Ocean Beauty Seafoods will permanently close the company’s Petersburg cannery.
Company president and CEO Mark Palmer said in an Aug. 2 letter to Petersburg borough that Ocean Beauty’s facilities at Excursion Inlet, Cordova and Kodiak provide it with adequate canning capacity to meet customer demand.
The processor invested money in its Excursion Inlet plant, about 40 miles west of Juneau and will focus on more fresh and frozen processing.
The letter also mentions a multi-year agreement with a floating processor vessel Ocean Fresh.
“Our new configuration provides us the most flexibility and efficient business model to deal with the extreme fluctuations that have become the norm for the pink salmon harvest,” Palmer said in the letter.
Petersburg’s borough assembly briefly discussed the closure at its Aug. 6 meeting.
“They have been removing equipment out of the building for a few years, the can lines, an ice machine,” said Mayor Mark Jensen, who thought it’s been in the works for a few years. “It’s been coming.”
The cannery last operated in 2016, closing in 2010 and again in 2012, the year the state ferry Matanuska damaged the building.
The cannery employed about 200 seasonal workers.
The decision means Icicle Seafoods’ Petersburg Fisheries plant will be the only cannery in town.
Ocean Beauty will miss having a large presence in the community, Palmer wrote in the letter.
Some staff will stay in Petersburg to provide support to its fishing fleet.
