FMC Leadership Heats Up A Frozen Week

Leadership, enforcement, investment, data, and training all hit the throttle this week—and the supply chain is going to feel it. We kick off with Commissioner Dabella’s rapid move to FMC chair and why that shift matters: the chair sets priorities, drives enforcement tempo, and shapes the agency’s posture on competition and fairness. Pair that with an expanded ALJ bench and shippers, truckers, and carriers can expect faster case movement and clearer guidance that reduces uncertainty in contracts and operations.

We then unpack the FMC’s targeted investigation into chassis choice. After a landmark ruling against exclusive chassis designations in key markets, the commission is probing whether similar restrictions have crept into private service contracts. If you operate in LA–Long Beach, Savannah, Chicago, or Memphis—or if you’re a BCO, trucker, or chassis provider affected by split moves and availability—this is your moment to weigh in with specifics before the March 27 deadline. Real-world detail will shape real-world rules.

Data takes center stage as DOT’s FLOW initiative names a new executive board spanning ports, ocean carriers, retailers, and logistics pros. FLOW’s edge is early signal detection: anonymized purchase order visibility that helps stakeholders spot congestion and rebalance capacity before the pain shows up at the gate. On the infrastructure front, CMA CGM and Stonepeak launch United Ports LLC, a $2.4B joint venture that injects capital into ten terminals, including LA’s Phoenix Marine Services and Port Liberty terminals in New York and New Jersey—translating boardroom commitments into yard upgrades, better rail, and more predictable turns.

We also celebrate grit and readiness. The Coast Guard cutter Polar Star marked 50 years by breaking ice to free a luxury ship near Antarctica, underscoring the urgent need to recapitalize America’s icebreaking capability. Mariners get a long-overdue win with the NMC’s ASAP portal, bringing digital submissions and status tracking to credentialing. And talent takes a leap forward as Massachusetts Maritime Academy’s NEXIES program builds a training pipeline with Finland’s leaders in modular shipbuilding and robotics—knowledge that will flow straight into U.S. yards.

To cap it off, Michigan reveals a thoughtful, actionable maritime strategy that treats the Great Lakes as a modern marine highway. Intermodal investments, clean-energy ferries, workforce growth, innovation zones, and a smart balance with recreation form a roadmap other states can adapt. If momentum had a sound, it’s this week’s episode. If it had a purpose, it’s making the system fairer, faster, and future-proof. Enjoyed the breakdown? Subscribe, share with a colleague, and leave a review to help more maritime pros find the show.

Chapters

• 0:00 Cold Snap, Hot Maritime Week
• 1:46 FMC 101 And Why Chairs Matter
• 2:58 Dabella’s Rapid Rise And ALJ Expansion
• 6:48 Chassis Choice Investigation Explained
• 15:20 FLOW Board And Data Sharing Push
• 17:51 CMA CGM–Stonepeak Terminal Venture
• 20:08 Polar Star’s 50th And Antarctic Rescue
• 22:18 Digital Portal For Mariner Credentials
• 24:08 Training Pipeline: Mass Maritime’s NEXIES
• 26:05 Michigan’s Maritime Strategy Unpacked
• 29:38 Legacy, Modernization, And What’s Next

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:11

Welcome to Byland and by Sea, powered by the Maritime Professor. While most of the United States is in a deep freeze this week, the U.S. maritime industry continues to heat up. See what I did there? Too corny. Between a brand new chairman at the FMC, we have a chairman, a massive$2.4 billion port terminal deal with CMACGM and Stone Peak, and the announcement of a new high-powered new board for the Department of Transportation's flow initiative. The industry is moving at a fever pitch. Today I'm bringing you what I saw this week and why it will continue to shape the future of the supply chain that I'm watching. From the infrastructure of enforcement to a 50th anniversary rescue mission in Antarctica, we are breaking it all down this week. Hi, welcome back to Byland and by Sea, an attorney breaking down the week in supply chain presented by the Maritime Professor. Me, I'm Lauren Beegan, founder of the Maritime Professor, former FMC International Affairs Attorney, and founder of Squall Strategies. By Land and by Sea is your go-to resource for navigating the regulatory side of global ocean shipping. As always, this podcast is for educational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice. There's no attorney client privilege covered by this podcast or this video. And if you need an attorney, contact an attorney. All right, let's jump right into it. Segment number one, the big news of the week. I'm going to call it the biggest news of the week as of January 28th, 2026. Commissioner Lord Bella is now Chairman, Lord Bella. She's been designated as the chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission. This is great because we finally have leadership at the FMC again. The FMC, as you all know, because