The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation houses two boards that oversee harbor pilots. The Board of Pilot Commissioners licenses and regulates harbor pilots who operate as independent contractors within their local associations. The Pilotage Rate Review Board oversees requests for rate increases to ensure that rates are fair, just, and reasonable.

The Legislature could consider several options for modifying Florida's current harbor pilot regulatory and rate-setting systems, including

• maintaining the current system, but making changes to address concerns about foreign ships that frequent Florida ports and regulatory and rate-setting consistency, and
• implementing an alternative regulatory or rate-setting process similar to that used by other states or by the federal government.