Cranes are busy at the Port of Newport, where preparation has begun to welcome a fleet of NOAA research vessels.
Don Mann is the executive director of the Port of Newport. He says crews need to dredge about 57,000 to 60,000 yards of material from Yaquina Bay to accommodate NOAA’s fleet of six big ships — the biggest to ever use the bay.
Mann says the work is supposed to wrap up February 15th, but the Port is likely to ask for an extension.