US-based pollock giant American Seafoods is among Alaska seafood suppliers facing hundreds of millions of dollars in fines from the US Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP).

The fines are related to how the companies transport product from Dutch Harbor, Alaska, to the US.

The controversy stems from a provision in the Jones Act that requires that cargo shipped between two US ports must be transported by so-called "coastwise-qualified" vessels, which are ships built, owned and flagged in the US.