The Daily World | Ocean Companies expand to accommodate shrimp market
Ocean Companies expand to accommodate shrimp market – Wednesday, July 13, 2011
The Ocean Companies announced Tuesday a 12,000-square-foot expansion to its cold storage facility in Westport to increase capacity for potential shrimp processing operations.
The company — which includes Ocean Gold, Ocean Cold, Ocean Protein and Ocean Express — announced in a news release the expansion would allow new operations to start by April of next year. The company currently processes whiting, sardines and Dungeness crab.
“We are always looking at ways to expand our capabilities and compete in the global seafood market,” Ocean Gold president Dennis Rydman said in the release. “Shrimp has been a growing opportunity for our local fishing fleets and we want to be able to provide our company and our community with the ability to tap into that growing market.”
The news release stated the company is exploring shrimp operations in response to new catch quotas that have caused some fishing crews to delay their catches for later in the season. The company stated it hopes to improve its storage flexibility while offering new service to fishing crews.
“The addition of shrimp allows those fishers with shrimp permits additional opportunities,” the release stated, “during a time when they may have historically targeted non-whiting groundfish without the same constraints on bycatch.”
