work for idled offshore vessels but over all stock prices for many of the publicly traded second tier yards were down from 2012 levels. 

 For the offshore service vessel sector day rates and utilization rates were a mixed bag in February 0f 2012.  The larger supply vessels or "deep water" units reported an average day rate increase for February of $1,900 and a 1% increase in utilization rate. Large crew boats which compete not only with the passenger capacity of supply vessels but also with helicopters for the crew change trade experienced a $220 drop in the day rate and a drop in utilization of about 1%. More new drilling vessels are arriving on the Gulf Coast in response to the resumption of deep water permitting and these will require service vessel support.The Interior Department has reported a decrease in the review time for new drilling permits. This is also a positive indicator of future increased demand for offshore service and supply vessels. We were wrong in 2012. While there were the indications described and while such usually indicate future demand, we did not see the global oil glut, and its effect on the offshore industry. In the first quarter of 2016 the offshore service vessel sector continues to experienced reduced demand.

 The overnight cruise trade is returning to the rivers after the post 9/11 loss of the Delta Queen steamboat company. The Queen of the Mississippi is nearing construction at Chesapeake Shipbuilding in Salisbury, Maryland. Its inaugural cruise will be in August from New Orleans to Memphis. American Cruise lines is beginning to fill the void left by the venerable Delta Queen line. America's reluctance to engage in recreational air travel due to the annoying security requirements continues to negatively impact inland passenger trades both for overnight and day excursion services but overall the industry is coming back from the worst days after "9/11". In 2015 news was received of a venture to return the venerable DELTA QUEEN to overnight service on the rivers, at this writing she is undergoing renovations in a Louisiana yard.

 Our conclusion (for 2012) was updated from our guardedly optimistic conclusion of March 9th. With the 2011 year end data in and the first two months of the first quarter complete, the out look for the Jones Act Sector for the remainder of 2012 appeared good with recoveries where needed finishing out that year, and real growth in several sectors. But we cautioned then that no one should make investment decisions on our analysis. We track and report on this sector for a variety of reasons none of which involve investment. Our 2016 analysis is not promising in the short term and as we have reported elsewhere Sen. John McCain and the usual suspects are busy again this season (2016) attempting to destroy the Jones Act. We will continue to track and report economic conditions in the Jones Act industries through out the year because things change and we don't trust our crystal ball , only God can really see the future and trend is often not future.

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Naval Interest: Up date 2/10/2015

Sailors, Marines, Guardians, 

GET A GRIP ON THOSE "I PHONES"

Sailors & Media Observe Ghost Swimmer Vehicle Test. Photo by  Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Edward Guttierrez III.

"Loose Lips Sink Ships", Loose I Phones Have Now Destroyed Aircraft

Editor's note: We ran this several years ago, as far as we can tell by reports of similar incidents there have been some serious communications security improvements since. But this a story and advice worth repeating periodically. 

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 We wish that all members of the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and Merchant Marine were members of  the U.S.Naval Institute and avid readers of their monthly PROCEEDINGS. Unfortunately we are all too aware that this is not the case. Frequently the PROCEEDINGS carries maritime news of national consequence entirely missed by the national media. The May 2012 issue carries a story titled "Technology's Hidden Dangers" by frequent contributor Norman Friedman on page 162. In this article Mr. Friedman recounts a recent under reported event in Afghanistan. As reported in the article four new attack helicopters were delivered to a U.S. base, the location of which had apparently been unknown to the Taliban. Military personnel photographed the technologically advanced air craft and posted the pictures on the Internet. The air craft frames apparently were not "classified". A short time after the pictures were posted the Taliban destroyed the air craft in a mortar attack.

 Apparently the service members had used smart phones to take the pictures. Smart phones generally incorporate GPS receivers and they automatically tag their photos with GPS locations. As a veteran of active duty in the days before personal computers/ smart phones , I have a deep appreciation of the morale benefit to our troops of these devices. Military journals are full of stories where these personal devices have proven to be of benefit in emergency and even combat situations for our service members. I certainly don't want to see their use curtailed. However all service members need to seriously consider the near complete lack of privacy on the Internet and curb their I phone and other Internet usage accordingly.

