Extreme Seafoods has rough first year in Bristol Bay: hot fish, bad tenders, unpaid fishermen
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Bristol Bay Times] by Dave Bendinger - August 18, 2014
Extreme Seafoods made waves as they entered the Bristol Bay fishery this year. The company, founded in 2013, purchased the Paug-Vik Corp facility in Naknek that most remember as the old Baywatch plant. A company email circulated around the fleet promised $2 per pound for sockeye, long before the season began, as well as a $5,000 signing bonus and up to a $10,000 advance. Payments would be made within weeks of each delivery, and a fleet of tenders, including two new vessels, would service both the Naknek and Egegik River fishermen.
If that wasn't enough to turn a few heads, the company was said to be in talks with several networks to produce a reality TV show based on the Bristol Bay fishery, tentatively called "Salmon Wars." That seemed to be the brainchild of Jim Burnworth, a producer, director, and host for bow hunting shows on the Outdoor Channel, whose role with Extreme Seafoods remains unclear.
Talk of Extreme Seafoods' entry into the Bay, and possible reality TV show, spread quickly at last year's Pacific Marine Expo in Seattle, but fishermen found few answers when they stopped by the company's booth. One fisherman at the time said, "We've seen this before and I probably won't sign up with them, but it's great to see more companies come into the Bay. The competition is good for all of us."
Still, Extreme Seafoods was never able to gain the level of serious attention that Silver Bay Seafoods entry received....
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