SNOPAC NEWS AND EVENTS

Quality Control Jobs in Alaska

Snopac Products Inc. is a Seattle-based seafood processing company that has operated since 1983.  Snopac conducts almost all of its processing operations in Alaska with the floating processor the M/V Snopac Innovator (for more information on Snopac and its operations please visit the webpage www.snopac.net).  We are currently hiring quality control workers for our fishing operations in Bristol Bay, Alaska.  There are eight positions available, one on each of our eight fish transport vessels (tenders).  Our tender vessels vary in length, from 70 to 150 feet.  Tender vessels do not actively fish but rather act as transport vessels, unloading sockeye salmon from small gillnetting boats into large refrigerated tanks on board.  After loading up their tanks with salmon, they carry their load to the 330 foot processing vessel M/V Snopac Innovator.

The job of the quality control person will be to take temperatures of fish as they are unloaded from the gillnetters.  Quality control workers will be trained to indentify the different grades of salmon, a process that requires both taking fish temperatures and taking note of water levels and tank temperatures onboard salmon gillnetters.  This job entails working, eating and sleeping in cramped and uncomfortable conditions.  Duties will also include cooking, cleaning, taking wheel watches or whatever else requested by captain.  Our contracted tender vessels are similar to the boats featured on the Discovery Channel show "Deadliest Catch"--one of the eight hired will work on board one of the boats featured on the show.  Keep in mind that Bristol Bay is calm and safe in comparison to the Bering Sea in the winter--you will not be fishing for crab, you will be transporting salmon.

Tentative dates are June 15 to July 20th.  If you are interested please send a cover letter with a little information about yourself and a resume that includes experience that you believe has prepared you for long hours and uncomfortable conditions of a boat job in Alaska (send to bblakey@snopac.net ELECTRONIC APPLICATIONS ONLY).  The pay will be a daily wage of $125, free room and board, and roundtrip airfare to King Salmon, Alaska from Seattle.   

Slush Ice Program Part Two

This letter provides additional details regarding our slush ice program, as well as general information about our Bristol Bay operation.   Snopac is currently recruiting fisherman for the 2007 season.  If you are both a quality and quantity-minded producer we hope you will seriously consider what we have to offer. 

Slush Ice Bonus

There will be a bonus paid for all slush ice fish delivered.  This bonus will be between 12 and 14 cents per pound. 

Ice Distribution

The majority of our distributed ice will come from the M/V Snopac Innovator and will service fishermen in the Naknek and Egegik districts and later in the season in Ugashik.  Fishermen in the Nushagak district will have access to ice through the BBDEC ice barge “Bristol Maid.”  The ice barge will be located upriver of Clarks Point during the 2007 season.  In the Nushagak we will have two tenders buying fish, one at Clarks Point and one on the South line.  Distance and time constraints will make it difficult for South-end fishermen to access ice upriver.  Our tenders will carry ice from the barge location to the South-end of the district as demand calls.  It is our goal to create a program that provides easy access to ice in every fishing district. 

Ice will be offloaded from our tenders in Nomar brailers, dropped onto your deck, then pushed and shoveled into your holds.  We will attempt to make this process as efficient and quick as possible to ensure quick offloads and short tender lines.  Summer water temperatures in the Bay are regularly 52 degrees or warmer.  Mixing Bay water with the ice can diminish the chilling potential of your slush mix.  Each of our tenders will be outfitted with a hose and a pump connected to their RSW tanks.  To maximize chilling potential of the ice, we will recommend that you use tender RSW water for your slush mix. 

We will offer our RSW boats an additional bonus option for floating their fish.  With insulated holds RSW boats will not need slush bags or ice but will need to fill their hatches a third full with RSW water taken from tenders.  This option floats the fish, and with chillers running allows for rapid heat removal.

On each tender we will have a quality control person taking fish temps and checking fish holds to note water levels and floating fish.  This will relieve the tender crew of that task so that offloading fish is fast.  Our quality control standards will ensure that we all benefit from the sale of our slush iced salmon and will send a message to our markets that we are serious about quality.

