Not sure to even begin to speculate, have seen more than a few ships depart the anchorage with no responsible awareness of traffic around them. , and at the same time, fishing/shrimping trawlers with the same lack of attention. Sad for all involved.
Old Salt Blog has a post on this:
The ship did have a pilot on board. It was in the fog.
I come through there a couple times. Don’t know what happened here but I’ve seen fishing vessels with nets out cross very close ahead of ships in the channel near the jetties.
Several years ago, I witnessed a fishing boat similar to the one involved in this accident sitting stationary in the same vicinity across the center of the inner bar channel, bow facing north. An outbound ship hailed him on the VHF and repeated the danger signal several times to no effect. The ship’s pilot was able to steer around him only by encroaching on the B anchorage area. The fishing vessel didn’t get underway until the ship had rejoined the channel and was well past him. We held our breath watching it unfold.
It doesn’t help that oftentimes the fishing boat crew speaks no English, or is high and passed out.