Early this morning under a blanket of thick  fog, the F/V Zachary R pulled up to the dock with the first load of the 2009 Kodiak  Sockeye Salmon Season. The first 48 hour opener proved to be quite productive. Typically the beginning of the run is slow to show up in the distant bays and passes of Kodiak's West Side. Nets were in the water starting at noon on Tuesday and fishing was steady for the 19 set net sites the entire opener.   Down on the deck of the Zachary R,  Captain Kevin Bundy attaches the hook to his fish hold cover. He agrees that if fishing stays like this, it is going to be a good June for the Kodiak Salmon Fleet.

With the arrival of the much anticipated salmon season, this first round of fresh sockeye is headed to one of our biggest customers.  Fresh fillets for this customer will be flown direct to their distribution centers in Texas, Arizona, Utah, and Illinois. Today, Island Seafoods sent fresh Kodiak Sockeye all over the country!!

I want to encourage anyone who has never tried sockeye salmon to take this opportunity to place an order and try the freshest, purest, most healthy seafood the Pacific Ocean has to offer, Kodiak Sockeye Salmon!

I am going to take you, the reader on a photo tour of today's  salmon production  here at Island Seafoods. Enjoy!

Here is the F/V Fairwind this morning, owned and operated by Captain Shawna Rittenhouse. Capt. Shawna picks up the salmon from the Kupreanof Strait and Onion Bay set net sites.

Fresh off the boat, these sockeye are headed for a tote at the end of the offload conveyor to be brought inside for processing.

This is our dock foreman, Chamba holding the first sockeye offloaded for 2009.

 

Once inside the plant, the heads are removed and they move down the line to the pocket conveyor. Here Saul opens the bellies with care not to cut the precious roe inside.

Off the pocket conveyor, they head to the collar belt, where the collars are trimmed off in preparation for the fillet machine.

After the fillet machine, the fillets follow a moving cutting line where they will be trimmed to precise specifications.

Following the carefully trained eyes of the trimmers, the fillets run through the pin bone remover. Here Elsa pulls, by hand any stray bones the machine missed. This step makes life in the kitchen and dinner table much much easier!

For today's fresh orders, we packed fillets into 25 pound cases for shipment on Alaska Airlines.  Here Blanca delicately layers fillets meat to meat and skin to skin. After this it is out to the waiting flatbed truck and off to the airport.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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In April of 2000, Island Seafoods had just moved into its current building located right next to the breakwater adjacent to St. Paul Harbor. Back then we processed sport caught fish from charter boat clients and river anglers. We had a few boats that delivered  jig caught cod and every once in a while, we landed a small load of halibut. We sold crab, scallops and halibut from our small retail counter to local customers and tourists passing through.  It was a good little business that filled a niche in this town; little did we know, Island Seafoods was destined for something much bigger.

Early one morning in the fall of 2001, at the end of the Bristol Bay Red King Crab Season a big blue and yellow boat slowly pulled up along the south side of our brand new dock. As the crew tossed lines around the shiny new creosote covered pilings, the skipper came out of the wheelhouse. Captain Murray Gamrath, skipper of the F/V Gulf Winds looked up from the deck and with a warm smile on his face, asked if we had space for him to store his left over bait from the king crab season for a few months. He also needed a spot to tie up the 110 foot Gulf Winds for a few days while he and the crew made preparations  for the 3 month rest until the January Opilio Season. Boy we had never seen such a big boat at our dock! The Gulf Winds took up the entire 100 foot stretch of our dock! We told Capt. Murray “No Problem Buddy!!” We had plenty of room in our freezers and plenty of space at our dock.

 Yesterday I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with Captain Murray Gamrath and Josh Harris on the F/V Cornelia Marie, featured on the Discovery Channel's show, "Deadliest Catch". I met up with Capt. Murray in the parking lot of the fuel dock and even though it had been nearly 8 years since our brief encounter, he recognized me asked how things were going with me, my father and the business. Murray had to run down to his cannery to pick up some papers, but he told me to head down to the Cornelia Marie, where Josh was taking on several thousand gallons of diesel. Josh invited me aboard the Cornelia Marie with a welcoming smile and a firm hand shake.

Josh and fellow crewman Ryan were on the stern behind the wheelhouse topping off the tanks. The Cornelia Marie had just returned from tendering herring up in Togiak Bay located in northwest Bristol Bay. Josh said the fishery was pretty uneventful. The herring spawned pretty much right after the seine fleet arrived. The big load of the season delivered to the Cornelia Marie was only around 80 tons, compared to some record sets which exceeded 800 tons in last year’s Sitka Herring fishery!!

