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A New Career Guide for Bristol Bay Seafood and Fishing Jobs

Mike Mason

A comprehensive guide has been released that outlines many of the available jobs in the Bristol Bay region in the fisheries, seafood processing and maritime trades. The new career guide was prepared by the Bristol Bay Native Association. It was released during the recent economic summit of the Southwest Alaska Municipal Conference. Much of guide was written by Pennelope Goforth from Anchorage. She says the guide was created with input and consultation of many of the large seafood processors that operate in the Bristol Bay region including Icicle and Trident Seafood’s.

“It’s to their benefit to hire as many Alaskans as they possibly can because it costs them money to hire people and they would rather hire people that have the skills and that are on site.”

The goal behind the new career guide is to outline the over 80-different kinds of jobs that exist in the commercial fishing, seafood processing and associated maritime trades. The guide includes detailed information about the skills needed to do a particular job, the pay-range and the educational requirements. Goforth says the seafood processing sector in Bristol Bay offers abundant opportunities to get in on the ground floor and advance quickly.

“You may start on the slime line but you could eventually end up running the plant. Chuck Bundrant is a great example. He was sleeping under his boat at one point but now is running Trident Seafood’s.”

The new career guide for Bristol Bay was funded by a rural jobs accelerator grant that the Bristol Bay Native Association received from the USDA and the U.S. Economic Development Administration. BBNA then worked with the Southwest Alaska Vocational and Education Center in King Salmon on developing the career guide and a curriculum intended to give local students the skills needed to enter the commercial fishing, seafood processing and maritime trades. Adelheid Herrmann is the Instructional Operations Manager for SAVEC.

“We want to build awareness about where these jobs are what these jobs are. As a training facility we want to offer training programs so people can have a career pathway.”

There are a number of resources available from various state, federal and local agencies for those interested in the commercial fishing, seafood processing and maritime trades but they are broader than just the Bristol Bay region. The new guide is specifically focused on the jobs and opportunities that exist in the Bristol Bay region. The new career guide has been distributed to tribal and educational institutions across the Bristol Bay region and it’s available online on the SAVEC website under the “about us” tab.