Scantrol and GS Marine visit the fishing port Dutch Harbour

Our distributor in U.S. and Canada, GS Marine, is planning to set up an office in DH to support the fleet of existing trawl winches and to offer the new Scantrol Autotrawl upgrade kits. Scantrol joined the tour to the town also known as the Fishing Capital of the World.

The small towns of Dutch Harbor and Unalaska are near the very end of the Aleutian Island chain. This booming fishing community boasts the most productive seafood processing port in the U.S., with five large processing facilities and fishing ships from countries throughout the world. Dutch Harbor is ranked as a top fishing port with more than a billion dollars transferred each year. Huge harvests of pollock and cod in the Bering Sea are part of this total. The Bering Sea has a continental shelf that is one of the world’s largest and supports a rich ecosystem.

Deadliest Catch

Dutch Harbour is also known for Crab fisheries and the Tv Series “Deadliest Catch”. Crab fishing was shut down in 2018. The crab vessels are tied up and the pots are stocked in huge piles all over the city

Selions and eagles are living happy life and are feeding on enormous amounts of fish.

The skippers we have talked to tell us that the pollock fishing this year has been phenomenal. Within 2-4 hours of trawling, they often manage to fill the boat with pollock.

The weather in DH is rapidly changing. During our stay, we experienced all weather conditions. A local saying is “If you don’t like the weather, wait 10 minutes and you will have a different weather”

Purpose of our visit

A large fleet of catcher's vessels (Fresh Fish) and factory trawlers operate out of Dutch Harbour. The fleet depends on local industry to support them with spares, repairs, and service. A majority of the vessels are equipped with winches that have existing Autotrawl systems, which could easily be upgraded with the new SYM 7 Autotrawl kit. Everyone we visited was excited to hear that GS marine is planning to set up an office in DH and provide support and Scantrol SYM7 upgrade kits for the vessels. Jamie Greaves from GS Marine has a very close working relationship with captains and crew on the vessels in DH. During his years with Rapp Marine he supported and assisted them in a very good way.