Crescent River Port Pilots Association News

Dozens of South Louisiana middle and high school students eager to learn about careers in the maritime industry enjoyed a cool, windy autumn day on the mighty Mississippi River in St. Bernard Parish at the first-of-its-kind Maritime Field Trip.The daylong field trip was organized and coordinated by a group of maritime industry partners and featured Crescent River Port Pilots. The educational trip taught the students the importance of river safety and the dramatic impact mariners…

Summit Set for October 8, 2014 at UNO’s Lindy Boggs International Conference Center from 8:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. With a focus on educating and engaging community stakeholders on maritime jobs opportunities, the Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans and the University of New Orleans will host the 1st Annual Port of New Orleans Maritime Workforce Summit October 8. Moderated by Mark Romig, President and CEO of the New Orleans Tourism and Marketing Corp., summit participants include state and local education officials…

New Legislation Aimed at Building Wetlands while Deepening Mississippi River in anticipation of Panama Canal Expansion completion. Congressman Cedric Richmond ha introduced the DREDGE Act of 2012-Dredging for Restoration and Economic Development for Global Exports. The bill would give the Army Corps of Engineers the authorization to dredge the Mississippi River to 50 feet so that larger vessels transiting the expanded Panama Canal can access the River. In addition, the bill creates a pilot project to promote the rebuilding of wetlands using existing sediment dredged from the River. “The Mississippi River is undoubtedly the most important river in the United States,” said Congressman Richmond.

In an unpublished decision, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a claim filed by a mariner against various pilot boards based on the statute of limitations and failure to meet the age restriction. In the instant case, plaintiff mariner, who is an African-American, tried for a number of years to be accepted by the Crescent River Port Pilots Association and the Board of River Port Pilots Commissioners for the Port of New Orleans as an apprentice pilot. Eventually, he brought this action alleging discrimination on the basis of race. The court found that his older claims were barred by the statute of limitations and he could not succeed with the more recent claims because by then he was at least 40 years old…

The Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies has been selected by the Crescent River Port Pilots Association to present a Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) program to the member pilots. The Crescent River Port Pilots Association will be learning a highly sophisticated program designed to dramatically reduce the risk of collisions and groundings and the consequent loss of life, property and environmental damage. The VTS installation for the port of New Orleans is expected to be in operation by 2000. The new training by MITAGS will be crucial for the successful operation of the new VTS for the port. The training package will consist of a two-day computer session, and a five-day radar simulator-based training segment.

The Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies (MITAGS) and the Crescent River Port Pilots Association (CRPPA) have announced the partnering efforts of the Crescent River Port Pilots and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District (USACE-MVN) to develop and produce the innovative Mini-Inland Electronic Navigational Chart, dubbed Mini-IENC. The Mini-IENC provides essential, special vertical and horizontal navigation clearance information to the CRPPA while piloting the Carnival Conquest under the low lying Chalmette Powerlines located Mile 89.2 on the Lower Mississippi River. Additionally, the Mini-IENC is being used extensively for Vessel Traffic Management and Decision-making ship handling exercises by the CRPPA in the MITAGS ship-handling simulator.

When a pilot learning to guide ships along the Mississippi River makes a mistake and crashes into a New Orleans wharf, the only thing that ends up damaged is his ego. That's because the mistakes happen in a ship simulator housed in an old movie theater in Covington, La. The $1 million simulator can place a pilot on the bridge of a ship anywhere along the river between the mouth of the Mississippi and Baton Rouge. Scenes projected on the walls of the simulator, located in what once was the old DeLuxe movie theater in downtown Covington across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, accurately depict every aspect of the 240 miles of waterway.