you've listened to this podcast, was established in 1961. It is an independent regulatory agency, and it is supposed to be protective against monopolies and unfair business practices or unfair shipping practices. Historically, the chairman serves as the chief executive officer, chief administrative officer, and they really set the tone for the entire commission. They kind of drive the boat, if you will. Chairman Dabella's designation marks one of the fastest transitions in the agency's history. Maybe the fastest. I didn't actually go back to check, but this has got to be one of the fastest, if not the fastest. She was sworn in as a commissioner as of January 6th, and 22 days later was elevated to chairman of the FMC. Now, Chairman Dabella was a former port director. She was the first ever executive director of the Florida Harbor Pilots Association, and she was Florida's first female Secretary of Commerce. Chairman D'Abrella brings this certain practitioner's lens to the role. And I think that this is critical because the agency is currently helping to carry out the administration's mandate of restoring America's maritime dominance. And in order to effectively do that, it's fantastic to see that she's been out there boots on the dock, actually boots on the dock. Now, she might not be a mariner herself. I don't, I actually don't know if she is. I don't think she has her license. But either way, she was a board director. And you she was an executive director of the Florida Harbor Pilots Association. And the two of those things give her credibility in the industry just right there, especially working with the pilots. That's incredible. Now I think that we are kind of moving into a phase of, and I brought this up last week, where we've had the car in the shop, right? But now we're ready for the car to get out there on the highway. We've been a bit in a restructuring mode, but look, we're starting to get our maritime leadership in place. Mayrad has its lead with Steve Carmel, and now FMC has its lead with Chairman Jabella. I'm excited to see the direction both of these leaders want to take their respective agencies as they begin to set their new agendas. And if you have any confusion over the difference or similarities between the FMC and Mayrad, go to the website, maritimeprofessor.com. We will be hosting a live just in time series on FMC versus Mayrad. What's the difference? It'll help you keep clear the two different agencies. But we have our leaders for both, and I think that this is fantastic. I also wanted to bring this up since we're talking about FMC, as we always do, but another update to handle the record backlog of cases that the FMC has been getting. With the increased attention, also brings awareness of knowing that they have some dispute resolution options, and some of those are bringing cases, whether they are small claims cases or regular claims. The FMC has actually detailed two more administrative law judges. So these are coming over from Health and Human Services, HHS. This brings the bench to seven judges now, which is fantastic because depending on how many of you have been with this podcast for the five seasons that we've been doing this, we've seen as low as three judges, and I think we were even down to one or two at a certain point. So the fact that we are now up to seven judges, and what the administrative law judges, what their role is, is when a when a dispute is filed with the FMC, it doesn't go first to all five commissioners, or if we had a full power, all five commissioners. It first goes to the administrative law judges, the ALJs. And that's kind of how it works. Then they come up with their initial decision, and then from there, that decision gets kind of shopped out to the rest of the agency, which means it goes to each of the different commissioner offices, also goes over to the general counsel's office, and it's kind of reviewed as that initial decision. There are a certain number of days, I believe it's 22 days, to file exceptions or pull it. So sorry, not file exceptions, suiconte review, which means that the agency can then say any of the commissioners or the general counsel, and I'm not sure if anybody else can, but what they do then is suicponte reviews say, we would like to review this. We want to dive into this one further. If they don't do that, it just becomes final. I, you know, I I'm so sorry that I'm not super clear. I think it's actually 30 days that they have for a suice ponte review, and it's 22 days for it to file exceptions. Again, this is not legal advice. I'd have to double check, but this is just uh off the top of my head that we're talking here. So the point being, there are now seven judges, seven ALJs, up from, like I said, three, maybe two or one at some point. Now, this is important because it helps make those dockets go faster. When you file a claim at the FMC, like a regular claim, like a not a small claims, not a detention demourage, charge complaints, claim. But when you file like a lawsuit at the FMC, it can take a while. I mean, like you're talking maybe a year, maybe a little