Questions about Fish Processing in Alaska (Ketchikan, Metlakatla: purchase, tax, price)

[Rance]

Good for you man!

[Dexter3]

I accidentally came across this forum as I was searching for canneries in Alaska. Would anyone know the entry level pay for anyone who would like to start work in these canneries, like Peter Pan Seafood?

[Chilkoot]

Originally Posted by Dexter3

I accidentally came across this forum as I was searching for canneries in Alaska. Would anyone know the entry level pay for anyone who would like to start work in these canneries, like Peter Pan Seafood?

Minimum wage in Alaska is $8.75/hour so that's where most processors will start you. If there is money to be made it's in the overtime and the fact you have very little time to spend it working those 80 hour weeks.

[111arcticcat]

Hello, thought I'd let you know. There is a job fair of sorts in Minneapolis mn on April 4th. This is for Trident seafoods.

here is the details. I found it posted in fargo nd craigslist, general labor forum.

Work in Alaska this summer! Trident Seafoods Corporation is looking for women & men to work at our remote Alaska shoreplants & vessels! Please join us as we will be hosting OPEN interviews in your area soon!

WHEN: April 4, 2015 @ 8:00 AM SHARP!
WHERE: Minneapolis Airport Marriott, 2020 American Boulevard East Bloomington, MN 55425

REQUIREMENTS:
• Work Authorization in the U.S.
• Ability to work 16-18 hrs/day 7 days/week
• Pass drug test
PAY:
• Starts at $8.75 Reg/$13.12 OT up to $10.00 Reg/$15.00 OT
• FREE room & board depending on location
• Bonus on vessel!
Please fill out an online application prior to our hiring event at: Trident Seafoods :: Home
Trident Seafoods is an equal opportunity employer -- Affirmative Action: Minority, Female, Disability, Veteran.

[skytop]

Originally Posted by jesse85

Wanted to post a followup. Thanks to the good advice from the above posts, I got on the dock at a cannery and subsequently was offered a deckhand position on a longliner. I'll be going back next year and will probably keep going back.

I've written a short ebook on my experiences and the craziness that went on at the cannery. Its called Slime Line: Adventures in Fish Processing. If anyone's interested they can check it out here:
Amazon.com: Slime Line: Adventures In Fish Processing eBook: Jesse Myner: Books

Hey bruh, I enjoyed your book. Did you go solely for the experience/book or out of economic necessity?

How is your hand by the way?

[Jarbucs]

Hello Jesse,

Ive been looking everywhere to purchase your book but to no avail. Can I purchase it from you directly?

[Parnassia]

Originally Posted by Jarbucs

Hello Jesse,

Ive been looking everywhere to purchase your book but to no avail. Can I purchase it from you directly?

OP hasn't been active here since 2013. Chances are they won't see your question.

[Metlakatla]

I wouldn't recommend that.

Jesse emailed me a digital copy of his book years ago, but it's on a computer that bit the dust in a vehicle fire back in The Stone Age, so can't help you there. The book was good — maybe too good. The guy can write, but his book isn't in print anymore. He has a blog, but he hasn't been active on it for a couple of years. I can send you the link if you DM me.

[Northrick]

Continuing troubles in the Alaska fish industry:


https://alaskabeacon.com/2024/04/01/...bEFOS3cEFNN1ZF



The fishing fleet in the Southwest Alaska town of King Cove would have been harvesting Pacific cod this winter.


But they couldn’t: Skippers had nowhere to sell their catch. The enormous plant that usually buys and processes their fish never opened for the winter season.


The company that runs the plant, Peter Pan Seafoods, is facing six-figure legal claims from fishermen who say they haven’t been paid for catches they delivered months ago. King Cove’s city administrator says the company is behind on its utility payments. And now, residents fear the plant may stay closed through the summer salmon season, which would leave the village with just half of the revenue that normally funds its yearly budget.

[Metlakatla]

Peter Pan has been in trouble for years.

Meanwhile, although I didn't feel it was worth posting here, there is plenty of good news. Trident's Ketchikan plant was sold to Silver Bay, and their Petersberg facility was purchased by a local family with about 100 years into the seafood industry on the panhandle. Up in Bristol Bay, the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association has a new executive director who's strongly advocating for taking those tall cans of salmon off the U.S.market, which I think is probably long overdue (although that particular product does perform extremely well in Asia, and not just among the cheap crowd).

Even though it means less tax revenue for Alaska communities, I can't help thinking that slowing down on this ground fish trawling can't be an overall bad thing. We'd have a better idea of the impact that this activity has on crab and Yukon River king salmon populations.

I wish someone would write a book on how Chuck Bundrant (the founder of Trident) became a billionaire by selling groundfish to McDonalds and Pinnacle Foods. These factory trawlers weren't always a thing in Alaska seafood, and now they seem to be nearly synonymous with it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/23/b...rant-dead.html

Mr. Bundrant was just 19 when he joined three friends on a summer road trip to Seattle, where they worked in a seafood cannery to make money for school. The others returned home; he saved enough to move to Alaska and buy a crab boat, then used the proceeds from that venture to found Trident, with two partners, in 1973. Its fleet consisted of a single vessel.