PETERSBURG – Those looking to work at Petersburg’s fish processors will have a good chance to jump onboard with this summer’s pink salmon season predicted to be a big one.
“The 2015 harvest forecast of 58 million pink salmon is well above the recent 10-year average harvest of 41 million pink salmon, and a harvest of that magnitude would be in the top ten harvests since 1960,” according to a guide put out by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Andy Piston, pink and chum salmon project leader in Ketchikan, and Steve Heinl, Ketchikan regional research biologist.
It’s not predicted to be anywhere near as big as 2013’s pink salmon season, but it’s still going to be a good one, said Patrick Wilson, Petersburg Fisheries plant manager.
According to ADF&G, 2013’s season was unprecedented with a harvest of 95 million pink salmon.
“This harvest was nearly 20 million fish higher than any other pink salmon harvest since commercial fisheries began in Southeast Alaska in the late 1800s,” according to Piston and Heinl’s report.
On its website, Icicle Seafoods, Inc., already names salmon season as the best time to get hired on. Wilson said the plant will “beef up the crew” with a hiring in the 600-employee range, 50 more than last year.
Icicle has bunks, but will also have to rent space in town to accommodate the employees, he said.
“Like all processors, we’re getting the plant in shape,” he added.
Trident Seafoods is upgrading and remodeling its plant, modernizing it and “adding a little more ice making capacity,” as Southeast Manager John Webby put it in January.
The pink salmon season gets going in June, but for some processors, hiring for it began as early as January and is ongoing.
Combining all the processors in town, this season will offer around 1,000 jobs in Petersburg.
Reader Comments(0)