Unalaska, AK – The Stellar Sea's return to the Bering Sea fishing grounds is still weeks away, but repair work on the processing ship is proceeding as planned.

Mark Weed, the president of ship owner Stellar Seafoods, said that the company is still figuring on two weeks' repair time for the Stellar Sea, which caught on fire in the Bering Sea eight days ago.

The processors who were slated to work onboard the vessel this season have been flown home from Unalaska, although the ship's crew is still on hand for repair work. Harris Electric manager Spencer Ellsworth, whose company is handling electrical repairs on the Stellar Sea, said that they're installing about a mile of new wire in the vessel, and bringing in extra help to get the job done in a hurry.

"We're pretty much trying to do a 24-hour work station down there," he said. "We have three guys on the project now, and three more on the plane coming out. There's still plenty to do, [but] it's going along as fast as possible."

Another contractor is working on repairs to the ship's engine.

Much of this year's opilio crab harvest hinges on the efforts to get the Stellar Sea back online. The ship, which is under contract to Peter Pan Seafoods, was the only floating processor slated to receive crab in the northern district of the Bering Sea fishery this month.

Weed says that a number of other processing companies have pitched in to help get the ship up and running again, particularly UniSea. UniSea runs the largest onshore processing plant in Dutch Harbor, as well as the Grand Aleutian Hotel, which has been hosting the Stellar Sea's crew and processors. The company also supplied replacement parts for the ship's electrical system and labor for the repair effort.