bit less than a year. I mean, it's not going to be in the couple weeks or a couple months. So that's why having the more ALJs they have, the faster they can get through all those cases. All right, segment number two. Story number two. On January 26th, the FMC officially published an order investigation. So we're sticking with the FMC here into whether ocean common carriers are using restrictive practices to control chassis usage. Now, to be very clear about the stakes, I actually want to read right off of the commission's federal register announcement on this because I think that you should hear it exactly how they are presenting this. So, what the commission said in their federal register announcement here, it says the commission has received information that ocean common carriers are relying on service contract terms or other means to mandate that motor carriers, truckers, and shippers use the Ocean Common Carriers designated chassis provider. The information received appears to indicate that these practices are being applied to cargo transported under merchant haulage arrangements, under which the trucker or shipper is responsible for arranging and paying for overland transportation between a port and inland facility. If these reports are accurate, ocean common carriers employing such practices through service contracts or other means may be violating the shipping act. Again, I am reading right off of the Federal Register announcement. This is the FMC's actual announcement. I'm just reading it. Practices and rules that Ocean Common Carriers apply in handling and transporting cargo may be just and reasonable, and cargo transported under service contracts must comply with the applicable statutory and regulatory requirements. The commission is investigating possible non-compliance under its authority to enforce the shipping act and in carrying out its goals of ensuring an efficient, competitive, and economical transportation system in the ocean commerce of the United States. Still, I am putting, I'm just reading off of the Federal Register here. We'll kind of break it down. But again, this is talking about chassis and chassis availability and chassis choice. And there was a case that we're they're about to mention in this write-up that they're referencing here, that they're kind of referring to. And what they're finding is that it was, it's it's being brought to their attention that instead of having it just be out in the open as part of the public tariffs, now it's being negotiated into service contracts. And that's where that's where they are finding some problems and wanting more information to see if this is actually happening and how widespread this is happening. So I'm going to continue on reading off of the Federal Register notice that the FNC put out. Continues on to say the shipping act requires all Ocean Common Carriers to establish and follow rules and practices for handling and transporting cargo that are just and reasonable. Rules and practices that restrict truckers and shippers to the Ocean Common Carriers, designated chassis provider, have been found to be unreasonable under section 41102C. They say Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference versus OCEMA. This is the FMC Docket 20-14. Now you can actually go look this up yourself. FMC Docket number 20-14. You can go to the e-reading room where you can actually look up all the cases of the FMC. So in this case, in intermodal, I'm going to continue reading, the commission found that rules adopted by an association of ocean common carriers and used by individual ocean common carriers to designate exclusive chassis providers for merchant haulage violated Section 41102C and ordered the respondents named in that action to immediately cease adopting or enforcing those rules at facilities servicing four regions in the U.S. These were the regions that were identified in this case: Chicago, Savannah, Memphis, and the port of LA Long Beach. Continue to read. When the commission received reports that Ocean Common Carriers named as respondents in intermodal were not complying with the cease and desist order, that's what they're saying. They're saying that they had somebody let them know that these people, that these parties in this case in these regions were told to stop doing it, right? Cease and desist. And now they're saying they were told that they weren't complying with the cease and desist. And now they're saying I'll continue to read. It initiated an investigation which remains open. Uh, in the matter of inquiry regarding compliance with the cease and desist order, docket 20-14, special investigation 24-02. Now, continuing on in that federal register, they go into what they are now looking for responses about. They want feedback. This is not a notice of comment period, but it's kind of the same idea. They want people to engage. They have a deadline for when they want people to engage with this, and here's what they're looking for information on. So investigation into reports of noncompliance. The commission is now looking for information that Ocean Common