Ocean Beauty Seafoods has decided to close its processing plant at Petersburg, Alaska, for the season as a result of damage sustained May 7 when the Alaska state ferry Matanuska hit the processor's dock, the company announced June 5.
Ocean Beauty will fully operate the plant in 2013, once repairs are complete, and will meanwhile continue to support its Southeast Alaska fishing fleet.
In an average year, Ocean Beauty employs more than 200 workers at its Petersburg facilities to process chum and pink salmon, but given the forecast of a lower run of pink salmon this year, the plant would have employed about 150 workers.
There is sufficient capacity at Ocean Beauty's Excursion Inlet facility to process the fish that would have been processed in Petersburg, and the company has also made arrangements for additional custom processing capacity with other processors in Southeast.
Ocean Beauty operates six shoreside plants in Alaska, as well as two value-added plants in Washington state, eight distribution facilities in the western United States and sales offices in Seattle and Tokyo.
This article originally appeared in The Cordova Times and is republished here with permission.