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            Kodiak is the number three fishing port in the country - and it wouldn't rank so high if it wasn't for the dedicated local processing work force.

             That's the message sent to workers from the Kodiak City Council during last night's regular council meeting.KMXT's Maggie Wall has more.

            The numbers are impressive. At least one in four Kodiak workers are employed in seafood processing. They handle roughly 330 million pounds of seafood annually.

            And five of the area's top seven employers are processors.

            In recognition of the major impact seafood processing workers have on the community, the Kodiak City Council last night passed out certificates of recognition and bright red tee shirts.

            The shirts - distributed through participating processing plants - are  part of the annual ritual to help processing workers feel special and appreciated - because, as Councilman Gabriel (GABE-reel) Saravia
(s'RAW-vee-ah) pointed out - they are:

--          (Gabriel                                  33                    "I want to say...in the nation.")

            Saravia was the person who brought the annual Seafood Processing Workers Day to Kodiak after seeing how well it worked in Cordova.

            Councilman John Whiddon, a manager at Pacific Seafoods praised the workers on cannery row.

-           (John Whiddon                       :33                   "Just to say...and year out.")

            A number of seafood workers were on hand last night to accept certificates to take back to their plants and to accept red tee shirts for themselves.

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