SEATTLE — In Lake Union, shipyard workers are getting the Starbound ready for the winter pollock season in the North Pacific.
"I think we've got 35 or 40 people on the boat," said Karl Bratvold, looking out from the wheelhouse onto the 300-foot catcher-processor.
Last year, an Anacortes shipyard cut the boat in two and added 60 feet, making room for a larger floating factory.
"Then we pushed her back together and welded her back up," Bratvold said. Industry leaders said the Starbound is the most cutting-edge boat in the North Pacific Fleet.
Many of the 400 larger fishing boats that are based in Seattle are around 40 years old.
A new study for the Port of Seattle finds as much as $90 million could be spent each year in Washington to modernize the fleet, replacing aging vessels with modern, more efficient versions. It suggests between 510 and 750 jobs could be created annually in Puget Sound if new vessels are built here.
Port of Seattle CEO Ted Fick said the report identifies "a tremendous amount of opportunity."
Jobs building boats pay well and don't necessarily require a college degree.
Just like the boats, shipyard workers are aging.
"We're going to need a new generation of welders, of mechanics, of shipwrights, if we're going to build this fleet out here," said Mark Gleason, director of the Washington Maritime Federation.
There's no guarantee the new fleet will be built here. Competition is fierce from shipyards in Florida and along the Gulf Coast.
Puget Sound shipyards are busy already, and the biggest ones don't build fishing boats.
Fick said standard designs for fishing vessels could make the work more attractive to shipyards and reduce costs. And the port is considering something remarkable to help with another problem: banks that won't loan money for new boats because they consider fishing too risky.
"We could take an ownership role," Fick said. He explained the port might buy some vessels and then lease them to operators on the condition that the boats be built and home-ported in Puget Sound.
Fick said specific proposals could come early next year. He said it's not just future growth at stake, but the current industry.
Right now, fishing supports 15,000 jobs in Seattle.
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