ASMI Meeting Moved to Girdwood

Jay Barrett/KMXT

The board meeting of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute planned for Kodiak today has been cancelled and moved to the mainland due to the persistent fog blanketing the town – and more significantly the airport – for much of this week. The ASMI board was to meet with its Customer Advisory Panel – folks who represent some of Alaska’s biggest seafood buyers.

The meeting in Kodiak was also going to be a chance for ASMI staff and others to meet the man hired as the organization’s new executive director, Mike Cerne. Having served two tours with the Coast Guard in Kodiak – one as the head of the fisheries enforcement school and one as skipper of the cutter Storis – Cerne had enough experience with Kodiak that he padded his travel schedule to include extra days on each end incase of weather delays. So he arrived Monday, during an afternoon break in the fog. Whether he can get back over to the mainland though, is another question.

Cerne said he was looking forward to meeting many of the people involved with ASMI during the Kodiak board meeting.

"I hear the staff’s absolutely fantastic over there," he said. "I’m really looking forward to meeting them and getting to know them. I’ve only met one or two. Like I said, we just found out about this over the weekend."

The ASMI meeting has been rescheduled for today at the Alyeska Resort in Girdwood.

Cerne will replace Ray Riutta, who is retiring at the end of the year.