USDA, Seaport Alliance Partnering on Agricultural Exports

USDA, Seaport Alliance Partnering on Agricultural Exports

In an effort to help agricultural and refrigerated exports flow through the ports of Seattle and Tacoma, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Northwest Seaport Alliance are teaming up to expand access to a 49-acre “pop up” yard in Seattle that could temporarily store dry agricultural or refrigerated containers, the USDA has announced. The partnership calls for the Farm Service Agency to pay agricultural companies and cooperatives $200 per dry container and $400 per refrigerated to use the pop-up site to pre-position containers with American-grown agricultural goods, according to the NWSA. Exporters have been having a tough time moving goods…
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USCG Kimball Offloads Illegal Drugs in San Diego

USCG Kimball Offloads Illegal Drugs in San Diego

Crew members with the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Kimball on Thursday, March 31 delivered over 11,300 pounds of seized cocaine and over 4,000 pounds of apprehended marijuana in San Diego. The more than $223 million worth of drugs was taken during eight interdictions in February and March in the Eastern Pacific Ocean with the help of partnering vessels. The Kimball, a 420-foot Legend-Class National Security Cutter homeported in Honolulu, played a major role in the drug seizures, including one interdiction resulting in roughly 2,295 pounds of cocaine; a joint effort with Her Majesty's Canadian Ship Yellowknife to seize about 331…
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From the Editor: Salmon in the Seine

From the Editor: Salmon in the Seine

FYI, one of Maritime Publishing’s terrific freelance journalists, Seattle-based writer and author Norris Comer, has a new book coming out. “Salmon in the Seine: Alaskan Memories of Life, Death, & Everything In-Between,” is his debut memoir and chronicles his time working as a commercial fisherman in the Great White North aboard a highliner salmon purse seiner while in his teens. “I was 18 years old and fresh out of high school when I ventured north to Cordova, Alaska, in 2008 to kick off my Gap Year before college,” he wrote. “What started as an aspiration to make good money and…
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LA, Long Beach Ports Again Delay Container Dwell Fee

LA, Long Beach Ports Again Delay Container Dwell Fee

As lingering cargo continues to steadily make its way out of the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, leaders from both ports have once again pushed back the start date to collect on container dwell fees from ocean carriers, this time to April 8. The fee, which would charge ocean carriers $100 for every import that stayed at terminals nine or more days plus $100 increments for every day a container remained, has been put on hold a week at a time since last fall as leaders review their dwell data. The pandemic has played a role in the…
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Port of Grays Harbor Tenant Planning to Expand Export Facility

Port of Grays Harbor Tenant Planning to Expand Export Facility

The Port of Grays Harbor’s biggest marine terminal customer, Nebraska-based U.S. soybean processor/refiner AGP, is making expansion plans for its Washington Coast facility. AGP’s Board of Directors recently approved plans to expand and enhance its facilities at the port, including more storage at its current export facility at Terminal 2 and a new, modern ship loader at Terminal 4. “We look forward to continuing and expanding our relationship (with the port) as we move forward with this project,” said AGP Board Chairman Lowell Wilson. “The project approved by the AGP Board will greatly increase railcar unloading speed, ship loading capacities,…
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U.S. West Coast Ports Saw Imports Drop, Exports Rise in January: PMSA

U.S. West Coast Ports Saw Imports Drop, Exports Rise in January: PMSA

In trade with Asia, the five biggest U.S. West Coast seaports processed 49.5% of imports from that continent in January, dropping by nearly 5% from the 54% the same time last year, according to the latest edition of the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association’s West Coast Trade Report. When one includes the rest of the U.S. West Coast ports, the number falls from 54.7% in January 2021 to 51.2% in January 2022, according to the report. The value of the import cargo also fell at the Big Five ports – Los Angeles, Long Beach, Seattle, Oakland and Tacoma -- dipping from…
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Shaver Transportation Joins Green Marine Program

Shaver Transportation Joins Green Marine Program

Portland, Oregon-based inland water freight company Shaver Transportation has become the first tug and barge operator on the U.S. West Coast to participate in Green Marine, the leading voluntary environmental certification program for North America’s maritime industry. “We want to be proactive and believe that Green Marine will be able to guide us toward continual improvement in the environmental performance of each of our vessels through the program’s detailed framework,” Shaver Transportation President Steve Shaver said. “It is important to us that our fleet operates in the most safe and sustainable manner possible.” To gain certification, which will be independently…
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Port of LA Seeking Terminal Island Site Lease Applicants

Port of LA Seeking Terminal Island Site Lease Applicants

The deadline is approaching for applicants interested in possibly leasing and developing the site on which the former Star-Kist Processing Plant sits in the fish harbor area at Terminal Island in San Pedro Bay. Applicants have until 3 p.m. on April 20 to submit their interest to the Port of Los Angeles’ Harbor Department on the 1050 Ways Street site. The roughly 8.63-acre site includes a big warehouse with a 267,720-square-foot ground-floor building footprint and a 38,165-square-foot parking area. Submissions from the port’s Requests for Expressions of Interest will be “an important factor in determining whether the Harbor Department will…
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Port of San Francisco Names New Deputy Director

Port of San Francisco Names New Deputy Director

David Beaupre is the Port of San Francisco’s new deputy director for planning and environment. In his new role, Beaupre is tasked with offering strategic oversight of the port’s Planning and Environment Division, which works to ensure that the use and development of port property is aligned with the POSF’s long-term vision and regulatory requirements. The division also executes port urban design and historic preservation reviews and pushes sustainability and climate change actions. Beaupre started at the port in 2001 as a senior waterfront planner. Before his current role, he was senior development project manager and oversaw major waterfront development…
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New Port of San Diego Commissioner Sworn In

New Port of San Diego Commissioner Sworn In

Danielle Moore is the Port of San Diego’s newest port commissioner. Earlier this month, she was officially sworn into the seven-member board that governs the port. The native San Diegan and Howard University School of Law alum is an attorney with more than a decade of experience. Her practice focuses on the renewable energy industry. “Danielle’s knowledge and expertise in renewable energy, infrastructure, and finance will greatly benefit the port as we move forward with our Maritime Clean Air Strategy initiatives and critical infrastructure projects,” port Chairman Dan Malcolm said. Vice Chairman Rafael Castellanos also touted Moore’s experience. “As the…
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