‘It’s troubling for every one of us’: Kodiak reacts to Trident processing plant sales

Gerry Cobban Knagin and her family fished for Trident Seafoods on and off for decades. She said the company’s announcement last week that it will sell four Alaska processing plants, including Kodiak’s, was a huge shock for almost everyone on the island. 

“Speaking with (Trident} management, there wasn’t any heads up for anyone,” she said. “And they decided, according to management, that they wanted full transparency so that the fleet would know, they don’t have any buyers yet, but they wanted to put it out that everything is for sale.”

The other Trident plants for sale are in False Pass, Petersburg, and Ketchikan. The company will also either sell or retire the historic Diamond NN Cannery in Naknek, as well as its support facilities in Chignik.

The archipelago’s Tanner crab season starts next month but Knagin said she’s dismayed that there seems to be little commitment for upcoming fishing seasons. 

“(Trident) will be buying Tanners, and they will be buying for the A season of Pollock – they cannot expand on anything else past that,” she said. “So, we are salmon fishermen, and they cannot guarantee that they will be available for us to buy our salmon.” 

Trident spokeswoman Alexis Telfer declined to verify if the company will be buying the species Knagin cited. Telfer refused to comment further on the situation, only saying they’re focused on supporting their employees, fishermen, and partners at this time. 

In the press release earlier this week, Trident wrote it would operate “a significantly scaled-back winter season,” in Kodiak but did not provide any more information. 

Trident has a huge imprint in Kodiak – the processing plant is one of the biggest buildings in the city’s downtown and has been a part of the community for half a century.

Knagin said Trident leaving the island paints a bleak picture for the seafood industry as a whole and questions what it means for the other processors in town. 

“It’s troubling for every one of us in Kodiak,” said Pat Branson, Kodiak’s city mayor. 

Branson said city officials didn’t have any kind of advanced notice that the processor would sell the Kodiak facility either. She said she met with Trident staff on Dec. 12 when the announcement went public, but didn’t get any more information than was on the press release. 

Branson also shared concerns for the Kodiak plant staff and families affected, especially going into the holiday season.

“It’s going to affect everyone whether you’re involved in the fishing business or not because that’s what our economic engine is here,” she said. “Having a major player in our community, like Trident, putting their business up for sale, is really a concern for all of us.” 

Branson said city officials are going to keep an extra close eye on the state of fisheries moving forward. She said all the city can hope for now is that Trident will be transparent as potential sales move forward.

Knagin said she wanted to continue fishing for Trident, but now that the plant she lives near is being sold, she has a lot of questions about job security. 

“It raises a tremendous amount of uncertainty in our minds right now of whether or not we will have a market,” she said. “The other processing plants have (a) full fleet, so where does that leave the 45 boats that fish for Trident out of Kodiak? Where do we go? What do we do?” 

It’s currently unknown if Trident has any potential buyers for the Kodiak processing plant, or any of its other plants listed for sale.