Ocean
Beauty Seafood’s dock at Petersburg sustained major damage on May 7 from a head-on
collision from a state ferry, but a regional manager for Ocean Beauty said they
plan to process as usual when the seine season begins in mid-June.
Mike
Forbush, southeast regional manager for Ocean Beauty, noted in an interview from
Ocean Beauty’s Seattle office on May 8 that the salmon seining season begins in
mid-June.
Forbush
spoke just a day before he was headed to Petersburg, in Southeast Alaska, to see
for himself how extensive the damage is.
The
408-foot ferry Matanuska, arriving just before high tide, when there was a strong
current, crashed head-on into Ocean Beauty’s dock.
The
incident is under investigation by the US Coast Guard and the Alaska Department
of Transportation. No injuries were reported among several dozen passengers aboard
the ferry, nor employees working in Ocean Beauty’s machine shop just outside the
damaged area. The ferry, in fact, sustained so little damage that it was cleared
to continue on its route to Vancouver, British Columbia.
The
dock did not fare as well. Forbush said damages were preliminarily estimated in
the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“It’s
not going to be a cheap fix,” said Forbush, who confirmed extensive damage to the
cement dock, dock pilings and a crane. Most of what was damaged was in the fish
buying and production area, and some equipment in the sorting area will have to
be replaced in some manner, he said.
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