THE concept of safety can be – and should be – applied to every function of the maritime industry, but it seems to have a distinct weight to it when considered in a pilotage context.

The high-stakes nature of marine pilotage means training, knowledge, skills, safety and risk management can be the difference between life and death. While the marine pilot is there to ensure the safety of the vessel, there are also various measures and protocols in place to ensure the safety of the pilots themselves.

The Australasian Marine Pilots Institute represents the professional interests of marine pilots throughout Australia and Papua New Guinea. AMPI president Josephine Clark said pilots are a small link in the global logistics chain, but they enable the efficient, free flow of trade.

Captain Clark outlined the relationship between marine pilotage and global trade as she opened AMPI’s Regional Ports and Pilotage Conference in Port Moresby in June. Marine pilots, regulators, port authorities and stevedores discussed matters surrounding regulation, training, towage, transfers, technology and, reflecting the location of this year’s event, pilotage in PNG.

Anyone who fails to see the need or value of safe pilotage to a port and wider community has not spent much time on the bridge of a ship

Josephine Clark, AMPI President

Ms Clark described the inherent risk involved as pilots move large ships through confined channels, through narrow passages and alongside expensive port infrastructure in darkness and adverse weather.

“The whole world will be there to shine a spotlight when things go wrong, as we have recently seen in Baltimore,” she said, MV Dali’s allision with the Francis Scott Key Bridge still sending shockwaves through the industry at the time.

In a statement on its website following the incident in May, AMPI said Australia’s pilotage standards are among the highest in the world and the organisation stood “ready to work with industry stakeholders to use any lessons learned from this tragic event to continue to improve the processes that ensure the safety and security of trade”.

Ms Clark said the community tolerance for shipping incidents is zero.

“People want their goods to arrive on time, every time; without harming anyone, damaging their coral reefs, beaches, fishing grounds and marine wildlife. And so they should – the public deserve this.

“The entire port and shipping community – harbour masters, terminals, tugs, port designers, VTS etcetera – all have a role to play and must work collaboratively to achieve this aim: zero harm. For we will all be punished collectively if it all goes wrong.”

Ms Clark said the role of a pilot is, in essence, risk management. She highlighted the levels of skill, training, knowledge and experience a pilot brings to the bridge.

“Anyone who fails to see the need or value of safe pilotage to a port and wider community has not spent much time on the bridge of a ship,” she said.

Aspirations

The International Maritime Pilots’ Association notes on its website that an estimated 20% of pilot transfer arrangements are non-compliant with current regulations, posing a risk to the pilot and pilot launch crew. And the UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch, in its 2022 annual report (published mid-last year), reported more than 400 pilot-ladder incidents or accidents (out of 96,000 pilot-ladder transfers) in one year.

Townsville marine pilot Kate Delisky, in a presentation on pilot transfer arrangements at AMPI’s conference, weighed in on a thread in the day’s discussions about accidents not being accepted anywhere anymore.

“It’s a common thought these days, but I’d argue that it’s one we still aspire to,” Captain Delisky said.

“We continue to have pilot ladder fatalities and major life changing injuries around the world, and it is continually due to quality, improper rigging and maintenance or lack of.”

Ms Delisky walked delegates through the risks of pilotage, accidents in Australian waters and the measures implemented in response to those incidents.

She shared a relatively recent example involving AAL Dampier, a Cyprus-flagged general cargo ship which was departing Port of Fremantle in August 2022 when its manropes parted. The pilot, who was disembarking, fell onto the deck of the pilot vessel about seven metres below and was seriously injured. He was sent to hospital with a fractured skull, swelling on the brain, a hip injury, a severed muscle and severed tendons in his arms and fingers, according to Ms Delisky.

“On investigation they found that the manropes had been improperly stored and they had deteriorated from chemical damage, and the one thing that the pilot said that probably saved his life, was the fact that the manropes parted one after the other, and so he twisted when he fell instead of falling straight on his back,” she said.

The incident saw AAL Dampier Navigation and the vessel master prosecuted in May last year. The company pled guilty to an offence under Marine Order 21 (Safety and Emergency Arrangements) 2016 for failing to ensure pilot transfer arrangements in place were in accordance with the relevant regulations.

The incident also prompted the publication of a safety bulletin introducing new pilot arrangements. Ms Delisky said the bulletin was implemented “like a wave around Australia” with various port authorities getting on board.

“Unfortunately, we’re a bit of a reactive industry like many, and it takes something pretty major to see change, but we are finally seeing change.”

Proactive training

These reactive tendencies are also visible in the history of pilot training. Ben Ranson, a marine pilot at Mackay and Hay Point and a member of AMPI’s continuing professional development (CPD) committee, said until quite recently, pilots had been undertaking training and its development on an as-needed basis.

“In the past, the training of marine pilots, with few exceptions, was a once-and-only event,” Captain Ranson said at the conference.

“A new pilot would enter a pilot service and would be trained up on local knowledge as well as one or two courses if they were lucky, and then let loose on water.”

Mr Ranson recalled his own training experience, which he said lacked CPD in the decade following his initial pilot training. He said many other pilot services in Australia had a similar training program.

