Tag Archives: Northwest Seafood Exchange
Deal For New Fish Buyer With Kuskokwim Villages Could Fall Through
The village of Quinhagak is hoping to sell fish to Seattle based company North West Sea Food Exchange after Costal Villages Region Fund stopped buying fish earlier this year. But the village is running into some unexpected problems that could prevent the partnership. When CVRF said they were no longer going to support their commercial fishing program, they meant it. “We need cranes to offload the boats,” Warren Jones said. Jones is the manager of the native corporation in Quinhagak. He says the village cannot process fish or even transport it without CVRF equipment right now. “We need forklifts to get the totes on the truck. We need the ice machine to keep the fish chilled,” Jones said. CVRF told Quinhagak in an email they would not be allowed to use equipment they had once used for the fisheries operation left in the village. Jones says he didn’t expect this, and now he’s worried the deal is dead. Read the rest here 13:44
Kuskokwim area may see a commercial fishing opening after all
Washington state fish brokers are traveling to the Southwestern Alaska village of Quinhagak Monday in the hope of quickly setting up a commercial operation for the region’s wild salmon this year. An Alaska Dispatch News story earlier this month reported that for the first time since Alaska became a state, no commercial fishing was planned for the Kuskokwim area in 2016 because of the lack of buyers. Jason Lake, one of three partners in the Northwest Seafood Exchange — a fish buyer and broker — said he had markets for the fish and wanted to help the local fishermen. Aaron Poetter, state Fish and Game commercial fisheries manager for the Kuskokwim area, said if a company gets state approval to operate as a fish buyer, he will schedule commercial fishing openings. Read the story here 08:43
