Tag Archives: salmon processing barge
Gone processing – The price of progress?
As you read this, work is continuing in Bellingham, Wash., on a $40 million, federally financed, salmon-processing barge some think could revolutionize the Alaska fishing business. “Our refrigeration system freezes fish whole at temperatures colder than anyone in the industry, increasing both quality and shelf life,” says U.S. Department of Agriculture financed Northline Seafoods. “With a cargo storage capacity of over 14 million pounds of frozen product, our barge carries Bristol Bay salmon to Western Washington where it can be processed to our customers’ specifications in the fall, winter, and spring.” Northline CEO Ben Blakey has pitched the operation as a way to eliminate “large, shore-based processing facilities that are operated in brief, expensive seasonal periods. Salmon often spend multiple days in transit before being delivered to the processing facilities. High shipping costs outweigh the market value of salmon byproducts, and facilities may dump up to 30 percent of salmon weight back into the ocean ecosystem as waste.” more, >>click to read<< 20:51
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
