Ocean Beauty closes Excursion Inlet plant for the rest of the year

Ocean Beauty Seafoods closed its fish processing plant in Excursion Inlet last week. The cannery will remain closed for the rest of the season. This season saw far fewer fish come through the plant than last year. 

Ocean Beauty has recently focused its efforts on freezing Southeast Alaskan fish rather than canning them.

Due to a lack of freezing facilities, the company’s Petersburg cannery ceased operations last summer. That resulted in Excursion Inlet taking on more processing—around 26 million pounds of fish in 2017.

This year Ocean Beauty expanded its freezing capacity at the Excursion Inlet plant while closing its canning operation in Petersburg altogether.

Ocean Beauty’s Senior Alaska Operations Manager Mike Forbush said that although Excursion Inlet was ready to freeze more fish this summer, there simply wasn’t enough salmon to keep the plant running any longer.

“The volumes of fish weren’t there for us to maintain the operation. It was a very disappointing season. The pink run never developed really anywhere and the chums were also down in most of the areas across the southeast area,” Forbush said.

According to Excursion Inlet Plant Superintendent Tom Marshall, pink salmon returns have been low during even-numbered years. Although the quantity of fish is fewer, the number of fish processed at the plant this year is comparable to the number processed in 2016.

The Excursion Inlet plant will not be processing any more fish this summer. However, Ocean Beauty is still buying fish in Southeast Alaska. Forbush said the company has worked out a deal with a processor in Petersburg so that it can keep its tenders running.

“We had an opportunity to have custom processing done at Icycle here in Petersburg, which is a little more centrally located between the southern districts and the northern districts,” Forbush said. “It allowed us to have better tender service and get the fish processed sooner from Districts 1 and 2. We’re still buying with our own tenders, both gillnet and seine fish, we’re just having them custom processed so we can do it a little bit more efficiently.”

Forbush said that this year’s numbers won’t affect plans for Excursion Inlet operations next season.

“It really shouldn’t change anything. We made some huge improvements to the plant this year. Increased our freezing capacity quite a bit. Yeah, we’re going to go after it again next year. Don’t have any change of plans. We’re expecting a much bigger season, so we’ll gear up accordingly,” Forbush said.

Ocean Beauty has been an important source of revenue for the Haines Borough. Last year the plant brought in over $300,000 in raw fish taxes.

According to a report from the Borough Manager to the assembly on August 21st, this year’s weak pink salmon run is expected to dramatically impact the borough’s raw fish tax revenue.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the closure of the Excursion Inlet plant came about a month early this year. The closing date of the plant depends on the strength of the salmon runs, which fluctuate from year to year.