PORT HUENEME : Harbor Greets 300th Ship of the Fiscal Year

The Port of Hueneme hosted its 300th ship of its fiscal year Friday, hitting a milestone many doubted it would ever reach.

“People used to say there’s no way you’ll ever get 300 ships to call at the port,” said Oxnard Harbor District spokesman Kam Quarles as he watched the Cool Carriers ship M/V Ohyoh unload Turbana bananas.

Last year, 278 ships docked at the port. With two months before the end of the fiscal year, district Executive Director William Buenger said he expects 350 ships to call at the port by June 30.

Friday’s event came after a record-setting month in March, when 37 ships moved through the port.

“This isn’t something that just came about,” district President Raymond Fosse said. “We’ve had an aggressive marketing campaign over the past few years.”

Harbor District officials said the numbers will continue to increase thanks in part to an improving economy and new refrigerated facilities for Cool Carriers and Del Monte.

The refrigerated facilities allow ships to bring fruit to the port seven days a week, not just on days when trucks are available to ship it out immediately.

Fosse said the district is negotiating with additional carriers, but declined to elaborate.

Meanwhile, officials plan to expand the port to the south, when the Navy gives up ownership of a laboratory site in April of 1996. They also are negotiating to lease an extra berth from the Navy on a wharf directly north of the port, which would increase the total number of berths to six.

The port is the fourth busiest in California, behind ports in Long Beach, Los Angeles and Oakland. It handles more cargo than ports in San Diego and San Francisco.