Section 33-4A-17
Register of applicants for apprenticeship; seniority; statutory requirements.
(a) In order to prevent delays in the apprenticeship and branching of bar pilots, the commission, when necessary, shall maintain a register of applicants containing no more than nine applicants for apprenticeship who must be not less than 21 years of age.
(b) All pending and future applicants for apprenticeship from the register of applicants shall be considered by the commission for apprenticeship in order of their seniority as determined by the commission from time to time at its sole discretion, which shall be based upon each applicant's professionalism, maturity and readiness, the date of completion of all requirements to be a bar pilot except apprenticeship, application to be a pilot, passage of the commission's written examination and branch, and the compliance with subsections (c) and (d).
(c) No person may commence an apprenticeship unless the commission finds that the applicant meets all statutory requirements for apprenticeship required by subsection (b) and there is a need for an apprentice.
(d) In order to complete the apprenticeship, an apprentice shall make, to the satisfaction of the commission, at least 100 round trips with a branched pilot on vessels in Mobile Bay which are subject to the statutory requirement of compulsory pilotage.
(Act 2019-162, §17.)