Construction underway on new aquaculture workboat for Long Beach owner

Construction is underway on a new workboat slated to support operations at the first permitted offshore aquaculture farm in North America.

The 78- by 26-foot (24- by eight-metre) Pacific Alliance is being built by Nichols Brothers Boat Builders (NBBB) of Whidbey Island, Washington, for Pacific6 Enterprises, a company based in Long Beach, California.

The boat will have a Caterpillar C18 804hp (600kW) main engine and a Caterpillar C9.3 368hp (275kW) auxiliary engine. The wheelhouse will have air conditioning and heating as well as accommodations for four people.

Once in service, the boat will be used for installing screw anchors, stringing up lines, seeding, farm maintenance, and harvesting. It will also serve as a marine mammal entanglement response vessel.

Pacific Alliance will be homeported at AltaSea in the Port of Los Angeles.

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