_{Thumbnail: Crescent City Harbor commissioners are working with two seafood buyers who hope to lease hoists on Citizens Dock. | Photo courtesy of the Crescent City Harbor District}

Crescent City Harbor commissioners are hoping to accommodate two Washington-based seafood buyers who submitted competing letters of intent to take over hoists Global Quality Foods had operated on Citizens Dock.

Commissioner Rick Shepherd, a long-time commercial fisherman, told representatives with Fathom Seafoods, of Tacoma, and Ocean Gold Seafoods, of Westport, that he hoped they could split the two hoists Global Quality Foods once operated.

“That would be the ultimate,” he said last week. “And it would only be for this winter and maybe next winter and the winter after next. Then you would [have] a permanent hoist with trucks being able to go right up to it. A state-of-the-art hoist on land instead of out on the dock.”

Before hearing presentations from both buyers, Shepherd and his colleagues had terminated Global Quality Foods’ lease due to delinquent rent and, since the company hadn’t operated the hoists for 90 consecutive days, abandonment. They also considered terminating building and hoist leases with Pacific Seafood, but decided against it after the company submitted a $43,000 check to cover delinquent rent.

Following presentations by Fathom and Ocean Gold representatives, Shepherd and the other harbor commissioners urged them to attend a tour of CCHD properties the following day. Shepherd said the tour would include an update on reconstruction projects impacting Citizens Dock and an adjacent seawall.

During his presentation to the Harbor District Board, Nick Mareno, Fathom Seafoods’ vice president of procurement, said his company has been purchasing seafood in Crescent City for about seven years.

Fishermen working for Fathom Seafoods had brought 200,000 pounds of Dungeness crab into Crescent City as of last Tuesday — six days into the season — without operating a hoist. He said his company should bring in an estimated 500,000 pounds of crab to Crescent City by Wednesday.

Fathom Seafoods operates hoists in Washington, Alaska and Coos Bay, Mareno said. Its Coos Bay operation brings in 1.5 to 3.5 million pounds of Dungeness crab per year. This year, Fathom Seafood also brought 1 million pounds of tuna, black cod and other species into Coos Bay, which Mareno said was similar to Crescent City.

“It’s very similar to the operation here where we would supply jobs, consistent year-round work for our employees,” he said, adding that there would be programs and services for the fishing fleet as well. “It’s working extremely well and over the last three of our four seasons, we’ve been at the top in the port as far as volume buyers, right there with Pacific Seafood.”

Mareno said his company would like to begin operating the hoists as soon as possible since black cod season is coming up. However, Harbormaster Mike Rademaker said CCHD would have to give 30 days notice to Global Quality Foods before its lease termination would take effect.

Mareno said Fathom Seafoods would also be interested in renting other “un-utilized infrastructure at the port” after a hoist is obtained.

Meanwhile, though Ocean Gold Seafoods has purchased crab in San Francisco and Eureka for more than 15 years, it’s been “waiting for an opportunity to get into Crescent City,” said Aaron Dierks, the company’s director of operations.

“We have boats here,” he said. “We recently hired one of the local guys who works here to help run our California operations, so we’re looking forward to the opportunity to get into Crescent City.”

Like Fathom Seafoods, Ocean Gold has boats that fish for black cod and purchases black cod from other boats. The company also purchases groundfish, including rockfish, and is the “largest single haik producer on the West Coast,” Dierks told harbor commissioners.

Dierks said Ocean Gold is open to buying any species of seafood, including pink shrimp, though he was unable to commit to a specific poundage last week.

Shepherd, mentioning a recent letter he had written to State Sen. Mike McGuire on behalf of the Harbor District earlier this month, said that about 40 million pounds of shrimp were caught in California and unloaded in Oregon and Washington.

“We’re trying to get some of that to come through our docks,” Shepherd told Dierks.

Shepherd’s colleague Annie Nehmer said while she’s not sure of the exact poundage Global Quality Seafoods processed, last January they paid landing fees of about $15,000. She said she was concerned about lost revenue since Global hadn’t been operating its hoists.

In response to Nehmer’s concerns about revenue, Dierks said that in Crescent City, his company takes “what everybody else can’t.”

“When they can’t move it into their live markets too much, we’re here with our trucks and we haul it away,” he said. “We’re aggressive about going after boats and we’re building our fleet capacity all the time.”

Shepherd said he wanted to make both buyers happy, but was unable to choose between the two at last Tuesday’s meeting.

The Crescent City Harbor District is using about $15 million in U.S. Department of Transportation Port Infrastructure Development Program grant dollars to replace a seawall and build the first of two docks that will eventually replace the 70-plus-year-old Citizens Dock.

On Wednesday, Younes Nouri, project manager and coastal engineer with Moffatt & Nichol, the architect firm spearheading the projects’ construction, said they’re working to secure permits from the California Coastal Commission, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the California Water Quality Control Board, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

That process is expected to be finished by April with a preliminary engineering design going before the Harbor District Board in February. Construction is expected to start between July and October 2026, according to Nouri.