An update on the F/V Arctic Sea grounding

Readers will recall the Jan. 5 wreck of the fishing vessel Arctic Sea along the rugged north coast of St. George Island and the rescue of nine crew.

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation has released a new situation report on the wreck concluding: "No further spill response or cleanup actions are required at this time."

As for salvage, the report says: "Resolve Marine has been contracted to perform the wreck removal. Work is scheduled to begin in early August 2026 and should be completed before the Bering Sea winter season begins."

F/V Arctic Sea remains aground at St. George Island

Here's a situation report from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.

Personnel file

Eric Deakin is retiring from Coastal Villages Region Fund after six years as executive director and CEO.

Based in Anchorage, CVRF is the largest of Alaska's six community development quota organizations. These companies are major players in the state's commercial fisheries, harvesting fish and crab on behalf of often impoverished Bering Sea villages.

The CVRF board has appointed Nick Souza, previously director of sales and marketing, as the new CEO.

More details in this press release.

An update on the F/V Arctic Sea grounding

The fishing vessel Arctic Sea remains hard aground on the rugged north coast of St. George Island in the Bering Sea.

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation today issued situation report No. 2 on the shipwreck, including some new photos and details on efforts to recover fuel and capture any rats that might be aboard.

Unfortunately, it sounds like tough weather is preventing much progress on salvaging the vessel.

9 reportedly rescued from grounded boat in Bering

The Anchorage Daily News has the story.

Coastal Villages acquires Honda, Ski-Doo dealer

Here's the press release.

Coastal Villages acquires Seattle property

Details in this press release.

Icicle sell-off

Today brings word of a big and complex business deal.

As best we can tell, Icicle Seafoods is selling the Dutch Harbor processing ship Northern Victor, nine fishing vessels, and associated Bering Sea pollock quota.

The buyers include Japanese seafood giant Maruha Nichiro and two Alaska community development quota companies — Coastal Villages Region Fund and Norton Sound Economic Development Corp.

More details in this press release.

CDQ companies work a major crab deal

Here's the press release.

A change at the top for Coastal Villages

Coastal Villages Region Fund has announced that longtime Executive Director Morgen Crow has retired.

Anchorage-based Coastal Villages is believed to be the richest of the six Alaska community development quota organizations.

Salmon notes

Here are a few notes on Alaska's commercial salmon season thus far.

• The Bristol Bay harvest stands just shy of 5 million sockeye, and the daily catch topped 1 million fish for the first time on Saturday. The state has forecast a catch of 29.5 million sockeye this year.

• Farther north, the relatively new processing plant at Platinum is closed this season, leaving Kuskokwim fishermen without a buyer. Coastal Villages Region Fund provided this internal memo explaining the closure.

• The general summer troll season started Friday in Southeast Alaska. Trollers are targeting 122,000 treaty Chinook in the first opening.

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.

A 'stunning' cut

Coastal Villages Region Fund is most unhappy about the new halibut catch limits. Read about it here.

MLK and CDQ

Coastal Villages Region Fund evidently feels its quest for larger community development quotas is on a par with the civil rights movement.

Coastal posted this on its Facebook page on Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day:

Let us honor the life of Martin Luther King Jr. who peacefully lead the nation for the equal treatment of all American Citizens who want the American Dream. His famous "I Have A Dream" speech was given at the "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom."

The residents of Coastal Villages are seeking equality in the CDQ program for more jobs and more benefits. While the region we serve has the highest economic impoverished rates, our residents receive among the lowest CDQ allocations per person. Our voices, our votes, and our lives do matter and the US Congress must recognize our efforts for the benefit of many Western Alaskans.

#JustFixCDQ

$10 an hour

The morning crew at the Goodnews Bay plant. CVRF photo
 

Now here's something Deckboss has never seen before — a processor bragging about what it pays workers on the slime line.

Coastal Villages Region Fund says it's bumping up beginner pay to $10 an hour, "believed to be the highest starting wage for processors in the history of the Alaska seafood industry."

The company's flagship plant is the Goodnews Bay regional facility near the village of Platinum.

Processing hands are an essential, but often overlooked, component of Alaska's commercial fishing industry.

Many come from out of state, and ethnic minorities are predominant.

The work is monotonous and messy. Workers stand for hours in wet, noisy conditions heading, gutting, cleaning and packing fish.

Coastal's starting pay rate does appear favorable compared to other processors in the state.

Icicle Seafoods, one of the state's biggest seafood processors, pays $7.75 an hour to start, which is the minimum wage in Alaska.

