SEATTLE — A former fishing vessel with a history of environmental problems and community complaints is one step closer to being cleaned up.
The Pacific Producer is now at a marina in Seattle's ship canal awaiting deconstruction, which will cost approximately $7 million. The Department of Natural Resources will need funding approval from the Washington state legislature.
The U.S. Coast Guard says the Pacific Producer has a long history of problematic issues, not only in Washington state, but also in Alaska.
It was most recently anchored in Tacoma's Foss Waterway across from the Fish Peddler restaurant in 2022, where it sat for an entire year. On August 13, 2023, KING 5 reported that the Tacoma Fire Department alerted the Coast Guard that the ship was leaking ammonia into the water.
First responders, along with representatives from the Department of Ecology, were sent out to investigate, but the Coast Guard said the degraded state of the ship prevented them from finding the source of the ammonia leak.
The ship was sealed and a plan was being put together to remove the ammonia and other dangerous fluids. At the time, air monitoring devices were placed around the ship and there was no immediate threat to the public.
The Pacific Producer ship was a seafood processing ship that was built in 1946 and is owned by Pacific Northwest company East West Seafoods LLC.
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