Page 28: of Marine News Magazine (March 2026)

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Maritime Voices

Capt. Paul C. LaMarre III and cargo owners as associate members. LaMarre’s fram- ing is straightforward: the Great Lakes are “a direct line to the heartland of the United States,” enabling trade that can deliver “less congestion and less cost” as goods move into the Midwest.

One recurring challenge, however, is that the Great

Lakes are hard to explain to people who haven’t experi- enced them.

“It’s hard to explain the Great Lakes,” LaMarre said. “Unless you’ve seen them… until you stand on the shores of Lake Superior or go through the Soo Locks on a thousand-foot lake freighter, it’s hard to imagine the magnitude of what we’re doing.”

And yet what moves across the Lakes is as American as it gets: “the raw materials that fuel industrial Amer- “My family has scars all over our ica,” including iron ore, coal, limestone and grain. bodies from decades of trying

LaMarre calls the Great Lakes “the fourth seacoast” — inland seas that are both working waterways and an to restore America’s maritime industrial lifeline.

dominance, as I’m sure many [reading] this interview will feel

Investment, Icebreaking & Dredging the same way. The Great Lakes is

When LaMarre talks about policy, he doesn’t drift into a unique area because the Lakers abstractions. For him, it comes down to investment: in have a following, and people are ports, in the system, and in the U.S. Jones Act ? eet.

aware of the vessels, who they

Grant programs such as the Port Infrastructure Devel- are owned by, who they work for, opment Program (PIDP), Marine Highway grants, and congressionally directed spending can be decisive — but what they’re carrying. We aren’t

Great Lakes ports, he argues, need their equitable share. talking about commercial goods

He also ? ags the foundational needs that don’t make from places like China. We’re headlines but determine whether cargo ? ows: icebreak- talking about the raw materials ing, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers funding, and dredg- that fuel industrial America: the ing backlogs.

iron ore that is in the steel in your

The Great Lakes’ operating environment adds another automobile, the coal that’s keeping layer. Weather is not just a variable; it can be a de? n- ing constraint. The lakes generate their own weather pat- your lights on, the limestone that’s terns, and LaMarre describes the sea state as uniquely in your driveway and the grain punishing, with a shorter fetch producing shorter wave that’s on your kitchen table.” periods that can create “a very confused and violent sea” under signi? cant weather.

– Capt. Paul C. LaMarre III,

He points to the Edmund Fitzgerald as the most fa- a third-generation mariner, Port Director, mous Great Lakes wreck, and to the hard-earned safety

Port of Monroe and President, American lessons that have strengthened the system over time.

Great Lakes Ports Association [AGLPA] 28 | MN March 2026