"I think it's still the effect of what we've gone through the last few years with the industry," said Alan Austerman, fisheries policy advisor to Gov. Frank Murkowski. "I'm hoping it's two companies getting better. Both acknowledge the work NorQuest is doing in live and fresh product is just starting to come around to what it should be."

Sen. Ben Stevens of Anchorage also saw the deal, in terms of seafood products, as a partnering more than a takeover.

"NorQuest has gone down a certain product line and Trident has a certain role in the salmon business. I don't think that they really collide. Trident is high volume. NorQuest is moving toward niche marketing. I think it's probably going to be a good fit," Stevens said.

With the seven sisters of the Alaska seafood industry shrinking to six, Kodiak Sen. Gary Stevens, among others, raised the question of possible monopoly control by Trident.

"There was a question of the legality...I think it's important to look into that," Gary Stevens said. "Are we approaching any monopolistic issues that should be looked at? I don't know that's the case, but it certainly should be looked at now that Trident is so large."

Nikiski Rep. Mike Chenault wasn't sure how the deal would affect Cook Inlet harvesters, but he was also interested in the issue.

"I'd be concerned that there's not a monopoly going on that might deal with fish processors in the state," he said, agreeing with Gary Stevens' suggestion that federal authorities should study the monopoly question.

Stephanie Madsen, chairwoman of the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council and vice president of the Pacific Seafood Processors Association, said the monopoly question has been raised in the past, but noted that the council has tried to address it proactively in its "rationalization" of federal fisheries.

"We recognize that when we develop programs like that we need to build in those kinds of safeguards, which has always confused me," Madsen said. "When fishermen are opposed to giving processors any kind of privilege in the fishery, some of the harvesters don't see that as a benefit because once you give them some kind of privileges, either processing shares or being part of a co-op, then you put mechanisms in place to control their consolidation."

The highly controversial processor quota shares approved by the council in its rationalization Bering Sea crab fishery prevent a monopoly, Madsen explained.

"Without that there is no control, except the anti-trust or other federal anti-monopoly rules. The crab plan means there will be a minimum of four processors."

In the Chignik sockeye fishery the Trident/NorQuest deal confirms that only one processor will operate this year in the small but significant Alaska Peninsula fishery. The Chignik Seafood Producers Alliance, a cooperative of more than 80 of the 100 permit holders in the fishery, has been at odds with Trident Seafoods for the length of its two-year history while NorQuest has been buying from the co-op boats and those continuing to operate in the competitive fishery.

In February, Trident announced that it would not open its Chignik plant this season because it has been unable to get a guarantee from the co-op to supply a minimum volume of fish sufficient to warrant start-up expenses in the remote location.

United Fishermen of Alaska President Bob Thorstenson Jr. said he was thrilled by Trident's purchase of NorQuest and chuckled over what may be grim prospects for the Chignik co-op.

"They got their co-op, now Trident's going to be the one they deal with. They got what they wanted. It's a one-company town," Thorstenson said.

Calls to the co-op office and its officers over the course of two weeks were not returned.

As one of many Petersburg-based fishermen who own sizable shares of Icicle Seafoods, itself a major seafood processor, Thorstenson said he was nonetheless pleased by the Trident/NorQuest deal.

"Chuck Bundrant is the Bill Gates of the American seafood industry, unquestionably. With this purchase Trident is bigger than Icicle and Ocean Beauty combined," Thorstenson said.

Despite the irony of the comparison to Gates, whose company Microsoft has been convicted of anti-competitive practices, Thorstenson rejected the suggestion that the NorQuest purchase should be reviewed for monopoly concerns as "sheer and utter nonsense."