Tag Archives: F/V Akutan

Scuttled! Coast Guard assists Alaska Department of Natural Resources complete response to fishing vessel Akutan

The Coast Guard assisted the Alaska Department of Natural Resources’ response to the disabled and abandoned fishing vessel Akutan near Dutch Harbor, Alaska, Thursday. The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Alex Haley assisted Alaska DNR by towing the Akutan to a scuttling site approximately three miles outside U.S. territorial seas where Resolve Marine personnel, contracted by the DNR, scuttled the vessel and conducted cleanup operations for debris in the water. >click here to read< 15:24

Come 2018, The State Plans To Dispose Of The F/V Akutan

After months sitting abandoned in Unalaska, the state announced Friday its intention to dispose of the fishing vessel Akutan. The processor was abandoned in Unalaska’s Captains Bay in September following a disastrous fishing season in Bristol Bay where the ship’s owner went broke, the crew went unpaid, and it’s 158,000 pound haul of salmon was declared unfit for human consumption. The state is looking for buyers interested in the vessel. If there are two or more prospective buyers, they will conduct a public auction, or the Akutan will be donated for scrap or destroyed. click here to read the story 15:40

Declared unfit for human or animal consumption – Eighty tons of contested Bristol Bay salmon trashed in Anchorage landfill

Some 158,318 pounds of highly contested Bristol Bay salmon from the F/V Akutan have reached their final destination: the Anchorage landfill. This summer, the custom processor was supposed to process up to 100,000 pounds of salmon a day for Bristol Bay Seafoods LLC, a small group of fishermen. But nearly everything that could go wrong did. The vessel’s owner went broke, the crew wasn’t paid, and when 158,318 pounds of fish came off the boat in early September, the third-party testing group NSF declared it unfit for human or animal consumption. click here to read the story 09:17

Crew abandons F/V Akutan in Unalaska’s Captains Bay

The F/V Akutan no longer has a crew and the ship’s 130,000 pounds of salmon has been offloaded. The processor has been anchored in Unalaska’s Captains Bay since late August and there’s no indication the boat will be leaving soon. “The reality of it is, there’s just a huge legal ball that needs to be worked through before any real decision can be made,” Unalaska Ports Director Peggy McLaughlin said. After a disastrous fishing season as a processor in Bristol Bay, the vessel’s owner went broke, the crew went unpaid. and now the ship is disabled and unable to move. click here to read the story 14:57

Quinhagak commercial fishermen struggle after two years without a buyer

Several weeks ago, the financing fell through on a plan to bring the “Akutan,” a floating fish processing vessel, to Kuskokwim Bay. For the second summer in a row, fishermen in the coastal community of Quinhagak have nowhere to sell their catch; many in the village are now struggling to make ends meet. Timothy “Johnny Boy” Matthews doesn’t remember when he started fishing commercially.,, Matthews has a family of his own now. He bought his own limited entry permit a decade ago and spent his summers selling silvers to a newly opened processing plant in Platinum. It’s owned by Coastal Villages Region Fund (CVRF), a corporation that is supposed to use its Bering Sea fishing quota to support economic development in the area. But CVRF decided not to re-open its plant last year,,, Audio, read the story here 12:17

Unified command established in response to potential sinking of fishing vessel Akutan

The U.S. Coast Guard, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation and the city of Unalaska established a unified command in response to potential pollution from the fishing vessel Akutan near Unalaska, Alaska, Friday. Personnel from Coast Guard Sector Anchorage, the State of Alaska, the city of Unalaska and Resolve Marine Services, a salvage and repair company, are coordinating and overseeing the removal of environmental hazards, including anhydrous ammonia and various petroleum products onboard the fishing vessel Akutan. The unified command determined the steps taken by the vessel owner and operator as inadequate to prevent a potential pollution incident. The approximately 166-foot fishing vessel began transiting to Dutch Harbor from Bristol Bay earlier this month. Due to various mechanical issues the vessel anchored in Captains Bay where it remains, deteriorating. click here to read the press bulletin 12:36

The F/V Akutan’s sad, failed season in Bristol Bay

Fiasco. Disaster. Nightmare. These are words used by those involved with the floating processor Akutan to describe a fishing season gone terribly wrong. The Akutan, owned by Klawock Oceanside, Inc., was supposed to custom process up to 100,000 pounds of Bristol Bay salmon a day for a small fleet of fishermen under the banner Bristol Bay Seafoods, LLC. After July 25, it was bound for the Kuskokwim to give local fishermen their only salmon market.,,, “We’re in peril,” Captain Steve Lecklitner said Saturday. “We know we cannot stay in this river. It’s breaking down our systems. The owners have basically abandoned the vessel. The mortgage holders and the lenders have not established contact. I’m trying to get parts for our generator, and as soon as that’s done, it’s our intention to move the vessel to Dutch Harbor.” click here to read the story 08:16