The Case for a Travel Lift at FMIP

I’ve been engaged in conversations about Fairhaven Marine Industrial Park (FMIP) for some time now regarding the lack of legitimate water access. We lost the ABA contract because of this problem.

 My plan calls for a large travel lift facility at the northern edge of FMIP extending out to deeper water to avoid sensitive near-shore habitat. The old facilities in the estuary would be removed and habitat enhancements made at the mouth of Padden Creek.

(http://www.superyachttimes.com/articles/Image/Companies/ISA-Yachts/2009-08-Travellift/ISA-Travellift-big.jpg)

The suggested problem of habitat issues preventing this project simply allows people to hide behind a "do-nothing" attitude. Two, narrow piers extending into deep water utilizing steel or concrete piles to support 6 to 8 foot wide concrete caps would have less impact on the near shore environment than the current boat launching facilities crowding the Padden Lagoon estuary.

Docks and Pilings

Certain man-made structures can also provide habitat for marine organisms. In areas where the water is relatively clean, docks support large communities of attached animals such as sponges, tube dwelling worms, anemones, barnacles and mussels. Motile animals including nudibranchs, sea stars, sea urchins and small fish also find food and shelter in this environment. Many World War II ships have been deliberately scuttled to provide habitats for marine life.

Eelgrass Beds:

Seagrasses such as surfgrass or eelgrass often cover shallow areas of sea bottom. These grasses are not seaweeds, but are actually flowering plants. Seagrass habitats are a major source of food and shelter for many organisms in near shore environments. They also help stabilize the soft bottoms of these habitats with their dense root systems.  (http://www.gdrc.org/oceans/ocn-zones.html)

 If the Port owned a lift or a local private company owned a lift with pricing restrictions placed on it to control monopolistic pricing then all potential future builders in Fairhaven where boats have been built for over a hundred years would have real access to the water with a very small footprint on the nearshore habitat.

Without ‘real’ access for builders, then the Fairhaven Marine Industrial Park isn’t any more valuable than warehouse storage.

Thoughts?