American Seafoods on Wednesday updated the status of its factory trawlers that last week saw new outbreaks of the coronavirus among crew members.
The company's American Dynasty, American Triumph, and Northern Jaeger vessels have moved from Bellingham, Washington, where the cases were discovered, and are now docked at the Port of Seattle where they have undergone a deep-cleaning process, Margery Schelling, the company's executive vice president of marketing, strategy and innovation, told IntraFish.
American Seafoods has quarantined crew members from each vessel and is administering two polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, she said.
"The quarantine schedules vary depending on when crew members were tested," she said.
Crew on the American Dynasty were tested on May 30 and those on the Northern Jaeger and American Triumph on June 3.
Both tests must come back negative for a crew member to be cleared to reboard a vessel.
Though the Alaska pollock B season fishing started Wednesday, the schedules for the impacted vessels to depart remain undetermined, according Schelling.
"The timing on receiving the results of those tests can vary. Once all this information is gathered, then we can make decisions on sailing schedules," she said.
As of last week, 25 crew members aboard American Seafoods' Northern Jaeger and American Triumph factory trawlers have tested positive for the coronavirus.
On June 1, the company reported a total of 86 crew members aboard its American Dynasty pollock vessel tested positive for COVID-19.
