Copy of Hullwork -June, 2025

Hullwork - June, 2025

Hullwork is a monthly digest from the Coalition's Executive Director on the work that goes on 'beneath the waterline'  of our programming to maintain it, and keep it all afloat.

Hullwork June 2025

Summer is upon us here in the Salish Sea and we’re seeing the evenings be light, the weather be warm, and the projects continue to chug along for our Coalition. Last month, we hosted our last quarterly board meeting prior to summer, and celebrated with our first-ever Deep Blue Drinks member event. If you missed this members-only networking and hang out, we’ll be hosting another later this year and we hope that you can make it. Don't miss our next regular Blue Drinks June 18th at Zeeks & Fountain Brewing, 5:30pm! This is a pint-night donation event for the Coalition, so come out and support your Coalition!
 
As the summer has started, here are a few highlights from the month:

1. We published our summer edition of On the Waterfront, available HERE
2. Our membership committee and our staff began work on member-benefits projects to provide more direct benefits to members. Look for more detail on these soon!
3. We began work with Port of Bellingham on a new collaboration with story telling – while we cannot share details yet, it is a project that was proposed with us in mind specifically, and is an indication of how your Coalition has made our mark in the local waterfront.
4. I attended a reception for the Pacific Northwest Economic Region coalition, and got to network and connect our ideas and concerns to several lawmakers, legislators and other organizations that are all working on economic development, in particular on the waterfront, here in the region.
5. I worked on advertising campaigns for both our upcoming events, and our Working Waterfront Health Trust.
6. We began networking and planning for two other events - a candidate forum this fall for our Port Commission race, and an event for Bellingham Seafeast that will once again feature our talented fishermen and women in sharing their songs and stories. If you're interested to participate this year, please contact our staff!
7. We had the chance to meet with Senator Murray’s staff at our office to help them understand the importance of the work that NOAA and WA Sea Grant do for our fishing community.

We’re looking ahead through the summer as well at the Port Commission, to track the running candidates. Our goal will be to provide you with information on candidates and we’ll look to share more with you on that soon. We're also going to be tracking the search for a new Port Director, and we'll encourage the Commission to find leadership that continues to help us promote our maritime trades and economic opportunities that those provide.

We also signed on to letters during April and May to alert our legislators on the harm that a change to the stevedoring taxes, and a tax on luxury vessel sales, could do to our maritime trades industries. We directly contacted our representatives and senators on it, and with our Government Relations committee, we wrote our own letter to legislators on the issue that used some of your stories, anecdotes, and information. Our response from Rep. Alicia Rule said, "This letter will help to better articulate this issue. Thank you for sending it!"

Your voices were heard through that letter and others like it that we signed support for and sent them. Both the luxury vessel tax, and the stevedoring tax that would have encouraged commercial shipping to seek ports other than ours, were both left out of final packages sent to the Governor. While this legislative session's difficulties with budgeting still make a significant impact, we're thankful for our members sharing their concerns, their anecdotes, impacts, and stories with us. All of those help us to communicate what our industry and maritime trades sector need. Thank you for continuing to engage our staff and Board of Directors. Your voice is what makes our Coalition strong.
 
I hope everyone has a fun, safe, and productive summer,

Dan Tucker
Executive Director
Whatcom Working Waterfront Coalition