Upskilling Tomorrow’s Mariners
The second panel at the recently concluded River and Marine Industry Seminar, hosted by the Greater New Orleans Barge Fleeting Association, featured a wide-ranging discussion on technologies affecting the inland marine space, including AI and autonomous vessel operations.
Joe Bussenger, who was part of the rocket recovery team at SpaceX before joining another company offering the same services, discussed how remotely operated, anchored barges are a key tool without which SpaceX could not retrieve its rockets—and therefore could not have saved enough money to launch enough payloads to support systems like StarLink.
This is just one example of how technology is going to affect marine operations, including brown-water operations. Mythos AI, another tech company, has just gotten Coast Guard approval to operate a remote hydrographic vessel system on the Lower Mississippi River.
The Coast Guard is currently writing regulations for remote operations and AI. Could these technologies threaten brown-water jobs? The short answer is likely maybe, but not anytime soon.
Rear Adm. Wayne Arguin, who is supervising the writing of the new Coast Guard regulations, pointed out that “remote” or “autonomous” does not necessarily mean “uncrewed.” Consider passenger jets. Do airplanes fly on autopilot? Sure. But would anyone today get on a passenger jet that had no pilot at the sticks? Nope. Likewise, due to the dynamic nature of our waterways and the cargos vessels transport, mariners are and will remain essential. No machine can see, think, hear and feel what a pilot standing at the sticks can. Likewise for deckhands and tankermen.
But that doesn’t mean technology won’t change the nature of the jobs that mariners do. Technology could lead to new opportunities. Brown-water companies already know they need to recruit life-long learners who can grow in their careers. Recruiting the next generation of brown-water mariners and shoreside staff begins by talking to school-age children who might be joining the river labor force in 5 or 10 years.
What will their work environment be like? Will they need to know how to control remote vessels, how to watch out for them, how to counter cybersecurity threats and how to leverage certain aspects of AI? Probably. But will they also still need to know how to build tow, how to scrape and paint and where the eddies run in the bends and on the points? Definitely.
New technology should appeal to today’s generation, which is growing up with more technology. So should the hard work, natural beauty and adventure that make every day on the water special.
