OAKLAND, Calif. - Eric Robinson stepped onto the bridge of the container ship Horizon Pacific and peered at a computer monitor depicting San Francisco Bay. Ship icons blipped clearly in the virtual water, but the meaning of some of the other symbols was murky.
Robinson, a San Francisco ship pilot, makes his living guiding supertankers, naval vessels and cruise ships through the bay's treacherous waters, and his job is to adapt quickly. But he never knows what electronic navigation gear he will face when he takes the helm. And he thinks that should change.
The government, the International Maritime Organization and the shipping industry are exploring how to bring some order to the jumble of electronic navigation aids proliferating on the seas -- a movement that has been given greater impetus by an accident in San Francisco Bay earlier this month.
On Nov. 7, a 901-foot container ship sideswiped the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, gashing its hull and dumping 58,000 gallons of sludge-like bunker fuel. It was the bay's worst oil spill in nearly two decades and closed fishing in the bay for more than three weeks; authorities lifted the ban Thursday after determining there is no significant health risk from eating seafood caught in areas affected by the spill.
While the cause of the accident is still under investigation, the pilot in that episode told authorities there was confusion between him and the ship's captain over symbols on an electronic charting system while the vessel Cosco Busan made its way through a fog bank.
"An international standardization of bridge equipment like radars and electronic navigation equipment -- to me, that would be the legislation I would like to see come out of this," Robinson said during an interview as he set a course for Hawaii.
As the sun set over the Port of Oakland two weeks after the spill, and cranes loaded containers aboard, Robinson carefully reviewed the electronic charting system with the ship's captain.
"You want to make sure you're looking at what you think you're looking at," Robinson said.
Such a thorough briefing is not always possible in the high-pressure world of international shipping, where captain and pilot are often from different countries, as was the case aboard the Cosco Busan.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Coast Guard are looking into the possibility of miscommunication, perhaps even a language barrier, in the Nov. 7 incident. The Cosco Busan's pilot also said his two radar displays became distorted.
The nation's 1,100 state-licensed pilots frequently board vessels out at sea for the last part of the inbound journey. Out there, the pilot is often confronted with busy shipping lanes, heavy radio traffic and poor visibility or darkness.
Robinson said fiddling with equipment in those moments is the last thing he wants to do.
"I've seen at least a dozen different electronic charts and dozens of radar displays," Robinson said. "Bridge markings, buoy markings, depth contour curves, what measurements the depths are in, whether they're in fathoms, feet or meters -- basically every aspect of the chart other than the outlay of the land could be different."
Some pilots, frustrated by the varying systems, have begun carrying their own laptops loaded with familiar charting software onto the ships, he said. The laptops can be plugged into the ship's navigation equipment.
Robinson is eager to see a new system in which a pilot could hit a button that would prompt the electronic charts to revert to a "standard mode," or default setting, that would be uniform across all manufacturers and show charts with standard symbols.
Many proponents of this system argue that "technology may be getting out in front and changing faster than mariners can keep up with it," said Paul G. Kirchner, executive director and general counsel of the American Pilots' Association. Kirchner emphasized he does not believe pilots necessarily need such a system, because they receive such extensive training.
Nevertheless, the pilots association is studying the standard mode approach. "We think there's value" in this approach, Kirchner said.
Robinson's primary tools of the trade are his eyes, and during his run aboard the Horizon Pacific, he referred to the electronic charts only occasionally. It was dark but clear by the time the container ship was fully loaded with Christmas trees, Army weapons cartridges, ice cream, wine and cars.
But when fog, haze or rain close in, pilots turn to radar and the electronic charts. The Horizon Pacific was equipped with a sophisticated electronic charting program called Coastal Explorer. A desktop computer ran software that flashed real-time data about the ship and others in the area, as well as hazards, depths, buoys, bridges and docks.
The Cosco Busan had similar gear. In its report on the incident, expected out next year, the NTSB will look at the role navigational aids played, and at the differences in symbols between charting systems across the industry, board spokesman Peter Knudson said. The board sometimes recommends policy changes.
The International Maritime Organization, the U.N. body that regulates the global shipping industry, is studying the issue of standardizing the devices and the symbols they use, Kirchner said.
One possible hurdle would be in getting manufacturers to agree on uniform standards when several have invested a great deal of money in proprietary systems, said Chris Philips, editor of Pacific Maritime Magazine.
"It's hard for the Coast Guard to say, `Throw all your equipment away and buy from this guy,'" Philips said.