Carriers may be violating shipping act prohibitions against unjust or unreasonable practices, or failing to comply with other shipping act requirements by imposing restrictions that directly or indirectly impede truckers and shippers' ability to deal with chassis providers that they select, particularly for merchant haulage. So that's what they're getting to. They're saying the choice of chassis providers is being the inability to deal with the chassis providers that they select, right? It's all kind of hinged, the the case kind of hinged on anti-competitive and you know, do you have the options? Are you allowed to go out into the marketplace here? And so that's what they're saying is look, they're finding, they've been told that this is not being properly adhered to. So continuing on. As an initial step in this investigation, the commission seeks comments from shippers, transportation service providers, chassis equipment providers, or other interested stakeholders and the public about whether such practices and restrictions are currently occurring, how they're being implemented or imposed, and how they are affecting or restricting truckers or shippers' abilities to independently select, negotiate, and deal with chassis providers. This investigation being conducted pursuant to the commission's authority under section 41401012 to enforce the shipping act, regulates, practices, policies, they're basically giving justification for why they're doing this. I'm going to continue reading on what are they actually asking? The commission is interested in any information relevant to restrictions of any kind, information related to, and they list them out. One, whether and to the extent to which truckers can choose the chassis providers in the markets covered by the intramodal cease and desist order. So again, those were LA Long Beach, Savannah, Memphis, and Chicago. Number two, whether Ocean Common Carriers have designated a single chassis provider, which truckers must use in the Memphis and Chicago service regions. Three, information relating to the merchant haulage exception if that is a term used in service contracts with shippers or beneficial cargo owners, BCOs. Four, in emerchant haulage movements, information about provisions related to chassis control, chassis condition, and equipment returns. Number five, information concerning whether there is adequate supply of chassis availability for merchant haulage, supply of chassis available for merchant haulage. Six, whether ocean common carriers reimburse truckers for time and costs associated with chassis splits. Seven, how situations where there is an adequate, inadequate supply of chassis for current needs are addressed. So what happens when there's not enough chassis? Number eight, means by which Ocean Common Carriers notify railroads at wheeled or partially wheeled rail yards about which containers and cargo are being moved under merchant haulage and which chassis to use for those containers. Number nine, there's only 11, I'm almost done here. Means of communicating with chassis providers using the LA Long Beach pool of pools to designate and distinguish between carrier haulage and merchant haulage containers cargo and coordinate billing accordingly. Number 10, again, these are the issues that the FMC wants more information on and wants responses to. Number 10, estimates of the number percentage of trucker-owned chassis used in the Memphis, Savannah, Chicago, and LA Long Beach markets. And then number 11, more generally, any information concerning new or ongoing ocean chassis provider selection or negotiations and how these practices affect the chassis provisioning markets at ports or inland facilities anywhere in the United States. This information, and I'm just continuing to read off the Federal Register, this information will allow the commission to assess current conditions and determine whether shipping act violations may be occurring and what further action, if any, is warranted. I wanted to read directly because I wanted it you to hear it directly, because this is a very sensitive topic, anyways. But look, what they're essentially saying here is they're finding a contract pivot, right? They're saying carriers, they're they're saying what they've been hearing is that it's possible the carriers are trying to use private service contracts to bypass public shipping act requirements. And the FMC is saying, look, not so fast. We want to know what's going on. We want more information because we also need to know if people are not complying with the cease and desist order, that's a big deal. And if they're kind of circumventing not working with the uh cease and desist order, that's also a big deal. Even though service contracts are confidentially filed, the FMC still has a purview over that and jurisdiction over that. All right, so the deadline to comment is March 27th. So you do have some time here, but don't wait too long, right? Make sure that you get your thoughts together here. The FMC wants engagement on this. Uh, they've been looking at this chassis issue for a while. It was kind of a