Bumped into something I thought I would see if anyone knew much about. On the 23rd Ocean Companies is hosting a political fundraiser for Tim Sutinen who is challenging Rep. Brian Blake. ( page 7 Daily World ad ) Now Brian is a big boy and can take care of himself but as the fish are few and it is raining I had a bit to nose around.

From what I got is that this group called Ocean Companies is trying to get control of the commercial harvest processing which would in the end also control the fishermen. I have been told that Rep Blake has opposed such a thing as monopolies local or national are not good.

From a sportie perspective I would think one big company with a stranglehold on commercial harvest would be a very bad thing. Lot of focused political monies the whole gambit.

Anybody else know anything about this?

Brian is a friend of mine. He's good people. I might not have agreed with him on every stance he's taken, but I give him a call and he swings by for a visit. He's been VERY helpful with insight in Jennings and other WDFW issues, and he does not blow smoke or read too much of his own press.

I've never heard of this but I'll ask around and see what I can find..

Found out a bit more.

Actually Ocean Companies consists of Ocean Gold, Ocean Cold, and Oean Protein, three businesses here on the Harbor. They were one of the stops on the tour of Grays Harbor last Friday, the Ocean Cold plant, and I walked through it on the tour. I guess I should have put two and two together.

They are a heavyweight fish processing company managing the purchase and sale of seafood from boats and getting it to market. Their cold storage facility is one of the largest on the west coast. They process crab, tuna, whiting, some ground fish and sardines. They are the largest processor of sardines in the US.

They can't get a stranglehold on crab, groundfish, and tuna, as there are just too many folks out there proessing them on the west coast. Sardines are their primary goal on maintaining their monopoly, from what I gather. They are a VERY LARGE employer in Westport.

Brian's opponent is a decent guy from what I hear, recently immigrated from Finland and naturlized in the past 5 years or so, and have no issues with the guy.

It does look like Ocean Companies is attempting to put their weight behind a candidate. That is all I have except for a link to their website.

http://www.keepgraysharborfishing.com/

Some of what they say though may just be a bit of lip service.
Th

I know who they are, just a new name for a company that's been around awhile. Sounds like Blake has done his homework and I'll leave it at that....

Some more data on Ocean Comapiy's main owner.

http://winstonross.wordpress.com/2009/05...-frank-dulcich/

http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/1997/02/03/smallb1.html

http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/frank-dulcich.asp?cycle=08

That is what I thought but did not know for sure. You know Franky is not a very nice guy! One would hope the commercial guys keep sharp eyes on this one.

Ocean Protein - the same ass clowns that forced half of Hoquiam to wear gasmasks due to the reek of their plant. The same guys who overfilled one of their waste trucks and it splashed processed fish waste all over HWY 12.
When the people complained about the stink and asked them to fix the problem, their attitude of "tough [censored]" was enough for me.
I'm pro business but it wouldn't break my heart to see these guys relocate to someplace like Seattle.

Francis Miller was the guy who statrted it, one of the original Bering Sea Crab pioneers. I sat next to him on a Anchorage to Seattle flight once, three hours of storys on how it started.



http://www.moc.noaa.gov/od/


On another flight I was fortunate enough to sit next to this man, another real class act with hours of storys..