It would help if Pete could think straight. Get a roomful of businessmen discussing the problem, and there'll emerge many possible solutions. With 100 ships backed up at a California port waiting to unload, the problem clearly isn't Covid.
My suggestion is sending Coast Guard ships into the waters offshore of the ports, inventorying the details of the ships that are waiting to unload. Then start charging hefty ship waiting fees. They get their ships out of there, or it will start costing them serious money. It won't matter if they unload them at port, or travel back to China. Pretty soon people will find the extra money necessary to pay the overtime and weekend wages of the dock workers to get freight unloaded.