Reports from the ground are spectacular. It’s another beautiful, bright and dry fall day in Seattle as the crowds roll into the city, getting ready for Pacific Marine Expo.
A visit to the Pacific Fishermen yard in Ballard, the heart of the West Coast fishing fleet. Jessica Hathaway photoBack in the office, we just wrapped our Crew Shots issue. We’ve been staring at your faces all week on the page, and now we get to see you in person.
We love to talk about all the great deals on the show floor, the roster of new products revealed over the next three days, the conferences that will spark changes in every corner of the maritime industry, the magic of the Emerald City and Fishermen’s Terminal. But the nexus of this show is you. And we’ve put together a full-throttle Expo with you in mind.
The Wednesday keynote this year is John Aldridge, the Montauk, N.Y., fisherman who survived more than 12 hours treading water after falling overboard from a lobster boat last year. Aldridge became a household name after The New York Times piece “A Speck in the Sea.”
The numbers are out for Bristol Bay’s projected 2015 returns, and like the Expo, it’s going to be bigger and better than ever. If you fish the bay, don’t miss the conference on permit buybacks for the drift fleet Thursday morning at 10.
If you’re planning to build a new boat or overhaul, you are likely going to be on the show floor all three days, and our conference program will have offerings the whole way through, starting on Wednesday with an update on classification and load lines, as well as an hour on shipyard project planning. On Thursday, Terry Johnson will lead a panel discussion on a new Energy Analysis Tool that can help you plan and improve energy efficiency onboard. On Friday, get the full scope of the new safety and equipment requirements from a panel led by Jack Kemerer, the Coast Guard’s chief of Fishing Vessel Safety Office of Commercial Vessel Compliance.
And those are just the conferences. Don’t forget to stop by the National Fisherman booth to pick up a copy of our December issue, and be sure to check out our daily coverage of the Expo in our Show Daily, in print at the show and online.
