HaiSea Marine welcomes its first fully electric tugboat

HaiSea Marine, a joint venture that is majority owned by the Haisla Nation in partnership with Seaspan ULC, took delivery of its first fully electric tugboat on July 7th.

The Haisea Wamis has been designed by the Robert Allan firm of naval architects and marine engineers, which is also a Green Marine partner. It is the first of three fully electric tugboats to arrive and operate silently. Each will have a battery capacity of 5288 kWh, which is equivalent to the power required to run about 70 Tesla vehicles all day.

When all three electric tugboats join HaiSea’s incoming dual-fuel (LNG and diesel) escort tugs, they will form the world’s greenest tugboat fleet.

The fleet will be based in Kitimat, British Columbia, where a floating tugboat maintenance facility will be built by Pacific Marine Construction. The floating infrastructure will consist of two main areas: a large workshop with common spaces, and a gym facility for shore-based personnel.

At Kitimat’s base of operations, HaiSea’s fleet will provide ship-assist and escort towing services to LNG carriers that call at LNG Canada’s new export facility in the traditional territory of the Haisla Nation.

Watch the HaiSea Wamis when it arrived in Vancouver on Friday, July 7, 2023.