PORT ANGELES — The state’s entire saltwater border with Canada will come under the watch of Coast Guard Group/Air Station Port Angeles next month when the Coast Guard’s Bellingham station changes command.
Beginning in mid-April, Station Bellingham — which is responsible for an area from Admiralty Inlet north through the San Juan Islands to the Canadian border — will switch from Group Seattle to Group Port Angeles in a nationwide effort to unify operations, said Capt. William Peterson, commanding officer of Group/Air Station Port Angeles.
“We’ll be working with our Department of Homeland Security counterparts — Customs, Border Patrol, Immigration — and they’ll have one-stop shopping,” Peterson said Wednesday.
The change will add about 800 square miles of coverage to the approximately 3,100 square miles Group Port Angeles now covers, and will bring about 70 more personnel under Peterson’s command for a total of about 276 people.
The addition of Bellingham will become official April 16, but beginning Saturday an 87-foot patrol boat stationed at Bellingham will fall under Port Angeles’ command.
Sea Lion, the 51st Marine Protector Class cutter built for the Coast Guard, will be placed into service this weekend during a ceremony in Bellingham.
