While the ports around Tampa Bay remain commercial competitors, a new mutual aid pact formalizes a level of cooperation in times of need. The Manatee County Port Authority on Thursday voted to approve an interlock agreement with Port Tampa Bay and the Port of St. Petersburg that allows for the two to assist one another both with training and during emergencies. “We share one common bay,” says David St. Pierre, Port Manatee director of seaport security. “We needed a mechanism where we could deliver mutual exchange of aid and resources.” 

The 25-year agreement between the three ports promises support in terms of supplemental equipment, supplies, docks, mooring areas, facilities and other assets, pursuant to the Florida Interlock Cooperation Act. It marks the odd relationship between publicly backed ports that compete for private sector business around Tampa Bay. St. Pierre notes that the ports all share certain geographic resources, not just the bay itself but the channel leading every vessel from freighters to cruise ships into the waters. “The seaports have always had a collaborative relationship,” he says. “We participate in committees and agencies that help coordinate these type of things, but we have never had that cooperative pact.” 

Port Manatee, which boasts 10 40-foot draft berths, can serve as a diversion point should a problem occur with either other port, and vice versa. It boasts the closest proximity of any US port to both the Panama Canal and to the Port of Mariel in Cuba. The port is responsible for an annual $2.3 billion in annual economic impact for the region and employs 24,000 jobs.

Of course, St. Pierre notes than in major emergencies such as hurricanes, all vessels may be diverted away from Tampa Bay altogether, but there can be smaller emergencies, even just obstruction of movement through the waterways by other vessels, that could require ships to be diverted into Port Manatee or toward one of the other locales.