“The overall thought was, why bother spending money on training? The initial training was considered sufficient as ships were generally arriving and departing without major incident. And as such there was no catalyst to invest further in training. If there was an incident, it was dealt with on a case-by-case basis.”

Mr Ranson described this attitude toward marine pilot training and development as a reactive model, where pilots demonstrated their continued competence by “just doing the job and getting away with it”.

“The difference is CPD is a proactive training system,” he said.

“It’s not a reactive training system. It’s a career-long learning; a system that changes with time ensuring exposure to new skills. It’s structured so that it covers a range of training requirements which can be tailored to suit individual ports. It’s frequent training, enabling improvement and retention of skills and knowledge, keeping marine pilots up to date. It’s training with a focus on pilot service, not just individual marine pilots, for example having a safety management or … fatigue system in place. It is regular emergency response training which might not have occurred otherwise.

“These aspects of CPD ensure that the related port and shipping industries are provided with marine pilot services that are the highest standard.”

We continue to have pilot ladder fatalities and major life changing injuries around the world, and it is continually due to quality, improper rigging, and maintenance or lack of.

Kate Delisky, Port of Townsville

Mr Ranson said pilots need to stay up to date because knowledge and skills fail over time, and environments are continually changing.

“These changes can be due to technology, for example ship types and sizes change – we all know ship sizes in general get bigger,” he said.

“Port changes with the expansion and growth of our ports – our ports are getting bigger and more complicated. Port Hedland is a perfect example of that, going from a few berths to 30 odd berths now today. Best practice and standards are changing and improving as we speak; they’re always finding a better way to do things. And of course, findings from on water incidents also implement changes.

“We should remember marine pilots operate in an unforgiving environment … where a bad day on the water can be a catastrophic event in the eyes of the general public.

“As such, the necessity for training highly skilled marine pilots and due diligence in training and has never been greater. Training regulation is needed today.

“In order for marine pilots to remain under the public radar, and continue a safe and efficient service, it is critical they maintain their skills.”

Safe passages

A central element of marine pilotage is the passage plan. Passage planning involves route selection, chart preparation, risk assessment and communication, among other considerations. Technology has transformed this process – North Queensland Bulk Ports pilots Bernardo Obando and Henry Fatiaki presented on passage planning in the electronic era – but its purpose has always been to ensure a safe, efficient and compliant route.

Collin Sellars, a pilot at the Port of Tauranga and executive officer of the New Zealand Maritime Pilots’ Association, led conference delegates through the NZMPA guide to pilotage planning – a document outlining a process for producing fit-for-purpose passage plans for pilotage operations.

Captain Sellars was a principal author of the guide and leader of the working group tasked with its development. He said this work was prompted by a spate of groundings in New Zealand that landed “navigation in pilotage waters” on the Transport Accident Investigation Commission watchlist in 2018.

“Safe navigation of a ship through pilotage waters requires every part of a ship’s passage to be planned, and for all members of the bridge team to have a common understanding of the plan,” TAIC wrote of the watchlist item.

“In our inquiries, the Commission found that bridge resource management did not meet international standards,” TAIC wrote.

“These inquiries featured miscommunication and a lack of common understanding among the bridge management team, and poor integration of pilots into the bridge team. The Commission has made recommendations about improving standards of pilotage, improving standards of passage planning, bridge resource management, and about the training and use of electronic chart display and information systems. International agencies have also identified pilotage as a safety issue.”

Mr Sellars said NZMPA analysed the incidents and found a handful of patterns.

“The passage plan did not contain the level of detail required for the operation,” he said.

“There was no shared understanding between the vessel’s bridge team and the pilot of the passage plan and how it should be monitored, BRM [bridge resource management] standards did not meet industry good practice, the ECDIS [Electronic Chart Display and Information System] was incorrectly configured for pilotage, and the bridge team did not use all available means to monitor the passage.”

Mr Sellars said members of the NZMPA working group arrived at a policy on pilotage planning, describing the plan as the basis for the conduct of the vessel in pilotage waters. It should be shared in advance with the bridge team, it should be defined and communicated with the level of detail that allows any member of a bridge team to intervene in a timely way. Critical navigational elements should be defined by the analysis of relevant historic data and simulation, and their effectiveness monitored and reviewed in the same way.

The ultimate purpose of the guide is to ensure that everyone involved in the movement of ships in a pilotage area has a clear, shared understanding of the potential hazards and the margins of safety.

It lays a process structured around risk assessment, the port passage plan, the pilotage plan and communication.

Within this process, the port passage plan (step two) contains four components: general pilotage information, standard routes, manoeuvring information and berth information. The pilotage plan (step three) also contains four components: route planning, the manoeuvring plan, berthing plan and information exchange.

“Ideally, the detail contained within the port passage plan would be up on the port’s website and available for anybody to view,” he said.

“At this stage we don’t necessarily expect any arriving vessel will actively look to view this information, but we hope in time that the culture will change and they will begin to do this.”

Mr Sellars said TAIC had removed navigation in pilotage waters from the watchlist in January this year, six years after it was placed there.

He said it was lifted because of the contribution from the work of NZMPA and various working groups to get to a point where confidence had been restored.

This article appeared in the August | September 2024 edition of DCN Magazine