12:8-49 Qualification of docking pilot without apprenticeship; requirements.

33. Unless the commission for good cause determines otherwise, a person shall qualify within 12 months of the effective date of P.L.2004, c.72 (C.12:8-1.1 et al.) as a docking pilot without fulfilling the apprentice docking pilot requirements of this chapter if the person:

a. Has been regularly engaged, other than as a member of a vessel's crew, for the purpose of docking and undocking and the movement of not fewer than one hundred seagoing vessels of not less than ten thousand registered gross tons on the waters of the port of New York and New Jersey during the two-year period immediately prior to the effective date of P.L.2004, c.72 (C.12:8-1.1 et al.);

b. Holds a current first class pilot's license issued by the United States Coast Guard or a first class pilot endorsement to a license issued by the United States Coast Guard authorizing the piloting of vessels of any tonnage, and endorsed for the routes in which the services of a docking pilot are permitted, and executes an authorization permitting the commission to obtain from the United States Coast Guard information pertaining to the applicant's Coast Guard license and records;

c. Holds a current unlimited radar observer's certificate required by the United States Coast Guard;

d. Has participated in and successfully completed a United States Department of Transportation, Department of Homeland Security, or their successors' drug screening and testing program mandated for mariners and executed an authorization permitting the commission to obtain from that organization information pertaining to the applicant's drug screening and testing;

e. Has been examined by a licensed physician in the manner prescribed by the United States Coast Guard no less than once each year and been declared by the examiner competent to perform the duties of a docking master;

f. Submits an application for review and approval by the commission within six months of the effective date of P.L.2004, c.72 (C.12:8-1.1 et al.), which approval

shall not be unreasonably withheld; and

g. Pays any required annual fee established by the regulations of the commission, such fee not to exceed the reasonable cost of administration directly attributable to the licensing of docking pilots.

A docking pilot who meets the requirements of subsections a. through e. of this section and who submits the docking pilot's name and a summary of qualifications to the commission within 30 days of the effective date of P.L.2004, c.72 (C.12:8-1.1 et al.) may continue to perform the work of a licensed docking pilot until such time as the commission acts upon the application of that docking pilot. Prior to the issuance of a docking pilot license, such docking pilot shall be subject to all other provisions of this chapter, as if the license had been issued upon the effective date of P.L.2004, c.72 (C.12:8-1.1 et al.).

L.2004,c.72,s.33.