Kenshiro Yanai, left, and Captain Dave Johansen of the Western Pacific Maritime Academy pose for a photo.
Tristan Manglona
KENSHIRO Yanai and Tristan Manglona are the first two local program participants to be hired as merchant mariners aboard international vessels, according to the Western Pacific Maritime Academy.
Yanai, 19, left for work on Aug. 26 to sail aboard a product tanker that will go around the Western Pacific.
Manglona, 18, will be on a separate cargo ship, likewise sailing in international waters. He left Saipan on Aug. 28.
Yanai and Manglona trained with WPMA to earn their “merchant mariners credential, transportation worker identification credential card, standards of training and certification of watchkeeping basic training, and vessel personnel with designated security duties endorsements.”
Their training was covered by grant funds through the Public School System. At the time, Yanai was a student of Kagman High School while Manglona was a Da’ok Academy student.
Yanai said he will be sailing for six months while Manglona told Variety he will be sailing between four and six months.
Each will earn around $5,000 a month as general vessel assistants, or GVAs.
Captain David Johansen of WPMA said a GVA is an entry-level position with Manglona and Yanai doing work in the engine, steward, and deck departments.
“This is kind of where they want everyone to start in the merchant marines because now you get to see there’s the engine, there’s the deck, and here’s the galley,” Johansen said of the GVA position.
Yanai and Manglona said they are excited and nervous.
“This is my first time flying out and also I’ll be alone,” Yanai said. “I’ll try to be in touch with a lot of people and hope for guidance along the way because it’s so unfamiliar to me out there. I’ve heard stories about how it is at night where it’s completely dark. You just have to focus on the ship and be aware. And also, everything is in the ship so if there’s an emergency there are specially trained individuals on the ship to get that done. I’m just trying to learn a lot.”
For his part, Manglona said: “I feel excited but also nervous at the same time as this is all new to me. I’ve never been out in the world before and stepping into the next part of my life is really nerve-racking.”
Johansen said across the United States, there are “severe” workforce shortages in the maritime industry. Johansen said the Seafarer’s International Union, which advocates for mariners in America, was not able to fill positions on the ship Yanai is about to board, despite reaching out to 20 union halls across the nation.
“The jobs are out there. [The Seafarer’s International Union] is really scrambling to get people,” Johansen said, adding that the $5,000 monthly salary the young men will earn is “ordinary pay” that could grow with any overtime work they will perform while aboard the ship. Yanai and Manglona can earn higher wages as they progress through their career, Johansen said.
He added that they want local mariners to be able to find work via the SIU, but there are currently no union representatives on island. He said this situation could change, which would make it easier for more locals to find work aboard ships.
“The idea is to go through the union. We want to do that, but we don’t have the funding to send our people to the [U.S. mainland]. We do have the funding to bring a union member here, a patrolman. … That would be cost-effective and that would work for the union,” Johansen said.
