Los Angeles County leaders gathered in Marina Del Rey on Monday to dedicate a brand-new $18 million Maritime Public Safety dock, a facility built to replace a dock structure dating back to the 1960s and give rescue crews room to work with bigger boats and more gear.
The dedication, held Monday, Sept. 28, brought out L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone, Sheriff Robert Luna and Supervisor Holly Mitchell, according to the Press-Telegram. The outlet reports the new dock and its facilities will serve as the coastal response hub for the Fire Department's Lifeguard Division, the Sheriff's Department Harbor Patrol and the Los Angeles County Harbor Patrol, replacing the aging structure it stood in for.
The facility sits adjacent to the Marina del Rey sheriff's station, the report notes, positioning it right alongside the law enforcement presence that already anchors the marina. Officials say the old 1960s-era dock simply couldn't keep pace with modern rescue operations, and the new build is meant to fix that gap directly.
Bigger Boats, Round-the-Clock Coverage
According to the same report, the new dock can accommodate larger emergency vessels than its predecessor, oversee around-the-clock search-and-rescue efforts, and take on additional equipment storage that the old facility lacked. Those upgrades matter for a stretch of coastline where rescue crews are already stretched thin across a sprawling patrol area.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department's Lifeguard Division, which will use the new hub, is described by the Los Angeles Almanac as the largest professional lifeguard operation in the world. The division deploys 172 full-time and more than 567 seasonal lifeguards out of four sub-headquarters, including one in Marina Del Rey, watching over 72 miles of Southern California coastline and Santa Catalina Island from 24 stations and 159 towers.
A Marina-Based Fleet With a Wide Reach
Among the division's resources is Baywatch Del Rey, one of eight full-time rescue boats the Lifeguard Division operates, per the Los Angeles Almanac's rundown of the department's maritime footprint. Those boats and their crews handle rescue boat operations, underwater rescue and recovery, swift-water rescue, cliff rescue, marine mammal rescue and marine firefighting across the county's coastal jurisdiction.
The new dock's role as a shared base for both fire lifeguards and sheriff's harbor patrol reflects how tightly those responsibilities are woven together along the marina's waterfront. With the ceremony now behind them, the dock stands ready as the latest piece of infrastructure meant to keep pace with the demands of one of the county's busiest stretches of coastline.
