Fatality reported on fishing vessel near Akutan

KUCB radio has the story.

Trident's Unalaska plans

Trident Seafoods is confirming plans to build a major new processing plant at Unalaska to replace its outdated plant at nearby Akutan.

But the Seattle-based company says it'll delay breaking ground on the new plant until 2025 due to adverse market conditions.

"The rate and pace at which markets are collapsing across our key species is staggering," says Trident CEO Joe Bundrant.

Big Trident decision coming

This memo prepared for Tuesday's Unalaska City Council meeting includes this note regarding Trident Seafoods:

We are told that a final decision on feasibility of building a new processing plant in Unalaska will be made by mid‐October.

Trident already has secured a site on Captains Bay.

If Trident does build a new plant at Unalaska, we wonder what would become of the company's huge Akutan plant 35 miles to the east?

Akutan restarts

Trident Seafoods says it has resumed operations at its Akutan processing plant after a monthlong COVID-19 outbreak forced a pause.

Trident's Akutan oubreak balloons

Trident Seafoods now reports that 266 workers at its Akutan processing plant have tested positive for COVID-19, making this one of the largest U.S. seafood industry outbreaks to date.

Also, Trident is reporting five confirmed cases aboard its factory trawler Island Enterprise.

Trident updates its Akutan situation

Click here.

Trident calls a COVID timeout

Trident Seafoods is pausing operations at its Akutan processing plant.

Aleutian outbreaks

As the huge Bering Sea groundfish harvest swings into action, the coronavirus is menacing the industry.

Significant outbreaks have been reported at the UniSea processing plant in Dutch Harbor, and at Trident's Akutan plant.

And the city of Unalaska today reported an outbreak on the fishing vessel Ocean Peace.

Akutan saga ends

The 166-foot processing vessel Akutan, which ended up abandoned at Unalaska following a disastrous salmon season in Bristol Bay, has been scuttled. U.S. Coast Guard photo

Processor in peril

Emergency efforts are underway to try to keep a "deteriorating" vessel, the Akutan, afloat at Unalaska.

The 166-foot fish processor is coming off a disastrous salmon season in Bristol Bay, as described in this KDLG story.

A further Exito update

Deckboss just got off the line with Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Meredith Manning, who provided this update on the Exito sinking:

The search for the two missing Exito crewmen continues.

The Coast Guard, in its initial news release, mistakenly referred to the Exito as a "fishing vessel."

The boat was hauling cargo including 55-gallon drums and an X-ray machine from Dutch Harbor to Akutan. It was working for Trident Seafoods, which has a huge processing plant at Akutan.

Missing Trident worker found dead at Akutan

From the Alaska State Troopers:

Location: Akutan
Type: Death investigation
On 05/26/15 at about 1350 hours, the Alaska State Troopers were notified by the Akutan village public safety officer that Yuliana Zazueca, 30, of Bakersfield, Calif., was missing and did not report for work for her scheduled shift at Trident Seafoods. A search of the island was conducted using resources from Trident, the Aleutians East Borough and the Alaska Wildlife Troopers out of Dutch Harbor. Yuliana's body was located on 5/27/15 at about 1100 hours. Next of kin has been notified. The body will be transported to Anchorage for an autopsy. No foul play is suspected.

Troopers investigate Californian's death at Akutan

From the Alaska State Troopers:

Location: Akutan
Type: Death investigation
On 5/4/13 Alaska Wildlife Troopers in Dutch Harbor were advised of a death in Akutan. It was reported that Simon Gatpan, 31, of Santa Clara, Calif., was found unresponsive on the beach near the Trident cannery. Gatpan was transported to the clinic and pronounced deceased. Alaska State Troopers, including an investigator with the Alaska Bureau of Investigation, will respond from Anchorage on 5/5/13 to investigate. Gatpan's body will be sent to the medical examiner's office for an autopsy to determine cause of death.

Coast Guard airlifts burn victim from Trident plant

From the U.S. Coast Guard:

April 5, 2010

Coast Guard conducts medevac on Easter from Akutan

KODIAK — A Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak HH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew deployed in Cold Bay medevaced a 57-year-old-male from Akutan to Dutch Harbor Sunday with second- and third-degree burns to his face.

The victim reportedly suffered burns when a paint can exploded in an incinerator at the Trident Seafoods processing plant. The 17th Coast Guard District command center received a call approximately 10:40 a.m. Sunday from Health Force Partners requesting Coast Guard assistance. The helicopter launched with two Guardian Flight medical personnel.

Upon arrival of the helicopter in Dutch Harbor, the victim and Guardian medical personnel were transferred to a Guardian Flight aircraft and flown to Anchorage.

A 'Super 8' boat meets its demise

The Icy Mist aground in February. USCG photo

The Icy Mist was a so-called Super 8 boat, one in a rising breed of brawny, high-capacity cod catchers nearly half as wide as their 58-foot length. They look indestructible, like a knot of steel.

But not even a Super 8 boat can survive what the Icy Mist went through.

The vessel wrecked at 4 a.m. Feb. 25 on a remote, boulder-strewn beach on Akutan Island. In hurricane-force winds, a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter crew was able to hoist all four crewmen to safety.

A July 30 report from pollution regulators with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation says the Icy Mist "grounded due to operator error in rough seas."

Any thought of salvaging the boat to fish another day have now faded away, the report says.

It's been disemboweled on the rugged beach.

"As the seas continually worked the vessel against the rocks, the hull incurred structural damage and the fish holds became open to the seas, releasing the 135,000 pounds of Pacific cod onboard the vessel to the surrounding waters," the DEC report says.

The report continues: "The bottom of the engine room is now gone, as is the engine and marine gear. In their place are two rocks, the larger being approximately 8 feet by 6 feet, the other substantially smaller."

The DEC says state officials and the boat's owner, Robert Gunderson of Kodiak, are working with Magone Marine Services on a plan to remove the wreck for scuttling at sea.

The demise of the Icy Mist is too bad because it was only in late 2007 that she went into the Hansen Boat Co. yard in Everett, Wash., for sponsoning to her stout dimensions of 58 feet long, 28 feet 6 inches wide (previously the boat's beam was 22 feet). A bulbous bow also was added, according to this National Fisherman article.

The boat was capable of fishing with pots or trawl gear.

But now she's done.