Trouble for newly merged company comprised of two of Alaska’s oldest and largest seafood producers, Ocean Beauty Seafoods and Icicle Seafoods.
KDLG reports that OBI Seafoods confirmed on Tuesday that 12 positive cases of COVID-19 in Dillingham, Alaska, are workers at its Wood River canned salmon products processing plant. The facility was formerly operated solely by Cooke-owned Icicle Seafoods.
A merger in late May put ten Ocean Beauty Seafoods and Icicle Seafoods processing plants throughout Alaska under OBI Seafoods’ ownership. Founded in 1910, Ocean Beauty Seafoods is owned by the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation and a group of individual owners with experience in the seafood industry. Founded in 1965, Icicle Seafoods, has been owned by Cooke since 2016
OBI Seafoods said in a statement that its employees tested negative for COVID-19 before traveling to Dillingham, and that the employees were tested on the sixth day of a two-week quarantine when the test results were positive.
The individuals are asymptomatic and all were in quarantine together when they tested positive.
