trident seafoods

Unalaska could process St. Paul’s snow crab again next year, but officials won’t know for sure until October.Some fisheries specialists suspect there will be an increase in the total allowable snow crab catch limits, including Unalaska’s Natural Resource Analyst Frank Kelty. He said there may be more crab to harvest this upcoming season than last.“But I don't know if the increase is going to be enough that the operator up at St. Paul will want to operate again,” Kelty said at a recent Unalaska City Council meeting.

A fire at Sand Point's Trident facility broke out early Thursday morning, pausing the processor’s operations, including its fuel sales, which the small eastern Aleutian community relies on. The plant’s fuel sales were restored over the weekend. The community was informed Saturday morning via a VHF radio announcement that gasoline and heat oil sales were back on.

This season, the Bering Sea snow crab fishery opened for the first time in two years, and the first boats began delivering to processors on Jan. 15. But the Trident Seafoods facility in St. Paul — which the company calls the “largest crab processing plant in the world” — isn’t taking any crab.

Trident Seafoods’ St. Paul processing plant won’t open to take snow crab deliveries this season. But the Pribilof Island community will still see some economic benefits from the harvest, thanks to a new agreement between the cities of St. Paul and Unalaska. The Unalaska City Council unanimously approved a resolution at a special meeting on Jan. 3 that will allow snow crab, or opilio, that’s normally processed by Trident in St. Paul to come to Unalaska instead. St. Paul will receive the seafood taxes and fisheries business taxes associated with that portion of the harvest, like they normally would.

Alaska processor Trident Seafoods announced Monday that it probably won’t be processing crab in the Pribilof Island community of St. Paul this season. That comes after the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s decision to reopen the snow crab or opilio fishery after a two-year closure. The state’s announcement on Friday surprised many fishermen. It was also a surprise to Trident.

Fishermen-owned Silver Bay already operates a facility in False Pass, just next to the Trident plant. Silver Bay President and CEO Cora Campbell said owning adjacent facilities would make operations more efficient, and allow them to provide more opportunities to the fleet.

Trident Seafoods, one of the largest seafood processing companies in the country, will finalize sales for three of the four plants it listed for sale late last year. According to a press release on March 8, the Ketchikan, Petersburg, and False Pass plants all have buyers.

The company announced their facilities in False Pass, Petersburg, and Ketchikan are for sale as well. The company will also either sell or retire the historic Diamond NN Cannery in Naknek and its support facilities in Chignik.

Trident Seafoods is pushing back their proposed Unalaska processing plant by a year, according to a statement the seafood giant released Tuesday morning.

Trident has begun building the first bunkhouses at its to-be processing plant in Unalaska’s Captains Bay, progressing on a timeline the company says would make it operational by 2027.