Spend enough time on Dallas Road in Victoria, B.C., and you’ll see it: A small yellow vessel sailing out to meet the hulking bulk carriers, container ships, cruise ships and car carriers that ply the Salish Sea.
Whether during the calm, warm days of a B.C. summer, or the cold, rain-whipped nights of a coastal winter storm, the Pacific Guardian makes the trip. It has a crucial mission: to deliver ship pilots to the vessels that transit in and out from the Pacific.
The ship pilot’s job is to board vessels travelling the immense coast of the province, helping them to safely navigate unfamiliar waters and busy ports.
Ship pilots are professional mariners with decades of experience on the water. While ship captains and crew know their own vessel, they are less familiar with local waterways, tides, coastlines, and ports.
At more than 25,000 kilometres, the BC coastline is the largest pilotage district in the world. The BC Coast Pilots and PPA are responsible for territory from the southern tip of Vancouver Island to the southern tip of Alaska, as well as the length of the Fraser River.
Having found a mysterious killer of sea stars, B.C. scientists see a way to stop it
In 2025, more than 140 pilots – along with launch captains, deckhands, dispatchers, and Talon Helicopter crews – responded to 15,200 ship assignments.
At the Vancouver South Terminal, a screen at Talon Helicopter shows weather reports, vessel identification information and outbound ship traffic along the coast.
Ship pilots are some of the most skilled and knowledgeable mariners on the water.
“They need between 700 and 1,000 days at sea on the BC coast [as] the prerequisites to entry,” explained John Wilson, CEO of the PPA.
“Then they do a very comprehensive examination on navigation chart knowledge of the coast. That normally takes them a year or two of ... almost full-time preparation. If they’re successful on the exam, then they have an oral board [exam] that’s between four and five hours in length.”
It takes another seven years to become an unrestricted pilot, able to navigate the largest of vessels.
Pilot Michel Drouin speaks to the challenges of the job.
“No two [ship] bridges are alike. You must not let things bother you too much, just go along with it.”
Mr. Drouin is among the most experienced BC Coast pilots, and the only BC Coast pilot to navigate a submarine, the HMAS Collins, through Seymour Narrows, a notoriously challenging and treacherous stretch of water between Vancouver Island and the mainland.
Mr. Drouin’s deep knowledge of the ports, tides, and corners of the coast are the hallmark of the skill set these ship pilots bring to shipping traffic around British Columbia.