 As the case described in this month's PROCEEDINGS  article illustrates merely abstaining from photographing or discussing classified information is not enough. Communications security is vital in combat and law enforcement operations and there is a lot of unclassified but none the less critical information out there. We hope all of our naval interest readers who are in uniform, or accompanying those who are in uniform into the field or fleets, will consider the following suggestions:

 1. Never use your I phone in combat unless you are already under fire and for some reason it becomes your only way to call for back up.

2. Don't discuss ship movements, base locations, equipment arrivals' or anything else remotely thought to be "sensitive" even if not "classified" on any wireless medium except DOD provided secure sources' and then only if it is part of your job to do so. When in doubt consider the information "sensitive".

3. Buy a digital camera and restrict the building of your military career photo album to a camera only camera and avoid the use of your I phone camera under any sensitive circumstances .Print your pictures and surface mail photos to family if your photos contain any on base, or on ship scenes unless those ship scenes are pretty old and can't give away the ship's position any longer (remember the automatic GPS tagging feature). 

If you routinely used surface mail your pictures always would be a bit aged and it would be much harder for anyone to compromise any inadvertently sensitive information associated with them.

4. Always consider the Internet and all wireless means of communication as an "insecure" method of communications even if using an encrypted program. 

5. Commanding officers should consider designating a photographer for certain events that the troops would consider worthy of special remembrance but taking place where some sensitive information may be in view, and carefully review and time the release of these photos to the troops while prohibiting the use of private cameras in such areas.   

6. Personal communications security is every one's job, don't let it become no one's job. What is at stake is not only force security but the continued wide spread availability of modern personal communications technology to our deployed troops. Commanding Officers, Executive Officers, Command Master Chiefs and Command Sargent Majors should take the lead in educating the crew and troops to the issue. The continued availability of personal and instant communications with the family are a critical aspect of modern deployment. But if the technology can not be controlled operational security will ultimately require restricted access.  

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OCEANOGRAPHY:
ATTITUDES HAVE CHANGED WATCH THIS SPONTANEOUS MARINE MAMMAL RESCUE








 Watch this YOUTUBE video of a spontaneous dolphin rescue on a Brazilian beach.  Less than forty yeas ago this event probably would have ended quite differently. The Dolphins for some inexplicable reason cruise into the beach and strand on the surf line. This is usually a fatal event for the entire school of dolphins. This time humans, immediately come to the rescue. Notice the total lack of fear of the beach goers around these large toothsome mammals. But perhaps the most amazing aspect of this event is that no matter what went wrong with the dolphin's built in sonar directional system, once they are physically turned around by the humans they know the way out of the surf line and don't repeat the stranding. We want to popularize this video as much as possible in the hopes that the next stranding on a populated beach will go the same way. Time is critical. Worrying excessively over the right or wrong way to handle the animals can mean death. The beach goers quickly figure it out and grab the animals by the tail and pull them to safety where they can be seen swimming off to deeper water apparently none the worse for wear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BiMEeirC_M





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MERCHANT MARINE INTEREST:

A SECOND REQUEST TO CONGRESS FOR RELIEF OF AMERICAN MERCHANT MARINERS SUBJECTED TO THIRD WORLD WORKING CONDITIONS.

Reference: Our Blog of March 28, 2012 "Wanted Another Richard Henry Dana"

