California Apparel News

On a clear day, Capt. Manny Aschemeyer and his crew have a sweeping view of the nation’s busiest port complex and a 180-degree vista of the blue-gray Pacific Ocean down below.

From his perch atop Point Fermin in San Pedro, Calif., Aschemeyer is the guiding force and executive director of the Southern California Marine Exchange, a nonprofit organization that serves, basically, as the maritime equivalent of air traffic controllers for the shipping industry at the combined ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Using sophisticated computer technology, the Marine Exchange charts the comings and goings of about 27,000 vessels a year, including the cargo container ships carrying apparel and electronics and cars from Asia and points beyond.

Its services were vital when an overflow of ships arrived in 2004, creating the effect of a crowded parking lot with more than 90 ships either docked at berths or anchored beyond the harbor breakwater. For months, Aschemeyer and his staff were busy creating temporary anchoring spots for the cargoladen ships that were seen floating as far away as off the coast of Huntington Beach, Calif., sending residents into a tizzy about whether the ships were flushing their toilets in the ocean and with ship crews wondering where to catch their water taxis to get to shore.

The Marine Exchange received many of those calls—from residents, shipping companies, harbor executives, freight forwarders and the press. Its staff didn’t mince words. They sent out detailed e-mails noting how many ships were being diverted to Oakland, Calif., or to other ports on the West Coast. They talked about the long delays to unload cargo.

“We tell it like it is,” said Aschemeyer, a forthright individual whose veracity is rarely questioned. The same goes for his second in command, Capt. Dick McKenna, the deputy executive director, who arrived at the Marine Exchange the same year as Aschemeyer—1993.

With the prime shipping season starting in July and lasting until October, everyone is wondering whether there will be a repeat of 2004. But the two men—given to frank, concise explanations— believe this year’s shipping season will be smooth sailing at the two ports, even though vessel traffic was up 6 percent during the first six months of 2006 compared with last year.

But then again, the shipping season hasn’t been exactly normal in the last few years. “We’re not really sure what the peak season is now,” McKenna said. “The valleys are filling in.”

Sea salts

Between them, Aschemeyer and McKenna have more than 80 years of maritime experience.

Aschemeyer, 64, graduated from the California Maritime Academy in Vallejo, Calif., and then spent 10 years sailing on American-flag merchant ships. Later, he worked for various shipping companies and one of the biggest terminal operators in the country, Stevedoring Services of America.

McKenna, also 64, is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., and was the admiral’s chief of staff at the Long Beach Naval Station before he retired and joined Aschemeyer at the Marine Exchange.

“Dick has a strong military background, and I have a history of maritime contacts, which keeps us connected to our constituents,” said Aschemeyer, always dressed in a crisp shirt and tie.

Things were a little different when the two signed on for their new jobs. The Marine Exchange was located in a warehouse at the Port of Los Angeles. It and the Port of Long Beach were busy then, but nothing compared with today’s cargo traffic, which is growing by 10 to 25 percent a year at the two ports.

When the two men arrived 13 years ago, the Marine Exchange’s budget was a mere $500,000, and only eight people were employed there. Now, the budget for the nonprofit—which works in conjunction with the U.S. Coast Guard—is $2.6 million, which comes from user fees from the shipping industry. And there are 26 employees: 19 civilians and seven Coast Guard staffers.

The biggest leap for the Marine Exchange has been the way vessel traffic is charted. Before, it was tracked on 3-by-5-inch cards tucked into rotating wooden turnstiles that noted if the vessel was approaching the port, in port or leaving. This information was disseminated to the surrounding maritime industry so tugboat pilots knew when to be ready to guide a ship to port, when longshoremen should show up for work and when cargo would be available to importers. The Marine Exchange still has 1,000 of these cards, which are mini-biographies of each vessel. But the system was chaotic.

“Before, it was a free-for-all,” Aschemeyer said, noting that ships would race one another to arrive at port first, because it was on a first-come, first-served basis.

No one thought there needed to be a sophisticated tracking system until the Exxon Valdez tanker ship hit a reef in Prince William Sound in Alaska in 1989, spilling 11 million to 30 million gallons of crude oil. That’s when the Marine Exchange and the Coast Guard starting looking at a more sophisticated computer system that would have the capability of tracking the movement of each vessel on a computer screen, with the help of radar and transponders.

In 1994, they launched the Vessel Tracking System, which uses state-of-the-art radar and electronic tracking and processing. With this system, the Marine Exchange monitors vessels’ speed 20 miles beyond the ports. Ship movements are shown on computer screens on the top deck of the organization’s building, which is atop a World War II bunker.

E-mail madness

But Aschemeyer and McKenna are more than just vessel trackers and maritime parking lot attendants. They are the glue that holds much of the local shipping community together.

That’s because Aschemeyer is probably best known for his “Manny grams,” which evolved from the 2004 port-area congestion that kept ships from being unloaded for up to one week. Aschemeyer and his crew were getting so many calls about the situation that he decided to start sending out e-mail messages updating the status of ships. Now he sends nearly a dozen e-mails a day, broadcast to a wide circle of industry people and friends around the ports. They vary from news of retirements, shipping articles and meeting announcements to power quotes of the day, observations on life and holiday greetings.

“He’s a good bridge to all sectors of the community,” said Patty Senecal, vice president at Transport Express, a Los Angeles–area trucking company that services the ports. “He does a lot of outreach, which is good to keep the industry moving forward and in sync with what is happening.”

Enrico Salvo, founder of Carmichael International Service, a Los Angeles customs broker and freight forwarder, has known Aschemeyer for 20 years. They worked in the merchant marines for 10 years and have served on various industry committees together. “He’s a great guy that you can depend on,” Salvo said. “That’s the way they used to make them. It’s refreshing that a man like Manny hasn’t changed.”

Even though Aschemeyer and McKenna are white-haired and have been in the business for years, they aren’t planning to retire soon. They enjoy their jobs too much. “Even though we’re both in our 60s,” McKenna said, “we’re not going anywhere in a hurry.”