LONG BEACH : Catalina Cruises Back in Business After Dredging

Catalina Cruises is back in business at Queensway Landing after being forced out when heavy rains deposited massive amounts of sand and silt at the mouth of the Los Angeles River in early January.

The channel connecting the company’s passenger terminal in the small harbor near downtown and the ocean was reopened last month after four weeks of around-the-clock dredging by the U. S. Army of Corps of Engineers.

The closure of the waterway forced Catalina Cruises to curtail ferry service to Santa Catalina Island and whale-watching tours. The company began offering whale-watching tours from a city-owned dock at Shoreline Village in early February. It ran its full schedule of ferry service to Avalon out of Shoreline Village for 10 days before the harbor was reopened.