Fishing boats and COVID-positive crews leave Bellingham to quarantine in Seattle
The two American Seafoods fishing boats that combined to have 25 crew members test positive for COVID-19 while docked in Bellingham last week have returned to Seattle, as have the 25 quarantined crew members, the company says.
The crew members from the American Triumph and Northern Jaeger were initially quarantined in Bellingham while arrangements were made to house them in Seattle, company spokesperson Suzanne Lagoni told The Bellingham Herald in an email Monday. They are all now all in Seattle, where the vessels are docked.
Lagoni said both ships successfully unloaded their product and there is not a schedule for either boat to resume fishing, but both are expected to participate in the pollock season in Alaska later this summer.
While they were in Bellingham, all 25 crew members who tested positive for coronavirus were quarantined at the Whatcom County isolation and quarantine facility on Byron Avenue, Whatcom Unified Command spokesperson Claudia Murphy told The Herald in an email on Sunday.
As of Sunday night, Murphy said 15 rooms were in use at the quarantine facility, which is located at the Motel 6 and can house 58 people in rooms that have their own bathrooms and entrances, as previously reported in The Herald.
Anyone who is quarantined “is supposed to stay there until the guidelines say they no longer need to be quarantined,” Murphy wrote, though Whatcom’s facility is voluntary and “no one is forced to stay there.”
Murphy added that American Seafoods guidelines require employees to adhere to quarantine guidelines.
“We have been working collaboratively with state and local health agencies to develop all our guidelines including those related to quarantine,” Lagoni wrote. “We also incorporate guidance from the CDC into our planning.”
Murphy reported that she is looking into whether any Whatcom County-based employees may have been exposed while the boats were unloading in Bellingham.
The Whatcom County Health Department reported last week reported that no Bellingham Cold Storage employees were believed to be exposed while another American Seafoods fishing trawler was docked in Bellingham to offload.
Eighty-six crew members of American Seafoods’ American Dynasty trawler tested positive for COVID-19 after it docked in Bellingham May 28, according to American Seafoods in a press release Sunday, May 31.
One crew member was admitted to St. Joseph hospital. The rest of the Seattle-based crew did not show symptoms of the disease and stayed on the ship when it was in Bellingham, according to American Seafoods.
The American Dynasty returned to the Port of Seattle and was under quarantine there, the vessel operator said.
There were 21 positive cases on the Northern Jaeger and four on the American Triumph, according to American Seafoods Friday evening.
