Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Platinum in play

A reader reports hearing on good authority that the Goodnews Bay processing plant will not open this season.

The plant, located near the remote Western Alaska village of Platinum, belongs to Coastal Villages Region Fund, one of state's community development quota companies.

It was built at a reported cost of $35 million and began operations in the summer of 2009.

Deckboss asked Coastal Villages about its plans for the plant this year and received the following reply from Angie Pinsonneault, director of business development.

Every year we evaluate a number of factors in deciding whether, when, and for how long to open the plant. We are in the midst of that process now. No decisions have been made yet.

Saturday, April 23, 2016

Monday, April 18, 2016

Mark your calendar

The Alaska Legislature has passed an act establishing Aug. 10 of each year as Alaska Wild Salmon Day.

Sunday, April 17, 2016

It's on at Togiak

The Togiak sac roe herring fishery will open at 6 p.m. today.

Here's the official announcement from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

The industry has another huge quota this year at 28,782 tons.

Friday, April 15, 2016

Confirmed

The Alaska Legislature today confirmed the governor's appointments to the Board of Fisheries — Al Cain, Israel Payton and Robert Ruffner.

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

News of the weird

From the Alaska State Troopers:

Location: Craig marine waters
Type: Suspicious circumstances
On 4/10/16 at 1134 hours, Alaska Wildlife Troopers received a report of a suspicious box floating in the marine waters near Craig. AWT responded via the P/V Interceptor and discovered the box was a military shipping container for a guided missile. During the investigation, a mariner in the vicinity radioed AWT to report they had located an additional guided missile shipping container. Explosives Ordinance Disposal was contacted and helped determine both containers were void of their original contents and the containers were safe to remove from the water to be disposed of. The history of the containers, or where they originated, is unknown at this time. Information on tags attached to the containers was passed along to military authorities.

And the winners are...

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has announced prize winners for sablefish and lingcod tag recovery.

Chinook situation brightens for trollers

The state has announced the Chinook salmon quota for this year, and it appears Southeast Alaska trollers will enjoy a substantially better catch this summer season compared to last.

Trident makes big move in Europe

Seattle-based Trident Seafoods Corp. announced it has acquired a value-added processing plant in Germany.

The purchase price was not disclosed.

"The company we acquired today has long been a major user and marketer of single-frozen wild Alaska pollock, and this is a logical fit for us," said Trident CEO Joe Bundrant. "Trident can now offer European customers the assurance of full control of our product supply chain at a time when transparency is becoming increasingly important to consumers."

More in this press release.

Monday, April 11, 2016

Where do you live, really?

Here's an interesting memo from the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission discussing the "serious concern" of false Alaska residency claims.

Friday, April 1, 2016

ASMI board news

Gov. Bill Walker recently made appointments to the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute board of directors.

• Tom Enlow, CEO of processor UniSea, replaces Peter Pan Seafoods CEO Barry Collier on the board. While Collier reapplied, the governor went with an "Alaska-based" choice in Enlow, a Walker spokeswoman said.

• Richard Riggs, CEO of Silver Bay Seafoods, fills a vacant seat last held by former Icicle Seafoods CEO Amy Humphreys.

• Mark Palmer, CEO of Ocean Beauty Seafoods, is reappointed to the board.

At its meeting Thursday in Juneau, the board elected Jack Schultheis, general manager of Kwik'pak Fisheries, as chairman.

You can see the full ASMI board lineup here.