'That was a collision!'

A friend just steered me to Purse Seine Collision 09, an awesome YouTube video set to "Move" by rap-metal band Thousand Foot Krutch.

Blotter

Check out our companion blog, The Brig, to read about one fisherman's wild, wet night in Dutch Harbor.

Trident generates excitement in Cordova

Peter Kuttel, a manager with Trident Seafoods Corp., gave a Chamber of Commerce talk yesterday in Cordova about the company's big local expansion.

Deckboss wasn't there to listen, but luckily Rochelle van den Broek was and she shared this excellent summary.

It seems that Trident is really surging in Cordova. A big part of its expansion is squeezing value from fish waste though the production of fish oil and a liquefied fertilizer product made from a process known as hydrolyzation.

Trident is employing more people and intends to keep its plant doors open longer each year.

Kuttel indicated this is "the single largest investment that Trident has made in a community in Alaska," van den Broek writes.

Heck, the company has even pledged to help send the town's Miss Iceworm queens to college, she adds.

As background, you might recall that Kuttel ran a Cordova processor called Bear & Wolf Salmon Co. He stayed with Trident after the Seattle-based giant acquired Bear & Wolf in early 2008.

Diving for dollars

Giant red sea cucumber. Photo by Eric Munk, NMFS Kodiak

Alaska's commercial fishing industry really doesn't have an off-season. Somebody is trying to catch something most all the time.

This month, for instance, a number of specialized commercial fisheries are opening.

Most of them involve divers going to the bottom to collect odd creatures that, frankly, aren't much in demand in the United States but command good money in Asia.

Here's a rundown of the action:

• The Southeast Alaska sea cucumber dive fishery opened Oct. 5 with a quota of almost 1.6 million pounds.

• The Southeast red sea urchin red sea urchin fishery opened Oct. 1 with a quota of almost 5.1 million pounds.

• The Southeast geoduck clam fishery opened Oct. 1 with a quota of 623,300 pounds.

• The Southeast pot shrimp fishery opened Oct. 1 with a quota of 692,400 pounds. Fishermen will be going after such species as spot and coonstripe shrimp.

• The Kodiak red sea cucumber fishery opened Oct. 1 with a quota of 140,000 pounds. Smaller quotas are available in the Chignik, Alaska Peninsula, Aleutian Islands and Bering Sea districts.

Deckboss would like to say he doesn't have much of a taste for sea cucumber or urchin, but he sure wouldn't turn down a box of those huge, luscious spot shrimp!

Adak Fisheries bankruptcy recalls Ben Stevens

As frequent visitors to this blog know, Deckboss has been bird-dogging the bankruptcy case of Adak Fisheries, an Aleutian cod processor with a turbulent past.

Among the various motions now pending in the case is the company's attempt to break its lease with landlord Aleut Enterprise.

What's really interesting about this motion is its concise history of the business, including a candid accounting of its good and bad years financially.

The motion also mentions Ben Stevens, suggesting the son of the former U.S. senator was a key figure in a falling-out between Adak Fisheries founder Kjetil Solberg and one of his several partners.

Well, enough of my description. Just read the five-page motion.

By the way, the lease matter is scheduled to come up in a hearing on Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Anchorage.

Harbor Crown president files for bankruptcy

The Harbor Crown Seafoods plant. Jim Paulin photo

We told you in August about the financial troubles of a Dutch Harbor fish processor, Harbor Crown Seafoods Inc.

Well, on Sept. 29 the company president and part owner, Ken Dorris, dba Harbor Crown, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Idaho, where Dorris lives and where the processor had its corporate office.

In his bankruptcy petition, Dorris lists assets of $0 to $50,000, and liabilities of $1 million to $10 million.

Fishermen wary of ASMI partnership with MSC

What's that blue logo really worth, anyway? Wesley Loy photo

The board of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute on Thursday signaled its "preliminary intent" to become the Marine Stewardship Council's new "client" on salmon.

That's a surprise, as many industry players sensed something of a rivalry between the two organizations as to who can best tell the world that Alaska's salmon fisheries are sustainable and well-managed.

The MSC is a London-based outfit that awards qualifying fisheries the right to use its blue ecolabel on their products. The label reportedly has become important for selling fish to European buyers, and to major retailers such as Walmart.

Alaska salmon won MSC certification in 2000. All along, the MSC's salmon "client" has been the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

But last year the department sent this letter saying it wasn't so interested in continuing as client. Generally, industry groups seek MSC certification, not government agencies, Fish and Game Commissioner Denby Lloyd wrote.

Besides, Fish and Game officials have said, maintaining certification through periodic reviews is tedious and very expensive.

Many in the industry grumble that Alaska salmon needs no validation from an outside certifier, that the world already knows the state's iconic fish is excellent and the harvests stringently managed.

The trouble for the MSC is that the current certification for Alaska salmon expires at the end of the month.

The organization has appeared to be near desperate to keep Alaska's major fisheries, including salmon and Bering Sea pollock, in the MSC fold, as this confidential letter from 2006 indicates.

Now it appears ASMI, a state agency, is ready to dive in as the MSC's salmon client.

That's got the state's top commercial fishing organization, United Fishermen of Alaska, in a bit of a huff. The fishermen feel left out of the loop and wonder where ASMI can find the necessary funding in its lean budget.

ASMI spokeswoman Laura Fleming told Deckboss after Thursday's board meeting in Anchorage that ASMI needs answers from the MSC on a few issues before firmly committing as its salmon client.