Saving Seafood

North Pacific fishing industry raising money for Alaska Coast Guard families

January 25, 2019 — Fishing companies that work off Alaska are donating money to Coast Guard workers who — despite missing paychecks — continue to conduct safety exams and patrols, and stand ready to respond to disasters at sea.

The fundraising effort was kicked off earlier this week by Chris Woodley, a retired Coast Guard captain who now serves as executive director of the Groundfish Forum, a Seattle-based trade group that represents five companies that operate 19 catcher-processors off Alaska.

The fundraiser is part of a much broader effort to help federal workers facing financial difficulties in the partial government shutdown that has resulted from the political impasse between Congress and President Donald Trump over funding of a border wall.

“As a former Coast Guardsman stationed in Alaska, I cannot overstate how much our assistance can mean to a Coast Guard family in need,” Woodley wrote in an online fundraising letter.

Read the full story at the Seattle Times

China tariffs hit Alaska Amendment 80 fleet in midst of $285m recap effort

September 25, 2018 — US president Donald Trump’s 10% tariffs that went into effect Monday for nearly 6,000 Chinese goods are bad news for all of the US harvesters of seafood sent to China for processing, but they come at a particularly unfortunate time for the five companies with flatfish-catching vessels in Alaska’s Amendment 80 fleet.

Those harvesters have spent more than a combined $285 million over the past six years to replace or significantly improve their 19 ships, according to Chris Woodley, executive director of the Groundfish Forum, the trade group that represents them.

Woodley told Undercurrent News on Friday that he doesn’t know how the tariffs will immediately impact his members or if any of the additional cost might make them want to hit pause on their recent recapitalization effort.

“As far as specific business arrangements with individual companies, each A80 [Amendment 80] company has got its own supply chain and its own buyers,” he said. “It’s not a monolithic block. So, all we know right now is that the fish products harvested by the A80 fleet are on the list to have tariffs imposed, and that’s where we are.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News