Vital Ice Plant Re-Opens For Commercial Tuna Fishermenff

Source: KCBY

After shutting down production for a few months at the beginning of the year, a staple in the Charleston fishing community is up and operating again, producing a vital staple for commercial fishermen.

Since April, commercial fishing boats have been lining up at a dock in the harbor in Charleston, to stock up on ice.

The ice plant was closed in January, after the person leasing it from the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay, could no longer afford to maintain it.

After putting $40,000 worth of repair work into it, the port re-opened the ice plant three months ago.

“Without it I believe most of our fleet would leave and we would lose a lot of transits coming in that are bypassing us for albacore tuna and shrimp,” says Charleston Harbormaster Aaron Simons. “I’ve talked to several local fishermen and they are very happy that the port has taken this over and putting the money into it.”

Simons says since April of this year, the plant has sold 886 tons of ice, that's double the amount sold in the same time period last year.

He says it’s due to the quality of the ice, and the increase in the number of boats they can serve.

“Some days we can do 15 vessels and that all depends. We hold approximately 120 tons of ice in here. We can produce about 26 tons a day to 54 tons a day.”

There are still more repairs to be done, the port has a little over $340,000 in federal stimulus funds, and over $34,000 in matching port funds to use for the project.