Although AIS (Automatic Identification System) can be a valuable tool for both security and navigation, its mandated use for many commercial marine vessels has always been controversial.
While some vessel operators appreciate the benefits of AIS and embrace its use, others who may be forced to put AIS on boats for the first time aren't as enthusiastic.
Crowley Maritime Corp. is a company that endorses the use of AIS for its tugs, not so much for navigation and collision avoidance as for keeping track of its tug fleet and the ships they work.
Scott Hoggarth, who heads up Crowley's dispatch office for its Southern California and Puget Sound operations in Seattle, said the company has benefitted from adding AIS.
"AIS is a real assist, SDRq said Hoggarth. SDLq It has enabled us to have eyes in the bay. It has saved us several thousand dollars over the years, being able to preserve work, rather than hire one of our competitors."
Imagine there are 10 ships lined up outside Los Angeles. You don't know what order they are in, which ones are yours, and your outfit only has two tugs available. If you have the first, fifth and 10th vessels, two tugs might be able to handle the workload. But if you have the first, third and fourth vessels, you may need outside help.
With AIS, "You know that ahead of time. You can see how they are lined up and which ship is yours," said Hoggarth.
AIS can provide the dispatch office with other things that are handy to know. When a tug that had been inactive has its AIS signal pop up on a dispatcher's screen, "We know they are getting ready to go. There's a better feeling that they are going to go on time if they are showing up on AIS," Hoggarth pointed out.
Crowley's dispatch office gets its AIS data as a live feed from marine exchanges in different ports. "We dial into their IP. It's less than a 30-second delay," Hoggarth said.
Crowley uses two software packages for its AIS electronics. One comes from Transas , and the other is Coastal Explorer from Rose Point Navigation . Both display AIS information on electronic charts.
By assigning different colors for different targets, it's easier for dispatchers to keep track of tugs and ships on the chart display. "We can make our tugs red and Foss 's green, and a lot of times we'll make our customers' ships blue. It makes it much easier to read," Hoggarth said.
Knowing the location of competitors' tugs can be beneficial for both Crowley and the other tug companies. "If we see one of our competitors might be short in an area, and we are just finishing up work, we might stay in the area for a few minutes in case they need us. It's good for us and keeps things moving. They'll do the same for us," Hoggarth said.
He admitted that dispatchers could get along without AIS. "It's something we don't have to have, but we are beginning to rely on it because it's very accurate information as to where ships are and where they are coming and going."
FINANCIAL BURDEN
In San Francisco Bay, Hornblower Cruises & Events has AIS units on 12 to 14 dinner boats and ferries that operate in the Bay's often foggy shipping lanes.
"The captains use AIS not from a security perspective but from a waterways management perspective," said Hornblower's Charlie Bills. "They can pull a contact off their radar with a certain range and bearing and look at the AIS to determine who it is and eliminate a call to traffic and call the vessel directly if they have any questions about meeting or passing. Waterways management is a positive for AIS particularly in San Francisco Bay."
However, Bills is bothered by the added cost of having to put AIS units on 15 to 18 boats that currently aren't required to use AIS. Most of these operate in Southern California. "In a small harbor like Newport Beach or Marina del Ray, captains don't use AIS to any degree. It's a small area. They have radar and have what they need without AIS."
Bills sees the AIS costs as just one more hurdle to overcome during the current soft business climate. "We in the passenger fleet feel we are being regulated out of business," he said, pointing out that new regulations from the California Air Resources Board will require replacing many diesel engines. "In California, we are being hit hard from a regulatory standpoint."
The costs associated with buying and installing new AIS units also has David Anderson of Fire Island Ferries in Bay Shore, N.Y., worried. Currently, the company's boats are exempt from carrying AIS devices because they aren't in a VTS zone. But the proposed rules would require AIS units on the ferries.
"It would be a hardship at around $2,000 per boat. We operate 24 boats. You do the math," Anderson said.
The ferries run between Bay Shore and Fire Island on 15- to 25-minute runs across what Anderson described as very shallow water. "We are the only commercial operator on our particular route. We'd only be monitoring ourselves, unless every pleasure boat in Great South Bay had it. And we constantly have communications with our office and vessel traffic," he said.
Another problem is space. Bridges on the ferries are small. Finding a place for a display unit isn't the problem because it's relatively small. But "the brains of the unit are a relatively large box. We'd have to accommodate that somewhere," Anderson said.
Because of the short runs and lack of commercial traffic, Anderson is hoping to get an exemption once the new rules go into effect. "It's done on a local captain-of-the-port basis," he noted. Currently Fire Island Ferries is exempt from carrying EPIRBs because of its local operating conditions.
One way of dealing with the expense of new AIS units, especially if you are a member of the Passenger Vessel Association, is to apply for a port security grant.
"We kept telling [Department of] Homeland Security if you want people to do AIS, especially before they are required to, you ought to allow port security money to purchase AIS," said the PVA's Ed Welch.
The last time port security grants were available, several PVA members used the money to purchase AIS units. "The precedents where AIS units are acceptable for port security money has been established," Welch noted.
So in the new round of port security grant applications (the deadline is Feb. 12), PVA has been reminding its members that money can be used for AIS and they will help them complete the application.