The Jones Act is under stronger assault now than ever before. Foreign and homegrown interests have unleashed arrows in the direction of the U.S. Congress, demanding it to let foreign-flag ships in on your coastwise operations.
West Coast Sailors
The Italian-flag cruise ship Costa Concordia ran aground on the island of Giglio in the Tyrrenian Sea on Friday, January 13, nine miles off Italy?s Tuscan coast ? capsizing and beginning to sink.
On December 1, Alexander & Baldwin, the Hawai?i-based land company with interests in real estate development, commercial real estate and agriculture, announced it will spin-off its wholly owned subsidiary?Matson Navigation Company.
Tasked by Congress over a year ago to produce a report identifying ways to boost American-flag shipping, the Maritime Administration has issued a report, written by Price Waterhouse Coopers, that does the opposite.
Legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives on October 14, that would require MarAd to publish the availability of U.S.-flag, U.S.-built, U.S-crewed (Jones Act) vessels when another federal agency asks to use non-U.S.-flag vessels.
Notwithstanding the availability of U.S.-flag, Jones Act-qualified tonnage, the Maritime Administration recently issued a series of non-availability rulings that have resulted in more than 45 waivers of the Jones Act.
Matson Navigation Company pulled the plug on August 8, on its five ship foreign-flag liner fleet after hemorrhaging millions of dollars.
Congressman Farenthold (R-Texas)
and Presidential Assistant Congressman Paul (R-Texas) introduced a bill in the House of Representatives that would allow foreign-flag passenger vessels to embark passengers in one U.S. port and disembark them in another U.S. port.
Members of the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation said the Jones Act is critical to the national, economic, and homeland security needs of our country.
Piracy is the current scourge of the waters off Somalia, but the longstanding bane on the industry has been the existence of the rotten flag-of-convenience system that exploits mariners worldwide.
Among the Union's objectives is "to support a journal which shall voice the sentiments of the seafaring class, and through its columns seek to maintain the knowledge of and interest in maritime affairs." The first issue of the West Coast Sailors, in June of 1937, noted that "Common sense, fearlessly applied, brings success to a Union."