Tag Archives: U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Top Homeland Security Doctor touring rural Alaska ahead of commercial fishing season openers
The senior medical officer at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is touring Bristol Bay communities and elsewhere in Alaska this week as commercial fishing seasons get ready to open. Dr. Alexander Eastman will also visit Nome and nearby villages, state officials said Monday. Asked if fishing seasons that start with this week’s opener in Cordova prompted the visit, Eastman said a mix of factors “drove my bosses to give me the order to come to Alaska.” Among them, he said, are “the influx of a large amount of folks to the state in combination with her geography and some of the challenges the state faces on a day to day basis” even without the coronavirus when it comes to health-care resources,,, >click to read< 07:52
Hiring seafood workers in Bristol Bay has been tough for years. This summer, it’s worse.
Seafood processors in Alaska’s Bristol Bay this summer have had trouble finding enough workers to handle the fish that come through their plants. Those in the industry say a confluence of factors, including a lack of visas for bringing foreign workers to the industry, a hotter economy in the Lower 48, and a record-breaking salmon run in Bristol Bay, was to blame. “There was a significant lack of process workers for some companies in the bay, and it exacerbated the problems of having to deal with high levels of harvest,” said John Garner, president of Seattle-based North Pacific Seafoods, which has locations across Alaska. Some processors couldn’t keep up with the huge amount of fish coming in, which forced them to resort to whatever method was fastest to get the pounds through the plant. click here to read the story 10:03
