Just when you think that spring might be here in Kodiak, Old Man Winter rears his Frosty Head and knocks you back into reality. Bright, clear and sunny on Sunday not a cloud in the sky and by Monday we were socked in with blizzard conditions.

With no fish in the plant this weekend, I took advantage of a beautiful sunny day and went for a walk with my dogs down on the docks. The whole waterfront is buzzing with activity. The Pollock Federal B season closed on Saturday and every boat was at the dock waiting their turn to offload their catch.

In this photo you can see “Cannery Row” from Near Island. Just about every space is taken up by the Pollock fleet.

Early Last week, many of the Bering Sea Opilio crab fleet home ported in Kodiak started returning after several months at sea. The F/V Incentive, featured on the upcoming season of Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch” is in this photo tied up alongside over a dozen pollock trawlers. The Incentive returned to town last week after finishing up with their Opilio quota. The boat is now geared up to tender Herring in Sitka later this month.

The “Dog Bay” harbor on Near Island is now full of sleeping giants, waiting silently to return to sea for a new crab season. Kodiak was once home to half of the Bering Sea crab fleet. Since Bering Sea Crab Rationalization, that number has been reduced significantly.

Saturday March 21^st marks the start of the 2009 Halibut and Black Cod fishery. Captains and crew are busy making preparations to head out for the opener. The roads are full of rusty pickup trucks hauling large trailers loaded down with tubs of hooks, buoys, and coils of line. While most of the long line fleet heads out to start catching their share of the 54 million pound quota of halibut, Seamus Hayden, captain of the F/V Clyde is heading east in search of Black Cod.

I caught up with Seamus today during a blizzard and had the opportunity to hang out while the Lads overhauled tubs of hooks and organized skates of gear.

On top of the slippery, snow covered shelter deck, Seamus helps Jason and Ben lift the newly inspected life raft back up onto the top of the house.

The next few weeks around Kodiak’s waterfront are going to be action packed. I will keep all of my customers up to date on what’s on the horizon. Expect to see some specials for fresh halibut and black cod from Captain Seamus and the lads on the F/V Clyde in the coming weeks. Until then….Enjoy!

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Yesterday the F/V Coho came in with another load of pollock. Along with the pollock, Captain James McCarthy had a good amount of Fresh Rex Sole. Rex sole are slender fish with bright white, long fillets, perfect for my favorite dish, Sole Rolls. I thought it would be a neat idea to share the process, "From the Boat to the Table." In this entry I will share the journey of a Rex Sole from the fishing vessel all the way to a dinner plate ready to eat.

I will start with the Offload. Here our dock crew removes the fish from the vessel using a wet vacuum pump. The fish is moved using conveyor belts to a sorting conveyor.

Next, the crew will sort the fish by species. In this picture, the guys are sorting pollock, Pacific Cod, and sole species.

When the fish is all sorted, the various species are then graded out by size. Here Pedro is helping his crew size grade the Rex sole just offloaded.

I then hand selected 50 pounds of the best quality Rex sole to be filleted for the Online Store. I only picked out 50 pounds to ensure the fish is fresh for my customers. Here, Abel is carefully filleting the Rex Sole by hand. Because the fillet is so thin, it takes precision movements of the knife.

Now the tasty part. Here is the clean Rex Sole fillets ready for the stuffing mixture. I used Kodiak Snow Crab, white onion, garlic and shredded mozzarella cheese.

The next step is to fold or roll the fillet around the crab mixture. Fold the fillet and pin it together with a few toothpicks. Place the rolled sole on a baking dish covered with foil and a little olive oil.

Bake the rolls at 425 for about 20 minutes. I used a bed of couscous and fresh broccoli for a side.

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Good morning from sunny Kodiak Alaska. The days are getting longer with a gain of about 5 minutes each day. Saturday we set the clocks ahead 1 hour!! Day light Savings. It is always a great feeling to go to work when it is light out and get home for the night when it is still light out. Spring is on its way. But this is Kodiak and Winter isn't going to go without a fight. Yesterday was flat calm with no wind to speak of, now it is blowing a steady 35-40 knots, with higher gusts and wind chill about 10 degrees! Brrrrrrrrrrr.

The Jig cod fleet was able to head out to sea and work their gear between weather systems this week. We had several deliveries of Fresh Cod yesterday right before the weather switched around. We had deliveries from the F/V Competition, F/V Letun, F/V Argonaut, F/V Bottom Line and the F/V Silver Bullet. The fish that is coming off of these boats is of the highest quality. Bright eyes are the first sign of freshness. I had my Quality Control team carefully select about 500 pounds of round weight from these deliveries to go to vacuum packaged fillets for the online store. The rest of this fresh cod will be flown out of Kodiak today destined to be featured in supermarket display cases and restaurants across the country. This picture is a fine example of cod at it's freshest from the F/V Silver Bullet. This superior quality is the golden standard from Captain Gary Salter who applies the same care and handling to the sport fishing side of his business. The halibut, salmon, ling cod and rock fish he delivers for his charter clients reflects this same top notch quality. You can learn more about Captain Gary and his Charter Fishing business Magnum Charters in our links section.

