Tag Archives: Northline Seafoods
A Sitka fish processor lost everything in 2020. Now it’s planning a comeback.
The wreck of its fish processing barge in Bristol Bay two years ago could have been the end of the newly formed Northline Seafoods, but the Sitka-based operation is planning a comeback in a big way. On Wednesday Northline announced it had received a $40 million federal food supply chain loan, to not only to rebuild its floating processor but also to reinvent the region’s processing industry. The pictures from the wreck of Northline’s SM-3 
processing barge are not pretty. The 150-foot vessel began service in Southeast Alaska as a platform for helicopter logging, with an upper deck originally designed for aircraft. That superstructure collapsed when the SM-3’s anchor buoy parted in a September gale in 2020, and 80-mph winds blew it ashore in Bristol Bay not far from Ekuk. Animated video, >click to read< 09:17
Northline Seafoods Bringing New Innovations to Fishing Industry
Greater Commercial Lending (GCL), which provides loans to businesses and organizations in under-served and rural communities, has completed $40 million in financing for an innovative salmon processing barge in Bristol Bay, Alaska, that will flash-freeze whole salmon right at the fishing grounds. The loan is guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) through the Food Supply Chain Guaranteed Loan Program. Northline Seafoods’ proprietary system for just-caught whole salmon will eliminate multiple days of transport, fuel usage, excess waste and lost product quality, as compared to traditional processing. Bristol Bay is home to the largest sockeye salmon fishery in the world. With the “Hannah,” Northline Seafoods’ processing barge, local fishing vessels will deliver their salmon harvest directly to the processing facility. >click to read< 20:11
A Sitka mobile processing plant built to chill out the Bristol Bay fishery
Alaska’s Bristol Bay sockeye fishery is intense, lucrative — and also remote. Much of the fish landed there is frozen whole and shipped long distances for secondary processing. Although the product is famous, there are some who think the quality could be improved. In Sitka, a pair of entrepreneurs is betting $2 million that they can deliver a better Bristol Bay sockeye. Meet Northline Seafoods. The relentless pace of sockeye fishing can’t be overstated: two openings a day, four hours between openings, with harvests topping 13 million pounds a day during the peak of the season in June. Twelve processors buy fish in Bristol Bay. And next year there will be a thirteenth: Northline. “They’ll go under the deck. There’ll be three more of these ice machines here…” This is Pat Glaab, who with his partner, Ben Blakey, has bought a 150-foot former helicopter logging barge and is converting it into a floating fish processor. click here to read the story 08:12
