Inside a spiral freezer, Northline Seafoods owner Ben Blakey pointed to where an electrical fire broke out last summer aboard his fish processing barge “Hannah”.
It was an inopportune time for the 400-foot vessel with the capacity to hold up to 2.3 million pounds of fresh salmon and store over 10 million pounds of frozen salmon. The Hannah, currently moored in Bellingham Bay, was just six weeks into its first season in Alaska’s Bristol Bay.
The vessel’s marine firefighters were quickly able to extinguish the fire, caused by a conduit being the wrong size. But damage was done.
Blakey had to notify the 100 boats that were planning to sell fish to Northline Seafoods. Of those, half went to other processors.
“In general, first seasons are challenging, and ours in particular, it was tough,” Blakey said.
Despite the fire, Northline Seafoods purchased more than 9 million pounds of salmon — about 7 million of it was sockeye pulled straight from the waters of Alaska last year.
The Hannah is setting sail in May for Bristol Bay for its second season. But Blakey still faces another challenge: millions in liens after being late to pay contractors for construction work on the vessel that was completed in May 2024. One contractor also noted an apparent lack of planning and design.
“We built the Hannah in about 14–16 months,” Blakey said. “It was a two-year project that we condensed for a number of reasons.”
Liens filed at the end of 2024
At the end of December 2024, companies had filed at least $1.4 million in liens against the Hannah, according to documents reviewed by CDN.
Intrafish, a fishing industry publication, noted in March that the Hannah was facing $2.8 million in liens filed with the U.S. Coast Guard.
Prior to construction, Northline received $40 million through a U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Supply Chain loan, part of the Biden administration’s “Build Back Better” plan. The other $20 million was financed through a loan.
Jan Kallshian, president and CEO of Industrial Resources Inc., filed a lien of about $517,000. His business, which focuses on structural steel work, was one of the first contractors on the Hannah project.
“A lot of the design was happening just literally hours or minutes prior to when the work was being done,” Kallshian told CDN. “Our guys were often waiting around for design documents, kind of almost working from drawings that the ink had hardly dried. That causes inefficiencies.”
Kallshian said originally Northline was paying what it owed Industrial Resources on time. But he was notified in March of last year that the company was going to be behind on its payment schedule.
Then the fire happened and Northline suggested giving Industrial Resources and some of the other supplies a proposed payment schedule where they’d pay everything off within eight weeks.
“They made the first payment and then I think they may have missed the next week,” Kallshian said. A second payment was made and “that was the end. They just said we don’t have any more money, we’re done.”
Blakey wouldn’t comment on the liens, nor the company’s financial standing.
“It was a very expensive project that basically supported hundreds of businesses and also hundreds of people,” he said. “It was a very challenging project, but it was a benefit, I think, to the community.”
Other liens came from Puget Sound Pipe and Supply Company, Stabbert Marine and Industrial LLC, and Dawson Construction.
Kallshian said filing the lien was his way of ensuring he would be promptly notified about Northline’s financial standings.
“I don’t see it in my benefit to get in their way … If they succeed, maybe I’ll get paid someday,” he said. “That’s what I want him to do and I’m in the camp of, ‘I’ll probably sign on a deal that keeps him alive.’ I’m not angry.”
Kallshian said he had had a conversation with Blakey about the payment schedule and it seemed like progress was being made.
Lessons learned and challenges ahead
As the Hannah and its crew of 96 people return to Alaska, they’ll be going back to a smaller fishing fleet than last summer.
“We’re working with all fleet that we’ve worked with in 2024,” Blakey said. “One of the nice things about that is people who took the risk to work with us year one are basically in line to be able to take advantage of a much smoother second year of operations.”
Blakey confirmed they would have an 85-boat fleet, about 30 fewer than last year.
Part of the reason for the drop in boats is the predictions for the salmon volume in the Nushagak district in northern Bristol Bay. Blakey said his crew is trying to stay mindful of their ability to process the fish that comes in front of them.
Northline will also be purchasing fish caught by tenders who fish in waters further from Bristol Bay.
“We’re increasing the quantity of fish that we buy directly and that’s largely as a result of increasing our deck crew significantly,” he said, adding they have about 20 deck crew ready for the season.
The Hannah is also working toward getting certified to be a fish buyer in Washington. The Pacific Salmon Commission, in an early forecast, has predicted at least 25 million pink salmon will be making their way into Puget Sound this August.
“[The Hannah] is mobile so you can use it in Alaska but you can also use it down here,” Blakey said, adding that he’s hopeful the vessel will be located close to Bellingham Bay. “Pink salmon cannot be sold fresh, they have to be sold frozen and ideally close by … We hope to get multiple days of operating 24 hours a day freezing fish.”
Annie Todd is CDN’s criminal justice/enterprise reporter; reach her at annietodd@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 130.
