The lone buyer registered to purchase silver salmon on the Kuskokwim says not to count on him showing up. The processing vessel Akutan was scheduled to anchor in Kuskokwim Bay next week, but its owner says that the bank won’t lend him the money to buy fish.
The news came in an email on Thursday.
“And they said no more money, we’re done. So they just dropped us totally," said Larry Lang, Akutan owner.
Lang promised that he’d pay fishermen cash per pound of silver salmon. Without the bank fronting about $350,000 he can’t follow through, but he's still going to try.
"I’m not done yet," said Lang. "I’ve got two or three days here that I can see what’s going on. There’s a chance.”
Lang admitted that the prospects don’t look good and that commercial fishermen shouldn’t rely on him for income this year.
“I am grinding on it, but I don’t want to get anyone really expecting it if I can’t do it,” he said.
KYUK will have an update on the Akutan’s situation on Monday.