Homer harvesters retrofit vessel with slurry-ice system to pursue higher‑value markets

Lacey Velasco and community partners told the Joint Legislative Task Force on Alaska Seafood on Jan. 10 that they retrofitted one of their family commercial fishing vessels with a refrigerated slurry‑ice system intended to preserve fish on board without freezing, allowing larger transit times and the shipment of fresh (not frozen) product to processors.

Velasco said the family’s Kodiak and Homer operations currently fish Pacific cod, black cod and salmon and installed the slurry system from an Icelandic supplier (KAP) last November. The process described: haul, bleed and gut fish, sort into tubs, then layer refrigerated slurry ice directly on the fish so it remains chilled but unfrozen during transport to a processor. Velasco said the first commercial shipment was loaded in Dutch Harbor and trucked to a processor in Washington state the day before the Jan. 10 meeting; the harvesters were awaiting delivery confirmation.

The speakers framed the conversion as a business response to sustained low ex‑vessel prices and higher operating costs. Velasco said larger processors previously approached for partnership showed little interest, so her family financed a large part of the retrofit themselves and supplemented it with a grant match. She described the installation as costing “hundreds of thousands” of dollars (exact amount not disclosed) and said the family expects the product to command a premium in market channels that value chilled, minimally handled whitefish.

Task force members and other legislators asked technical and market questions: how long chilled product can hold (Velasco cited industry examples of 15 days in refrigerated seawater systems), which species they were focusing on (Pacific cod and black cod initially, with hopes for salmon trials), and shipping logistics (containers are refrigerated and monitored; Matson was used for the first shipment). The presenters also described buying tubs from CyPlast, using a non‑pumping handling workflow to avoid mechanical damage, and shipping fresh product south to reach value markets.

Speakers raised broader policy and infrastructure issues they say limit wider adoption: limited public access to docks, cranes, cold storage and other port infrastructure in many Alaska communities; reliance on nonresident processing labor; and reduced bargaining power for harvesters because of processor consolidation. Velasco and co‑presenter Hannah Heimbach urged the task force to consider targeted state support—loan or grant programs, tax incentives, and an infrastructure audit to identify public dock, crane and cold‑storage gaps across communities—as ways to help small harvesters scale value‑added approaches.

Presenters and some legislators pointed to federal programs (the Farm Bill / USDA) as a template for loan and grant tools that favor market innovation, suggesting the state could adapt that model to help small harvesters and processors. Presenters also said they plan to test chilled catches for quality against refrigerated seawater (RSW) product samples this season and would share data with interested parties.

Velasco and Heimbach emphasized this was not a niche experiment but an example they believe could be scaled across vessel sizes and communities if processors, shippers and public infrastructure allow it. They asked the task force to consider policy changes and state support that would encourage other harvesters and small processors to adopt similar handling systems.

The presentation included direct descriptions from the harvester team of retrofitting, supplier names and first‑shipment logistics; it did not include formal requests for immediate statutory changes or a specific appropriation during the meeting.