novel thing when they started talking about it. Now they're asking for more information. So if you have anything to do with the chassis world, I encourage you to take a look at this Federal Register and know this, look at this investigation, see if you have any information to provide. All right, story number three freight logistics optimization works. Weren't we just talking about the flow initiative last week? So, U.S. Department of Transportation, this is the data sharing program or data monitoring, data watching, the flowing of information, has named its executive board for the 2026-27 calendar year. Just last week we said that they were saying thank you to the outgoing members. So, of course, this week I was saying I'm expecting some of these supply chain stakeholder groups to be getting going. I mean, I was hoping it was going to be happening, right? And here we are, new year, new groups. So, new board members coming on. We have Abigail Anderson from DCLI, we have Jeff Bellerund from the Northwest Seaport Alliance, we have Michelle Darling from BJs, Darian Flowers, MSC, one of the ocean carriers. We have Jim McCullin, Century Supply Chain Solutions, Gene Siroca, Port of LA, Erica Westenbrook, Landolakes, and then returning board members who are staying on. We have Chris Canton Caton, Prologist, Jason Craig, CH Robinson, Salvador Di Donado, STG Logistics. Sorry, I'm going through the whole list. Jason DROYO, Hopag Lloyd, another ocean carrier, Dan Gross, the Home Depot, Chelsea Morris, Dollar General, Van Noel, Track Intermodal, Alex Ramos, Target, Don Taylor, Road One, and Jesse Whitfield of UPS. Now, these 17 leaders act as the steering committee for this flow initiative. And so I'm going to continue to watch it because what they do is they're taking uh purchase order information, anonymizing it, and watching kind of the predictability of where the flow of goods are going, right? Hence the name Freight Logistics Optimization Works, which is a creative and genius acronym of flow. So I'm going to continue to watch it. I'll keep bringing that information to you, but I wanted to highlight that they have announced new board members and who is going to be returning. All right, story number four. We witnessed another big announcement this week. Still think the chairmanship is the most exciting one, but this is exciting too. I don't want to minimize it. CMACGM group and infrastructure firm Stone Peak announced the launch of United Ports LLC, which is a joint venture to include a portfolio of 10 major terminals worldwide. Now, by partnering with Stone Peak, this is there's going to be an exchange of investment cash for a stake in these terminals. And CMACGM will keep full operational control, but they have to partner to help fund these efforts. So the assets involved, this is what I wanted to bring up essentially is the assets involved is we have three different terminals in the U.S. now that are going to be benefiting from this. We have LA Phoenix Marine Services, we have Port Liberty New York, and we have Port Liberty Bayonne, we have CSP Valencia in Spain, a few others in Spain, and then we also have terminals in Brazil, India, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Now I bring this up because you may recall in March 2025, we had the CEO of CMACGM, Rob Dolph Sade, stood in the Oval Office and pledged a$20 billion investment into the U.S. maritime economy. So the United Ports Deal is part of that promise in action, right? It's providing the funding engine to modernize American ports and create the jobs that are promised and the money and investment into the U.S. So I think that this is an exciting new stage, and I'll continue to watch all the terminals that they are uh investing in in the U.S. All right, story number five Polar Star's birthday rescue. So on January 17, 2026, so just about two weeks ago, the U.S. Coast Guard cutter, the Polar Star. And we've brought this up a few times because it's one of the very aging icebreaking fleet that the U.S. Coast Guard has. Now, this is an ice cutter, Polar Star, officially reached its 50th year of service. And what did it do during this 50th year of service? Now that's a that's an old vessel. It did what it was made for. It had a high-stakes rescue in the Antarctica area. On its 29th deployment for Operation Deep Freeze, the crew received a distress call from the luxury cruise ship Scenic Eclipse 2, which was stuck in thick ice in the Ross Sea. The Polish star fractured the ice around the vessel and was able to escort it into open water. Now, this vessel was commissioned in 1976. This ship can ram through ice up to 21 feet thick, but it is really our only active icebreaker. We we have a few other interests, but that's why these Coast Guard icebreaker commitments are so important because we are down to not very many icebreakers that are out there that are either active or in dry dock, getting fixed up, potentially a lot, potentially able to be reactivated. But we're we're not in a fantastic spot. And I I almost say we have a lot of opportunity to grow. And so I'm hopeful that this