By Land and By Sea

A $45.6 million award at the Federal Maritime Commission sounds like the whole story until the losing side walks into federal court and starts arguing about the Constitution. We take you from a nuts-and-bolts ocean shipping fight over minimum quantity commitments and service contract performance to a much bigger question: how much authority should the FMC have to decide Shipping Act disputes through administrative law judges, and a...

A $500 bill shouldn’t be able to move markets, but that’s exactly why we wanted to unpack the Evergreen detention case and the DC Circuit’s latest word on the FMC’s incentive principle. We walk through the real-world question hiding inside a tiny invoice: if a terminal is closed for a holiday weekend and the gates are literally shut, can detention charges still be “reasonable” under the Shipping Act? I break down how the Federal Ma...

The Coast Guard is still standing the watch, launching rescues, protecting ports, and keeping maritime commerce moving, but the pay story behind the uniform is far messier than most people realize. When a partial government shutdown hits the Department of Homeland Security, the Coast Guard gets pulled into a funding gap that creates real stress for families and real risk for operational readiness. I wanted more than surface-level c...

Coast Guard funding shouldn’t be a footnote, yet the consequences are landing squarely on mariners, ports, and the companies trying to keep ships moving. We break down what a continued government funding lapse means in real operational terms, including why the National Maritime Center and Regional Exam Centers being closed turns into delayed merchant mariner credentials, canceled exams, and a backlog that will haunt the maritime wo...

Cargo drives fleets. Fleets sustain mariners. And if we’re serious about maritime dominance, commercial cargo has to be part of the strategy. This week I wanted to connect a few threads that illustrate how the day-to-day mechanics of ocean shipping and the long-term future of the U.S. maritime system are unfolding at the same time.

I start with the D.C. Circuit decision in World Shipping Council v. Federal Maritime Commission, which...

Emergency fees. Geopolitical chokepoints. Antitrust guardrails. Funding gaps that quietly slow the Coast Guard. Maritime policy isn’t moving in one lane right now, and I wanted to connect the dots while the industry is trying to keep cargo moving.

I start with the Strait of Hormuz and the wave of emergency fuel surcharges tied to rising bunker costs and operational risk. Even when a crisis feels like pure force majeure ter...

Port terminals are the one place where global ocean trade physically becomes the U.S. economy and that handoff is far more fragile, expensive, and policy-driven than most people realize. I’m joined by Matt Leech, President and CEO of Ports America, to talk through what actually happens from hook to gate and why terminals sit at the center of maritime strength, infrastructure investment, and supply chain resilience.

We star...

A leadership shift at the Federal Maritime Commission can change how every container moves and how every consumer pays. We sit down with Chair Laura DeBella for a candid, fast-paced tour of her path from real estate and rural economic development to port director, harbor pilot advocate during the cruise shutdown, Florida’s Secretary of Commerce, and now head of the nation’s ocean shipping competition authority.

Laura share...

A 41-page Maritime Action Plan just reframed the future of U.S. shipping, and we dove in the moment it dropped. Lauren welcomes shipbuilding specialist Caitlin Hardy to unpack what’s real, what’s next, and where the biggest leverage points are—from yard financing and mariner pipelines to cargo policy, OEM localization, and Arctic ambitions.

We start with the four pillars and why incentives may finally align shipyards, oper...

Rates may be easing, but the real story is reliability. We open with a change at the Port of New York and New Jersey, where a long-running absenteeism problem finally meets stricter rules—small news on the surface, big implications for crane productivity, truck turns, and vessel planning. Predictable people make predictable ports, and that consistency is the backbone of schedule integrity shippers depend on.

From there, we...

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 mov...

Cargo shouldn’t pick ports based on loopholes. We unpack why a long-ignored gap in the harbor maintenance fee has pushed high-value containers toward Canada and Mexico, and how a renewed push from the Federal Maritime Commission is putting Section 6 of last year’s executive order back on the table. You’ll hear a clear breakdown of what the proposal aims to do—require foreign-origin cargo that first hits North America by vessel to p...

Headlines move cargo now. The FMC has reopened its probe into Spain’s reported port access denials and just raised MSC’s civil penalties to $22.6M, calling months of reefer overcharges a “practice,” not a glitch. We break down what this data‑driven era means for ocean carriers, BCOs, and anyone auditing detention and demurrage, then shift to the Pacific Northwest’s shipbuilding playbook, where serial production, robotics, and grid ...

Ocean shipping conversations often blur the line between alliances and consolidation. This episode breaks down how carrier alliances function in practice, why vessel sharing can improve routing and efficiency, and how ownership changes raise very different competition concerns. Using the ongoing discussion around ZIM as context, we connect market structure, port leadership transitions, and regulatory timing to real-world supply-cha...

🚢 A special By Land and By Sea Podcast episode — and a bittersweet moment in maritime leadership

This week, I had the privilege of sitting down with MARIO CORDERO, who will be retiring this month after leading the Port of Long Beach through some of the most consequential years in supply chain history.

And just this week, the Port announced that Dr. Noel Hacegaba will step in as the next CEO — marking the end of one chapter and the b...

Big policy moves rarely arrive one at a time. We dig into a trio of shifts changing how shippers, carriers, and NVOCCs plan: the FMC’s latest civil penalty settlements, early signs of a safer Suez Canal, and a targeted court decision that trims—but doesn’t topple—the detention and demurrage billing rule. Each story stands on its own, but together they point to a strategic truth: regulatory literacy is becoming a real advantage.

From Buzzards Bay to Beijing — this week was all about maritime strategy in motion.

Lauren recaps highlights from the Second Annual Massachusetts Maritime Strategy Conference, where federal and state leaders worked to align the Commonwealth with other states developing maritime strategies. From workforce pipelines to new ideas like a State House Office of Maritime Affairs, momentum is building.

She also breaks down today’s USTR deadl...

Fresh off the Senate’s Sea Change: Reviving Commercial Shipbuilding hearing this week, Dr. Sal Mercogliano joins us to share everything he didn’t get to say on the record. We unpack his “Ships for America” warning, his proposal for a Maritime Reserves program, and what he hopes to see in the upcoming Maritime Action Plan due November 5. Then we turn to China’s unexpected restraint and what the one-year pause on Section 301 port fee...

Senate hearings meet Arctic geopolitics. This week’s episode breaks down how U.S. maritime nominees outlined plans to rebuild industrial strength and restore competitiveness—while Russia and China formalized their Northern Sea Route partnership, raising questions about access, influence, and the future of global chokepoints.  

Expanded Description:
In this episode of By Land and By Sea, Lauren unpacks two developments shaping t...