_{Thumbnail photo: Former Fashion Blacksmith boatyard facility at the Crescent City Harbor. | Photo by Paul Critz}

The local harbormaster on Wednesday unveiled a desire to open a satellite campus of the Cal Poly Maritime Academy at the Crescent City Harbor District.

Mike Rademaker included that hope in a letter to Congressional representatives supporting the Trump administration’s America’s Maritime Action Plan, which seeks to revitalize the nation’s domestic shipbuilding capacity. But he acknowledged that the idea is just a concept at this point.

“It’s kind of my pet project,” the harbormaster told Redwood Voice Community News. “We’re just trying to be very creative and identify new revenue sources. The average age of fishermen, it’s getting up there, and we want to provide a pathway for the younger generation to get into the fishing industry. A huge part of that is workforce training and having something local that’s affordable so they can get hands-on experience.”

Part of an executive order President Trump issued on April 9, 2025, the Maritime Action Plan aims to reform workforce education, protect the “maritime industrial base and strengthen national and economic security, Rademaker stated in his staff report to the Harbor Board.

According to him, staff has already reached out to federal representatives regarding the president’s plan and was told that it “enjoys robust bipartisan support.”

The Board of Commissioners unanimously approved adding Chairman Rick Shepherd’s signature to Rademaker’s letter and sending it to Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff and Congressman Jared Huffman.

The letter formally requests that the Crescent City Harbor be included in any federal assessments and funding opportunities associated with the Maritime Action Plan.

“We’re just letting them know we’re here and we’re receptive to anything they can throw our way,” Shepherd said.

In Rademaker’s staff report, the areas of the Maritime Action Plan that are of most relevance for CCHD include a recognition that navigational depth and dredging impacts a region’s economy; a call for port and shipyard modernization; the expansion of grant and financing programs that apply to ship repair and smaller boatyards; the creation of Maritime Prosperity Zones; and an effort to streamline the environmental review and permitting process for construction and dredging.

CCHD could potentially use the Maritime Prosperity Zones, which seeks to incentivize private investment in waterfront communities, and other financial initiatives to revitalize its boatyard, the harbormaster stated.

In his staff report, Rademaker said the Maritime Action Plan’s potential to expand ship-building capacity beyond the largest centers at Newport News, Virginia, San Diego, Bath, Maine and Bremerton, Washington could also have positive implications for the Crescent City Harbor.

The harbormaster told Redwood Voice that he became aware of the Trump administration’s Maritime Action Plan through the California Marine Affairs & Navigation Conference, or CMANC.

Rademaker told commissioners that he hasn’t yet had substantive discussions with Congress about his idea for a satellite Maritime Academy campus in Crescent City. He said he brought it up with State Sen. Mike McGuire at last year’s Del Norte Economic Summit.

“I had a chance to talk to him in the hallway and he was talking about how excited he was about Cal Poly Humboldt,” Rademaker told Redwood Voice. “I could see how excited we was about education and I said I’d love to expand the Maritime Academy up north and just turbocharge our local economy and give young people (of) any age an opportunity to get into the maritime industry and make the harbor a real economic engine for Del Norte County. He was very receptive.”

Located in Vallejo, the Cal Poly Maritime Academy has been part of the California State University system for more than 90 years. It was absorbed into Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 2024.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Del Norte County resident Sam Strait mentioned the Border Coast Regional Airport Authority, which had been looking into working with College of the Redwoods to create a pilot and aircraft mechanics program. Strait said the joint powers authority operating the airport realized that there would be a substantial upfront cost to setting such a program up.

Strait said the Harbor District could face a similar issue if it’s seeking to create a maritime academy program in Crescent City.

Rademaker acknowledged that potential. In addition to working with CSU representatives, he said he’d also been in talks with College of the Redwoods because “they could do a lot of the administrative overhead.”

“It’s really just an idea at this point, a concept,” he said. “But now there’s some interest at the national level. In the action plan, it specifically mentions expanding state maritime academies, so that obviously got my attention. We’ll see what develops from that.”

As for the dredging aspect of the Maritime Action Plan, Rademaker notes that Crescent City’s average depth ranges from about 15 to 20 feet. In his letter to Huffman, he notes that the shallow depth restricts the community’s economic potential. The plan’s directive to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and NOAA to assess shipping channel depths is encouraging, Rademaker wrote.

“We respectfully urge your office to ensure that the Crescent City Harbor District is prioritized during these federal assessments,” the letter states. “Furthermore, the plan’s emphasis on streamlining the National Environmental Policy Act reviews and accelerating the approval of dredging permits provides the exact regulatory relief our District requires to maintain and expand our access channels.”

Rademaker said the goal is to increase the harbor’s depth by about 10 feet, which would make it more attractive for larger vessels.