Colette Czarnecki and Hunter Morrison
The City and Borough of Wrangell and the City of Ketchikan have adopted a joint resolution to establish a Maritime Prosperity Zone. They’re looking to build upon their strengths – from shipbuilding to port infrastructure to maritime logistics. Each community has deepwater access, has developed expanded maritime industrial infrastructure and uses low-cost renewable hydroelectric power.
Wrangell’s borough manager Mason Villarma said they’re responding to an executive order issued by President Trump in 2025 to “restore America’s maritime dominance.”
“We realized that there’s strength in a partnership with Ketchikan to get the home ports, to get the maintenance facilities together,” Villarma said. “So we’ve deemed ourselves collectively as the Southeast Alaska Maritime Industrial Corridor, and so we’re seeking designation for our two communities. There’s only 100 communities in the United States that will get this declaration.”
According to Trump’s Maritime Action Plan, those hundred selected communities will have that designation for 10 years.
According to the President’s executive order, maritime workforce and shipbuilding capacity has “been weakened by decades of Government neglect, leading to a decline in a once strong industrial base.” It goes on to say that “the United States constructs less than one percent of commercial ships globally” while China produces “approximately half.”
The executive order’s goal is to allow the selected communities to apply for federal funding and improve workforce development.
Villarma said federal subsidies and technical support will help the communities that participate in the program. He said the new maritime prosperity zone would help expand domestic capacity and national security.
“As our national security fleet continues to grow at the Coast Guard and U.S. Navy, there’s opportunities for Alaska to create jobs and do that work here,” Villarma said. “So most of that work, you know, 60% of it, goes to Washington, California, and now they can’t even get into yards. So it’s a really great opportunity.”
JAG Marine Group, for example, has a large-scale shipbuilding and repair yard in Ketchikan and wants to expand in Wrangell. Villarma said the federal designation would help this effort.
Ketchikan City Councilmember Jack Finnegan said if the maritime zone is selected, it could help catalyze private investment in the region’s maritime industry. He said it could also help grow Ketchikan’s population.
“Anytime we have the opportunity to strengthen an industry that’s so critical to our community, I think it just bolsters the workforce,” Finnegan said. “It feasibly draws more workers here. It draws more families here.”
And that’s important to both Ketchikan and Wrangell. The latest economic data show that young people leaving Southeast is impacting the workforce.
A resolution to support the Maritime Prosperity Zone will go before the Ketchikan Borough Assembly on Monday. Borough Mayor Austin Otos expects the assembly to approve it.
