Spotted completing a refit at Vigor Industrial on Harbor Island.
The Seattle-based fishing fleet consists of a vast multitude of vessels of different sizes and types. Ranging from small boats to ships over 600 feet in length, they search the oceans for crab, cod, pollock, halibut and many other catches.
Among the largest in the fleet are the factory trawlers such as the Alaska Ocean. Using a pelagic, or midwater, trawl net, these vessels are able to haul in large numbers of the whitefish they target, including Alaska Pollock, Pacific Cod and Pacific Whiting. Once onboard, the catch is fed into onboard processing equipment. After completion of the process, the various products, including filets, roe, fish oil, fish meal and surimi (imitation crabmeat) are inspected by the crew and then packaged and flash frozen, ready for delivery upon return to port. The entire operation only takes a few hours.
Like most of the factory trawler fleet, however, the Alaska Ocean hasn’t always been trawling the North Pacific. She started life as the offshore supply vessel State Express, operated from the Gulf Coast by State Marine Corp. of Houston, Texas. In the late eighties, she and her sister, State Trust were brought to the Pacific Northwest by Sunmar Shipping, and initially used to transport refrigerated containers.
Eventually both vessels were sent to Ulstein Verft in Norway, virtually torn down to nothing, and rebuilt as factory trawlers, with State Express being renamed as Alaska Ocean for Alaska Ocean Seafood Ltd of Anacortes, and State Trust becoming Northern Hawk for Oceantrawl Inc of Seattle. In 2008, Alaska Ocean joined the fleet of Glacier Fish Company, and when pictured was being repainted into their company scheme.
Alaska Ocean
USCG Doc #: 637856
Owner: Glacier Fish Company LLC, Seattle, WA
Flag: USA
Hailing Port: Seattle, WA
Call Sign: KRCT
Length: 344.0 ft
Beam: 60.0 ft
Tonnage: 4,555 GT/1,831 NT
Crew: 130
Year of Build: 1981
Builder: Blount Marine Corp, Warren, RI
Yard Number: SB-237
Former Name:
STATE EXPRESS (1981-90)
Puget Ships 