[QUOTE=empiresix;154309]Thanks! 2nd mate paper work is in and begging the office for my TOAR[/QUOTE]
At you license level, you need 30 days as an “observer” on tugs. If you can get the TOAR at the same time great. If not, you can take a short TOAR course at Diamond Marine Services in New York. It doesn’t matter what order you get it in, so you could take the TOAR course first, which would probably make it easier to get the 30 days of observer time.
Even though the USCG does not require it, some of the tug companies, especially the ones operating ATBs prefer: academy grads, second mate unlimited, and Master 1600, along with the STCW course that you must already have.
If you interested in ATBs, it would help to take a Tankships DL course.
I wouldn’t say that there is any shortage of tugboat mates, but there may be a shortage of good mates, at least in some areas.