Ocean Beauty will not be processing seafood at its Petersburg, Alaska, facility this year.
Despite announcing in January that the plant would open in 2012 after closing in 2010 due to low salmon runs, damage from a 7 May ferry crash has derailed that decision, the Seattle-based company announced in a press release on Tuesday.
Ocean Beauty will fully operate the plant in 2013, once repairs are complete, and will continue to support its Southeast Alaska fishing fleet in 2012.
In the meantime, there is sufficient capacity at the company’s Excursion Inlet facility to process the fish that would have been processed in Petersburg. Arrangements have also been made for additional custom processing capacity.
“We are disappointed to have to take this course of action, but we have no choice,” said Jon Black, Ocean Beauty’s VP of Alaska operations. “We have a pretty good idea of the extent of the damage, but a comprehensive assessment will take some time. Until we can absolutely guarantee that the working environment is safe, and that we are not at risk with any regulatory issues, there’s no way we can operate fish processing here. However, we will have the plany up and running for 2013, and everything should be normal for our fishermen this year. They’ll have access to ice, administrative services, and our tender fleet will operate as planned.”
