Trident Seafoods has notified city officials the company will not reopen its Wrangell plant this summer.
Plant manager Nick Ohmer called on Tuesday with the expected news, Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen told the assembly at its evening meeting.
"I had a conversation with him about what it would take to get the plant back open here in Wrangell," Von Bargen said. Ohmer responded that the seafood processor would need "to see somewhere between 40% and 50% more fish chums than were projected to return to Southeast Alaska" for the plant to open.
Predictions of weak salmon returns drove Trident's decision to temporarily shutter its Wrangell plant last year after buying the operation about 10 years ago.
"Since Trident acquired the Wrangell facility, we've ran it in good times and bad, but predictions for the coming season of low abundance for both pink and chum salmon in Southeast Alaska led us to the extremely difficult decision to not operate the plant," a company spokeswoman said in March 2020.
Trident, with processing plants in Ketchikan and Petersburg, ran tenders last year to buy fish to haul to its other plants.
Alaska Department of Fish and Game pre-season predictions for this year forecast Southeast pink salmon returns at the low end of average.
The department's forecast for chum returns is better than last year, though the 2020 commercial harvest was less than half of the 10-year average in Southeast and Yakutat.
Trident's decision will leave Sea Level Seafoods alone on the waterfront again this year. The company plans to open Saturday, after deciding to skip the early part of the halibut season.
"The primary reason for opening later is, historically, when we open earlier we're pretty slow," said David Brindle, Alaska operations manager for Pacific Seafood, which owns Sea Level.
Commercial halibut fishing opened March 7 in Southeast.
Without an operating processor in town to buy their early catch, Wrangell fishermen have had to sell elsewhere, hurting the local economy as well as the level of trust with the processors, some fishermen said.
"It's kind of a trickle-down effect, unfortunately," said John Yeager, a fisherman and member of the Wrangell Port Commission.
Yeager normally does his halibut fishing early in the season. He also operates Alaska Charters and Adventures, so he is usually busy during the tourist season. Like other halibut fishermen who work the early season, he had to sell his catches elsewhere. That means the city loses out on fish tax revenues, which are based on where the catch is sold, and the community loses out on fuel sales.
Mike Lockabey, a self-described "semi-retired" fisherman, said he is worried about the economic damage of Sea Level's late start, and also about how it might affect the relationship between the processor and its fishermen.
The late opening could push fishermen to sell somewhere else, he said, adding that he believes Sea Level lowballed its prices last year. "The fleet's loyalty is wavering," Lockabey said.
Brindle said there were a number of factors that lead to the decision to open Sea Level late into halibut season this year, but the primary cause was COVID-19.
With the risk of COVID-19 infections, Brindle said it did not make sense to operate at a time when business traditionally is slower. The plant operates with a smaller team in the early season, and if one worker got sick it could shut down operations, he said.
There just would not be enough early-season volume to justify the risk of a COVID spread, Brindle said.
After opening Saturday, the plant likely will stay open until its traditional closing time around the end of October.
Brindle said the processor did offer low prices for halibut last season. Due to scheduling conflicts with Alaska Airlines and the ferry service, Sea Level struggled to move fresh halibut to market, he said. This season, he said they are optimistic of offering more competitive prices, but that depends on the supply and demand.
"As long as restaurants continue to operate ... I'm very optimistic for good pricing this year," he said.
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