Last night I tried out a new recipe I have been thinking about for some time now. It all started when a friend of mine came back through town on his way home to South Carolina. He had just finished up 2 grueling months of fishing for Opilio Snow Crab out in the Bering Sea, catching their nearly 1 million pound quota!! He was shipping about a hundred pounds of snow crab "home pack" to his family and let me have a few sections. I don't sell Opilio Tanner Crab, I offer Bairdi Tanner Crab. Bairdi is much larger and fuller than the Opilio and caught right here in Kodiak.

So here is my recipe: Stuffed Red Pepper with Snow Crab and Scallops.

I picked the meat from 1 pound of snow crab. You can use Kodiak Snow Crab.

Diced 3 large scallops into fine pieces like burger meat.

saute a half cup fine diced onion and 2 cloves garlic in olive oil until soft. Add scallop meat and saute for about 3 minutes. Mix together with the picked crab meat and 1/2 cup of riccota cheese and 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese. add salt and pepper to taste.

hollow out 2 washed red bell peppers(you can use green or yellow).

stuff the mixture into the peppers. don't pack it in there, just lightly filled. sprinkle a little mozzerella cheese on top. Rub a little olive oil over the outside of the pepper and bake at 425 for about 20 minutes. Make some rice for a side or pasta or salad. You can sear the rest of the scallops to go over the rice. Feel free to call or email if you have any questions about this recipe or about getting your hands on some of Captain Gary's fresh Cod Fillets. Enjoy!!

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It is a beautiful sunny day here in Kodiak 33 degrees with no wind to speak of. It kind of reminds me of spring. Yesterday was pretty busy here at Island Seafoods. To start out the morning, we offloaded the F/V Stella. Captain Peter McCarthy came in with just under 110,000 pounds of Arrowtooth flounder. Arrowtooth flounder is the largest biomass of any fish in the Gulf of Alaska. These fish live up to their name. They have big eyes and sharp snaggly teeth that stick out from their mouth. All of this fish will be shipped overseas. We simply cut the heads off and remove the guts. Then they are graded by size and frozen in 40 pound blocks in our plate freezers. Then they are loaded into a 40 foot freezer van and loaded onto the big container ship.

After we finished up with the Stella, we started offloading the F/V Coho. Captain James McCarthy came in with nearly a full load on this trip. He is targeting Pollock. he ended up with just under 100,000 pounds of the tasty white fleshed fish along with a few thousand pounds of various sole species. We process the pollock much the same way as the arrowtooth. One big difference is theat the female pollock are carrying roe. The roe sacks are carefully removed and frozen on a racks. Pollock Roe is considered a delicacy in many Asian countries.

The best part about the Coho offload was that I got to help out a customer with a somewhat unusual request. He has some friends that were interested in Fresh Octopus. I told him I would see what I could do. Well a few hours later, I went out to see how the offload was going and my dock foreman had pulled 2 nice octopus off to the side. Direct from the Source. So if you have a strange request, lets say, skate wings, or pollock roe, drop me a line and I will try my best to meet your needs.

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Today's Catch, Fresh News from Kodiak's Waterfront is your connection to what's happening in Kodiak and around the entire local fishing industry. I would like to start out the newest feature of the Island Seafoods Website, by introducing myself. My name is Ian Whiddon. I was born and raised here in Kodiak. My wife Rachel and I share a house with our 9 month old daughter Eydis and 2 dogs just a few minutes from bustling St. Paul Harbor. Before I worked with Island Seafoods full time 8 years ago, I was a crew member on a local salmon seiner. In the spring, I participated in the Herring Fishery around Kodiak Island and Togiak in Western Bristol Bay. After the summer Salmon Fishery, I would come back and work at Island Seafoods in the winter processing Alaskan Cod.

Since we are right here on the edge of the harbor, Island Seafoods has it's finger on the pulse of the Fleet. Last Year, Island Seafoods purchased the 71 foot trawler F/V Coho, skippered by Captain James McCarthy (see featured fishermen). The F/V Coho has given us the ability to directly source much of the product featured on this website. Alaskan Cod, Sole, Rock fish, Pollock, and Black Cod are all delivered during various fisheries by this vessel. Because the company owns the boat, we have precise control over every aspect of the product being delivered. Quality starts with the Boat!!

Right now Island Seafoods is in full  production.  Our focus right now is Pollock and Alaskan Pacific Cod. Both James on the F/V Coho and his brother Peter on the F/V Stella are targeting pollock using mid-water trawl nets. This net is shaped like a big cone and is dragged through water funneling the fish into the back of the net known as the "cod end".

Another fishery in full swing is the State Water Jig fishery. State water means inside of 3 miles from shore. The Jig Fishery is designed as a small boat fishery, most under 50 feet. Most vessels carry a crew of only 1 or 2. Some hardy captains, like Tim Tripp on the F/V Bottom Line and Gary Salter of the F/V Silver Bullet go it solo. The Cod are harvested using jigging machines. They are basically mechanized fishing poles with a set of 5 or 6 hooks baited with squid, that "jigs" off the bottom. The fishermen use the depth sounder to locate schools of fish on the bottom, and set their gear. The quality from these small boats is unsurpassed. Each fish is hand bled and iced individually for transport back to Island Seafoods. The result, is the freshest Cod fillet money can buy.

Keep an eye out for weekly specials as each fishery opens and unfolds. I plan on updating this on a regular basis to keep you fresh and informed.

If you have any questions or comments feel free to Email or call toll free if you want to talk fish.

sales@islandseafoods.com             888-355-8575

Enjoy!!!

Ian

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