PII Facilities in High Demand
A purse seiner at the PII dock gets repairs made to its fishing net. Photo: PII
Pacific International Inc. is the Marshalls biggest construction company. It was founded by Jerry Kramer and is now owned and run by him and his family. In February the company celebrated the opening of its new dock facility, its new purse seiner net repair workshop, and the arrival of its new ship, Michelle K.
The following update on the company appeared in the March 24 issue of the Marshall Islands Journal:
Purse seiners flock to net repair workshop
The Pacific International Inc. ship Michelle K, which started work in February, returned to Majuro Sunday after delivering 130,000 gallons of fuel to Ebeye. “This was the ship’s second trip,” said PII’s Kenneth Kramer. “The first was to deliver material to Ebeye for the boat ramp and other projects being done by Scott Howe.” The next trip for the Marshalls’ new workhorse is to deliver, for a local contractor, water catchments. “We’re taking them to six or seven outer islands.”
When the Michelle K was blessed at a ceremony in mid-February, PII’s newly-constructed dock and its purse seiner net repair facility were also celebrated. The dock is now in big demand. “A purse seiner came in this morning (Monday) for water bunkering,” Kenneth said. “They’re buying fresh water from MWSC.” On Wednesday, another purse seiner is to due to dock at PII, this time to use the net repair facility. “Apparently this is going to be a big repair job on the net. We got a call five days ago and its steaming towards us ever since.”
This will be the net shop’s third repair. “The first two repairs went well and they were very happy,” Kenneth said. “It sounds like they’re all talking to each other about the service, because we’re getting more and more calls about it.”
