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© westwindgraphics/Adobe Stock used as safe harbors, although never formally designated as such. In fact, reports of unauthorized vessel ‘park- ing’ are what started this complex mix of issues. In 2015, in response to those reports, CG Section New York, issued a mariners’ Bulletin reminding captains that anchorage is only allowed in au- thorized, federally designated locations.

That Bulletin prompted a January, 2016, request from The Maritime As- sociation of the Port of New York/New

Jersey Tug & Barge Committee, the

Hudson River Port Pilot’s Association and the American Waterways Opera- tors (AWO). The appeal: we need ad- ditional anchorage grounds, since just one exists within the 109 nautical miles from

Yonkers to the Port of Albany. Mariners suggested the customary anchorage sites already in use: 10 sites, providing for up to 43 vessels. The Coast Guard carried these suggestions forward.

For mariners, this was about safety, for crews and vessels and, indeed, the river itself. For critics, the CG’s pro- posal was seen as a cave-in, allowing behind the scenes self-interest to risk an environmental tipping-point in con