Longtime Wrangell fisherman Matt Houser is wrapping up his first season as general manager of Sea Level Seafoods, where he’s focused on serving a fleet of 145 trollers, gillnetters, longliners and crabbers, and overseeing up to 60 workers who process fish at the Zimovia Highway plant each summer.

As he winterizes much of the Sea Level plant this month for the off-season, Houser is eyeing a list of projects geared at boosting production of salmon, halibut, shrimp and crab in the coming years.

“Our goal is to buy as many pounds of fish as we can, but just pounds isn’t the focus,” he said in an interview on Oct. 22. “The focus is quality pounds, and the best quality seafood we can send around the world.”

Sea Level is owned by Pacific Seafood, based in Oregon, which operates 41 facilities in 11 states. The privately owned Pacific Seafood has been in business since 1941.

Houser had a busy first summer running the Wrangell plant. Sea Level processed and shipped out 60% more salmon this season than last season, he said.

Meanwhile, Pacific Seafood this year invested in its Wrangell facilities, including a new “egg room” for processing salmon eggs into Ikura, Houser said, using the Japanese word for salmon roe.

This spring the company acquired the Sourdough Lodge on the Wrangell waterfront, a short walk from the processing plant. Seasonal employees lived, ate and socialized there this summer.

Houser said he prioritizes local hiring whenever possible, and that he’s “working hard to make this a place that people like being.”

The bulk of the seafood produced at Sea Level gets frozen and then barged to Seattle for Pacific Seafood to distribute.

Sea Level’s processing calendar begins in March, with the opening of the halibut longline fishery in federal waters.

Then comes the spring shrimp and crab seasons, followed by the summer salmon season, the fall crab season, and finally the winter troll king salmon season.

The peak of the summer salmon season in late July and August brings “long, long days,” Houser said. “I’m usually here by six o’clock in the morning. Sometimes I don’t get home until 10 or 11 at night.”

This summer Sea Level sent tender vessels to buy salmon from fishermen near Clarence Strait and Limestone Inlet south of Juneau. “Our fleet is delivering to the tender, and then the tender is bringing big loads of fish to the plant.”

Sea Level also sent a tender to Sitka during the chum troll fishery, in which fishermen earned a record-high $1.75 per pound for chum salmon in the round.

Tenders brought loads of salmon back to the Wrangell plant, where workers head and gut the fish, pack them in 1,100-pound fiber totes and load them in a shipping container or freezer van, Houser said.

During spring and fall Dungeness seasons, Sea Level brings its crab cooking operation online. Workers snap off the outer shell of each crab, clean them, split them down the middle and boil them in large tanks.

“The crab goes in these cages that get dipped down into the boiling water,” the plant manager said. “When they come out of the boiler system, they go into a series of chill tanks.”

He said the final “dip” for each crab is in a brine that’s about zero degrees Fahrenheit. The halved, cooked crab is then packed in 50-pound blocks to be barged out.

Halibut and other high-value species are shipped out fresh on Alaska Airlines. “It’s a daily battle to confirm space on the jet,” he said of the logistics involved with fresh orders going out of town.

The Stikine Inn & Restaurant serves fresh halibut supplied by Sea Level, and the Marine Bar and Hungry Beaver Restaurant served Sea Level fish before a fire destroyed the bar in September.

While no black cod crossed the Sea Level dock this year, Houser said he’d be open to buying it.

“My thinking is, if I can process it and I can buy it, I’m going to buy it.”

Sea Level doesn’t currently buy sea cucumbers or geoduck clams from dive fishermen.

Also in Wrangell, Trident Seafoods, which operates a larger plant, deals primarily in seine-caught salmon, which Sea Level does not buy. A smaller plant in town, Peninsula Seafoods, changed hands in 2024. It operated as Fathom Seafoods before the sale.

Sea Level stands out in that it processes the most species and buys from the most Wrangell fishermen, Houser said.

“A large portion of the fleet really views this as their local plant and supporting their local town,” he said. “Anything we bring over the dock here generates fish taxes for the community.” State commercial fisheries taxes are shared with the municipalities where the fish is landed.

Sea Level donates seafood for the annual Bearfest dinner every summer, and this year provided fish for a wrestling fundraiser. The plant is always open to supply ice and bait for sports fishermen.

Houser has lived in Wrangell for 11 years and lived in Crag for 15 before moving here. He came to Southeast to use his forestry degree, then trolled for 18 years.

“I’ve raised my boys up on the boat.” The oldest of his two sons just started college at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

He spoke to the economic squeeze Southeast fishermen are facing, which encouraged him to apply this year to run the Sea Level plant. “I threw my name in the hat and ended up getting the job right before the season started.”

Former manager Cody Angerman moved on in June after four years leading Sea Level.

Houser’s years of fishing experience inform his goals as a manager.

“I want to have the small-town processing facility feel, and I want to be here for the local guys,” he said. “I’m trying to keep the communication lines open, make sure everybody can contact me any time. … I think being available is the biggest part of it.”

Pacific Seafood has owned Sea Level since 2002. Members of the Phillips family of Wrangell founded the operation in 1985.