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 Labor has announced the award of nearly $14 million in funding to support the development of programs aimed at reinvigorating and rebuilding the U.S. maritime industry and shipbuilding workforce. Administered by the department’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs, the department awarded $8 million to Pennsylvania’s Delaware County Community College and $5.8 million to the Massachusetts Maritime Academy to advance the next generation of American shipbuilders through hands-on, cutting-edge training programs developed in conjunction with international partners.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. Officials gathered on January 7 at the Port of Portland, Oregon, to mark what they are calling a fresh start for a reborn container shipping terminal. The only one in the state, the small facility known for years as Terminal 6, had faced an imminent closure due to mounting financial losses and the lack of an operator. Oregon’s Governor Tina Kotek intervened to save the operation while highlighting its critical contribution to the state’s economy and local businesses. The state committed to providing $40 million to bridge the operations while a new operator was located. It also committed to infrastructure improvements for a port that is located far upriver from the ocean.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. As the maritime industry continues to expand, innovate, and welcome a more diverse workforce, we’re proud to present our 2025 list of Top Women in Maritime—now in its sixth year of celebrating the leaders shaping the future of our industry. This year’s honorees represent a remarkable group of 20 women from around the world, each nominated by Marine Log readers. Their backgrounds span vessel operations, shoreside management, engineering, policy, technology, and more. What unites them is their impact: each has made meaningful, measurable contributions to the maritime sector.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. Dakota Creek Industries, Inc. is now accepting applications for its Marine Trades Apprenticeship Program. This paid program combines hands-on, on-the-job training in a working shipyard with structured classroom instruction, creating a direct pathway into long-term, family-wage maritime careers. Apprentices work alongside experienced journey-level tradespeople on active vessel repair and maintenance projects, developing technical skills, safety awareness, and real-world problem-solving abilities in the marine trades.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. Capt. Stephen Carmel was confirmed late Thursday as the new administrator of the U.S. Maritime Administration. Carmel was confirmed by the Senate in a 53-43 yea-nay vote. President Donald Trump nominated Carmel to serve as the next administrator back in May of this year. Carmel will fill a position that has been vacant since Rear Adm. (Ret.) Ann C. Phillips resigned in January.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. Launch Your Maritime Career — For Free! The Youth Marine Foundation is offering free maritime workforce training through the WAVE Seafarer Readiness Program, funded by the Washington State Department of Transportation.

This program prepares socially and economically disadvantaged adult jobseekers to enter careers in Washington State Ferries and the maritime industry — one of Washington’s fastest-growing, high-paying fields.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. Aluminum shipbuilder All American Marine Inc., Bellingham, Wash., on Wednesday hosted a keel-laying ceremony to mark the official start of construction on a series of new battery-electric vessels for San Francisco Bay Ferry. All American was awarded a $46 million contract in December 2024 to construct three of the 150-passenger vessels for San Francisco Bay Ferry, with an option for a fourth vessel.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. A new industry report reveals how nuclear propulsion creates competitive advantage for both operators and charterers through superior economics and performance. Nuclear-powered containerships have the potential to eliminate bunker costs, cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and deliver faster transit times, while maintaining safety and economic competitiveness. The findings are drawn from a new Lloyd’s Register and LucidCatalyst report for Seaspan Corporation Pte. Ltd. The report examines the technical, economic, and regulatory potential of integrating small modular reactors (SMRs) into the containership fleet. LucidCatalyst performed a comprehensive analysis of the costs and benefits for Seaspan's business model and collaboratively developed requirements that, if met, would create significant value.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. Alaska's commercial fishing industry, facing lower prices for its harvest and rising costs, saw a loss of 443 harvesting jobs in 2024—a fifth straight year of employment loss, state labor officials said. That 7.6% job decline was similar to the previous year's 7.8% job loss, the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development noted in the November issue of Alaska Economic Trends. Seafood harvesting in Alaska has lost over a third of its total jobs in the past decade, with fishing employment down every year of the last 10 except for 2019. That includes the summer peak, which has fallen about 30%, from 24,600 jobs in July 2014 to 17,400 in July 2024.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. Washington Maritime Blue is a Seattle-based NGO with a $3 million budget and a number of focus areas, including renewable energy, maritime decarbonization, sustainable fishing, community engagement, and maritime workforce development. Dontay Proctor-Mills, who handles community engagement for Maritime Blue, hosted a presentation on workforce development during the 2025 Pacific Marine Expo in Seattle, with speakers from partner organizations, such as Sea Potential. According to Ebony Welborn, co-founder of Sea Potential, the organization works towards creating opportunities for Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) youth, ages 12–18. “We want to raise awareness about marine jobs,” said Welborn. “But to do that, we have to heal things like water-related trauma and negative intergenerational stories about the water.”

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. Check out the most recent blog from One Island, One Blog.

