Maritime roundtable discusses issues in funding and workforce
Published 1:30 am Thursday, September 10, 2026
EVERETT — Workforce and funding needs were among the topics discussed at Wednesday’s shipbuilding roundtable at the Port of Everett.
Economic development agency Pacific Northwest Economic Region hosted the roundtable featuring Rep. Rick Larsen and a range of maritime representatives from Everett to the Alaska State Senate.
“In Washington, you only need to look outside to understand why shipbuilding is important,” Larsen said during the discussion. “There are challenges, but we’re not waiting around for others to help us. We’re trying to help ourselves first.”
While the needs of shipbuilders and ports varied, for the Port of Everett, “it comes down to money,” said the port’s CEO, Lisa Lefeber, during the roundtable.
Over the past year, Northwest ports in Larsen’s district received $46 million in funding, he said.
In April, the port received $11.25 million of that to modernize and strengthen Pier 3 at its international seaport. More than three months later, Everett Ship Repair received $456,216 in federal funding for electrical upgrades to support the 35,000-ton floating dry dock, Hercules.
As the largest dry dock in Puget Sound, the 820-foot-long dock will allow crews to work on larger vessels, including those from Naval Station Everett, with which the port shares a harbor.
But despite the dock’s size, without dredging and additional pilings, the Hercules does not meet the strict requirements to work on the Navy destroyer, Lefeber said.
“If there is a repair that needs to be done for a destroyer, it has to go down to South Seattle,” she said. “It would be so much better for the quality of life of those sailors if they could get it maintained in Everett’s harbor.”
Investments into the dock would be on top of the $20 million the port is putting into the pier and “there’s just not a pot of money dedicated for that,” Lefeber said.
More laborers entering the maritime workforce was another concern echoed among the panel, including Gavin Higgins, CEO of Nichols Brothers Boat Builders on Whidbey Island, Everett Ship Repair’s sister company.
“Labor, labor, labor is our biggest hold back right now,” he said during the roundtable.
Welding is one of the maritime workforce’s gaps, according to Ann Avary, director of The NW Center of Excellence for Marine Manufacturing & Technology in Anacortes.
“In Washington, we estimate about 910 per year welding openings, and we’re not meeting that metric now,” she said.
Joining the maritime industry is not always top of mind for young people entering the workforce, Lefeber told The Daily Herald.
“They think, ‘Oh, I’m going to go build airplanes. I’m going to do this, do that,’” she said. “They don’t think I’m going to go build boats.”
In 2025, the port, alongside Maritime Institute and Sno-Isle TECH Skills Center, kicked off the first-ever maritime program for high school students in Snohomish and Island counties.
All of last year’s students decided to enter the maritime field, said Sarah Scherer from the Maritime Institute.
“The coolest part about it is that this year we’ve tripled the number of students,” she told The Daily Herald.
The port is looking to expand the program’s presence with the addition of portable classrooms and an annex building around the Scuttlebutt parking lot, where the Maritime Institute will be in the future.
On Tuesday, the United States Maritime Administration announced that Everett’s Maritime Institute was designated as a 2026 Center of Excellence for Domestic Maritime Workforce Training and Education. Organizations may be eligible for up to $30 million in federal funding allocated to the Centers of Excellence in 2027.
Jenna Millikan: 425-339-3035; jenna.millikan@heraldnet.com; X: @JennaMillikan