And change must come to the Pilot Board too, argues Houston attorney Reginald McKamie, a ship’s captain by background and chair of the Board of Pilot Commissioners for Harris County Ports.
“Right now, it’s word of mouth in the maritime industry,” he said. “A lot of people that live on the west side of town have no idea there's a 52-mile ship channel from Galveston to Houston.” Q: A pilot is trained for particular pilot waters, and the Houston Ship Channel has been described as one of the most challenging in the world. What does that mean?
A: That's right, and that's why it becomes incumbent to make sure that we reach out to find the best people we can in the nation to be pilots.A: They're adequate right now. There’s about 90 pilots. But I think it's incumbent on the Board of Pilot Commissioners to look to the future. You just don't train somebody in two weeks to be a Houston Ship Channel pilot.
A: I do. Now, there is a debate. People are saying, well, we won't get more ships--we'll just get larger ships, because those larger ships will be able to bring more TEUs, more containers. But a large part of our flow of traffic is not TEUs or containers; it's petrochemical. So I believe we will need more pilots. But at a minimum, we have to replace those that are leaving.
In my opinion, there is a conflict with the pilots, between how many pilots you have and their ultimate revenue. I use the example of a pie. If you have more people getting slices of the pie, the slice is going to be smaller. So there's a conflict there.