Alaska Business Forum - June 4, 2015

SafestCatch.Net ~ Safest Catch dot Net

The Seattle Chamber of Commerce held it's Alaska Business Forum at the Microsoft Event Center (1301 5th Avenue - 15th Floor) today and the topic was one that is near and dear to my heart - rebuilding the American/Alaskan Fishing Fleet.  The biggest safety improvement we can make in our Industry is to build new vessels.  They also come with the side effects/benefits of efficiency, seaworthyness, ecologically friendly, ergonomically/worker friendly, comfortable... The list goes on and on.  

We are at the forefront of a new building cycle, the likes of which haven't been seen since the 1970's.  The aging vessels that make up our Bering Sea Fleet are starting to be replaced. 

At this forum, we heard from Steve Johnson, Esq. Steve is an Owner/Partner at Garvey Shubert Barer and described the age, number of vessels, dollar values and circumstances of the Bering Sea fishing fleets (most of which are based in Seattle).

  Kristian Uri, General Manager and Chief Vessel Officer of Fishermen's Finest described the process of bringing America's Finest from concept to reality.  The 80m (262') vessel cut Evraz DNV (Det Norske Veritas) steel yesterday at Seaport Steel in Seattle; construction will start later this month at Dakota Creek Industries in Anacortes, Washington.  It's a long way from the concept which came to mind when seeing the news in Fishing News International that Norway Seafoods (now Havfisk) was replacing their 10 year old vessels with the Gadus Neptune, Gadus Poseidon, and Gadus Njord.  The vessels these three were replacing were supperior to any existing vessels in the US Fleet and started them thinking if it can be done in Norway, why not in the United States.  Through the process, shipyards, vendors, naval architects, politics, world wide travel all came into play as a decision was made to build an international ST-116 class of vessels. Read more about this project at www.FishFinest.com.

Grant Fosheim brought the Vigor Industrial Oregon - Washington - Alaska shipyard capabilities to the forum and discussed the desire of his firm to build a class of vessels.  Harkening back to the Marco (Marine Construction and Design Company) 1970's era of Alaskan crab fishing vessels, Vigor sees the opportunity to work with fishermen to build a class of vessels meeting their needs, capitilizing on the economies of scale afforded by such an approach.  

Steve Johnson discussed the table below, as compiled by Peter Phillips and Doug Dixon (Pacific Fisherman Shipyard) shows the Potential Economic Value of Replacement of the Alaskan Fishing Fleet.  It truly is a several billion dollar opportunity for American economic activity...

Safest Catch meets Deadliest Catch.

Real Fishermen Pursuing Safety and Sustainable Fisheries.