North Pacific Seeking to Expand Salmon Footprint with Purchase of Inlet Fish
John Garner, COO of North Pacific Fisheries confirmed today that his company is in advanced talks to purchase Inlet Fish. Inlet Fish, located in Kenai, processes salmon from Cook Inlet, Prince William Sound, and also from the Yukon-Kuskokwim River Deltas in two plants, one in Kenai, and one in Kasilof. The purchase would expand North Pacific's salmon processing to seven plants covering the entire state, as they already operate plants in Bristol Bay, Kodiak, and Southeast Alaska. Garner, among the most experienced salmon executives in the world, told John Sackton he is optimistic about the future of salmon in Prince William Sound, where the resource is quite robust and well managed.
Today John Sackton and Peggy Parker offer their comments on another halibut bycatch opinion letter this time sent from David Kubiak, a salmon and halibut fisherman from Kodiak. This continues John and Peggy’s efforts to report on Alaska’s halibut bycatch issue transparently through each of their unique viewpoints about the industry.
In other news Newfoundland’s provincial government approved exemption for millions of pounds of unprocessed groundfish to be exported out of the province. Cod led the exemptions with over 3 million pounds shipped out last year from various companies including Codroy Seafoods, Golden Shell Fisheries, Quinlan Brothers, Notre Dame Seafoods and Ocean Choice International. The exemptions were granted despite the province touting the importance of minimum processing requirements to rural regions.
Finally, lobster landings in Nova Scotia’s major fishing areas 33 and 34 broke 200-year-old records in 2014 according to the DFO. According to DFO scientist John Tremblay, LFA 33’s landings exceed 13.2 million pounds; unofficially LFA 34 landings totaled 55 million pounds. "Our commercial catch of lobster is the highest we've seen recorded going back to the 1800s, in LFA 33 and LFA 34, which is southwestern Nova Scotia," Tremblay said.
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