Know Your Fishermen
Sitka Salmon Shares is built around a humble collective of committed fishermen that put quality first and handle fish one at a time with respect and care. It’s their livelihood after all, and many of our fishermen have been using these highly selective, small-batch fishing methods for generations. Read on to get to know your fishermen — from how they got started, why they love life on the open water, and why they are part of Sitka Salmon Shares.
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SELECT FISHERMEN
Trusted Partners
Our fishermen-owners and our fish plant in Sitka are critical to our mission as a values-driven community supported fishery (CSF). We also work with a network of trusted partners and other values-driven small-boat fishermen because not all types of fish we offer are caught in our home port of Sitka. For example, sockeye salmon prefer the extensive networks of streams and lakes found in places like Bristol Bay in Southwest Alaska versus the mountainous rainforest surrounding Sitka.
Each of our trusted partners supports small-boat fishermen and aligns with our CSF values.
Because we value transparency and traceability, our packaging (the fish label and/or box label) indicates where our fish comes from: one of our fishermen-owners, another small-boat fishermen, or a trusted partner. We are working diligently to build systems that provide the vessel name, but some trusted partners currently collect fish from several boats by tender (a larger boat picking up fish from the fishermen on the fishing grounds so they can continue fishing). In this case, the label will include the name of the trusted partner instead of the letters F/V (fishing vessel).
Get to know the source of our fish and our great partners a bit more below!
Our Trusted Partners:
Alaska Glacier Seafoods
Juneau, Alaska
Owned and operated by the Erickson family, Alaska Glacier Seafoods is committed to responsible harvesting that leads to high-quality, wild Alaska seafood. We work with Alaska Glacier Seafoods to bring our members Pacific cod, salmon burger, halibut burger, and Bairdi crab from the southeast waters north of Sitka around the state capital of Juneau, Alaska.
Copper River Seafoods
Anchorage, Alaska
Copper River Seafoods was founded in 1996 by merging three fisherman-owned direct marketing entities into one. Initially focused on maximizing the value of the salmon resource from its namesake and renowned Copper River, the company has diversified and grown into a buyer and processor of numerous seafood species across diverse regions of Alaska. With processing plants located in Cordova, Anchorage, Naknek (Bristol Bay), Kenai, Togiak, and Kotzebue, the company is recognized today as a premier producer of Alaska seafood with a deep commitment to the state of Alaska.
Fish From Trish
Ketchikan, Alaska
After fishing in Alaska for many years, Trish Pearson started Fish From Trish, a local Ketchikan processing plant to help quality-minded fishermen get their fish out to select markets. Trish hails from Galesburg, Illinois, home to Sitka Salmon Shares’ Midwest packing facility. Her Midwestern sensibility translates into care for the fish and the fishermen who harvest them. We partner with Fish From Trish to provide Alaska spot shrimp that thrive around the fishing grounds south of Sitka.
Haines Packing Co.
Haines, Alaska
Established in 1917, Haines Packing Co. is the longest continually running seafood processor in Southeast Alaska and has been family-run for generations. We work with Haines Packing to provide our members with Dungeness crab as well as salmon from the side-by-side Chilkat and Chilkoot watersheds, which produce the largest runs of sockeye in Southeast Alaska and also support coho and keta runs.
Kodiak Fresh Seafood
Kodiak, Alaska
Locally owned and operated, Kodiak Fresh Seafood strives to offer essential seafood processing services to local Kodiak fishermen. This partner custom processes rockfish and Pacific cod from our fleet of Kodiak fishermen-owners and partner fishermen on behalf of Sitka Salmon Shares.
Kodiak Island WildSource
Kodiak, Alaska
Kodiak Island WildSource is a quality-focused seafood processor in the rich western Gulf of Alaska waters and is 100%-owned by the Sun’aq Tribe of Kodiak Island. The Sun'aq Tribe is an Alutiiq tribe whose roots on Kodiak Island and the surrounding Alaska Peninsula date back over 8,000 years. This tribal enterprise custom processes rockfish and Pacific cod from our fleet of Kodiak fishermen-owners and partner fishermen on behalf of Sitka Salmon Shares.
Northline Seafoods
Bristol Bay and Sitka, Alaska
Northline Seafoods specializes in processing salmon from the sockeye capital of the world in Bristol Bay. The company uses innovative technology that allows them to freeze fish at ultra-low temperatures on a floating barge on the fishing grounds. Northline’s president, Ben Blakey, describes this process in I Speak For the Fish. This partnership allows us to provide our members premium sockeye salmon from the world-class rivers of Bristol Bay.
Seafood Producers Cooperative (SPC)
Sitka, Alaska & Bellingham, Washington
Founded in 1944, SPC is the oldest fishermen’s cooperative in North America. As a co-op, SPC cares about quality, environmental stewardship, and supporting Alaskan fishermen. We’ve partnered with SPC in a number of ways over the years and continue to source albacore tuna from their Pacific Northwest fleet as well as some of our sablefish from their Sitka-based fleet.
Yakobi Fisheries
Pelican, Alaska
Yakobi Fisheries is family owned and located in the tiny Southeast Alaska town of Pelican. The business is owned by Seth and Anna Stewart. After growing up in Pelican, fishing for over 20 years, and learning what fresh, wild fish can do for quality of life, Seth had the dream of getting people the highest quality salmon possible. Our partnership with Yakobi helps us source salmon and rockfish for our members from the waters north of Sitka.