This is Planet Money from NPR.

Until a few years ago, Bjarney-Sesar Skinnerup always thought of his work as a ship pilot as straightforwardly good for the world.

In his small way, protecting his stretch of the Danish coastline from environmental and financial catastrophe.

His job, whether there is rain or shine or freezing Nordic sleet, is to suit up, get into a little boat and motor out into the Straits of

Denmark, the highly trafficked waters that connect the Baltic Sea to the rest of the world.

Our job is to bring ships through dangerous waters.

Bjarni will sidle up to, say, a giant cargo ship and scale a rope ladder, sometimes

20 or 30 feet long, up onto the deck.

And for a few hours, he'll take control of the ship and guide it safely through this busy

thoroughfare in the global economy.

His goal is to prevent the boat from hitting another ship or running a ground.

Are there any maritime nautical characters from literature of pop culture that you identify with strongly?

Are you more of like a Popeye guy or like a Captain Haddock type?

If I'm bad-timbered, I am most likely like Captain Haddock, but I don't have the same

kind of drinking problem as he has.

Captain Haddock is pretty constantly drunk in the Tin Tin Books. It is true. And it's sort of a

relief that Bjarnay doesn't drink that much,

because the Straits of Denmark can be treacherous if you don't know every sandbar and overflow

current as well as he does. Not to mention the hundreds of islands, dozens of bridges,

multiple ports, and ferries zooming all over the place. That is why so many of the big ships

passing through higher maritime pilots like him to jump on board.

Yeah, he's keeping track of the wind, the traffic, even how the sediment is shifting around underwater,

...