Cargo Business Newswire

Thursday, February 6, 2014

MARAD awards $7M to maritime academies

The U.S. Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration announced that America's six state maritime academies – California Maritime Academy, Great Lakes Maritime Academy, Maine Maritime Academy, Massachusetts Maritime Academy, SUNY Maritime College, and Texas Maritime Academy – and the United States Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, NY, will each receive $1 million from a government program that recycles obsolete vessels.

"The most important element in our U.S. Merchant Marine fleet is our people," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx in the press release. "This funding will help ensure that dedicated men and women of our maritime academies continue to have the resources that make them the best educated and most highly trained mariners anywhere."

The money for this round of funding came from the sale of obsolete vessels from the Maritime Administration's National Defense Reserve Fleet, which were purchased for recycling. Per the National Maritime Heritage Act, 25 percent of the profit from sales is given to maritime academies for facilities and training ship maintenance, repair, and modernization, and for the purchase of simulators and fuel.