Because seafood processing is so labor intensive, companies have a strong incentive to control payroll costs.

In 2009, they lobbied against a state minimum wage hike.

Coastal Villages suggests it is different from other processors. And it is.

It's a nonprofit company operating under the federal Community Development Quota program. The goal of the program is to improve economic conditions in Western Alaska villages.

Coastal says better than 80 percent of its processing hands are Alaskans, including village residents.

The company acknowledges it actually loses money on its salmon, halibut and herring operations in Western Alaska.

Coastal subsidizes those operations with the lucrative income stream from its Bering Sea pollock, cod and crab harvests.

Looking back on the election

Here are a couple of observations from last week's general election.

First, it appears state Rep. Bill Thomas, who calls himself the only commercial fisherman in the Alaska Legislature, might have lost his seat.

The Haines Republican currently stands 43 votes behind Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, Democrat from Sitka.

State election officials still must tally absentee and question ballots.

Even if Thomas somehow rallies past his young challenger, he won't keep his powerful post as co-chair of the House Finance Committee. That's because the House majority leadership on Thursday installed Rep. Alan Austerman, R-Kodiak, as committee co-chair, with Rep. Bill Stoltze, R-Chugiak, continuing as the other co-chair.

In other action, Alaska voters handily approved a $453 million bond issue for port and other transportation projects statewide.

The bonding package includes $10 million toward a proposed expansion of the Seward Marine Industrial Center.

This is of great interest to Coastal Villages Region Fund, a fishing company operating under the federal Community Development Quota program.

Coastal has amassed quite a fleet of fishing vessels, from salmon tenders right up to the 341-foot factory trawler Northern Hawk.

Coastal wants to "Alaskanize" its operations, which would involve basing its vessels not in Seattle but in an Alaska port, specifically Seward.

But $10 million doesn't get the job done. Recent studies have shown it would take several times that much to expand Seward's port sufficiently to accommodate Coastal's full fleet.

It would appear Coastal is working to woo as large a public subsidy as possible for its fleet relocation.

And why does Deckboss make such a remark?

Here's a press release from Coastal, issued on election day last week, that includes supportive comments from Alaska's entire congressional delegation, as well as state Rep. Paul Seaton, R-Homer.

A CDQ civil war

Back in June, Deckboss predicted conflict among the six companies operating under Alaska's Community Development Quota program.

Now we're seeing that prediction play out, as five of the companies are opposing efforts of the sixth, Coastal Villages Region Fund, to obtain a greater share of the quotas.

Coastal is vowing to continue its efforts, which the other five consider to be "dangerous" to the CDQ program.

Read a remarkable exchange of correspondence among the CDQ players in this press packet Coastal distributed this week.

CDQ battle brewing

You probably haven't heard much about it, but Alaska's Community Development Quota program is coming up for a major performance review, the first in several years.

The CDQ program is a 20-year-old federal initiative that vests six nonprofit companies with exclusive shares of the Bering Sea commercial fisheries. The companies harvest the fish and crab for the benefit of disadvantaged Western Alaska villages.

Through most of the CDQ program's history, these six companies competed fiercely with one another for the lucrative quota during periodic government reviews.

To the relief of many, the competition ended when Congress in 2006 passed legislation that set each company's quota shares more or less permanently.

The law, however, mandated a state review of the program in — you guessed it — 2012, and every 10 years thereafter.

A special panel made up of the state commissioners of commerce, labor and fish and game later this year will evaluate each company's performance in generating village prosperity.

The review has teeth — an underperformer could lose as much as 10 percent of its quota.

Now, longtime followers of the CDQ program won't be surprised to learn that some of the CDQ players aren't content to simply go through the state review.

No, some see a bigger opportunity here and are going — again, you guessed it — directly to Congress seeking a bigger share.

This is the approach of Coastal Villages Region Fund, the Anchorage-based CDQ company representing 20 communities in the Kuskokwim River area.

In the latest edition of its newsletter, Coastal says its president, vice president and staff went to Washington, D.C., in early May to ask Congress to correct the "enormous inequities that exist in the current CDQ allocations."

Already the richest of the six CDQ companies, Coastal argues it actually deserves considerably more quota given its larger constituent population.

Coastal is "asking Congress to fix the inequities that occurred in the CDQ allocations prior to 2006 so that Coastal will get its fair share."

Well, Deckboss is sure Coastal has a good argument. But he imagines the other five CDQ groups also have good arguments — and maybe have taken their own trips to D.C.

Whooo-eee!

I can see an old-fashioned CDQ smackdown coming. Can't you?