About Fishing:
Sustainable
The Bristol Bay fishery has a strict and collaborative management system in place to ensure a healthy run for many generations of fish (and fishermen) to come. We are regulated by our net length, the size of our boats, fishing zones, and more. A team of biologists monitors the salmon run every season and lets us know when we can fish. We are not even allowed to put our nets in the water until a certain number of fish have made it upstream to spawn.
My favorite part about the style of fishing we do in Bristol Bay, called gillnetting, is that there is virtually no bycatch. We are catching salmon, almost always sockeye salmon, and that’s all. My livelihood is tied to the ocean; keeping the waters I fish in healthy is my first priority as a commercial fisherman and a direct marketer of the fish I catch.
Wild
Bristol Bay is home to the largest wild sockeye salmon run in the world. From the day the fish are born until the day they are harvested or spawn, they spend their whole lives free. Sockeye are born in spawning grounds in lakes up river and spend their adulthood swimming in the open ocean. We catch a sockeye at the end of its life cycle as it swims upstream its home river to spawn in the same place it was born.
Quality
Sockeye are frozen immediately after they come in from the ocean and on to the deck of the boat. This process, called flash freezing, is the best way to ensure maximum freshness and longevity. The fish stays frozen all the while until you pull it from your freezer for that night’s dinner. Supermarket fish, especially for those of us who don’t live on the coast, is generally pre-frozen and then thawed to give the illusion of freshness, but really it has been sitting unfrozen at the market for days before you even take it home.
People have been fishing in Bristol Bay for 130 years. Back at the beginning, people used sail boats to harvest salmon, and even though now we have modern boats with GPS, diesel engines, and refrigerated seawater being cycled through out fish holds, we are still a fishery of family owned operations. Bristol Bay is a strong and healthy salmon run, but compared to other fisheries it is small scale, which is part of the reason we are able to maintain such high quality with our fish.
FAQs
Why should I buy wild fish?
It’s really important to pay attention to the source your fish is coming from. Not all wild fish is sustainable, but most farmed fish isn’t. There are a few positive examples of farmed fish, but in general farmed salmon practices involve fish pens and lead to environmentally hazardous algae blooms, diseases that affect both farmed and wild fish, and unsanitary conditions.
Wild salmon spend their lives in the ocean eating a rich diet of phytoplankton, whereas farmed salmon are dyed to mimic the bright red flesh of their wild counterparts. Wild Sockeye is an amazing superfood, the natural occurring health benefits of which have yet to be mimicked in farmed salmon. Wild Sockeye is a great source of Omega 3’s, Vitamin D and selenium. Additionally, buying wild Bristol Bay sockeye supports a fisherman owned industry unlike fish farms that are owned by large companies.
Why do I need to preorder fish?
Because I fish in a remote area without the ability to be in touch via internet or phone all summer, I ask that people preorder their fish boxes in the spring before I leave for Alaska. That way, I can take the orders and know how much salmon to have processed for my customers before the season starts. Once the fish arrives in Seattle in the fall I box it and deliver it to your town where it will be available for you to pick up.
Can you ship fish to my door?
The short answer is, not yet! This year I am only taking orders to be picked up at set dates and locations in Wyoming, Idaho and Vermont. Down the line I plan on being able to ship boxes of fish anywhere in the country on demand, but with this being my first season selling fish, I am trying to keep things simple and inexpensive for me and for you. The great thing about ordering your fish as part of a big one day pick up is that is keeps my shipping costs down, which keeps your buying costs down.
What happens to the fish between the boat and my table?
Because the boats we fish on in Bristol Bay are small and the hours we work are long, we don’t have the capacity to process our own fish. I deliver my fish to a small company called Leader Creek, who with great care fillets and vacuum seals the fish on shore. Some of the fish in your order is fish I caught, and some of it comes from other members of Leader Creek who have family run boats just like mine. We are all small scale fishing operations that prioritize ocean stewardship, and our communal style of processing is the best way for us as fishermen to make sure our catch is of the highest possible quality. After Leader Creek processes, or fillets, the fish, it is shipped to Seattle where it awaits delivery to the rest of the country, and the world.