Silver Bay Seafoods president Cora Campbell returned to her hometown of Petersburg recently to meet with the fleet. Fishermen, processing plant staff and community members who gathered for a Silver Bay social hour in Petersburg’s Sons of Norway Hall directed their attention to Campbell at front of the room.

“If you find a member of the Silver Bay leadership team, there’s a very good chance that that girl grew up in Petersburg,” she said, addressing the issue that Silver Bay is taking over operation of the OBI Seafoods plant in the community.

Campbell’s family has delivered fish to the processing plant in Petersburg for generations, and she said she’s watched the plant undergo multiple different ownership changes over the years.

Silver Bay, a fishermen-owned company based in Sitka, announced in March that it was buying out international processing giant OBI Seafoods, which includes OBI’s Petersburg plant. It’s now a partnership between Silver Bay, which bought out the interest in OBI owned by Cooke Aquaculture, and Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp. (BBEDC), a community-owned group that stayed invested.

She offered assurance that the transition from OBI to Silver Bay is a matter of a “different logo on your hat” rather than changes to staff on the local level.

“The OBI name will go away, we’re not planning to use that name going forward,” said Campbell, announcing all OBI plants will now be in the name of Silver Bay. “We want to keep a strong connection to that local point of pride with Petersburg Fisheries and Icicle (previous owners), but we will be operating it as Silver Bay Seafoods, Petersburg.”

Silver Bay will manage all OBI facilities and operations. That includes plants in Bristol Bay and the Gulf of Alaska, along with the Petersburg and Excursion Inlet plants in Southeast. Silver Bay has its own plants in Sitka, Craig and Ketchikan.

“We’ll be able to move fish around as is going to make the most sense, to get it in the highest value product form, preserve quality and make sure fishermen get the best service,” she said.

The OBI seafood processing plant in Petersburg is one of the town’s largest employers. Campbell said those local jobs are not on the chopping block; the changes happening are “more at the corporate level.”

“I think what you’re going to see is more opportunity to maybe bring fish from other places to Petersburg. Or when Petersburg has too much fish, you’ll have a bigger network to make sure that that gets processed timely,” she said. “But none of that is going to be seen or felt by the fishermen on the water. The goal is to make it seamless and supportive ... so that they can concentrate on running their fishing businesses.”

She said the company’s goal is to be “fully up and running” by the time large volume deliveries arrive from the summer fisheries.

Campbell explained that Silver Bay plans to operate a lengthy season.

“So we’ll open up for tanners in February, just like under OBI, and then roll right through the halibut, the black cod, the dungies, into salmon, and stay open for fall fisheries,” she said. “We do intend to buy gillnet fish, seined fish, crab, longline fish.”

Campbell said the Petersburg plant was installing some different processing equipment, which she described as a means to “maximize all the fish” and “have the ability to produce the right product at the right time” if the consumer market shifts.

Looking to the upcoming season, Campbell sees a few key factors.

“It’s a time of great uncertainty in the national policy and global economy, but as long as there are no major disruptors I think people should feel good that we’re seeing strong halibut markets ... strong crab markets ... some recovery in the salmon markets after a couple of really difficult years,” she said.

“Our industry is very cyclical, but I think that message that we believe we’re turning a corner here and see a lot of hope for the future is one that I hope folks can hear and take heart in.”