Maritime Services Historically, the ocean and San Diego's maritime services have had a major impact on the region's economy. As the last port before entering Mexican waters, sport fishing boats, commercial fishing fleets and pleasure craft depend on the more than 200 companies that provide repair, maintenance care and auxiliary equipment to the vessels that come to San Diego annually. While much of San Diego's maritime services are repair and maintenance, the city is also known for shipbuilding. NASSCO is one of only five new construction yards in the country and the only one on the West Coast. Besides fulfilling defense contracts for Navy auxiliary and amphibious ships, this company designs and constructs large commercial vessels including cargo and container ships, freighters and heavy oil tankers for the Alaskan trade. The Port of San Diego and the Navy have been dredging the bay to give larger cargo ships access to the docks. This will increase the shipping abilities of the city's two marine terminals and allow businesses to use our ports instead of depending on those in Los Angeles. As more cruise ships use San Diego as a port, hundreds of jobs will be created to serve those needs as well. | 
