As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. The Port of Tacoma and Tacoma Public Schools broke ground January 8 on the 20-acre Port Maritime Center project. 

The Port Maritime Center campus will be built on Port-owned land across from downtown Tacoma. It will include a new Port business office and Tacoma Public Schools’ Maritime|253 skills center.  

Maritime|253 will provide career and technical education to junior and senior-level high school students from across Pierce County, bringing opportunities to more members of the community and helping fill a growing need for workers in the trades and the maritime industry. 

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. Before the Pacific Marine Expo opened in late November, WorkBoat visited with Snow & Company, a Seattle-based shipyard located on the Lake Washington Ship Canal off Puget Sound’s Shishole Bay. Shipyard president Brett Snow provided an update on the company’s projects during a tour of the facilities. The company is currently building 30’x15’x6’ Workboat Medium vessels for the Navy, wrapping up an initial 23-boat order, with an expected completion date of early 2025. Hull number 21 was under construction during the visit. That contract has grown to a $53,934,225 FFP IDIQ contract to procure up to 53 of the vessels. 

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. Here’s what the marine industry’s top marketers are thinking about as we head into the new year. For 2025, amid emerging technologies and rapidly evolving platforms, I thought it would be a good idea to get an accurate gauge of current attitudes, priorities and areas of focus within the marine marketing community. I reached out to the Marine Marketers of America’s newly elected president, Alisdair Martin, and asked to create a membership survey.

This win-win partnership provided key insider intelligence for this column to benefit the industry and its marketing community at large, while giving the MMA’s leadership team firsthand insight into membership interests.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. A U.S Navy submarine that played a central role in World War II is scheduled for dry docking for preservation works in order to continue attracting visitors as a historic museum boat. The Wisconsin Maritime Museum (WMM), the custodian of USS Cobia, is seeking to raise $1.5 million for comprehensive inspection and essential preventative maintenance at Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding in Wisconsin. 

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. Vigor Marine LLC, Portland, Oregon, has been awarded a $55,881,631 firm-fixed-price contract for the FY 2005 Docking Selected Restricted Availability (DSRA) maintenance, modernization, and repair of USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10). The scope of the LCS 10 award includes all labor, supervision, equipment, production, testing, facilities, and quality assurance necessary to prepare for and accomplish the Chief of Naval Operations Availability for critical maintenance, modernization, and repair programs.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. In a video interview, Yamaha president Ben Speciale talks about macroeconomic headwinds, bringing new boaters into the fold and sustainable fuels. The video series is sponsored by Garmin.

Many of you reading this may already be familiar with my background in Scouting. In 1992, as a young teenage girl, I was fortunate to be introduced to Sea Scouts and the numerous opportunities it presented. I became a member of the Sea Scout Ship Genesis, which had a rich history, having been established shortly after girls were permitted in Sea Scouting in the 1970s. Our fleet did not include any mixed-gender ships, leading to heightened competition on various levels. At 14 years old, I quickly learned to refrain from requesting or accepting assistance from boys. Our leadership would reprimand us if they suspected we allowed a boy to help! While this may seem extreme decades later, the confidence and empowerment instilled in many young girls through these practices is something we are missing in today’s society. I never felt inadequate, weak, or incapable. Which is very different than how most young girls feel today.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. In a move to support its workforce, Fincantieri Marinette Marine (FMM), Marinette, Wis., is providing eligible employees with a $5,000 tax-free benefit for childcare or dependent family member care in 2025.

