Russia can be expected to exact a steep price in transit fees and pilotage.

ECONOMIST: Banyan

Anyway, they add, pilotage rates do not affect a shipowner's decision about using a port.

ECONOMIST: The other Texas

The pilots should remember that it was high pilotage rates on the Mississippi in the 1870s that first brought big business to Texas's ports.

ECONOMIST: The other Texas

One such marine pilotage company, Australian Reef Pilots, has been helping ships safely navigate the declared mandatory pilotage areas of the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait for more than a century.

FORBES: Providing Safe Passage: For Business And For The Great Barrier Reef

Port commissioners (local grandees elected or appointed to the office) have the power to revoke a pilot's commission for negligence and to refuse increases in pilotage rates and are often, pilots say, woefully ignorant.

ECONOMIST: The other Texas