Trident Seafoods in Wrangell plans to begin processing fish oil this year, which will be used to create fish oil capsules for human consumption. The oil extraction operation will generate just over $7,000 for the city annually and is expected to create several new jobs in the community.
The oil extraction equipment will be installed this spring at Trident’s belt freezer facility in Wrangell, and oil extraction from salmon heads will begin in time for the summer’s salmon fishing season, said Paul Padgett, who is in charge of Trident’s Alaska operations.
Currently, salmon heads coming into Trident’s Wrangell processing facility are ground and discharged, Padgett said.
“So no value comes from those heads,” he said.
With Trident extracting the fish oil, both the seafood processing company and the City and Borough of Wrangell will see a profit from the operation.
The City and Borough owns the property Trident uses for its fish processing in Wrangell. According to the terms of the lease between the city and the seafood company, Trident will have to pay the city one cent per pound of finished fish oil product produced in Wrangell.
That amounts to an estimated $50 per day to the city during pink salmon season, when it is estimated approximately 850,000 pounds of salmon is processed in Wrangell each day. The pink salmon season is typically 60-days long.
For the 90-day chum salmon season, it is estimated Trident processes 1 million pounds of chum each day. This could generate an additional $47 per day for the city based on the amount of fish oil extracted from the head of the fish.
Assuming those estimates are correct, the City and Borough of Wrangell can expect to generate approximately $7,230 annually from the local fish oil.
While it’s not a huge source of revenue for the city, Borough Manager Timothy Rooney said the oil extraction operation will create two or three new jobs in the community. That is what attracted the city to Trident’s fish oil project, he said.
Borough Mayor Jeremy Maxand said at the Feb. 28 Assembly meeting he saw the fish oil extracting operation as a “preemptive solution” to Trident discharging the fish head waste into the water.
“It’s good to see them being proactive about this,” Maxand said.
Assembly member Bill Privett liked the idea of offering residents the opportunity to purchase locally processed fish oil.
“It would really be neat to be able to know you’re buying a product that is being processed in your own community,” he said. “…This is really a bonus for us.”
It is unlikely, however, that residents will be able to purchase a Wrangell-specific fish oil capsule. The fish oil obtained in Wrangell will be blended with other fish oil extracted from Trident’s operations in Ketchikan and Cordova and used to create capsules, Padgett said. It is not Trident’s plan to keep Wrangell’s fish oil separate, he said.
Fish oil is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which are known to have numerous benefits including improving heart health and brain function, and reducing inflammation in the body.
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