State seeks a shipyard to build a 96-foot wildlife trooper vessel for Southeast

The Alaska Department of Public Safety asked shipyards Monday for proposals to build a 96-foot patrol vessel for the Alaska Wildlife Troopers, to replace the Enforcer, a Juneau vessel the state says was built with "dramatically inferior materials."

Without a replacement, fisheries enforcement would be limited for 7,400 Southeast commercial fishing permit holders in a fishery worth $467 million a year, the department said in a state budget request for the new vessel.

The Enforcer, an 84-foot steel vessel, patrolled Southeast out of Juneau starting in 2006. Its main job was supporting multi-day commercial fishing and guided hunting enforcement, plus sport fishing and hunting enforcement. It also helped with search and rescue and disaster response.

It had "major damage incidents during construction" and design and engineering faults that required changes after delivery before it could pass sea trials, according to the request for proposals. The budget request said the vessel was dropped twice, once at its first launch and again while being loaded for shipping.

The state awarded the 2002 contract to build the Enforcer to a low bidder in south Texas, the budget request said. The state took legal action, but the bond company went bankrupt, and the shipyard defaulted on the judgment and later went out of business.

The budget request said the Enforcer left service because of design and construction flaws and mold. The department got rid of it in 2023, after 17 years in service, according to the request for proposals, and put it up for auction online that November.

The troopers' two other large vessels are the 156-foot Stimson, based in Kodiak, which works mainly in the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea, and the 70-foot Cama'i, which works mainly around Kodiak Island and the Alaska Peninsula.

Shipyards must show they have successfully built at least three vessels 75 feet or longer with steel hulls and aluminum deckhouses, with examples from the last 20 years. Proposals without that record will be rejected.

The new vessel would be built for a crew of three operators and two troopers, plus five passengers, with a range of 2,400 nautical miles, according to its technical specifications. It's designed to last 50 years and work year-round in icy conditions, patrolling Southeast's inside and outside waters and crossing the Gulf of Alaska to places such as Kodiak, Cordova and Yakutat. It's expected to patrol Yakutat two or three times a year.

The state has $8.5 million set aside for the contract. Any more would depend on the Legislature.

Proposals are due Nov. 30. The state expects to announce which shipyard it intends to hire Dec. 11, sign a contract around Dec. 22 and have the vessel finished around the end of 2028.