 On March 28, 2012 we alerted our readers to the publication of the National Mariner's (NMA) report #R-370,Rev.4 which is now circulating in Congressional offices detailing the third world like working conditions overtaking 126,000 American seamen serving in the inland towing, off shore service vessel industry, and several other domestic "work boat" sectors. In that blog we noted that most of the domestic commercial  "work boat" fleets are manned by American Merchant Seamen and Officers who do not have union representation. We lamented the thirty plus year history of employer abuse of seamen in these fleets and the lack of media, Coast Guard,and  Department of Homeland Security Inspector General attention to this sorry state of affairs. In that blog we wished out loud for a modern day Richard Henry Dana and a modern version of his historic TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST . Nothing being written today, unfortunately including the graphically detailed but matter of fact presented reports of the NMA  is awakening a public which should be justifiably angry over governmental inattention to conditions that are inexcusable. These conditions according to NMA reports have not only negatively impacted the health of the pertinent seamen but have also induced chronic fatigue problems in the pilothouse and among designated look outs resulting in dozens of deaths of ordinary members of the American public engaged in such non maritime activity as simply trying to drive across a bridge over navigable water. In keeping with our commitment to provide coverage of the latest attempts by the NMA to correct these long standing problems we present in its entiriety the NMA's second request to Congress exactly as it was hand delivered last week to the offices of key committee members in the House of representatives. 

"DATE: March 29, 2012

FROM: Richard A. Block, Secretary , National Mariner's Association

TO: All Senators and representatives, U.S. Congress

SUBJECT: Second request for action to relieve certain U.S.Merchant Mariners from Third World like working conditions and to protect the U.S. Public from Harm by fatigue related marine accidents.

• The National Mariner's Association represents approximately 126,000 American Merchant Mariners in our Cabotage and OCS trades working mostly aboard tugs, towboats,, offshore supply and support craft, ferries, and excursion craft, and other work boats generally of 1,600 gross registered tons and smaller.  We speak for both officers and ratings. Our Association is not a union but a professional association that monitors , researches, and advocates for our members and the public.
• On February 14, 2003 our Association, by letter to 102 members of Congress, requested Congress to address meaningful work hour limitations for our mariners. The Congress did require the Coast Guard to study the issue and to eventually produce meaningful regulation. As we write, the Coast Guard has published highly useful scientific information on the effects of fatigue induced by a two -watch system upon our mariners. We have, in turn, produced a 16 -chapter spiral bound technical report titled : Abuse of Mariners Under the Two-Watch System, NMA Report #R370, Revision 4, which contains much of the information presented by the Coast Guard, exemplar cases of collisions and allisions resulting from fatigue. After our request of 2003 , the Congress also tasked the Coast Guard with enforcing regulations requiring the recording of working hours in the ship's log. Due to a lack of follow up regulation , poor oversight of Coast Guard marine safety functions, and lax enforcement, our mariners continue to suffer unacceptable working conditions. Damage to marine infrastructure and injury to non-maritime citizens continues to happen at unacceptable rates.
• The International Maritime Organization (IMO) provides a model standard of minimum weekly rest period 77 hours and a standard 8-hour work day. Our mariners generally work 12 to 15 hours at a minimum per day and rarely are able to find 70 hours total rest within a work week. Through the International Convention on Standards of Training and Watch Keeping (STCW)  , mariners in similar trades in developed nations, and indeed in most of the third world that is signatory to the Convention, enjoy much healthier working hours and conditions than American work boat crews on average. Within our report #R-370, Rev.4, we present Coast Guard generated research that indicates that our exhausted work boat mariners are daily delivering supplies  and personnel to offshore rigs, and approaching bridges with large barge flotillas while fatigued impaired. The average level of impairment of judgement, perceptive, and decisional powers has been compared to that of a driver with a blood alcohol level near the mark where such a driver would be guilty of "driving under the influence".
• yet, we have seen no corrective action by the Coast Guard and our pleas to the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General for more professional oversight of the Coast Guard marine safety functions have actually been met by a deliberate diminishment of professional maritime personnel from that office (see page 13-2 of our report) and reassignment of remaining maritime professionals to non maritime assignments.

