By Daniel Mintz
The Pacific Marine Expo is one of the commercial fishing industry’s most well-known venues for exhibiting products and services. But even more can be learned through the event’s educational program.
Held at the Lumen Field Event Center in Seattle, this year’s expo takes place Nov. 20-22 and includes educational sessions on topics ranging from vessel safety policy to federal loan access.
Health Issues, Youth Recruitment
The educational program kicks off Nov. 21 with a session that aims to “strategize realistic solutions” to fishermen’s health issues, according to the organizers.
The session’s presenters include researchers and trainers from the Alaska Marine Safety Association, the state of Alaska, the Northeast Center for Occupational Health and Safety and Oregon State University.
They’ll describe the latest research on sleep, pain and stress in the context of “improving fishermen’s health and well-being,” according to an itinerary on the expo website. Fishermen attending the session will be able to give input on how health and safety specialists can “better serve the commercial fishing industry.”
An issue key to the industry’s future—opening opportunity to new participants—is expected to be explored in a session on “workforce development on America’s working waterfronts.”
Hannah Heimbuch, an Alaska fisherman and community relations specialist with the Ocean Strategies consulting firm, is set to moderate a panel discussion on programs that recruit and train young people for commercial fishing careers.
The session is also expected to cover “the resources, policies and community initiatives that support independent fishermen in pivoting to stay in business, and keep fishing communities resilient to change,” according to an online description.
Also included in the day’s sessions is the Coastal Challenge, a competition event featuring cash prizes. Winners of knot tying, net mending and rope splicing “skill-set trials” will advance to a final round to see who can put on a survival suit the quickest.
Upcoming Funding, Vessel Safety, Alaska Marketing
The relevance of Washington, D.C. politics to the fishing industry is seen in the upcoming extension of a law known as the Farm Bill. The 2018 Farm Bill expired on Sept. 30 after not receiving an extension.
The Farm Bill, enacted in December 2018, was in November 2023 extended through September. It provided support, certainty and stability to U.S. farmers, ranchers and forest managers by enhancing farm support programs, improving crop insurance, maintaining disaster programs and promoting and supporting conservation.
A 2025 renewal of the bill is on the radar of the commercial fishing industry, and Noah Oppenheim, the former executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and principal of the Homarus Strategies consulting firm, is scheduled to host a session briefing fishermen on what’s at stake.
Oppenheim said that “a massive amount of low-cost capital” could “suddenly become available” through the extension, and that he’ll explain how fishermen’s advocacy can shape the funding.
Joseph Myers, the Coast Guard’s Fishing Vessel Safety Division chief, is scheduled to host a session on the agency’s updated vessel safety policies on fishing and tender vessels between 50 and 180 feet long.
The U.S. Coast Guard recently released a policy document that “communicates the Coast Guard’s thinking” on requirements for design and construction of fishing vessels. Segments covering vessel project oversight and certification are also expected to be explained.
The day’s program concludes with the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute’s session on “Alaska seafood market updates and opportunities.”
Co-hosted by members of the McKinley Research consulting firm, the session is set to explore “where Alaska’s catch is going, the value at home and abroad, and how the pandemic and global economics create challenges and opportunities for Alaska seafood.”
‘Initiatives and Opportunities’
The second day of the expo’s education program, Nov. 22, includes a session on the nexus between the Alaska fishing industry’s sustainable practices and its economy.
Nels Ure, the communications director of Commercial Fishermen for Bristol Bay, state Sen. Gary Stevens (R-Kodiak) and Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute Executive Director Jeremy Woodrow are the featured speakers.
Their presentations include information on participating in “initiatives and opportunities” related to commercial fishing. The session also includes an update on the formation and the work of the joint legislative Alaska Seafood Task Force, which was approved by state lawmakers last spring.
The state’s fishing industry is facing what is being described as a crisis and the task force is evaluating policy options to address it.
This year’s Alaska salmon runs are down 25-50% across all species, processing plants have closed and a combination of low consumer demand and competition from other countries have hit the state’s fishing economy hard.
The task force recently began meeting and is developing recommendations on how the state can help the fishing industry and the communities that depend upon it.
WorkBoat West
The expo’s educational agenda also includes its new WorkBoat West program for shipyard and vessel owner-operators.
WorkBoat West sessions include presentations on reducing noise impacts on Southern Resident killer whales, “decarbonizing the fishing sector” and the Youth Maritime Career Launch “equitable workforce” internship program.
Also included is a session profiling the Sustainable Maritime Fuels Collaborative, which “brings together supply and demand stakeholders to accelerate production and use of sustainable maritime fuels and technologies in Washington,” according to the collaborative’s website.
Another WorkBoat West session focuses on the heart of commercial fishing operations—marine engines.
Engine construction, engineering and service professionals are scheduled to deliver an “in-depth exploration” of the most up-to-date improvements in efficiency, maintenance and emission control.
The overview would cover both diesel and electric engines, as well as the “systems being developed to squeeze the greatest efficiency out of them,” according to the online listing for the program.
All of the expo’s education program events are available at no extra cost to attendees or vendors.