New businesses cater to Unalaska's unquenched appetites.

• Author: Murkowski, Carol

New Businesses Cater To Unalaska's Unquenched Appetites

Check the map, the part that always seems to get chopped off and stuck in a corner. Trace the twisted strand of islands west one-third of the way to the International Date Line and the Soviet Union. That tiny dot in the Aleutian Islands looks so remote, so removed from urban bustle and big business.

Look again.

The geographic speck that is Unalaska/Dutch Harbor is the nation's number one fishing port in terms of volume, bringing in 504 million pounds of fish last year. The Aleutian port is number two in the nation in terms of product value, at $107.4 million worth of raw fish in 1989. And it is home to a multibillion-dollar industry that combines hard, hands-on labor with some of the most sophisticated technology in the seafood processing world.

Since the Americanization of the bottomfishing industry in the 1980s, this island community has erupted. The past year has seen $200 million worth of local construction underway, most of it in the private sector. A permanent population of slightly more than 2,250 people is swollen by more than 30,000 transient workers passing through each year.

Shore-based fish processing plants ring the harbor, and floating factory trawlers belly up to the crowded docks for fuel and supplies. As the bottomfishing industry sweeps the North Pacific and Bering Sea, Unalaska and its port of Dutch Harbor have become its hub.

But as the seafood industry brings people and dollars to the community of Unalaska at Dutch Harbor, the need for other services increases. Housing, recreation, medical services, social services and small businesses are under pressure to fill the gaps created by an expanding population.

"I believe there's room for a lot of basic businesses a community should have that make everyday life better," says City Manager Herv Hensley. "I think we've grown enough to support a dentist and full-time medical service and many other businesses you find in most small communities."

Take a bakery, for example. Commercial fisherman Philip Westbrook and his sister, Lorraine Westbrook, opened Island Cafe and Bakery in October. "Philip felt the community needed a bakery here. He knows all the boats coming in, and he knew it would be a good business to supply them with fresh bread," Lorraine says.

Formerly, bread shipped in from Seattle or Anchorage cost customers $2.99 a loaf. Now, the Westbrooks sell their fresh loaves for $1.99, and offer bread, rolls, cakes and pastries to local stores, restaurants and the ship trade.

The Westbrooks filled in just one of the gaps existing in Unalaska's economy. In April and May, the Southwest Alaska Municipal Conference sponsored a survey of nine Southwestern communities, including Unalaska/Dutch Harbor. Respondents were asked to list the services they felt were most needed...