 Since these dangers and abuses continue, we respectfully ask all Members of the 112th Congress the following:

•  Amend 46 U.S. Code 8104(h) and other statutes if necessary to ensure an effective limit of 12 -hours of work in any 24 - hour period applicable to all officers and unlicensed mariners serving on every U.S. -flag inspected vessel, and provide appropriate statutory penalties applicable to corporate officials who require seamen to work beyond such limits and immunity from prosecution to ship's officers who comply with such orders but report the infractions to enforcement authority.
• Require that  each inspected vessel in 24 hour service be manned by at least three (3) fully qualified, credentialed officers regardless of the length of the voyage.
• Require that each inspected vessel in 24 hour service be manned by two complete crews that are capable of performing their duties without disturbing crew members who are off duty except in a bona fide emergency that could not have been anticipated through proper planning.
• Address the issue of requiring a trained cook to manage food service on each inspected vessel in 24 hour service.
• Express concern over the apparent lack of enforcement of section 607 (logbooks) of the USCG  authorization act of 2010.
• Carefully scrutinize any audit reports of the under reporting of marine accidents by the DHS OIG Office as we have lost confidence in their maritime expertise and we believe that accidents are widely under reported within the fleets our members serve.
• Examine why the Coast Guard internally denigrated its scientific research on hours- of- service and continues to allow 6 on and 6 off watch schedules that are scientifically unsupportable.
• Examine our allegations of long standing lack of formal safety and vocational training for limited tonnage engineering personnel on OSVs, towing and small passenger vessels.
• Examine our allegation that the DHS OIG no longer employs employees with sufficient technical background to audit Coast Guard safety programs

                                                                         Very truly yours

                                                                         Richard A. Block , B.A., M.S. Ed

                                                                         Master # 1186377, Issue #9

                                                                          Secretary, National Mariner's Association

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THE WORLD OCEAN THE ULTIMATE JACUZZI
  Follow the Hyperlink in this Posting for an Educational and Relaxing Lesson in the World Ocean Currents System.

 In our last blog post we described just a little of the miserable working conditions in certain sectors of the American Merchant Marine documented by the National Mariner's Association (NMA). It was some pretty depressing news which we will have to follow up on. Before that we invited you to think, speak and write in reply to our challenge regarding climate change, a fact of life affected by ocean currents, a challenge that is still open. The state of climate change has been pretty depressing and we will have to revisit that issue again in the near future. Meanwhile, we don't want you to be "bummed out" and we certainly don't want to leave you with the impression that we only carry bad news. So here we present some good clean dry fun with a wet subject.


 Every Fall the TV weather guys and girls give us all something of a micro lesson on ocean currents as they speculate over the relative severity of the on coming winter. El Nino, La Nina, the Gulf Stream all have parts to play. But these most famous ocean currents are but a tiny fraction of the oceans circulatory system, which in turn is part of the earth's heat management system. Understanding the whole system seems like a Herculean task. In fact, to the extent that being able to visualize it is understanding, understanding can be fun and relaxing.


 Some earth scientists at NASA have put together a computerized visualization aid on the planet's global ocean current system. It is even set to relaxing music. So sit back in your favorite barco lounger, hit the hyperlink, kick back and enjoy a God's eye view of the ocean as it circulates. The NASA guys posted this to You Tube and we link you because that's what we do, review and post the information on all things maritime because we like the maritime world and we know how. We'll get back to the news of the issues of the day soon, but this show reminds us why we went into the marine professions in the first place, all lousy working conditions, pay issues, and under and over regulation disputes aside. 

Check it out!

MERCHANT MARINE INTEREST (updated: 11/25/2015)

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WANTED: ANOTHER RICHARD HENRY DANA
Too many American Seamen Today are Working in Third World like Conditions
  PD
 Richard Henry Dana wrote Two Years Before The Mast describing his experiences aboard an American commercial vessel in the nineteenth century.  His vivid descriptions of squalid shipboard conditions, brutal work hours, bad food, and cruel shipboard discipline launched a maritime law reform movement that lasted into the third decade of the twentieth century. Today the American flag international transport merchant fleet has shrunk to about two hundred vessels , mostly engaged in government cargo operations and naval support.  These ships are heavily unionized and the merchant mariners generally enjoy working conditions, quarters, and food far superior to the legal minimums provided for in law as a result of union contracts. Unfortunately, while things in the international large transport fleet have improved, for the remaining seamen, even while the fleet has shrunk in response to foreign competition, the same is not true in the one growth sector of the American Merchant Marine.

