18
FOGHORN
Tony Heeter, operations manager at Blue & Gold Fleet in 
San Francisco, was recognized at the PVA Annual Con-
vention at MariTrends 2026 with the PVA Roger Murphy 
National Marine Safety Award for his pivotal role in de-
veloping initiatives to help mitigate the risk of vessel whale 
strikes the San Francisco Bay. The Roger Murphy National 
Marine Safety Award is given annually to a PVA member 
employee for work done contributing to the overall safety of 
their organization and the passenger vessel industry. From 
adjustments of ferry protocol lanes to additional watch-
standers to shared communication of whale sightings, the 
new procedures being adopted throughout the Bay enhance 
safety for both marine life and maritime operations. 
As a vice chair of the Harbor Safety Committee of the 
San Francisco Bay Region (HSC SF) and part of its Ferry 
Operations Subcommittee, Heeter has had the opportu-
nity to collaborate with people from throughout the local 
marine industry including tug operators, members of the 
San Francisco Bar Pilots, and the Marine Mammal Center. 
Across these varied groups, participants realized they had 
common problems that they could band together to ad-
dress, one being the growing number of whales in the Bay. 
Outdated ferry protocol lanes were identified as an area 
where improvements could be made, along with updating 
the guidelines for them. Ferry routes are usually routine 
with vessels traveling the same routes on every trip. Proto-
col lanes are these plotted courses that ferries are expected 
to use. Seen on a chart as a dotted line, they indicate where 
other mariners, from vessel captains to kayakers, can ex-
pect to see ferries.
The team determined that adding lanes would be a way to 
divert traffic when whales were present in a particular pro-
tocol lane. They tried it out for a while and found that the 
addition helped their whale strike mitigation plan because 
it gave them more options. One of the new protocol lanes 
happened to be in shallow waters where there wasn’t much 
whale activity which was a plus. 
Heeter explained that typically the ferries don’t travel on 
reciprocal courses and in the San Francisco Bay, they have 
upbound and downbound lanes. A vessel may travel in one 
lane on the way to San Francisco and in another lane on 
the way to Vallejo, for example. Reconsidering this and 
making lanes bidirectional has been one of the revisions to 
the protocol lanes, allowing vessels to avoid a lane where 
whales have been spotted. As Heeter noted, “If you can use 
it in either direction and there’s no whale over there, why 
not go over there and use it?”
Communication of whale sightings has been rethought, 
and sightings are now shared on an open channel. Histor-
ically, channel 14 was used only for traffic purposes. The 
HSC SF worked with vessel traffic service (VTS) and, 
deeming that identifying whale locations was imperative to 
navigation, new procedures were adopted allowing opera-
tors to use channel 14 to share whale sightings. Operators 
report the location, direction of travel, and, if they can, the 
FOGHORN FOCUS
From left; Blue & Gold Fleet President Patrick Murphy 
and Operations Manager Tony Heeter at the PVA Annual 
Convention at MariTrends 2026
PHOTOS: SARAH FERRETTI

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