 

Slush Bags

Slush ice bags are set up as liners—you hang them from the same hooks you hang your fish brailers from.  Slush liners cover hatch walls and are watertight.  Before an opening you would fill the slush ice liner a quarter to a third full of ice and water mix.  You then hang your fish brailers from their normal hooks into the slush solution. 

We will be sending someone up to the Bay during the week of March 3 to take measurements and hold dimensions for boats interested in having slush liners made.  Slush liners can cost anywhere from $300 to $500 per hold.  We will advance the manufacturing and shipping costs of the slush liners and deduct the costs from your slush bonus at the end of the season.  It is important to get your boat’s actual hatch dimensions before we order slush liners.  Unlike some fish brailers, slush liners sit flush against the walls of your hatches so in many cases brailer dimensions will not be adequate for proper sizing.  Based on the responses that we have received, I think the majority of boats are going to build bags for two or three of their holds—to slush between four and seven thousand pounds of fish.

Tender Service

We have some of the best tenders in the Bay.  Our lines are short and our tender operators are quick and professional.  Our large tender fleet will assist in our slush program and will provide the services necessary to support our fishermen in every district.

Capacity

We have the capacity to process over 700,000 pounds of salmon a day.  We have refined and enhanced our processing operations and we have plenty of capacity for more boats.  During peak fishing, due to time and weight constraints, slush icing can be difficult.  We want to be a quality producer during the slow to average fishing periods.  However, with a large daily production capacity, we want to be a quantity producer when there is any volume of fish around.  It will be your decision as to when to utilize the slush ice so as to maximize your income for each fishing period.

Nushagak Fisherman

We are looking to recruit new fishermen, especially those who normally fish the Nushagak district or who might intend to begin their season there.

If you are considering slush ice for 2007 please contact us as soon as possible.  We will need to organize the logistics of gaining entry to boat yards and taking measurements for orders.  Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have further questions.

Slush Ice Program Part One

     We work in a competitive fishery where fishermen and processors alike are motivated more by volume than by quality.  In the past, the Japanese frozen market helped fuel this motivation.  As processors, we could sell fish of all grades and sizes to the Japanese without effort.  In 1990, 84% of Bristol Bay sockeye salmon was exported to Japan.  This percentage dropped to 43% by 2000(1), and in 2006 this percentage was even lower.  Similar declines in the value of domestic and international canned markets have forced Bristol Bay processors to explore new market options.

     Today, fillet and fresh-frozen salmon sales to domestic and European niche-markets are replacing the Japanese as the largest consumers of Bristol Bay salmon (2).  Fish quality is a larger consideration in these new markets than it was in the past with the Japanese.  Recent increases in fish prices demonstrate how these market shifts have benefited our industry.  These increasing fish values are not only dependent on current market conditions, but also are a result of small, fundamental quality developments that have taken place over the past twenty years.

     In the early 1980's we switched from the large net brailers to less-damaging Normar brailers to pack and offload our fish.  The next change came when we began to outfit some of our boats with RSW.  Fishing periods have grown shorter and gone are the days when fish are left on boats for twenty-four hours or more.  At the time these changes were considered costly; today such quality-improving steps are accepted as practical standards for increased value salmon.  Today, a new scope of international and domestic buyers reveal a demand for higher quality Bristol Bay salmon and we have the option of taking another step towards improving quality.

     We at Snopac consider slush ice to be the next important step in the evolution of the Bristol Bay salmon industry.  Slush ice has proven to increase quality and has the potential to bring Bristol Bay salmon into higher-value markets.  As you probably know, the benefit of slush ice is very quick heat transfer and also that the fish "float" in the slush, reducing red pressure marks and flesh damage.  In addition to our normal buying option we will be offer a slush-ice program for the 2007 season.  Our slush-ice bonus will be in excess of RSW premiums.

     We encourage you to explore the possibilities of using slush ice in your fishing operation.  The next letter will detail our slush-ice operation for the 2007 season.

Sincerely,

Greg Blakey

1.  Wild Salmon Risk Management in Bristol Bay Alaska: Draft Final Report.  Greenberg, Herman, Geier, Hamel.  University of Alaska Fairbanks January 2002

2.  Globefish.org "Salmon-December 2006" pars. 8