Editor's note: The National Mariner's Association Ceased Active Operations and Publications a little over a year ago. Their numbered reports will soon be available through the Library of Congress. None of the abuses complained of the mentioned report in this post have yet been addressed by Congress. There is no other active lobby for non union seamen that we are aware of.

 The National Mariner's Association (NMA)  has just published its second report on the abuse of 126,000 American Merchant seamen employed as the officers and crews of the vast fleet of offshore service and supply vessels that provide logistic support to our offshore oil industry, and the nation's harbor tugs.NMA members also include the crews of the towboats and barges that bring the export grain down the Mississipi and the heating oil and gasoline up by barge, as well as a wide variety of other "work boats".  It comes as a surprise to many Americans, even naval veterans who are well aware that we import by sea 66 of 77 strategic materials, to learn that America conducts more commerce by water between and among the states than between our nation and the world. The lion's share of our export coal and grain travel by river barge to tidewater for transfer to seagoing ships and export. Most of the heating oil and gasoline used in the American Midwest is refined in Baton Rouge and New Orleans from both domestic Gulf and imported foreign crude stocks and distributed inland by towboat and tank barge.Most of the jet fuel used to power the Navy and Air Force planes stationed in the Florida Panhandle is transported by tank barge from Houston area refineries. This is just the barest sample of American interstate commodities being transported by our domestic ( "Jones Act") merchant fleet, manned for the most part by U.S. Coast Guard credentialed members of the United States Merchant Marine. In these vital trades, unions are the exception, not the rule.

 According to NMA Report # R-370, Revision 4  now available through the NMA website and soon to be delivered by hand to Congress conditions in the Jones Act and offshore service fleets have degenerated to minimum 12 and 15 hour workdays, unsanitary and haphazard food preparation conditions, and the entire work force suffers from chronic fatigue where ever the "two watch system" is in place. While even third world crewmen enjoy a standard 8 hour work day under the International Convention of Standards of Training and Watch Keeping (STCW), American work boatmen are often subjected 12 to 15 hour minimum work days as a result of the two watch system exception that our nation took to the Convention. The 12 and 15 hour daily work limits were originally intended to be maximum allowed work days but management shrank the crews by eliminating certain "extra" personnel like the cooks making it impossible for the crews to actually avoid working over these limits which a two watch system imposes. More importantly, the way these long working hours are imposed , often on a six hours on / six hours off rotation what little sleep the crews get is broken and disturbed. Within the pages of the NMA report are Coast Guard study results that clearly indicate that many crewmen including pilot house personnel are so fatigued that their key cognitive skills are as impaired as someone under the influence of alcohol.

 This impaired condition of America's work boatmen has impacted more than their health, it has killed ordinary land lubbing Americans just trying to cross the bridges over America's commercially navigable inland waters.  The Queen Isabella Causeway disaster put 15 Texans in the water. There were others before and since Queen Isabella, and not all involved just automobiles, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway at New Orleans years ago lost a passenger bus when struck by a tug and barge, and more recently in Alabama a passenger train was derailed at a bridge by an errant barge. The incidents have been wide spread geographically and separated by time but the death toll is too large to ignore. Fortunately for the work boat company managers responsible for imposing these conditions and the Coast Guard officials who have apparently been lax in enforcing working hour rules or producing the fatigue reduction regulations that Congress has asked them to produce; the maritime manslaughter law that was imposed a few years ago on a New York Ferry System , office bound manager has not been invoked ....yet.

 The new NMA report is actually the second in a series that describes and documents the horrific working conditions in this segment of the American Merchant Marine.  An earlier report NMA Report # R202, RV 5 was simply titled " Deplorable Treatment of Limited Tonnage Mariners (many work boats are under 1600 gross registered tons) was the first canary in the coal mine.  These NMA reports are well documented, accurate, and very useful to legislators, lawyers, analysts, and safety managers; but probably more than a bit technical for the average American who would simply like to get the scoop on how to avoid getting killed on their next bridge crossing. The loss of lives is not the only loss being imposed on America by the short sighted management practices of America's non union work boat fleets. While the fleet and available cargoes are generally expanding, the labor pool is drying up.What young person in their right mind wants to sign up for the type of working conditions described in these reports?

