Maritime in America

This week, we're discussing Delayed Reporting, Uneven Enforcement, and Eerie Stories of the Sea. Join us every Friday to hear about the latest updates.

🎧 Listen on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. YouTube: https://bit.ly/44KVLjJ Spotify: https://spoti.fi /3YVY9Az Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3ShSBMV

Visit us on offshoremarine.org for more information about the Offshore Marine Service Association. #MaritimeinAmericaPodcast #OffshoreBriefing #Offshoreamerica #Offshoremaritime #MaritimeIndustry #USCG #Security #Policy

What does the maritime industry look like from every angle? On this episode of Maritime in America, co-hosts Aaron Smith, Ashley Smith, and Angelle Johnson sit down with Fallon Dominique, a maritime professional who has truly seen everything this industry has to offer.

Fallon is a Texas A&M Maritime graduate, a former third mate on lift boats, and a six-year Coast Guard Reserve veteran. She is also a current OMSA member, former NOSAC member, a shoreside HR and licensing professional, and the wife of a working mariner. From her career as seagoing mariner, to now working shoreside Fallon brings a unique perspective from her own career journey, and offers an honest look at life as a mariner's spouse: holding down the home front through hurricanes, missed birthdays, and births, and the communication habits that keep a family strong.

She shares why a career at sea can lead to a career ashore, why mariners who come into the office bring perspective no one else can, and how the industry has improved for women offshore since 2006 and what still needs to change.

Chapters

00:00 Intro and host takeaways

06:28 Meet Fallon Dominique

09:17 Starting out on lift boats

10:04 Coming ashore: a career beyond the vessel

15:21 Women in maritime and SASH requirements

20:09 How to bring more women offshore

23:21 Life as a mariner's spouse

32:15 HR vs. HSE

35:08 Recruiting the next generation and the cost of licensing

38:56 Untangling the credentialing maze

44:08 Should DP be added to the license?

47:49 Serving on NOSAC

54:17 Making Coast Guard systems work for mariners

🇺🇸 Subscribe to Maritime in America for more conversations with the people who keep American maritime moving.

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This week, we're discussing A Coalition's Letter to the President, NVIC 02-26, and Event Recaps. Join us every Friday to hear about the latest updates.

🎧 Listen on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. YouTube: https://bit.ly/44KVLjJ Spotify: https://spoti.fi /3YVY9Az Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3ShSBMV

Visit us on offshoremarine.org for more information about the Offshore Marine Service Association. #MaritimeinAmericaPodcast #OffshoreBriefing #Offshoreamerica #Offshoremaritime #MaritimeIndustry #MTS #MTSDPConference #NAVITA #USCG #KochBrothers #ForeignVessels

This week, we're discussing Reduction in Mariner Training Requirements and U.S.-China Port Fee Suspension Extension. Join us every Friday to hear about the latest updates.

🎧 Listen on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. YouTube: https://bit.ly/44KVLjJ Spotify: https://spoti.fi /3YVY9Az Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3ShSBMV

Visit us on offshoremarine.org for more information about the Offshore Marine Service Association. #MaritimeinAmericaPodcast #OffshoreBriefing #Offshoreamerica #Offshoremaritime #MaritimeIndustry #NMERPAC #ChineseVessels #China #Trump #USCG #JonesAct #training #credentialing #NAVITA # Regulatory

Otto Candies III, Chairman and CEO of Otto Candies LLC and one of OMSA's longest-serving board members, joins co-hosts of Maritime in America, Aaron Smith, Ashley Smith, and Angelle Johnson to talk about family legacy, integrity in business, and why the Jones Act remains the foundation of the American offshore industry.

Otto's grandfather started the company in Des Allemands, Louisiana in the early 1940s, hauling supplies for Humble Oil Company. More than 80 years later, the third and fourth generations of the Candies family are still building on that foundation. In this episode, Otto explains why so many offshore maritime companies make it to the third generation, how trust and relationships still drive the business, and why "cheaper" and "better value" are not the same thing.

Otto also discusses Otto Candies LLC's recent major investment in the U.S.-flag MPSV fleet, how lenders weigh the status of the Jones Act when financing vessels, the role of the Capital Construction Fund, and what the offshore wind industry needs to return: regulatory certainty.

