Ocean Beauty Seafoods temporarily closed its Seattle processing facility yesterday at the request of federal agents.
Tom Sunderland, director of marketing for Ocean Beauty, told SeaFood Business last night that beginning at about 9 a.m. agents from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement searched the plant for “certain historical sales and importation records.”
The plant was shut down for about four hours, but the company was “back to business as usual” by 1 p.m. There are no seafood-safety problems or product recalls, said Sunderland.
“Unfortunately, I don’t know much more than that,” he said.
Ocean Beauty, one of the largest Pacific Northwest seafood processors, employs about 250 people in Seattle and 2,000 to 4,000 people worldwide.
