Claims that Jones Act waivers displace U.S. mariners are contradicted by the data. Every Jones Act–compliant tanker is currently active — underway, in port, or in scheduled maintenance. Waivers fill demand the fleet cannot physically meet.
Each marker represents one Jones Act tanker. Green markers are ships actively underway; blue are in port with a recent port call; gold are in port with a listed destination; purple are in scheduled drydock or maintenance. Click any ship for details.
The Jones Act (46 U.S.C. §55102) requires that cargo moving between U.S. ports be carried on vessels that are U.S.-built, U.S.-flagged, and U.S.-crewed. The domestic tanker fleet — 56 ships — is the only legal means of moving oil and refined products between American ports by sea.
The fleet map above documents that at any given snapshot, every Jones Act tanker is occupied. Those who claim that waivers displace Jones Act ships must contend with a basic question: which ships? There is no reserve capacity sitting idle waiting to be displaced.
Waivers represent supplemental trade, not displacement. The argument that waivers harm U.S. mariners requires idle Jones Act ships. The data show there are none.