PETERSBURG — A seafood processing company will stop canning salmon at its facility in the Southeast city of Petersburg this year in response to a growing demand for frozen salmon.
Tom Sunderland, vice president of marketing for Ocean Beauty Seafoods, said the company will make more money selling frozen salmon than canned salmon this year. He said the company will focus on freezing salmon at its plant northwest of Petersburg in Excursion Inlet, which has “substantial freezing capacity,” KFSK-FM reported.
“And by doing so, the hope is we can return the highest value to the fleet by putting the product into its most lucrative product form,” Sunderland said.
About 200 cannery workers will not be in Petersburg this year and most of those jobs will move to Excursion Inlet, about 40 miles west of Juneau.
Ocean Beauty still plans to keep its Petersburg office open to provide support for its fishing fleet and purchase fish in the area.
Ocean Beauty’s decision will leave the city with only one salmon cannery in operation this summer: Icicle Seafoods. Patrick Wilson, the company’s Petersburg Fisheries plant manager, acknowledged the industry is shifting toward frozen products, but he is hoping “we will get enough to can and keep the cold storage busy.”
Last summer’s low pink salmon returns impacted the industry statewide. State and federal scientists are forecasting a harvest of 43 million to 46 million pink salmon in southeast Alaska this year. Last’s years catch in the region was around 18 million.
Ocean Beauty previously halted its Petersburg canning operations in 2010 because of a weak pink salmon run and in 2012 when a ferry damaged the building.
