The U.S. Coast Guard says it seized more than $65,000 worth of pollock roe from a vessel near Dutch Harbor after finding discrepancies in catch and production records, which the company that owns the boat disputes.
The boarding happened in late March, about 15 nautical miles north of Dutch Harbor aboard the Northern Eagle, a catcher-processor owned and operated by the Seattle-based seafood giant.
American Seafoods, which owns the vessel, says the issue was a paperwork dispute and not hidden catch or a fisheries violation.
“We didn’t misreport anything,” company spokesperson Trent Hartill said in an email. “We provided our daily at-sea estimates, just like we always do, and then we provide the final reconciled reports at offload. The numbers they are pointing to are simply the difference between an in-progress estimate and a final tally.”
Hartill said the company did not “under-report, conceal, or hide any catch” and said every pound of fish brought aboard is weighed on federally certified flow scales and monitored by federal observers.
He said the dispute centers on outdated regulations for how fisheries regulators calculate catch.
Pollock roe — the eggs of the groundfish — is a high-value export product sold in overseas markets.
According to the Coast Guard, the boarding followed an audit by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Law Enforcement, which said it found major discrepancies between the vessel’s production reports and electronic logbook.
The Coast Guard said NOAA law enforcement later determined the vessel had recorded less catch in its logbook than its production records showed. The agency said the vessel’s production weight exceeded its reported catch weight by more than 1,000 metric tons. One metric ton is equivalent to roughly 2,205 pounds.
Hartill said the seized roe amounted to 241 cases out of more than 72,000 total cases. He also said the company’s final daily estimate was off by less than 3 metric tons from the actual offload amount.
“That is an incredibly tight, accurate margin, yet they are attempting to criminalize it,” Hartill said.
But the Coast Guard has described the case as more than a minor discrepancy. In its statement, the agency said NOAA law enforcement found the vessel’s production weight exceeded its reported catch weight by 1,223 metric tons.
The Coast Guard said it ultimately seized about 5.4 metric tons of pollock roe, valued at more than $65,000.
The agency also said the investigation uncovered evidence from a previous voyage involving roughly $150,000-worth of roe.
American Seafoods is one of the largest companies in the Alaska pollock industry. In its 2023 sustainability report, the company said it caught more than 250,000 metric tons of Alaska pollock that year, operated seven fishing vessels and generated more than $500 million in revenue.
Rear Adm. Bob Little, commander of the Coast Guard’s Arctic District, authorized the seizure, according to the agency. The roe is now being held in cold storage in Dutch Harbor while the Coast Guard and NOAA Fisheries continue investigating the case.
