A Haines graduate is helping test what could become a new direction for Alaska's fishing fleet: hybrid-electric commercial boats. Chandler Kemp, now an engineering professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, helped design a hybrid propulsion system for the F/V Mirage, a Sitka longliner believed to be the first commercial fishing vessel in the country using the technology.

For Kemp, the project connects directly to growing up in the Chilkat Valley, where conversations about fuel costs and energy independence were constant. Now, with fuel prices climbing again across Southeast, those questions feel newly urgent, especially for the fishing fleet which relies heavily on diesel.

But as Will Steinfeld reports this week, while some fishermen see promise in lowering fuel costs, others are skeptical of its reliability, power, and the high cost of conversion.


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