CDQ Groups: helping the Alaska fishing industry.

• Author: Bohi, Heidi
• Position: FISHING

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When word got out that a multi-million dollar fish-processing plant was going to be built in False Pass, a tiny village of 54 on the Aleutian Islands chain, talk of jobs and other economic benefits spread. Throughout the community, plant manager Ken Smith says, for the first time in years he noticed there was hope. Like Smith, many locals left False Pass because they could not make a living there. When the Aleutian Pribilof Island Community Development Association (APICDA) made the decision to build the Bering Pacific Seafood (BPS) fish-processing plant, he says he finally had a reason to return. Besides employing locals for the first time in decades, it meant the community could look forward to other economic benefits such as increased air and barge traffic and a healthier tax base from fees and city taxes paid to False Pass.

Today, Smith is one of 15 locals from Western Alaska who fill these new jobs. Until production ramps up, processing is being limited to peak seasons, but once volume increases and the plant gets closer to operating at full capacity, even more locals will be hired. Hopefully, Smith says, these additional workers also will be people who are returning to the village they once felt forced to leave.

"It's going to benefit everyone--the city will benefit from taxes and dock fees, the revenue it produces will stay in False Pass, and for the local people there will be jobs," Smith says.

JUST CHILLING

Although Bristol Bay is Alaska's most valuable sockeye salmon fishery, for the past 20 years, the industry had a reputation for delivering an inferior product because 80 percent of the boats did not have access to ice or the onboard means to chill fish, resulting in a product only suitable for canned fish. And canned fish gets much less per pound in an oversupplied market. Chilling may add 10 cents or more to the per-pound price paid for salmon, so for 100,000 pounds offish--a respectable catch for a boat in this region--keeping the catch on ice can mean another $10,000 or more in a fisherman's pocket. In a region where personal per capita income lags behind national averages by as much as 47 percent, such a substantial increase in local earnings makes a critical difference to both the fisherman and the communities.

To help raise the ex-vessel value of salmon for local fisherman, the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp. (BBEDC)implemented a chilling program in 2002 to help fishermen chill at the point of harvest. BBEDC supplied about 50 fishermen with slush bags that hold a mixture of ice and water and provided insulated totes, at a cost of around $500 each, to store ice onboard. Some fishermen use the totes as bleeding tanks, earning an additional premium from buyers - as much as 20 cents per pound more for delivering fish that are both bled and iced. In 2006 and 2007, about 620 totes and 350 slush bags were distributed in a continued effort to service qualified fishermen.

"Chilling in Bristol Bay is becoming increasingly important and the fact that BBEDC can help us do that is going to make a substantial difference," says Fritz Johnson, a Bristol Bay fisherman for 30 years. "I don't know anyone here who can't use an extra $10,000."

Since 2005, BBEDC also has been delivering...