By Kiera Morgan

At this week’s Port of Newport meeting Cody Chase and Cari Brandberg gave a presentation to the Port Commissioners regarding the replacement of the Chelsea Rose, a retired fishing vessel where they sell fish off of port dock 3. The idea presented would be to build a new dock at the spot where the vessel is now to continue to sell fish but it would be from a floating boat dock instead. This would offer increased storage capacity. Cody purchased the Chelsea Rose about 12-years ago and refurbished to make it into the fish selling vessel it is today however Chase said it won’t make it another year. He assured the port commissioners that this new venture will be very well done and will look nice.

This would be a smaller footprint but a bit wider than the current Chelsea Rose. It would be loosely based on the boathouse in Toledo and Cody and Cari have been working with Bud Shoemake about designing and building the new structure from Toledo. Cari told the port commissioners that over 300,000 pounds of tuna pass the dock to consumers through them. They also work with about 60 local vessels to sell fresh caught fish and have been backed by the local fishermen and OSU in marketing seafood to the public. The port commission agreed to discuss the matter further at a works session possibly next month and wanted to make sure that the old vessel is removed in a clean and responsible manner.