What factors go into producing a great piece of fish?
When we first started this company, I was fishing full-time and keenly focused on what we did on the boats to make sure our fish was as good as it could be. This means immediate bleeding, cleaning, and icing your catch as soon as possible. The longer a fish sits without being chilled, the more likely the flesh is to soften, making it more difficult to filet and less appetizing. In the process, the flesh can tear, which we call “gaping”.
Other Sitka fishermen were dedicated to producing quality but didn’t have the direct feedback from customers that we did. We didn’t have a market for fish that was bruised or soft so we needed to make sure that each fish was handled with the utmost care. It took constant communication with our fleet members and their willingness to change their processes to meet our standards. We transferred our catch to custom processors to filet and freeze our fish. Those custom processors had varying levels of quality control and freezing systems and we outgrew their infrastructure.
In 2015, we purchased our own processor and quickly learned a lot about freezing and handling fish, shoreside. All the textural quality of a perfectly frozen fish is lost if the process is too slow. When you freeze something at home, for example, it could take up to 24 hours to fully freeze, during which time ice crystals form, causing cell damage. When you thaw the fish, those damaged cells cause liquid to pool, creating a chewier texture — not ideal. And, in our opinion, it doesn’t honor the integrity of such a precious and delicious wild food.
Each year, we upgraded our systems and learned more about the art of handling and freezing. As we grew, we sought out new partner processors to diversify our offerings. Finding a partner that had available fish to sell — and could process to our quality specifications — was no easy feat. There are smaller, remote operations that often couldn’t meet our demands, plus the logistics of transporting that fish proved to be too big a challenge. Larger processors were more focused on volume to fill giant commodity orders and had little interest in working with us. It was through years of digging and building relationships with partners that has allowed us to source fish like we do.
Once we find a potential partner, we visit their operations to make sure we feel good about their processes. Then we sample their product and start small, building trust on both sides. For a smaller operation, if a load of fish gets rejected, it can be devastating, so we want to be very clear about what we are looking for. We make sure their fishing fleet is using gear types that have the least amount of impact to the environment and that they are sustainably managed. It’s a delicate balance of monitoring and ensuring they have enough fish to process for us at the quality we demand.
For many processors we just aren’t a good fit, but for those that are, we are an important part of their operations. They charge more to filet and some are able to spend the time to trace each load of fish back to the boat. Our market can insulate them and their fishing fleet against the always volatile commodity market where most fish is sold. Fishermen have little control over global markets and they are often the ones that get the short end of the stick when markets tank. Our market gives those fishermen who care about delivering quality a fighting chance in a tough industry. The partner processors support their fishermen by storing fishing gear, supplying bait and ice, and buying all of their catch — even if markets don’t necessarily want it. They’re important because it’s extremely difficult to fish and market your own catch at the same time.
While we ran our own processor and competed for fish, it put other processors at risk of going out of business. Everyone was competing for the same fish which meant that someone was going to give. In 2022 we made the hard decision to shutter our own plant since we couldn’t support our operations or our fleet members properly. The process was hard, but what it did do was improve the important relationships with partners that were strained when we were all fighting for the same fish. Now we are the important marketplace for their best fish and we can focus on finding new partners and exciting new offerings from around the country. With each box of fish you buy, we are supporting our partners that care about quality and sustainability and their fishermen that sustain them. Thank you for supporting a better seafood system!
