Motor Vessel Selendang Ayu Unified Command Joint Information Center |
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Date: Jan. 19, 2005 Coast Guard information officer: (907) 581-7158 |
Unified Command |
Early Tanner crab deliveries pass enhanced inspection
Unalaska, Alaska – Early deliveries of the crab from commercial boats in the Unalaska Bay fishery have passed rigorous state inspections, with no evidence of oil contamination. The Unalaska Bay Tanner crab fishery opened on Jan. 15, 2005.
The State of Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Division of Environmental Health ramped up an enhanced seafood inspection program to ensure the high quality of Alaska seafood to market. The state mobilized four additional seafood inspectors to Unalaska/ Dutch Harbor to assist with the inspection program. A total of eight inspectors will perform spot checks of peak load deliveries of crab to seven seafood processing facilities in Unalaska and one in Akutan.
Inspectors will evaluate crab using visual, odor, touch, and color attributes, known as an organoleptic sensory evaluation. The inspectors perform sensory evaluations on the crab’s gills, flesh, joints, overall outside condition of the body, viscera, and the mouth area. The inspectors also run ultraviolet light over the crab, which reveals any evidence of oil contamination by fluorescing. So far, inspectors have found no evidence of oil contamination.
DEC’s inspectors will evaluate all items that come in contact with catch, including the holds on the vessel and the brailer nets, as well as the processing facility’s unloading, handling and processing equipment, and worker’s clothing. They will isolate and hold any oil contaminated product pending a final investigation.
State DEC Environmental Health inspector Rebecca Sheffield performs a sight,
smell, touch, and color evaluation of Tanner crab on Jan. 14.
Part of the enhanced seafood inspection program involves evaluation of the
crab’s gills, flesh, joints, overall outside condition of the body, viscera (guts),
and the mouth area. Inspections of early deliveries of the catch have found no
evidence of oil contamination.
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