Some of the people most responsible for ensuring the waters of the San Francisco Bay are safe to navigate have been caught in the middle of a Congressional budget fight and aren’t being paid, a development that has put local maritime safety experts on edge.
The roughly 35 civilian Vessel Traffic Service operators who work at the U.S. Coast Guard base on Yerba Buena Island are responsible for monitoring the movement of most ships and larger boats inside the Bay, communicating with bar pilots and captains and helping everyone avoid collisions and groundings.
VTS operators are the maritime equivalent of air traffic controllers, according to Scott Humphrey, who spent 30 years doing the job.
He is now the executive director of the Marine Exchange of the San Francisco Bay Region, a maritime industry group that works on safety issues and collects and disseminates vessel movement data, among other things.
Humphrey said VTS operators work 12-hour shifts monitoring computer screens that display real-time information about vessel traffic and listening in on multiple radio channels at once — all while looking for potential safety problems out on the Bay.
“They are responsible for spotting errant ships, ferry boats, tugboats and alerting the captain to the error,” Humphrey said. “These people are also thinking about the fact that they haven’t seen a paycheck in a couple of pay periods.”
That distraction, Humphrey said, should be enough to worry anyone who cares about maritime safety on the Bay.
“I would compare it to driving on the freeway in heavy traffic while dealing with a family emergency on the phone,” he said. “You can’t focus on blind spots and cars stopping in front of you at the same time with the same level of attention if you have a crisis going on.”
Humphrey said he’s trained most of the current batch of operators working at Yerba Buena Island’s VTS Traffic Center, which is staffed 24/7, and that they are extremely dedicated professionals who work hard to keep the Bay safe.
Budget battle a distraction
Still, he worries that the current budget morass might be weighing heavily on their minds.
“If they can’t pay enough attention or if they’re distracted, they might miss that subtle cue that would enable them to mitigate risk, and that’s what we’re worried about,” Humphrey said.
The funding for VTS has been stalled for 28 days as Democrats in the U.S. Senate have refused to vote for a Department of Homeland Security budget bill because it includes money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Customs and Border Protection, agencies they say have spiraled out of control during Republican President Donald Trump’s mass immigration crackdown.
During that same time, Republicans have refused to vote on bills that would separately fund the Coast Guard, under which VTS operates, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Transportation Security Administration and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
“I would compare it to driving on the freeway in heavy traffic while dealing with a family emergency on the phone. You can’t focus on blind spots and cars stopping in front of you at the same time with the same level of attention if you have a crisis going on.”
Scott Humphrey, Marine Exchange of the San Francisco Bay Region
Currently, it’s unclear how VTS operations might be impacted or if there are any contingency plans in place to help alleviate possible operator burnout or departures if the funding logjam continues.
A representative for Vessel Traffic Service San Francisco didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Capt. John Carlier, president of the San Francisco Bar Pilots, the group of master mariners who board large ships to navigate them to destinations within the Bay, commended VTS operators for continuing to work despite going without pay.
Carlier said things are currently running smoothly but he hopes the budget situation is resolved sooner rather than later.
“Protocols are in place for when VTS is operating at a reduced capacity, so there is not an absence of communication — pilots can still navigate commercial ships safely, but the system functions best when there is VTS in place coordinating between ships, ferries, and recreational traffic on the water,” Carlier said.
Things still ship shape
Thomas Hall, a spokesperson for the Water Emergency Transportation Agency, which oversees ferry services on the San Francisco Bay, said his agency relies heavily on VTS operators and hasn’t yet noticed anything to be worried about.
“Our captains haven’t reported any issues to us. It’s been business as usual so far,” Hall said. “We would not operate if the Bay weren’t safe to operate in.”
If the situation changes, Hall said, WETA would alert the public and adjust ferry services accordingly.
Kathi George, director of Cetacean Conservation Biology at The Marine Mammal Center, said VTS operators also help protect whales from vessel strikes.
“Vessel Traffic Service personnel are truly unsung heroes who play a major behind-the-scenes role in ensuring both human and animal safety on the water,” George said. “Collaboration and continued progress in maritime awareness of whales in San Francisco Bay are only possible through a fully staffed and funded VTS.”
A U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson referred questions to DHS, which didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.