A seafood company registered in Washington state and a Florida-based import/export firm have been charged in connection with huge economic losses suffered by harvesters who delivered salmon to Ekuk during the 2004 season.
State officials said Jan. 10 that five charges of violating the Alaska Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act were levied against Jeremy Oliver, a resident of the state of Washington; Wild Alaskan Seafood Co., a Washington limited liability corporation; Florida resident Jay Enis; and Strategica Import-Export Financial Group, a Florida limited liability corporation.
Each defendant was charged with five class A misdemeanors, including processing adulterated seafood, adulteration of food, mishandling seafood, processing salmon without a hazard analysis critical control point plan and processing salmon without a sanitation plan.
Attempts to contact those charged were unsuccessful.
The charges were filed in early January in the Alaska District Court in Dillingham. All parties named are considered innocent until proven guilty, state officials said.
According to Alaska Assistant Attorney General Daniel Cheyette, the defendants are accused of significantly damaging the 2004 Ekuk salmon fishery, resulting in total economic loss to fishermen and Ekuk employees likely in excess of $1 million. State officials allege that due to the defendants' negligence, more than 499 tons of salmon caught by local set net fishermen, and delivered to the Wild Alaskan Seafood Co. in Ekuk, about 50 miles southeast of Dillingham, had to be destroyed.
As a consequence, the fishermen who caught the fish were never paid and Ekuk employees who attempted to process the fish were only partially compensated for their services, state officials said.
Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation fish inspectors dispatched to Ekuk over the course of that summer inspected more than a million pounds of fish and determined the vast majority to be unfit for human consumption.
The department detained the damaged product and ultimately had it ground into fish meal or otherwise destroyed, to avert a public health catastrophe and to ensure the integrity and reputation of the state's seafood industry, officials said.
Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.
