In 2011, UniSea was fined $1.9 million in clean up costs and penalties for violating the Clean Water Act and discharging ammonia and other pollutants from its plant in Dutch Harbor in Alaska between 2005 and 2008.1 In August 2018, a UniSea employee drowned in a boating accident when the crew encountered “problems with both their net and boat,” causing the boat to capsize.2 During the Covid-19 pandemic, UniSea and other onshore plants in Unalaska kept around 430 seasonal workers on the island between fishing seasons to limit virus exposure. While workers like Grisel Garcia from Mexico received housing and meals, many had little work, minimal entertainment, and limited internet access, making the downtime monotonous. Security was tightened, and check-ins were enforced as part of the company's safety measures.3 Among Unalaska’s four major seafood processors—UniSea, Westward Seafoods Inc., Alyeska Seafoods Inc., and Icicle Seafoods—Westward and Alyeska implemented the strongest Covid-19 response, offering limited sick leave coverage to about 25 percent of their workforce. In contrast, UniSea lacked a formal sick leave policy for processors, did not provide paid sick leave, and did not cover medevac insurance, though it did pay employees during mandatory quarantine upon arrival.4
Former staff have repeatedly reported racism and poor working conditions at the company. One reviewer commented in 2019, “I have faced so much bigotry and racism working for this company,” a point that was reiterated in 2020 when another former employee noted “a lot of racial profiling.”5 Other commenters detailed how “we were treated like slaves,” and that the work was typified by “slave labor and low wages.”6 On October 6, 2020, UniSea spilled more than five gallons of hydraulic oil into Alaska’s Iliuliuk Harbor.7
In 2021, UniSea, Inc. was sued in a class action lawsuit for violating federal and Alaska state laws by failing to compensate workers for time spent putting on and taking off protective gear.8 In October 2024, the parties agreed to a settlement of $600,000.9
“It's a miserable place, and you’ll probably spend half your paycheck on booze and cigarettes,” wrote an anonymous commenter in a Reddit thread about UnSea in 2023.10 Another user wrote in a separate thread that his brother was beaten and drowned while working at sea for the company. “He felt scared of the company, the police and his roommates,” said the user. “He said he was stuck on the island with nowhere to go.”11 A report by the local radio station, KUCB, said that a UniSea seasonal employee was found dead in the water at the small boat harbor on March 5, 2023, and police ruled the death a suicide.12
Between 2020 and 2025, UniSea Dutch Harbor was the subject of five “informal enforcement actions” for environmental violations including of the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act.13
In 2024, UniSea reported 30 accidents to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.14 There were 16 injuries among the accidents, 10 were unspecified illnesses, and four workers suffered hearing loss due to occupational exposure. Among the affected workers, 12 needed to take time off to recover, spending a collective total of 89 days away from work. At least 14 of the accidents led to workers temporarily being either restricted from their work or transferred to a new job while they recovered, spending a total of 381 days away from their work.15
UniSea did not respond to a request for comment.16