Southern drift
Massachusetts fleet owner teams up with an Alabama boatyard seven times
By Larry Chowning
For years, Gulf of Mexico shrimpers have come to the southwest corner of Alabama, in the area around Bayou La Batre and Coden to have their boats built, first wooden boats and then steel.
Now, even though shrimping is in a slump, the reputations of the area's boatbuilders still draw customers wanting to build new or convert the old, though many of the boats go to fishermen outside of the gulf. Williams Fabrication in Coden is one boatyard that has adapted to the changing times.
Owner and founder Dale Williams has found a niche building steel scallopers as well as combination scallop and longlining boats for Mid-Atlantic and New England fishermen. Some of these fishermen have come back for more, which is surely the sign of a successful boatyard.
Fleet Fisheries of New Bedford, Mass., is one of those repeat customers. In late March, a 90-foot scalloper and longliner was nearly ready for sea trials, and work was about to begin on another boat, a 102-foot scalloper, for Lars and Virginia Vinjerud, owners of Fleet Fisheries. They will be the sixth and seventh boats Williams Fabrication has built or converted for Fleet Fisheries.
Lars Vinjerud and Williams met in 2001 when Vinjerud was searching for a boatyard to build him a scalloper. He had interviewed three builders before meeting Williams. Obviously, the two hit it off, as Vinjerud has come back to Coden for another and another.
Fleet expansion
Vinjerud has spent most of his life in the commercial fishing business, starting in Alaska as a 15-year-old deckhand. The Vinjeruds have mostly been involved with catching and wholesaling fish, but this December they opened a retail fish store, Fisherman's Market, right off their processing plant in New Bedford.
The market is separated from the processing plant by clear paneling, so customers can watch the fresh fish being processed — fish they might end up buying.
Most of the seafood at the market comes off the Vinjeruds' fleet of 15 boats that fish in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.
This type of market diversification requires a diverse fishing fleet that's not strapped to one fishery. Fleet Fisheries' boats go after scallops, lobster, shrimp, swordfish and tuna. Several of the 15 boats are rigged to go after more than one species.
Callifornia crabbing: Here's a fun video shot on the decks of the Majestik while catching Dungeness crab off the coast of northern California.
Over 500 lots of seafood processing equipment formerly owned by Adak Seafood will be sold at auction on Tuesday, June 18, starting at 10 a.m. Hawaiian-Aleutian Daylight Time at the Hilton Garden Inn in Anchorage Alaska.
The equipment is located in a recently updated 250,000 square foot state-of-the-art processing facility in Adak, Alaska. Farmington Hills, Mich.-based Hilco Industrial, which conducts 75 machinery and equipment auctions in a wide range of industries annually, will conduct the auction.
Adak Seafood opened originally as Ada Fisheries in Anchorage in 1986. The facility, updated in 2005, is located on the island of Adak, the southernmost city in Alaska near the western end of the Aleutian Islands. The facility processed cod primarily, as well as halibut, blackcod, crab and pollock, Hilco says.
Alaska fisherman and commercial fisheries activist Kevin Adams was elected chairman at the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute board of directors meeting on May 9 in Anchorage.
The governor-appointed board consists of seven members: five seafood processors and two industry representatives actively engaged in commercial fishing. Adams was appointed to fill a harvester seat by Gov. Frank Murkowski in 2004.
With 38 years of fishing experience in Bristol Bay, Adams has long been an active member in the Alaska fishing industry, ASMI says. He has worked for both the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation and the Bering Sea Fisherman's Association, and represents Alaska fishermen on numerous boards.
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