 We must hope that this industry doesn't disappear because it is the most fuel efficient form of transport and in many states the only real competition to rail transport.  Of equal importance, and rarely recognized in even government circles, this segment of the Merchant Marine is not the "weak sister", but the heart of the system. It is the Jones Act protected activities that harbor and grow our maritime skill base between major conflicts when we suddenly have to expand from 200 international transports to 5,000 ( the estimated number for a two theater of war operation that featured a major return of forces to Europe).  Sailors and ship builders can't be produced overnight. It is our Jones Act fleets and the "second tier" shipyards that serve these fleets that keep the pool of skilled labor large enough to be expandable.  This role of domestic shipping as the critical mass of the American Merchant Marine has existed since colonial times.

 In our Merchant Marine Interest section we describe the recent history work  THE WAY OF THE SHIP which describes the history of our Merchant Marine with the domestic fleets front and center and clearly identified as the heart of the system.  Unfortunately this large but well written history does not describe the present deplorable management imposed, and Coast Guard tolerated working conditions that are destroying the system.  So a layman would have to read a large history volume and two book length technical reports to grasp what is going on and what the typical voter has at stake.  The battle is one of David and Goliath, on the side of the status quo are maritime management and their industry associations and lobbies. On the side of public safety are the much abused mariners of the out of sight and out of mind domestic fleets. What is needed is another Richard Henry Dana and another Two Years before The Mast. We need a highly entertaining and rather scary, fact based book with real page turning "infotainment" value that the general public will read. Tom Clancy, where are you?  

                 

OCEANOGRAPHY:CLIMATE CHANGE (Updated 11/25/2015)

AN INVITATION TO THINK, SPEAK, and WRITE
SEE: OCEANOGRAPHY: CLIMATE CHANGE, NAMAZU-Blog by Vic Socotra on  Thursday March 22, 2012





 Namazu, the giant Japanese mythological catfish whose wiggling causes tsunamis and who Vic Socotra used to introduce us to the many causes and potential combinations of causes that can trigger climate change made quite a splash around the American Admiralty Books' water cooler. Meteorology has long been an examination subject on professional merchant mariner examinations. Few professionals are more weather concerned than professional mariners. Measurable climate change is already causing adjustments in U.S. Coast Guard planning and budgeting as the Coast Guard attempts to respond to the increasing need for a year round significant presence above the Arctic Circle. The Chinese, who have no Arctic coast are sending survey ships into the High Arctic because they have an interest in a shorter route for their exports to Europe. The long sought after Northwest Passage is becoming a summer reality. Climate change may not be exclusively a maritime subject, but maritime professionals are a bit like the canary in the coal mine being among the first to notice and be affected. Professional mariners are also well equipped, given the amount of technical training in meteorology spread throughout our professional culture, to discuss the subject. But climate change doesn't stop with maritime concerns. With the world's population largely concentrated in large urban centers and their core cities; changes in agricultural production could mean starvation for some.

 What Vic Socotra used the giant mythological catfish Namazu to explain was that climate change, even rapid climate change, could possibly be induced by our own green house gas emissions; but it can, and has been, induced by quite natural causes and inevitably will be again. Sun spots, orbit wobble, axis rotation irregularities, volcanic activity, solo and in combination, have in the past induced very rapid and very large climate change. This fact shouldn't stop mankind's attempts to reduce his greenhouse gas emissions, but points out the clear and present danger of focusing only on that; as if the cleaning up of our pollution somehow assures us against sudden and dramatic damaging climate change; it doesn't.Climate change could be thrust upon us overnight even in the cleanest and greenest of all possible worlds. Many web sites debate or argue for one view or another on the current climate change situation which appears to be a warming trend with green house gases from human agricultural, and industrial, and transportation activities as the favored most probable cause. But Namazu reminds us that even if we escape this particular bullet, one never knows when he will wiggle again with catastrophic results.

