Tag Archives: King Cove
For more than a century, a fish plant fueled King Cove’s economy. Without it, can the community survive?
Five months ago, King Cove Mayor Warren Wilson wrote an opinion piece in the Anchorage Daily News. The headline was stark: Fighting For Our Lives in King Cove. Peter Pan Seafood Co., the owner of a plant that had served as the economic engine of the Southwest Alaska town of about 800 for more than a century, had just announced it would cease operations. “As King Cove’s mayor,” he wrote at the time, “it hurts my heart to say that it has taken only a few short months for me to no longer recognize my world. Events have conspired to threaten our very existence.” The seafood industry around the world has been devastated by low fish prices, high interest rates, oversupply in some markets and poor fish returns in others. In Alaska, according to a recent report from NOAA Fisheries, profits fell by half between 2021 and 2023. Few Alaska communities have felt the pain of the seafood industry crisis more than King Cove. With the plant’s owner out of business, residents are left to wonder if their community has a future. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 09:43
Original Peter Pan Seafood investor wins auction for troubled company’s assets
One of the original investors in a troubled Alaska seafood company has narrowly outbid competitor Silver Bay Seafoods in an auction for the firm’s assets — including a major processing plant in the Alaska Peninsula village of King Cove. Rodger May, an entrepreneur and fish trader, bid $37.3 million for the assets of Peter Pan Seafood, including two other processing plants — one in the Bristol Bay hub town of Dillingham and another in a remote part of the Alaska Peninsula called Port Moller. May’s bid was $257,000 higher than the bid offered by Silver Bay Seafoods, a major Alaska seafood company that’s expanded rapidly in recent years. The sale of Peter Pan, which operates primarily in Alaska with a business headquarters in Washington, isn’t final. A confirmation hearing in Peter Pan’s receivership case — a bankruptcy-like proceeding overseen by a Seattle court — is scheduled for Oct. 3. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 11:36
OPINION: Fighting for our lives in King Cove
I am a fisherman; one of my grandfathers was a fisherman and the other one was a lifelong employee of Peter Pan Seafoods. My father was a fisherman, my brother is a fisherman and my mother, for much of her working life, worked for Peter Pan. We live in the southwest Aleut community of King Cove. For my extended family and all the other families like mine, we rely upon our knowledge of the ocean, our skills in the harvesting of fish, and a fish processor that pays a fair price. At the end of each day, we enjoy the satisfaction of hard work paying off. As King Cove’s mayor, it hurts my heart to say that it has taken only a few short months for me to no longer recognize my world. Events have conspired to threaten our very existence. A collapse of our incomes, individually and citywide, the shock of realizing that municipal projects, many years in the making, may grind to a halt. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 20:35
Will Interior Secretary Haaland see more than ducks and eel grass at King Cove?
U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is slated to visit with residents of King Cove during a visit to Alaska in September. During her confirmation meetings, she reportedly promised U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan she would meet with villagers to talk about a short, one-lane gravel road,,, The Aleut fishing village of about 950 has fought for decades to get such a road to the Cold Bay all-weather runway for medical evacuations in poor weather, but without success. The roadway would be routed along the edge of the 330,000-acre Izembek refuge.,, The 11-mile stretch would complete a 30-mile road that would provide a reliable ground link to Cold Bay’s all-weather runway when the area’s notoriously fierce weather grounds small planes. >click to read< 14:11
A new fish processor is buoying King Cove’s fishermen. But,,
King Cove has long been a company town. For decades, its fishermen were frustrated by Peter Pan Seafoods, Inc., the private company that runs King Cove’s own massive processing plant. Especially vexing were the limits: While another processor in the region was buying far more salmon, Peter Pan would only buy 35,000 pounds from each boat, each day, said A.J. Newman, a King Cove city council member who skippers the 58-foot Lady Lee Dawn.“It’s hard to watch your friends catch double what you caught,” said Newman. “Peter Pan had too many boats,,, >click to read< 08:44
