Egegik is a small village located in the north-east portion of Bristol Bay. This canning and freezing
facility was purchased in the spring of 2005. Located on the south bank of the
Egegik River, it is ideally situated for prompt processing of the abundance of
Sockeye Salmon traveling up river to the spawning beds in Lake Becharof. The
cannery itself is quite old having been established in the 1890’s and several
buildings dating back to the 1920’s and 1930’s are still in use, each of them
having the massive wooden beam construction common to that period. Although the
official 2000 census estimated the Egegik village population at 116, this
number can increase by as much as 15 times during the salmon season. Along with
the multitudes of fisher folk intent on turning fish into dollars, Icicle
brings in a crew of about 200 people for processing salmon from mid-June
through the first week of August. As the Bristol Bay season begins to wind down
that crew size will fall as we shift seasoned employees to our other processing
facilities throughout the state. Once the crew is gone, our interest quickly
turns to cleaning, lubricating, and winterizing the plant and living
accommodation so we'll have a smooth start-up the following Spring.