Alabama Administrative Code › Title 710 - ALABAMA STATE PILOTAGE COMMISSION › Chapter 710-X-1 - GENERAL › Section 710-X-1-.01 - Brief Description Of The State Pilotage Commission Etc

Current through Register Vol. 42, No. 9, June 28, 2024
[As Required By
Code Of Ala. 1975
, §
								41-22-4(A)(1)]
(1) The State Pilotage Commission is unique among state agencies. Created by statute in 1852, it regulates certain aspects of the occupation known as "bar pilot," that is, those locally-based ship captains who guide ships between the "bar" at the mouth of Mobile Bay and the Port of Mobile, up and down the ship channel(s). The Port of Mobile has "compulsory pilotage," meaning that a ship (unless exempt) is required by statute to take aboard a bar pilot if it expects to enter or leave Mobile. Compulsory pilotage is obviously designed to provide local expertise to help prevent ship collision, stranding and damage, with attendant loss of life and property, and perhaps even environmental damage.
(2) The Commission's role is to decide how many pilots there should be, and to manage the application and apprenticeship process and, ultimately, the granting or denial (and if necessary, the suspension or even revocation) of a bar pilot's license or "branch."*
(3) The Commission is established and organized by statute, now
Code of Ala. 1975
, §§
								33-4-1
et
seq
. Its procedures, except where set out in the statute creating it, naturally follow the Alabama Administrative Procedure Act,
Code of Ala. 1975
, §§
								41-22-1
et
seq
., and any other applicable laws.
(4) The Commission now consists of three members, one from each of three categories, whose categorical occupations are a statutory requirement: a person in the "steamship" business which maintains an office in Mobile; an active bar pilot licensed and branched by the State Pilotage Commission; a bar pilot; and a business or professional person subject to state licensure.
(5) Though the Commission is clearly a state agency, it is an orphan state agency. It gets no money from the legislature. It has no "state offices." Its members serve mostly as an act of good citizenship. It has no employees, except a part-time secretary. At the same time, it must bear most of the burdens of being a state agency: audits, paperwork, and the adoption and publication of regulations like these.
(6) The public and the executive and legislative branches of state government frequently confuse two quite separate entities: the "State Pilotage Commission" -- a state agency -- and the "Mobile Bar Pilots Association," a private business enterprise consisting of branched pilots who have formed a private business association to share the financial risks and rewards, and the working burden, of the pilotage business. The Commission (a state government body) and the Association (a private business) are not linked in any way, except that the Commission's statute requires that one active bar pilot be a member.
*Alabama statutes have always called a pilot's license a "branch." This term goes back to 1514 in England, when King Henry VIII granted to Trinity House the power to license pilots, and required that no pilot could navigate the River Thames or any of its tributary creeks or "branches," without a license. A licensed pilot became known as a "branch pilot," the license itself a "branch," and the licensure process "branching." The terminology came with maritime men to the new World.
(7) Any submission or request to the Commission should be submitted to:
Secretary
The State Pilotage Commission
P.O. Box 273
Mobile, AL 36601
Author:
David A. Bagwell
Statutory Authority:
Code of Ala. 1975
, §
										33-4-11.