Trident Seafoods will open its processing plant in Wrangell, Alaska, U.S.A. for the upcoming salmon season.
The Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.-based company, which operates seafood-processing plants around Alaska, including in Akutan, Chignik, Cordova, False Pass, Ketchikan, Kodiak, North Naknek, Petersberg, Sand Point, and Saint Paul, had closed its Wrangell plant for the past three seasons, citing weak chum salmon returns.
Trident bought the plant in 2009 to service a fleet of independent purse-seine and gillnet vessels fishing all species of Alaska salmon. It can process up to 750,000 pounds of raw fish daily and specializes in frozen headed-and-gutted product. It also has cold-storage capacity.
A forecast for the coming salmon season in Southeast Alaska from NOAA Fisheries and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game predicts a weak run of around 19 million pink salmon, just over half of the 10-year average of 33 million pinks. ADFG has not yet issued a formal prediction for 2023 chum salmon returns.
Trident Seafoods Alaska Whitefish Operations Vice President Jeff Wellbourn told SeafoodSource.
This story originally appeared on SeafoodSource.com and is republished here with permission.
