A seafood success story

A 14-hour shift can’t dampen Jake Merzoian’s enthusiasm for Alaska Sea Grant.

“I’m really aspiring to get into upper management, and here’s this program that’s been able to help me so much,” said Merzoian, a seafood processing worker who has taken numerous Alaska Sea Grant job trainings. “The whole experience has been amazing.”

When Merzoian spoke to us in June for this article, it was 8 a.m., and he was headed to bed after working 14 hours as a production line mechanic at the Red Salmon Cannery in Naknek. He has worked there the past two summers and the rest of the year he serves as a maintenance worker and forklift mechanic at Alaska Pacific Seafoods in Kodiak. Both plants are owned by the same company, North Pacific Seafoods.

While working seven days a week on the factory floor might not be everyone’s ideal employment, for Merzoian, it’s a dream job. He first got a glimpse of a seafood processing plant while working as a young deckhand in Sitka and was immediately drawn to the camaraderie, pace and variety of the work.

“It’s helping each other and everybody working together to make the job easier and more efficient,” he said. “The music’s playing and everybody’s in a good mood, and there’s just a lot of work to do. That’s what energizes me and keeps me going for 14 hours. There’s always something to do, there are always different people coming and going.”

Merzoian grew up in California and spent time in Alaska before leaving for trade school to study diesel mechanics. When he recently returned to the state, he spent time in Unalaska before landing the Naknek job, then convinced his superiors to also hire him for the offseason at the Kodiak plant. He’s determined to make a career of it—which is where Alaska Sea Grant comes in. Since November 2025, Merzoian has taken four Alaska Sea Grant courses: ProAROE 2, Seafood HACCP Segment 2, BAADER basic and Sanitation Control Procedures. (See the sidebar for more details about these courses.)

He said the classes have set him up for more lucrative positions, and they’ve also given him the opportunity to explore other parts of seafood processing that interest him.

“When I go back this time to Kodiak it will be different because I won’t be working on the forklifts anymore,” he said. “I can either go into refrigeration or I can also decide to mesh into the maintenance department and work on the BAADERs and in production, which is really my passion.”

All of the training courses were paid for by Merzoian’s employers, who he said are happy to support him to advance in the company. “Alaska Sea Grant has helped a lot because it’s given me a lot of opportunity to show my employers that I have the ability to learn,” he said.

North Pacific Seafoods is also sponsoring Merzoian to take the next step in his career: He is enrolled in Alaska Sea Grant’s Alaska Seafood Processing Leadership Institute for this coming winter and spring. The Institute offers professional development for seafood plant employees interested in pursuing leadership and management skills.

“If I work hard for five, ten years, I can be a chief engineer, I could be running a plant and being a plant manager,” he said. “So I’m really excited. I can only imagine what other training and opportunities will come along with Sea Grant through the years too.”