Recognizing the burden of rising childcare costs, says the company, FMM employees highlighted this concern in annual surveys. After consulting with the Navy, company leadership decided to implement a program to assist families with dependent care expenses as well. Each eligible family will receive a $5,000 tax-free benefit through a flexible spending account, enhancing their overall benefits package.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. The inaugural Top Women in Maritime Celebration, hosted by Marine Log, made its mark by shining a spotlight on the incredible achievements of women in a field long dominated by men.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) today awarded $4.85 million in United States Marine Highway Program (USMHP) grants to five marine highway projects across the  U.S. The funding, which is sharply down on some previous years, aims to enhance the movement of goods along waterways while expanding existing waterborne freight services in Louisiana, Puerto Rico, Washington, and West Virginia.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. A new study just released by the Eno Center for Transportation finds that federal support for the U.S. inland waterways system yields significant societal benefits in a variety of areas, completely aside from the obvious freight movement advantages. Commissioned by the National Waterways Foundation (NWF) the study, “Benefits and Beneficiaries of the Nation’s Inland Waterways,” describes 14 benefit areas derived from federal support for inland waterways, grouped into three categories.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. Under a plan approved Oct. 30 by Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, and disclosed by the Navy yesterday, the U.S. Military Sealift Command (MSC) is to sideline 17 ships to ease the stress on its civilian mariners. “That number’s based on again the number of mariners that we need to get us to 95% [manning],” MSC’s commander Rear Adm. Philip Sobeck told reporters in a call Thursday morning. “It is aligning the force so that we are most ready and that we are getting after the fleet requirements.”

I've been reflecting on the concept of training—what it means, how it looks, and how we define success. I recently returned from the Teaching with Small Boats Alliance Conference and have begun working on the second iteration of Aquaculture Manager Training with Washington Sea Grant (WSG). Additionally, I’m considering the new employee we plan to bring on in early 2025. At Sea Potential, we are continually engaged in training for our youth, the community supporting them, and their employers. This ongoing reflection ensures that what we offer remains beneficial to us as individuals, community members, and educators. With all of this on my mind, I wanted to share my thoughts on the Aquaculture Manager Training. Perhaps you’ll find these insights valuable as you navigate or create your own training initiatives.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. A 48-foot sailboat at the Skagit Valley College Marine Technology Center in Anacortes is making a world of difference for SVC students. Soon it will make a difference in the world as well. The One Ocean, on display at an open house last Friday, will embark with a five-member crew next spring on a 14-month voyage around North and South America to spread awareness about oceanic health through education and the collaboration of crucial scientific research.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. BAE Systems has been awarded a contract by General Dynamics Electric Boat for deck module fabrication in support of U.S. Navy submarine programs. The contract between the companies will cover the production and shipment of structural steel components for both Columbia- and Virginia-class submarines from the BAE Jacksonville, Fla., shipyard.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. BRIX Marine plans to expand its Port Angeles, Wash. manufacturing facility, the vessel builder announced Oct. 23. The new more-than-35,000-square-foot facility would allow BRIX Marine to grow its production capacity and broaden its range of products, the company said. The new location along Marine Drive in Port Angeles also offers BRIX Marine direct access to the Port Angeles Boat Haven through Marine Travelift, according to the company.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. Within days of its delivery to MARAD by Philly Shipyard, the TS Patriot State, the second of five new purpose-built, state-of-the-art NSMV training vessels for America’s state maritime academies arrived at Massachusetts Maritime Academy (MMA), which formally accepted custody of the ship at a special ceremony held October 11, during which Rear Admiral Ann Phillips, MARAD Administrator, officially signed the vessel over to the academy and to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. A bill recently introduced in Congress to strengthen the U.S. Navy’s shipyard support and bolster its ability to keep pace with China’s blistering progress in shipbuilding has a few words to say about inland priorities as well. The bill is the Ships for America Act, drafted and introduced by Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Az.) and Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) in both houses of Congress.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. Union dockworkers at East Coast and Gulf Coast ports began walking picket lines early Tuesday, halting the movement of billions of dollars’ worth of goods including furniture, paper, shoes, manufacturing components, farm machinery and much more.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. In a world where CEOs seemingly come and go like the wind, Cliff Pemble is a unicorn. He’s been leading Garmin as CEO since 2013 (and was president and COO from 2007 to 2013). More remarkable is that he started at the company way back in 1989, just after Gary Burrell and Min Kao founded Garmin in Olathe, Kan. In the marine world, Garmin is instantly recognizable. From chart plotters and radar to trolling motors and stereos, the company’s marine segment in 2023 drove $917 million in revenue toward its bottom line. But the company is as diverse as it is big. Garmin is made up of five segments — fitness, outdoor, aviation, marine and automotive OEM — all of which contain products that are well-respected in their fields. These segments drove consolidated revenue of $5.23 billion in 2023.