ASTORIA, Ore. — One of the West Coast’s biggest fish companies, Pacific Seafood, has told a federal judge it isn’t going through with the purchase of a Washington state processor that fishermen have challenged in an antitrust case.
Commercial fishermen contend the purchase of the Ocean Gold Seafoods plant at Westport will extend Pacific Seafood’s monopoly power over fish markets.
The plant is a major processor of whiting, which is used in simulated crab products and sold as fillets. It’s the most abundant commercial species on the West Coast.
A hearing is scheduled on a temporary restraining order for early February, the Daily Astorian reported Wednesday.
In a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, attorneys for Pacific Seafood told the U.S. District Court in Medford that a proposed stock purchase agreement with Ocean Gold “is dead and gone — it is no more.” A lawyer for the company, Daniel Occhipinti, cited the time and expense of the litigation.
But the lawyer for the fishermen, Michael Haglund of Portland, said the lawsuit would go forward.
“They’re not willing to stipulate that they won’t acquire Ocean Gold,” he said. “They’re just saying the transaction is terminated for now.”
He said the fishermen want a court order forbidding the company from buying Ocean Gold or having an arrangement that allows Pacific Seafood to control it.
“We’re very disappointed that this great opportunity for Ocean Gold, its employees, our community and my family will not proceed,” Mark Rydman, the president of Ocean Gold Seafoods, said in a statement.
Pacific Seafood has an exclusive marketing agreement with Ocean Gold that runs through February 2016.
Frank Dulcich, president and CEO of Pacific Seafood Group, also has a significant stock holding in Ocean Gold.
The Oregonian recently reported that he has built Pacific Seafood from a single retail shop in Portland into one of the largest integrated seafood companies in the country, with sales approaching $1 billion.
It has purchased 18 seafood processing plants in Northern California, Oregon and Washington, is the sole buyer of seafood in seven coastal cities and has assembled its own fishing fleet. The company employs more than 2,500 people at 35 locations.
In 2012, commercial fishermen settled a previous class-action lawsuit against Pacific Seafood. The company agreed to take steps to improve competition, including not extending the Ocean Gold marketing agreement beyond February 2016.
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