In the face of changing times and rising costs, Borough Manager Mason Villarma wants to know what Wrangell can do to help the town’s commercial fishing industry.

Freight, fuel and marketing were the consensus concerns among approximately 25 fishermen who met with borough officials Feb. 3 at the Nolan Center.

Those concerns were presented by fisherman and Port Commissioner Antonio Silva.

One particular area that the borough can help with, according to Villarma and Economic Development Director Kate Thomas, is marketing.

Thomas told the fishermen that the borough could add to its marketing website travelwrangell.com to help make the commercial fishing industry more visible.

“It wouldn’t be difficult to get together with some fishermen and go out and get some video of them hauling in catches,” she said in a Feb. 6 interview. “It would just take a little of collaboration to do that. We could post it on the website for more visibility.”

Thomas was optimistic it could be done relatively quickly.

“We’re also going to look at featuring the local fishing industry, and the history that goes along with it, on the website. We can inform potential visitors about that important part of our community,” she said.

Thomas also went on to say the borough can’t singularly focus on one particular business alone, but she noted she would like to work with the chamber of commerce to possibly bring in a consultant and assemble effective marketing strategies for all industries in town.

“We really need to help people embrace the understanding of the importance of marketing,” she said. “Word of mouth is still good, but if you aren’t digitizing and don’t have a presence on the web, you’re only hurting yourself.”

Other areas of concern can’t be so easily and readily addressed.

“There are a lot of costs with getting the products packaged and shipped, and we can be limited with the timing,” Silva said during the meeting. Currently, Alaska Airlines operates a weekly freighter into Wrangell, in addition to the limited space available in the belly of its daily passenger flights.

According to Villarma, requests to add a second weekly freighter to move more seafood to market failed for lack of enough volume to justify the flight.

“There may be some practical things we can try and look at to try and expand freight service,” Villarma said in a Feb. 5 interview. “Hearing these concerns is a first step for us to see what we can do.”

He also addressed concerns about fuel costs.

“We can look at the current fuel tax structure and see if we can maybe offer a break to fishermen with that,” he said. “I don’t know if we legally can do that, but we’ll definitely look into that.”

Fuel is subject to the borough’s 7% sales tax.

One other potential concern raised during the meeting was that of the future of the borough-owned cold storage facility.

Under the current arrangement, Trident Seafood leases the cold storage from the borough, which acquired the facility in 2006. During the meeting, Villarma indicated a sale of the cold storage could be possible sometime after May.

“There are government restrictions for the sale of an asset that was acquired with (federal) government involvement,” he said. “So the timeline for eligibility of the sale wouldn’t be until May.”

Villarma informed the fishermen that he will be looking at multiple options regarding the cold storage, as numerous fishermen — as well as hunters — store their harvest there.

Under the current lease agreement with Trident, there are prescribed rates that can’t be increased for individuals to use storage space. He said the current lease is set to expire in September 2027.

During the meeting, Villarma also briefly discussed a pilot program he is working together with Nolan Center Director Jeanie Arnold.

“What we would like to have in place by the time the American Cruise Lines dock opens in 2027, something that allows ship passengers to spend an evening at the Nolan Center,” he said. “That would be a way to get the WCA involved, where they could do some presentations. We could have storytelling, or other things. And we could feature locally caught seafood.”

He said the plan is do a test run of the program this summer.

Though no other meeting is scheduled, Villarma said he would like to have another session with fishermen in April.

“I really want to make it a regular thing,” he said. “I was pleased with the turnout, and I want the borough to keep these open lines of communication going.”