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Alaska Seafood Processors Still Cutting Back, Despite Government Buys of Canned Salmon

21Feb

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Alaska Seafood Processors Still Cutting Back, Despite Government Buys of Canned Salmon

Federal government solicitations for canned salmon bids are boosting spirits a bit in Alaska’s commercial fisheries industry, but the overall gloom that has driven the selloff of some processing facilities and announce cutbacks on 2024 fishing season processing prevails. Last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture purchased over $200 million in Alaska seafood and the current solicitation for canned pink and sockeye salmon helps clean up inventory of the sockeyes, Bruce Schactler, food aid program and development director for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, said Feb. 19. “It will pretty much put a big dent in inventory,” he remarked. Meanwhile three major processors – Trident Seafoods, OBI Seafoods and Peter Pan Seafoods – had announced plans for selling off some faci...

Trident Seafoods Engaged in Site Work for Unalaska Construction Project

In late July, Trident Seafoods began laying the groundwork for the first bunkhouses for a new processing plant at Captains Bay in Unalaska, located at the heart of robust Bering Sea and Aleutian Island region fishing grounds. Marc Kielmeyer, an engineering technician for the city of Unalaska, said that Trident has been granted the required permits and that site work for the bunkhouses got underway in late July. Construction of the actual bunkhouses, however, was still in the works, he said. Unalaska Community Broadcasting, a community radio station, noted in late July that Trident Seafoods began a feasibility study in 2017 to explore ways to upgrade its plant at Akutan, but ultimately decided that a complete rebuild was the only reasonable option. Subsequently, Trident began c...

Bad Storm Inspires Plan for Environmentally Sustainable Processing Vessel

A seafood processor stung by an autumn storm in 2020 that grounded and destroyed its processing barge may be back in Bristol Bay for the 2024 salmon fishery with a new vertically integrated vessel that could produce higher quality fillets to sell year-round in an environmentally superior facility. “We developed the Hannah to produce higher quality fish through a more efficient process that benefits both fishermen and customers,” Ben Blakey, an industry veteran and chief executive officer of Northline Seafoods, with offices in Bellingham, Wash. and Sitka, Alaska said. “This project is a continuation of Northline’s commitment to innovation and environmental sustainability in the fishing industry.” Blakey said he hopes this one-of-a-kind vertically integrated vessel inspires others. “The...