will continue to keep moving that conversation for why icebreakers are so important. I don't think Antarctica is the only reason, but we need to have these heavy icebreakers available because as the Arctic becomes more important, perhaps even the Antarctica becomes more important as we find ourselves more in these areas, we need to have a fleet that can support those efforts. All right, story number six. We got a lot of stories today, so I'm kind of moving quickly through them. I apologize that I can't go into as further depth as I normally do, but I hope that you found that the FMC in-depth section was important. Mariners, your credentialing process just entered the digital age. Thank goodness. This is something that the National Maritime Center has been working on. So the NMC is under the Coast Guard's control. Officially launched the ASAP portal, appropriately acronymed again, application submission and additional information portal. And what this does is it streamlines things, right? We went from where you have to, and I have my 5010 license, so I do go through renewal process. There's a lot of paper in a paper based industry. Notoriously, Maritime is a paper based industry, uh, which also needs to get up to speed on digitization, but we're getting there. But for the Merchant Mariner Credentials, now you can upload your Merchant Mariner credentials and medical certificates directly in. The portal. Now, this doesn't seem like it's a major thing, but it's it's it's available now. Why why wouldn't you be able to? But now we're up there, now we can do it. So no more black hole anxiety. You can actually see where your application stands. You don't just submit everything. I think this is a huge win for keeping our workforce on the water, but also encouraging and helping to facilitate more mariners to enter the field. It it really is a fun industry, and and I don't need to tell you guys that, but it's great. And now you can get your license even faster. And it doesn't have to be an unlimited, you can be at a 50-ton license. You can just work on party catamarans and get your license that way, as I did in the Great Lakes. All right, story number seven: Massachusetts Maritime Academy has secured a$5.8 million grant from the Department of Labor for a massive project called Nexies. It's a strategic mission to solve a massive shortage of skilled shipyard workers. And I love that the academies are getting in on this and really pushing forward. Mass Maritime, just a few minutes down the road from me, I love that this is happening. So it's a Finland connection. Mass Maritime is looking to the world leader in Arctic and specialty vessel construction, Finland. It is a four-year project creating a transatlantic training pipeline. Now, this is an immersive fellowship. So American instructors will travel to Finland to learn advanced modular construction and robotics, and they'll bring that curriculum back to the US to train a new generation of American shipbuilders at Bollinger Shipyards in Louisiana. And we are importing the best techniques into the world that we to, and this will hopefully and most certainly help rebuild our industrial base. Getting more specialty information and how the best of the best do it out there and bringing that information back to the US is incredible. I love that Mass Maritime Academy is leading on this. So congratulations on this fantastic grant. All right, story number eight. This is also a big issue, a big topic this week. All right, so maybe I'm not going to say the chairmanship is still one of my favorites, but this is right up there, too. The Michigan Maritime Strategy has been released. Now, you may you may know from a few of the things in my background, I am from Michigan originally, and so I love seeing a good Michigander push. This week, Governor Gretchen Gretchen Whitmer just released the first ever Michigan Maritime Strategy, and it is a masterclass in maritime strategy. This 10-year roadmap is designed to unlock economic growth in maritime while also keeping the long-term health of the Great Lakes in mind. Because, as you may or may not know, 21% of the world's fresh surface water is in the Great Lakes. Now, the Blue Economy Powerhouse Michigan ports handle 57 million tons of cargo annually, contributing 3.3 billion to the economy. This strategy treats that water as a marine highway, just as critical as I-75 running straight up the middle of the state. Now, what this project and what this maritime strategy does, and there's a lot more to it, and I'm going to just unfortunately just scan over it. I probably will do a deep dive on this as well. You recall that we did a little bit of a mention of the Washington State and Oregon shipbuilding plan that they released. So this Michigan Maritime Strategy is outlining six strategic pillars. They have 54 recommendations throughout the entire system, but probably I'll be diving into both of these. I'm loving the movement of states in really kind of assessing what industries, what commodities, what assets they have to help with the maritime dominance initiative that's happening