Omega Protein
 |
|
| Public | |
| Traded as | : OME |
| Industry | Nutritional products manufacturing |
| Founded | 1913 |
| Headquarters | Houston, Texas |
| Revenue | $308.6 million USD(2014) |
|
Number of employees
|
1150 |
| Website | www.omegaprotein.com |
Omega Protein Corporation is a publicly traded US company founded in 1913 as a fishing operation. As of 2015 it still operated a fishing fleet, and produced food ingredients, dietary supplements and animal feed. Their products included fish oil, fish meal, and proteins. In the 2000s it expanded via acquisitions into ingredients produced from milk and plants.
Omega Protein's fishing fleet takes about 90% of the menhaden harvested in US waters; the extent of its harvest has been a subject of controversy. In December 2012, in the face of the depletion of Atlantic menhaden, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission imposed a limit on Omega's operations, "capping the total annual commercial catch at 170,800 metric tons, about 80 percent of the average harvest from the last three years."
In 2008 and 2009 Omega Protein received certification from Friend of the Sea, an international non-profit, non-governmental organization dedicated to the conservation of marine resources. Omega Protein’s operations in both the Gulf and along the Atlantic have been regularly recertified since their first certification, with the Gulf of Mexico fishery most recently being recertified in the fall of 2014.
Wisconsin Specialty Protein is a subsidiary of Omega Protein; its Reedsburg, WI facility received the Gold Medal Award in the Green Building category as an Associated Builders and Contractors of Wisconsin 2009 Project of Distinction. and received the Annual Innovation Zone Award from the Dairy Business Innovation Center.
2010 BP Oil Spill
The oil slick resulting from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill had an adverse effect on Omega Protein’s ability to operate in the fishing grounds east of the Mississippi River Delta, near its Moss Point, Mississippi facility. Regulators closed areas there to commercial fishing. The company developed additional contingency response plans to move its vessels from Morgan City, Louisiana farther west to its Abbeville and Cameron facilities should regulators close a greater portion of the fishing grounds. Following the spill, Omega Protein filed a claim with the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (“GCCF”) to be reimbursed for costs and lost profits resulting from the incident. The GCCF administers funds paid by BP in connection with reimbursements for claims caused by the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
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Wikipedia