Icicle Seafoods plans to use a floating processor, the Gordon Jensen, to process in the Togiak herring fishery, which is expected to open around the first of May with an 80-million pound quota.

Chris Pugmire, Icicle’s general manager of operations for Western Alaska, told public radio station KDLG in Dillingham, Alaska, that the vessel will anchor offshore and that the crew and staff of the Gordon Jensen will be onboard for the duration of the fishery.

According to Pugmire none of the workers aboard the boat have had contact with anyone other than their shipmates since early March, when Icicle stopped bringing on new crew because of the novel coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe.

Icicle also has submitted to the state of Alaska a required plan for disease prevention and has been working to develop customized protocols to ensure the best prevention measures possible, Pugmire told KDLG.

Icicle is the only processor this year in the Togiak herring fishery, whose markets have been declining in recent years, but Pugmire said his company is remaining optimistic about markets.

Fishermen’s News Online grants permission to the Alaska Native News to post selected articles. Read More at: Fishermen’s News Online.

  Alaska, floating processor, gordon jensen, herring, icicle seafoods, season, togiak