federally, and basically how states can present their menu of what's available within that state. So what Michigan did here, like I said, is six strategic pillars, which include 54 recommendations within, but I'm just going to show you the six strategic pillars. Modernize and invest in intermodal infrastructure, such as cargo diversification, making sure ports can handle containers, not just bulk, salt, and stone, by improving rail and truck links. Now, I've said this for a while. I used to get kind of laughed at maybe 10, 15 years ago, but I would say, you know, in the port world, it feels like rail is the future, right? How funny that we go from this old west thought of rail, right? And over exaggerating on that. Rail is such a critical, critical element of ports, but there was a movement of ports to kind of get rid of the rail, right? As cities were building around these ports. And unfortunately, now we're going to need those rail. And so some of the cities and some of the older cities have to do bridge raising projects. I believe Port of Baltimore just worked with the Maryland Department of Transportation to help raise some of their old bridges from so that you can't just do a one-stack rail, but then you would do a double stack rail. There's other cities on the East Coast that also are kind of it, they're limited in their rail availability because of these old bridges that otherwise these containers would have to go under because it's so much more efficient to have a double stack than it is a single stack. So all of that to say, modernize and invest in intermodal infrastructure is the first strategic pillar. Number two, grow the manufacturing industry, building on the$50 million M3 initiative to make Michigan a hub for naval ship repair and ship and submarine component construction. Number three, the clean energy leap, accelerating the transition for the state's 63 ferries to hybrid or electric power to protect the lakes, workforce dominance being number four, a goal to train 5,000 new workers by 2030 through a dedicated maritime education initiative. Now you may or may not know, but I hope that you do know there's a Great Lakes Maritime Academy up in Traver City, Michigan, a fantastic academy. If you didn't know, now you know. All of their cadets that come out graduate with their unlimited license, but also they have their Great Lakes endorsement because they're getting their license partially through service on the Great Lakes. So that's part of that workforce dominance is working with and partnering with the academy that's already in the state, the Great Lakes Maritime Academy. Number five, innovation ecosystems, investing in maritime test zones for autonomous vessels and evaluated emerging tech. One of the best things about the Great Lakes is it's salt-free. So some of this testing, and I don't want to go too far into it because perhaps it's not that big of a deal, but the erosion that can happen in salt water doesn't happen in the Great Lakes because you are in freshwater. So the longevity of these vessels, so perhaps it might make it a wonderful spot for RD and emerging tech because you don't have to worry about having to wash it out every time. Just a thought. I don't know. That that's perhaps not in one of the uh the 54 recommendations, but it is innovation ecosystems and looking at evaluating emerging tech. And number six, sustainable revitalization, balancing commercial growth with the$11.7 billion recreational boating industry and public shoreline access. I really recommend that you go take a look at this Michigan Maritime Strategy. I think that it is a fantastic roadmap for how other states should also be evaluating what they have going in their own state. I think that we need to get the state scootin' right, because we need, if if we were to have federal funds come out and say, look, all right, we have a certain number of dollars for every state, not that it's gonna happen that way, but if it did, would the state be ready to receive those funds? I think that's the biggest thing that we need to make sure that the maritime interests that are state-based are ready for it. Because what's gonna happen, what could happen if you're not ready, is now you're getting a certain pile of cash for grant funds or whatever it is, and you're not really sure where to send it because you haven't really identified your priority list of what you do have available in the state. Be ready, right? We got to be ready. I love to see that Michigan is ready here. Look, this theme of the week was legacy and modernization, leadership installments, and the roadmap forward from the FMC's new bench to the$2.4 billion United Ports deal and Michigan's massive roadmap. I love this roadmap. We're seeing the infrastructure of action finally catching up. We're starting to get scootin', right? But finally catching up to the needs of the industry. Look, if you liked this episode, make sure that you go check out the maritimeprofessor.com for more plain language learning. I'm Lauren Vegan, and you've just listened to By Land and By C. We'll see you next time.