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.

Blotter

Catch the big haul of fresh items on our companion blog, The Brig.

Coast Guard medevacs crewman with head injury

The U.S. Coast Guard yesterday airlifted an injured man off the factory trawler Alaska Juris.

The man, 43, was injured when a falling box of frozen fish struck him in the head, the Coast Guard said.

At the time of the call for help, the 238-foot vessel was 178 miles southeast of Dutch Harbor.

The Coast Guard directed the Alaska Juris to change course, to close the distance the rescue helicopter had to fly.

The helicopter, off the cutter Boutwell, safely hoisted the injured man and delivered him for medical attention in Dutch Harbor.

Fishing Company of Alaska, based in Washington state, operates the Alaska Juris.

Fields, Long appointed to North Pacific Council

The Commerce Department has reappointed Duncan Fields, of Kodiak, to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, and also has appointed newcomer David Long, of Wasilla.

Council members serve three-year terms.

Here's a news release on appointments to all the regional fishery management councils around the country.

Search suspended for missing deckhand

The U.S. Coast Guard says it has suspended the active search for a 25-year-old man who went overboard Monday night from the fishing vessel Swift near Porpoise Island, some 40 miles west of Juneau.

The Alaska State Troopers and other responders have been called in to "search the underwater area between the anchored vessel and the beach for the crewman," the Coast Guard said.

The Coast Guard did not name the missing man.

Halt the hatcheries?

An organization called the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership is calling for a moratorium on North Pacific hatchery expansion until the risks to wild salmon populations can be ascertained. More here.

Abandoned boat found in Icy Strait; skipper rescued while search continues for deckhand

A search is under way for a missing crewman in Icy Strait, 40 miles west of Juneau.

The crewman is off the 34-foot fishing vessel Swift.

The U.S. Coast Guard said it received a call just after midnight from the 57-foot tender Pacific Horizon, which had rendezvoused with the Swift and found no one aboard.

A Coast Guard helicopter found the Swift's captain on a beach near an overturned skiff. Mildly hypothermic, he was airlifted to Juneau for medical attention.

A deckhand on the Swift remains missing. He was wearing a gray, hooded sweatshirt and black rain pants.

Winds are light and seas calm in the search area.

KINY radio quotes a Coast Guard officer as saying the Swift was taking part in a chum salmon fishery.

The deckhand fell overboard, and when the captain launched a skiff to help him, he also went into the water, the station reported.