SEATTLE — A new Port of Seattle partnership is taking aim at one of the maritime sector’s most intractable problems: The graying seas.
One-third of employees in Washington’s maritime industry are over the age of 55, according to 2018 Census data. The bracket seeing fastest employment growth is ages 65 and up.
That’s causing alarm among leaders in the state’s $30 billion cargo shipping, fishing and transportation sectors, who in recent years have rolled out a suite of programs designed to attract teens and college students to maritime jobs.
Their latest effort: The state’s first-ever maritime startup accelerator, the result of yearlong negotiations between the port, the Department of Commerce and co-working company WeWork.
