Port Angeles: Coast Guard Group’s jurisdiction extended to all of saltwater border with Canada, San Juans

An expansion of Coast Guard Group Port Angeles’ jurisdiction to where the Canadian border meets the land, announced earlier this year, becomes official next Friday.

Group Seattle, currently responsible for Coast Guard functions from the waters of South Puget Sound to the Canadian border north of the San Juan Islands, will turn over the northern portion of its region as well as Station Bellingham to Group Port Angeles, which also commands units in Port Townsend, Neah Bay and LaPush.

“Essentially, management responsibility of the waters of the San Juan Islands will fall to Group Port Angeles,” said Capt. Gail Donnelly, chief of search and rescue in Seattle’s District 13 headquarters.

Group Port Angeles will have oversight of all waters along the 125-mile saltwater boundary with Canada through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Haro Strait, Boundary Pass and the Strait of Georgia.