The 'crown jewel' of Southwest Alaska: revitalized dock and new cold storage facility at Dutch Harbor benefits community and allows fishermen to get top dollar for their product.

• Author: Stomierowski, Peg
• Position: BUILDING ALASKA

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Change is quickening in Dutch Harbor Bay, where the World-War II-vintage, woodpile dock has yielded to a steel bulkhead dock more than 1,000 feet long.

An aggressive harbor redevelopment project launched last spring by DH Ports LLC, a private harbor-revitalization investment partnership with offices in Dutch Harbor and Seattle, is entering its second phase. The crown jewel will be a cold-storage marine terminal with enclosed seafood-sorting atrium that can be loaded inside. It will serve fishing and catcher/processor vessels that bring frozen pollock or cod, flatfish or crabs in from the ocean to market worldwide.

The project, including construction and a 100-year operating lease at the site with Western Pioneer, is projected to cost $150 million. American Seafoods, which claims to be the largest harvester in the Bering Sea fishery with about 45 percent catcher-processor share, is among several DH Ports stakeholders. The conglomerate intends to become one of multiple long-term tenants in the new facility, according to DH Ports.

And while Unalaska tends to be busy, proud and self-contained, as Mayor Shirley Marquardt tells it, this smart community of about 4,100 (the population may swell to 10,000 to 15,000 during crab or pollock season) knows a good thing when it sees one. Within a year, the new state-of-the-art facilities should be adding luster to Alaska's fish product before a demanding global market.

RUGGED WATERS

Especially in challenging Bering Sea and Bristol Bay waters, many processors don't enjoy the luxury of waiting for decent weather in order to meet catch quotas. DH Ports and municipal leaders agree that the changes afoot are important in a place where dirt roads, uncovered docks, and lively winds can batter boxes sitting dockside for lack of storage. By the time product loads can be shrink-wrapped and installed in a van, despite the world-class product they contain, the packages may look more rugged than Iditarod teams at the finish line.

Many smaller vessels, being more cash-flow dependent, have had to sell to multiple trading groups rather than have their catch sit dockside. Lack of access to cold storage often meant making transportation deals to help cope with escalating fuel costs.

In the future, if a catcher vessel brings in 100 tons of cod, DH sources say, they'll have the option of storing their catch in the 30,000-ton capacity facility to await better prices.

GOOD DEAL FOR FISHERMEN

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