Bristol Bay's new player: Silver Bay Seafoods opens major salmon processing plant.

• Author: Loy, Wesley
• Position: CONSTRUCTION

Bristol Bay in Southwest Alaska is the state's biggest and most valuable commercial salmon fishery, with millions of prime sockeye returning each summer to spawn.

The fishery, which lasts only a few intense weeks and peaks around the Fourth of July, attracts thousands of fishermen intent on scoring big catches. With so much money swimming in, it's no wonder you see bay boats with names like Lucrative and Net Profit.

Supporting the fishery is a vital infrastructure of processing plants to clean and pack the catch. Like fishing, processing is a competitive and risky business. Over its epic history, the Bristol Bay fishery has seen plenty of processors both thrive and sink.

This year brings another upstart processor to the bay. And it might be one of the boldest launches ever.

The company is Silver Bay Seafoods LLC, based in Sitka. It's a fast-rising, fishermen-owned outfit generating serious buzz, especially among gillnetters hoping Silver Bay's entry will force all processors to pay higher dockside, or ex-vessel, prices for sockeye.

New Processing Plant

Silver Bay has built and opened a new processing plant on cannery row in the village of Naknek. The fifty-three thousand-square-foot facility is expected to employ up to 330 people at peak season. Silver Bay acted as its own general contractor on the plant, while local company Paug-Vik built two bunkhouses.

The project, including land and buildings, cost $37 million, says Rob Zuanich, a Silver Bay managing member.

Some say the new plant is the largest, by processing capacity, in Bristol Bay. Zuanich says he's not sure about that. But it's clear

Silver Bay aims to make quite a splash.

The plant is designed to handle roughly four hundred thousand salmon per day and will produce mainly a frozen, headed-and-gutted product. The plant won't can salmon, as some other processors do in addition to freezing.

The company will count on a loyal fleet of drift gillnetters to feed a plant they themselves own. Prior to construction, Silver Bay invited fishermen to invest in the Naknek venture at $25,000 per share. About two hundred permit holders bought in, Zuanich says.

Established processors aren't keen on making room for newcomers. Although sockeye runs into Bristol Bay usually are prodigious, they're limited. And markets in Japan, the United States, and Europe are tough.

How will Silver Bay fare against battle-tested processors such as Alaska General, Icicle, North Pacific, Ocean Beauty, Peter Pan, and...