Tag Archives: seafood processing plant

In crabbers’ turbulent moment, Edmonds seafood processor ‘saved our season’

When a seafood processing plant in Alaska shut down in the middle of crabbing season, fishermen found themselves in a pinch. Under the state’s quota system, harvesters can only catch a set amount of crab each year. And they must deliver 90% of their catch to a processor with a corresponding quota With the Peter Pan Seafood facility closed this winter in King Cove, there was no one to process their catch. That’s when Keyport, an Edmonds-based company, stepped up to the plate. “When Peter Pan announced they were shutting down, a lot of fishermen came to us asking for help,” Keyport CEO Mark Pedersen said. more, >>click to read<< 16:18

Coronavirus closes a third Aleutian plant, stranding Bering Sea fishermen at the dock

In the Aleutian port town of Unalaska, at least five local boats are stuck at the dock with nowhere to deliver their cod after the shutdown of the Alyeska Seafoods processing plant, according to a crew member on one of them, Tacho Camacho Castillo. Alyeska closed its plant Friday “based on a cluster of positive cases” identified through “surveillance testing,” the City of Unalaska said in a prepared statement. “There’s two days and this fish starts to spoil,” Camacho Castillo, a crew member on the 58-foot Lucky Island, said in an interview Friday. “Am I going to be throwing out fish into the ocean? It’s going break my heart, for real, if I throw all this fish away.” >click to read< 18:38

UPDATED – New Brunswick: ‘This is terrible’, Val-Comeau seafood processing plant goes up in flames

A seafood processing plant in northeastern New Brunswick has gone up in flames Thursday afternoon. A plume of thick black smoke could be seen coming from Les Pêcheries de Chez Nous facility in Val-Comeau, a small coastal community now part of the regional municipality of Tracadie. Emmaneul Moyen, a representative of the Maritime Fishermen’s Union, told Radio-Canada it’s devastating news. He said about 100 local fishermen sell their catch to the plant, which had been operating at full capacity. “We are probably talking about 250 workers,” he said. >click to read the updated story< 16:47

Brookings gets innovative seafood processing plant

57bf8f35c70ae.imageBC Fisheries owner Mike Manning cut the ribbon Aug. 19 on a $9.6 million seafood processing facility that will benefit southern Oregon coast crabbers and shrimpers. The facility will create 30 new jobs, eliminate the need for long-distance shipping of locally-caught seafood for processing, and is the first of its kind to use cool steam technology on the West Coast.  Established in 2007, BC Fisheries is a family-owned company that ships cold-water pink shrimp and crab worldwide, offloading about 1.5 million pounds per month. It was unable to process shrimp locally though, leading to high transportation costs. A $6.3 million loan from Craft3, a nonprofit that makes loans for business development, allowed BC Fisheries to build an insulated processing building next to the docks at the Port of Brookings Harbor, purchase equipment, and have adequate working capital. The new facility will be able to process up to 2.4 million pounds of shrimp per month. Read the story here 20:37

Breakwater Fisheries won’t commit to rebuilding Cottlesville plant – fire was ‘100 per cent arson’;

The owner of the seafood processing plant in Cottlesville, New World Island that was burned by an arsonist in March says he’s not ready to say whether he will rebuild the facility. It’s a big blow for all of New World Island, said one former worker, who asked not to be named. The plant was a major employer in the small community on Newfoundland’s northeast coast, providing seasonal employment to 100 full-time and several dozen part-time staffers. One source said the operation processed between four and five-million pounds of snow crab annually, along with other pelagics such as capelin, mackerel and hearing. Read the rest here 09:50

Icicle Calls It Quits in Adak – cites regulatory uncertainty as the deciding factor

KUCB – Unalaska – Just two years after reopening, the seafood processing plant in Adak is shutting down.  Icicle Seafoods didn’t return calls for comment, but in a press release, CEO Amy Humphreys cites regulatory uncertainty as the deciding factor. Fishing in the western Aleutians has been restricted in recent years to protect an endangered stock of Steller sea lions, and an anticipated division of the Pacific cod harvest between the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands could also impact shore-based processors. continued