Hullwork - February, 2025

Hullwork - February, 2025

The first quarter of 2025 has been bustling like a shipyard in the spring, and the Coalition had several events in January, and more coming in February and March. 

Coalition staff worked in January to host our first-quarter Blue Drinks of 2025, at the Drayton Harbor Oyster Company in Blaine. The event featured a small talk by Steve Seymour, owner, about a new project that deals with marine ecology, research, industry and sustainability in our Salish Sea (MERIS, for short.) More on our next Blue Drinks further down the page.

We saw the release this last month of the Fishery Friendly Climate Action reports, 17 volumes worth, that details needs and strategies for legislators and policymakers to use when crafting transition plans for our fisheries industry. The Coalition was heavily involved in helping with that research, and we're very proud to have worked with Sarah Schumann of Fishery Friendly Climate action to help with these reports. You can view them on our "Data & Research" page on our website.



The Coalition also worked on further planning for our annual Tide to Table event. The event is a lot coordination, between soliciting desserts, sponsors, auction items, selling tickets, getting decor and catering set up, and venue logistics such as projection, audio, and other details. We finalized details with Bellwether Ballroom, making sure we can host our favorite seafood. We also worked to get appropriate permits filed for food handling, and alcohol being on site for the event. We're also applying for a raffle license this year, to bring back a fun raffle item this year for guests attending the event.

On January 29th, the Coalition staff headed south to Olympia to participate in 'Maritime Day', with the Washington Maritime Federation. This year, event organizers tapped our staff to be a 'delegation lead' for the day, and alongside members of LiLuna and ILWU, and the Secretary of Transportation Stephanie Bowman, we visited with several lawmakers and representatives to advocate for needs ranging from bridge-height clearances on new construction to be made compatible for maritime traffic standard, commercial pumpout facilities to allow vessels visiting the Bellingham Shipping Terminal to comply with Coast Guard no-discharge zoning, to promote and expand funding for our workforce development programming like our Maritime Apprenticeship, and to make sure that Model Toxics Control Act (MTCA) funding was not diverted to general funds, but remains available for our projects in Blaine, where the wharf and pier, and surrounding area, need to be cleaned up using those funds in order to revitalize the Blaine marine trades. Staff was also able to get positive interest in protecting our seaports and maritime industrial lands from Rep. Stephanie Wylie, who's district includes Vancouver, WA, and who's keenly familiar with the challenges we face here in Whatcom. We're currently in touch with her office as we discuss disclosure requirements around seaports and marine industrial land, similar to those already in place for agriculture land and airports.

The following week, board members from the Coalition, Coalition member Eska Bay Marine, and staff flew even further south - to San Diego - to attend the National Working Waterfront Network Conference. Planning for the conference included building two presentations hosted by the Coalition for the national audience. The first presentation was a 20-minute download on how the Coalition was built, how it is funded, and logistics around how our entities (our Foundation, Coalition, for-profit, and health-trust) interact. This was a 'how-we-did-it' guide for others looking to build their own Coalitions in their regions. The second presentation was a 90-minute panel discussion in partnership with the Port of Bellingham, and Northwest Maritime from Port Townsend, which highlighted collaboration and how using the right terms and phrases, considering the right approaches, and thinking with the right framing can help build waterfront action and projects. While the Coalition highlighted our collaborative nature that has allowed us to get into Port meetings, City meetings with the Mayor, the small cities conference, rotary clubs, and other Coalitions, the Port highlighted the benefits of having community organizations that can disagree while seeking to build together, and Northwest Maritime focused the last part of the presentation on what a larger organization considers in partnerships, taking several hard lessons they've learned to highlight useful and insightful lessons on how to build not just a city, or county-wide network - but one that spans the state and the region. In this era of difficult conversations, hard lines and dialogue, we're proud to showcase what we've accomplished using collaborative approaches.

The response we received was overwhelmingly positive. There were many organizations, businesses, agencies and individuals at the conference. Other Coalitions we chatted with were programs from universities run by education staff, with no memberships or hard organization. Some were 'top-down' approaches, with membership dues that ranged in the thousands-of-dollars, but the membership base was kept small and communications and outreach were not as widespread to the community. We're very proud to have built something unique in our region - a bottom-up, grass-roots approach to a waterfront coalition, using you, our members, as our voice and driving force. Our community engagement through newsletters, radio, blog, website, and events was truly one-of-a-kind in all the groups we spoke too. That is something our members should take pride in.

The conference yielded many productive conversations as well, ranging from ecology and shoreline mitigation, to waterfront industry protections, to next-generation fuels, to workforce development ideas. ALongside the Coalition, our sister-organization, the Working Waterfront Foundation, presented on the Northwest Maritime Apprenticeship program, and our upcoming pre-apprenticeship program, Bouyant Beginnings. We discussed with colleagues from Georgia, Florida, Maryland, New York, Massachusetts, Maine, California, Texas, and the Great Lakes region, including representatives from Canada, on how best to make sure that our economic opportunities grow along our waterfronts, our economies stay diverse, and maritime heritage is preserved. Many of the ideas and contacts that we bring back are going forward with us in to future events, future advocacy efforts, and conversations.  Ideas such as infrastructure projects that keep waterfronts protected from climate change, or to help eelgrass and other sea grasses grow alongside our wharfs and piers using innovative materials and designs. Ideas about how to promote our seafood and fisheries with direct marketing and legislation that aims to help protect them the way we protect agricultural endeavors. Ideas about using land trusts to create buffers for waterfront industries and heritage sites. While not all ideas are viable in Washington - these conversations provide perspective, inspiration and connections in a large, ongoing national effort to promote the economic vitality and diversity of our working waterfronts.

Board members and staff are back in Bellingham now, and looking forward to February as we plan for our Annual Membership Appreciation Night, with a special Q&A session from our Port Commissioners on having 3 versus 5 seats, and our Q1 board meeting, happening just prior. We're also looking ahead to the end of the month, on February 26th, as we host our Crew Connections mixer with Bellingham Dockside Market and the Alaska Longliner Fisherman's Association, in collaboration with Structure's Brewing on Holly - which will be running a seafood special the entire week of Wild Seafood Connection, with seafood provided by local fishers and companies. Look out for announcements!

Wild Seafood Connection will happen the following day, February 27th, where our commercial fishers will meet in conference to discuss the industry, marketing, and a whole host of topics in their sector. The Coalition will be there to learn, and to advocate for those who bring home the bounty of our Salish Sea.

Staff will also be participating in the Northwest Workforce Council's taskforce this year, and will be onboarding to that role to bring maritime expertise to workforce development efforts, in a consultation role. Alongside that, we're also gearing up to dive into our Comprehensive Plan Review process, and will follow along throughout the year.

Meetings for planning the Port of Bellingham's Marine Trades Career Exploration for local high schools on May 7th continues on, with the Coalition connecting several local companies to the Port to be a part of the interactive career day, and prior to that, on May 1st, we continue to be involved in planning for the regional Maritime Workforce Forum, in collaboration with the Maritime Center for Excellence in Everett, which brings together stakeholders from across the region to discuss strategies and trends in the maritime industry for our region.

Finally - we're hosting our 2nd Quarter Blue Drinks on March 5th, at George Dyson's shop on Holly St, and we've secured permitting for food and alcohol, and are working on advertising now to blast the event and get a great turnout to celebrate Dyson Baidarkas, to hear from Northwest Maritime on the Blue Schools initiative with a short presentation, and to connect, learn, and share about a waterfront that works for all.

We'll see you this month!


Dan Tucker, Director
Whatcom Working Waterfront Coalition