New fish plant reported at Savoonga

Here's the story from KNOM radio.

A done deal in Kodiak

Pacific Seafood has completed its acquisition of Trident's Kodiak processing operations. Here's a press release.

Silver Bay, APICDA to partner at False Pass

Here's a press release.

Trident to deal Kodiak plant to Pacific Seafood

Here's the press release.

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?

Up from the ashes

Here's a photo essay on the rebuild of Peter Pan's Port Moller plant, which sustained major fire damage in August 2017.

Fire strikes Peter Pan's Port Moller plant

Cannery fires figure prominently through the history of Alaska's fishing industry, and now we have another example.

Seattle-based Peter Pan Seafoods today released this statement regarding a fire at one of its Alaska plants:

A fire broke out at the Peter Pan Seafoods Inc. Port Moller salmon processing facility around midnight Aug. 16. All crew and personnel are reported safe and uninjured. Damage from the fire is extensive enough to halt operations for the remainder of the 2017 season.

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.

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.

A big day for Cannon Fish, APICDA

Cannon Fish Co. plans to cut the ribbon Saturday on a new seafood processing plant in Kent, Washington, south of Seattle.

Cannon Fish belongs to Aleutian Pribilof Island Community Development Association, one of Alaska's Community Development Quota organizations. APICDA acquired the company in 2013.

The new plant has the potential to employ 200 people and will work in conjunction with APICDA processing plants in two remote Alaska communities — Atka and False Pass.

More details in this press release.

Box 'em up!

The state has received an application for a proposed "live geoduck clam boxing facility" at Ketchikan.

See the project details here.

New operator leases Adak processing plant

Here's the press release.

Trident expanding into Deep South

Seattle-based Trident Seafoods is planning a $41 million value-added processing plant in Georgia, that state's governor announced today.

The plant will be in Carrollton, west of Atlanta.

Here's the press release.

Adak's gamble

We told you in the spring how Icicle Seafoods Inc. was closing its seafood plant on the distant Aleutian island of Adak, and how the processing equipment would be put up for auction.

Well, the auction is over with the city of Adak and a local community development nonprofit jointly submitting the winning bid.

It's a more than $2 million bet that Adak, trying to remain a viable civilian town on what used to be naval base, can attract another processing company to make use of the equipment.

The alternative, City Manager Layton Lockett told Deckboss, was to let the equipment leave the island, perhaps dooming chances for restarting the processing plant.

The city itself has no intention of running the plant, Lockett said.

Folks on Adak are confident they can lure a new processor.

"To take this kind of gamble? Yeah, for sure," Lockett said. "Fishing is our future."

Here's a press release from the city with more details.

APICDA to expand False Pass, Atka plants

The Aleutian Pribilof Island Community Development Association is planning major expansions of its False Pass and Atka processing plants.

Larry Cotter, chief executive of Juneau-based APICDA, offered details of the expansions in a talk Friday at the Southwest Alaska Municipal Conference annual meeting in Anchorage.

APICDA is one of Alaska's six community development quota companies. Under the CDQ program, these companies hold lucrative Bering Sea fishing rights, proceeds from which are used to benefit Western Alaska villages.

Recently, the APICDA board decided on a new strategy for the small False Pass and Atka plants, Cotter said.

In the past, APICDA worried that growing larger operations might attract big processors, who could bring crushing competition, he said.

But what APICDA has learned is staying small doesn't work, and doesn't do enough for the local economies, Cotter said.

And so...

At False Pass, a tiny village near the tip of the Alaska Peninsula, the plan is to spend $11 million over the next three years — including $8 million this year — to greatly expand Bering Pacific Seafoods, Cotter said. Construction of worker housing also is planned.

At Atka, in the Aleutian chain more than 300 miles west of Dutch Harbor, the plan is to spend $10 million in 2013-14 to expand Atka Pride Seafoods.

The goal is to turn both plants, now open only seasonally, into diversified, year-round seafood processors, Cotter said.

Icicle energizes its 'calculated risk' at Adak

Regular visitors know Deckboss likes to keep track of happenings out on Adak, the remote Aleutian island with a rather tumultuous history as a commercial fishing port.

As previously reported, a subsidiary of Seattle-based Icicle Seafoods Inc. took over the Adak processing plant in the spring.

Now here's a little news: The Regulatory Commission of Alaska recently approved a special contract between Icicle and the local power company, TDX Adak Generating.

Under the contract, TDX will supply "interruptible" power to Icicle, with existing residential and commercial customers having priority.

Power supply had been a problem for previous operators of the Adak plant.

While commissioners said they initially were concerned about the potential for "rate subsidization" of Icicle, the RCA ultimately held that the special contract will be good for all local power customers.

Here is the agency's eight-page order. It has a few details about Icicle's work to refurbish the plant, which concentrates on Pacific cod.

Also, here is an Icicle letter from late August that discusses the company's "calculated risk" at Adak.

Proof of purchase

Just to close the loop, here's a final settlement statement Trident Seafoods Corp. filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court confirming it did indeed purchase that processing plant down in Wrangell (Deckboss, April 16).