CHAPTERS

0:00 Introduction

5:30 Meet Otto Candies III

6:20 Why maritime family businesses last for generations

10:05 From catfish fisherman to Humble Oil: how Otto Candies began

12:20 Relationships, integrity, and the intention behind a contract

15:50 Competitors working together through OMSA

16:15 Safety and technology offshore

20:15 How to decide when to adopt new technology

23:05 Innovation across generations

27:05 Doubling down on the U.S.-flag fleet

29:10 The Jones Act as the main pillar of the industry

31:45 Do policymakers understand the Jones Act?

34:05 Cheaper vs. better value

37:55 The Capital Construction Fund and vessel financing

41:15 The second coming of offshore wind

46:00 What's next: IMR, subsea, and the life cycle of the field

47:45 Otto's takeaways for the industry

Learn more about OMSA: https://offshoremarine.org/

#JonesAct #AmericanMariners #OMSA

This week, we're discussing IMO Regulations, Rigs to Reefs, and Historical Milestones. Join us every Friday to hear about the latest updates.

🎧 Listen on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. YouTube: https://bit.ly/44KVLjJ Spotify: https://spoti.fi /3YVY9Az Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3ShSBMV

Visit us on offshoremarine.org for more information about the Offshore Marine Service Association. #MaritimeinAmericaPodcast #OffshoreBriefing #Offshoreamerica #Offshoremaritime #MaritimeIndustry #IMO #JonesAct #offshoreindustry #maritimehistory #regulations #shipping #DollyParton #maritimeinnovation

This week, we're discussing Honoring Robert Hebert, Waiver Requests, Foreign-flagged Cybersecurity. Join us every Friday to hear about the latest updates.

🎧 Listen on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. YouTube: https://bit.ly/44KVLjJ Spotify: https://spoti.fi /3YVY9Az Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3ShSBMV

Visit us on offshoremarine.org for more information about the Offshore Marine Service Association. #MaritimeinAmericaPodcast #OffshoreBriefing #Offshoreamerica #Offshoremaritime #MaritimeIndustry

This week, we're discussing Maritime Security Program, MARAD Title XI, and Espionage. Join us every Friday to hear about the latest updates.

🎧 Listen on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. YouTube: https://bit.ly/44KVLjJ Spotify: https://spoti.fi /3YVY9Az Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3ShSBMV

Visit us on offshoremarine.org for more information about the Offshore Marine Service Association. #MaritimeinAmericaPodcast #OffshoreBriefing #Offshoreamerica #Offshoremaritime #MaritimeIndustry

This week on Maritime in America, co-hosts Aaron Smith, Ashley Smith, and Angelle Johnson are joined by two of the maritime industry's sharpest advocates: Matt Paxton, President of the Shipbuilders Council of America (SCA), and Paula Zorensky, SCA's Vice President.

If OMSA represents the vessel owners, SCA represents the shipyards, and this conversation lays out why the two halves of this industry can't be separated. Matt and Paula pull back the curtain on how a trade association actually works in Washington, from Matt's years on the Senate Commerce Committee writing Coast Guard authorization bills, to Paula's deep dive into appropriations and the CBP letter ruling process most people have never heard of but should.

Topics covered:

• How a Senate Commerce Committee staffer actually gets a bill done
• Why shipbuilding capacity is a "chicken and egg" problem, not a shipyard problem
• The real, on-the-ground impact of Jones Act waivers on tankers, mariners, and investment
• Why military and commercial shipbuilding are one industrial base, not two separate worlds
• The Maritime Action Plan, the Ships for America Act, and what "whole of government" actually means for this industry
• How SCA and OMSA work together (and why that partnership matters more than ever)

This is a conversation for anyone who wants to understand what's actually behind the headlines about American shipbuilding, and why the decisions being made today will shape the industry in 2030 and beyond.

🎧 Subscribe for more conversations with the leaders and professionals shaping maritime in America.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@offshoreamerica/podcasts

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Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3ShSBMV

🔗 Learn more about the Shipbuilders Council of America: https://shipbuildersusa.org/

🔗 Learn more about OMSA: https://offshoremarine.org/

This week, we're discussing Election Predictions, MSIB 04-26, and Updates. Join us every Friday to hear about the latest updates.

🎧 Listen on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. YouTube: https://bit.ly/44KVLjJ Spotify: https://spoti.fi /3YVY9Az Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3ShSBMV

Visit us on offshoremarine.org for more information about the Offshore Marine Service Association. #MaritimeinAmericaPodcast #OffshoreBriefing #Offshoreamerica #Offshoremaritime #MaritimeIndustry #election #predictions #CoastGuard #USCG #NMC #Updates #Congress #regulatory