The Port: Introducing The I-5 Short Sea Shipping Marine Highway

This is a Slide Show on the prospective new relationship between Port of Astoria and Santa Maria Shipping LLC in Short Sea Shipping and quite possibly a bright future for many here should the deal not be "Queered" in some way or another.

Introducing The I-5 Marine Highway

The Port: An Exciting Prospect In "Short Sea Shipping"

"Short Sea Shipping"

Small, shallow draft coastal container ships and barges to blend with rail and road systems to move freight to waterborne transfer points way upriver?

That's a huge piece of the maritime commerce pie for us down here.

"Short Sea Shipping", that's what it's called and The Port of Astoria has just been presentented with another opportunity to pull its ass up out of "The Doldrums" it has put itself in and make a sound contribution to this community and its future in The Lower Columbia River's maritime commerce and I think we are perfectly suited to handle this well and we must not forget that these shippers, with ships getting massively bigger and with time of the essence, I believe, will threaten future upriver commerce because of time and will be more prone to patronize port systems that offer easy in and out and bypass us altogether without a solution.

A Lower Columbia Super Port? Well, it's a definite talking point and whether you know it or not, to my understanding, that think is already on paper and at one time slated for legislation.

My two questions...

* What's the deal with the lease-back and residual revenue of the vessels?

*How many Jobs?

The article below explains the overall scope and potential this opportunity offers us and hopefully we will seek the resources to ensure this deal isn't bungled

Read This Article From Professional Mariner On "Short Sea Shipping"