 We have decided to depart just a little from our exclusive maritime orientation to allow something of a dialogue between our visitors, marine professionals and "civilians" alike, on climate change. But we don't wish to revisit the on going debate over "global warming", "green house gases", "carbon emission credits" etc.. We'll call this forum the "NAMAZU SCHOOL". In the NAMAZU SCHOOL we start the discussion by mutual acceptance that climate change can occur due to both man made conditions and natural causes, and it can occur due to any combination of natural and man made causes, or by any single cause of either variety. Most importantly, since we know that a single, simple natural cause such as excessive volcanic activity can induce rapid climate change, and has induced it in the past; we assume that rapid climate change can occur in a very short time frame,and eventually will happen again. We call the dead certainty that mankind will once again, at some point, face widespread and massive climate change THE NAMAZU CERTAINTY.

To our collective, very practical, mariner minds the "NAMAZU CERTAINTY" compels the question; "what should governments, and others be doing to prepare for and and be able to mitigate against the negative effects of the NAMAZU CERTAINTY"? A major climate change on a global scale means major changes in agriculture. Those initial changes in agricultural patterns spell initial crop failures and starvation for some. This begs the question; how can agriculture be insulated from climate change? The Kraft exhibit at Disney World suggests that great quantities of fresh fruits and vegetables can be raised indoors in hydroponic "food factories", lessening urban dependence on far flung lines of supply for these food sources. Who should be responsible for encouraging this production national, regional, or municipal governments , or some combination of these? How could such production in the face of stiff traditional agricultural production competition be encouraged? How do we get such urban food safety nets on line without damaging the economics of traditional agriculture or relieving urban factory producers from the price constraints of the traditional competition. Should governments build, operate and hold in reserve such "food factories" for the eventual NAMAZU CERTAINTY emergency? How about urban or at least indoor protein production? NASA space colony studies seem to focus on aquaculture and small meat producing species like doves and rabbits, these all lend themselves to indoor production methods. Should national agricultural authorities encourage more green house type production even in areas of mild climate as a hedge against lost production when the NAMAZU CERTAINTY strikes? Frankly, when we initially put our collective minds to it, grain and other complex carbohydrate production was the stumbling block, we are unaware of production techniques for these dietary staples outside of extensive agriculture. Often in climate change, a bust for one region may be a boon for another. Perhaps the answer to a climate shift that devastates some grain producing areas is a more flexible global grain transportation net work.

 Let's not forget the more maritime consequences in this discussion. Sea levels are definitely rising at least in the short term. Port and shore line protection have to be discussed and planned for. The "hard' (breakwaters, and cement revetments) verses "soft" (barrier island and marsh construction) debates have to be considered , and again who is responsible for what? What can a state or municipal government do on its own even if the federal government fiddles while NAMAZU wiggles? We invite our visitors to think on these subjects and others in the context of the "NAMAZU CERTAINTY" and to give us your comments. On just this subject at least, we won't delete your thoughts if they are non maritime. The NAMAZU SCHOOL is a forum for a complete discussion of what we should be doing now to prepare for the sure and certain coming climate event that we use the term "NAMAZU CERTAINTY" to symbolize. Give us your thoughts starting in the comment section of this post. We will publish new posts as we develop new collective thoughts. Members of the NAMAZU SCHOOL of climate thought, believe that we should be preparing now for climate change. Lets leave the debate over whether or not it is already in progress and who or what is responsible to the politicians. Lets try to find the new mandate to give the political office holders on what to  really do about it besides "reduce green house gases", we'll just call that a good idea for one of the possible NAMAZU CERTAINTY possible causes that is in sight. The NAMAZU School of thought suggests that even a reduction in green houses gases, generally acknowledged to be a good idea, could , in conjunction with an event like extraordinary volcanic activity,result in a sudden cooling. Its time for practical planning for sudden climate change of any sort. That is the NAMAZU CERTAINTY and the NAMAZU solution. Lets get started right here on the details. Let us have your thoughts in the comment section or use the comment section to propose a guest posting.

Click below for a video on the current climate change debate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52KLGqDSAjo&feature=related