We left Culebra with Antigua on the horizon and a clean plan: slip past the island, push out to the windward side of the Caribbean chain, and begin our long run south toward Uruguay. The trades had other plans. Predicted 15–17 knots became a relentless 20+ from the E/SE, gusting over 30. The seas were steep, the motion violent, and every mile felt disappointing. One Ocean was taking a pounding. So were we and the forecast said it would stay like this for weeks. I ran the numbers again and again—calculations, plots, models, Commanders’ Weather—all pointing to the same truth: we were fighting a losing battle.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. Washington State Ferries (WSF) has selected Stemmann-Technik GmbH, Schüttorf, Germany, to provide automated charging systems for its new hybrid electric ferries. Capable of delivering up to 15 MW at 12.47 kV, the rapid charging systems will be the largest in North America, according to WSF vessel project engineer Ali Khurshid, who announced the news on social media. WSF — the nation’s largest ferry system — has converted one existing vessel, the Wenatchee, to hybrid-electric power and has ordered new hybrid ferries from Eastern Shipbuilding Group, Panama City, Fla., for delivery starting in 2028. These vessels will operate using onboard battery systems and, once shore power becomes available, plug-in charging systems that require shoreside infrastructure upgrades.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. Mavrik Marine Inc., La Conner, Wash., announced it has been chosen to construct a new series of high-speed passenger ferries for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway, and Transportation District, operator of the Golden Gate Ferry system. The new catamaran ferries, which are being built as part of the agency’s eight-vessel Liwa-class ferry replacement program, will operate on San Francisco Bay, where the district conducts about 20,000 crossings annually, moving approximately 2 million passengers.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. The Pacific Northwest is a key hub of the U.S. maritime industry, home to dozens of small and large shipyards that support a diverse range of commercial and government customers. These include the nation’s largest ferry system, a significant portion of the U.S. commercial fishing industry, and much of the Navy’s Pacific fleet. The region also boasts deep expertise in naval architecture and shipbuilding. Among long-tenured players in the region is Gunderson Marine & Iron, Portland, Ore., which opened as a repair yard in 1919. The company operates a 58-acre industrial waterfront facility — the largest side-launch shipyard on the West Coast — equipped for constructing large river and oceangoing barges as well as other types of steel vessels.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. Department of Homeland Security in coordination with Department of Transportation and Department of Labor, has developed the Icebreaker Collaboration Effort U.S. National Workforce Development Plan. This Plan addresses challenges in building icebreakers domestically and identifies opportunities to enhance the skills of American workers. It incorporates best practices, stakeholder input, and aligns with the Administration’s broader workforce development strategy, America’s Talent Strategy: Building the Workforce for the Golden Age.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. The ABYC Foundation will host a free online Educator Forum on Nov. 13 offering collaboration and discussions for high school and post-secondary educators, industry trainers and administrators involved in marine service technology programs. “The Educator Forum is about building connections that strengthen marine education programs and, ultimately, our industry’s workforce,” accreditation director Sarah Devlin said in a statement. “Whether a school already offers a marine service program or is just getting started, this event offers practical insights and tools to help them succeed.”

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. As maritime companies continue to struggle to fill job vacancies, a small, family-run shipyard in Seattle believes it has found a winning strategy. Snow & Company Inc., which builds workboats, pilot boats, fishing vessels, and tugboats at its facility along the Lake Washington Ship Canal, has developed what it calls “hiring from non-traditional avenues,” which means diving deep into labor markets that have been traditionally ignored by the maritime industry. In addition to targeting maritime trade schools, Snow taps veterans, ex-prisoners, or those starting work release, and in a more innovative approach, immigrants and refugees, many of whom do not speak English when hired. 

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. Three industry experts told a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday that the United States faces an urgent need to rebuild its commercial shipbuilding capacity in the face of decades of Chinese industrial targeting and declining domestic maritime infrastructure. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation’s Subcommittee on Coast Guard, Maritime, and Fisheries convened the hearing titled “Sea Change: Reviving Commercial Shipbuilding” to examine how to modernize U.S. commercial shipbuilding while strengthening the broader maritime industrial base. The hearing focused on President Trump’s efforts within the National Security Council to “Make Shipbuilding Great Again” and issues likely to be addressed in the administration’s upcoming Maritime Action Plan, a key component of the President’s Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance executive order signed in April.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. The American Waterways Operators, the trade association of the American tugboat, towboat and barge (TTB) industry, has released a new video on the industry’s contributions to U.S. national and homeland security. The two-minute AWO video, The Tugboat, Towboat and Barge Industry: Supplying America, Securing America, notes that while the mariners who transport cargo and facilitate commerce on America’s rivers, coasts, harbors and Great Lakes are critical to powering the economy, they also play a vital role in safeguarding the nation: By supporting the Coast Guard in securing \borders and waterways; by moving military cargo on domestic waters and guiding Navy ships in and out of U.S. ports; by delivering supplies to help American communities recover from disasters; and by ensuring a strong, reliable domestic maritime supply chain under American control.

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. Brix Marine, Port Angeles, Wash., has delivered a 41'x15' Naiad rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RIB) to Iruka Hawaii Experience, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. The 41’ RIB Warrior marks the third vessel Brix Marine has built and delivered to the Hawaiian tourism company. Designed in close coordination with Iruka’s operations team, a Brix press release noted Warrior was custom-built to enhance the company’s marine wildlife tours and educational expeditions. Certified under U.S. Coast Guard Subchapter T regulations, the aluminum RIB accommodates 40 passengers plus crew. Powered by triple Suzuki 300-hp dual-prop outboards, the new vessel will support tours around Oahu and Kona.