Josh and Capt. Murray are busy getting the boat ready to head back up to Bristol Bay to tender salmon in the fast and furious Sockeye Salmon fishery. The boat will leave Kodiak in five days. Before the boat heads up to the Bay, Josh and Capt. Murray are going to fly down to San Diego to film the “After the Catch” episode tomorrow. There the guys will meet up with Capt. Phil Harris, his younger son, Jake and the rest of the captains from the Discovery Channel’s hit show. While Capt. Murray will be running the boat for the summer season, Josh will be getting off the boat. He is heading to New York to participate in some corporate Discovery Channel events to help promote the show and the industry. When the tanks were topped off, Josh and Ryan tossed the lines and pulled away from the fuel dock. Capt. Murray invited me over to his slip in Dog Bay to sit down and catch up.

Over in Dog Bay, tucked in next to several 100 plus foot Bering Sea crabbers, I found the 127 foot Cornelia Marie. Out on deck, Josh was busy pressure washing herring scales and roe from the house and sides of the deck. When herring roe makes contact with salt water, it is almost impossible to remove from a smooth surface!!

Up in the wheel house, I sat down with Murray and we talked about his experience with the show, his history in the industry and his plans for the future. Capt. Murray had spent the last year running the Cornelia Marie while Capt. Phil Harris was recovering in Washington. The seasoned Bering Sea skipper has participated in the fishery for nearly 30 years. For the last 16 years, he has been running boats such as the F/V Labrador, the F/V Gulf Winds and the F/V Aleutian Ballad to name a few. Last year, Capt. Murray caught and delivered 1.1 million of the 1.2 million pounds of Opilio quota for the Cornelia Marie. He also landed 580,000 pounds of Red King crab this past season. When Capt. Murray is not at sea, he enjoys a quite life with his wife in Las Cruces New Mexico. The new found celebrity status has been a bit overwhelming at times. After the last crab season, he went from about 200 friends on his and his wife’s Facebook page, to well over 10,000!! Out and about, at the bank, the grocery store, at dinner, random people address him by first name. Capt. Murray would some day like to take this new found fame and apply it to marketing seafood of his own, but for now, the sea still calls him.

 

It was truly an honor to spend some time with a couple of really friendly, hard working, great guys who risk their lives every season to bring to market the finest crab the Bering Sea has to offer.

Check back for the 2009 Kodiak Salmon Season Updates, we are a week away!

Until next time, Enjoy!

 

 

 

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Yesterday afternoon as I was winding things down in the store for the evening, I received a call on my cell phone. The reception was a bit scratchy and broken up but I was able to make out that Dr. Mark Withrow and his 26 foot sport fishing vessel SeaJay would be at our dock in an hour with some fresh sockeye salmon. At the time of the call, Dr. Withrow was heading through Ouzinki Narrows at the North East tip of Kodiak Island. With the SeaJay humming along at about 24 knots, the trip would take him about an hour.

Dr. Withrow had spent the day picking his subsistence gill net on Afognak Island near an area called Litnik. The sockeye salmon caught were headed towards Afognak Lake, their lake of birth.  Sockeye salmon are the most beautiful fish in the sea. They are bright and shiny with firm ruby-red flesh. They are the symbol of renewal and sustainability.

 

Now unfortunately for everyone reading my blog, I can’t offer this fine first sockeye of the year up for sale. This was harvested for personal, subsistence use, not for commercial sale. One of the best things about living in Kodiak is the close proximity to our Island’s abundant natural resources.

Dr. Withrow was generous enough to offer me and my family some fresh sockeye. I could hardly contain my excitement as I raced home with a freshly caught, freshly filleted Kodiak Sockeye Salmon. The flesh of fresh sockeye salmon is like none other. The color and texture is the deepest and boldest crimson red you could imagine. It is hard to believe that something this vibrant and rich could occur naturally without any interference from man.

 

By the time I got home, it was getting late, Eydis is teething and is not feeling well, Rachel is also under the weather, but I was determined to indulge in this rare amazing treat!!  So with no bells or whistles to ring in the First Sockeye Salmon of 2009, I simply baked it with salt and pepper, a dash of lemon pepper seasoning and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. With a fussy baby in one arm, I added a pile of tater tots to a baking sheet and placed them next to the salmon in the oven.  Hey no frills!! Well 20 minutes later, the whole family sat down and marveled over the delightful dinner. Even the fussy baby was pacified by the fresh salmon!! I have been eating frozen salmon all winter and absolutely loving it, but I forgot the incredible taste and texture of the first salmon of the year. We could almost taste the Pacific Ocean in each bite.

Hopefully this got everyone’s mouths watering a bit. I will keep you up to date about the upcoming season opener.

Until next time, Enjoy!

 

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Well our run of beautiful Kodiak sunshine came to an abrupt end just in time for the 51^st annual Kodiak Crab Festival. The brave citizens of Kodiak didn’t let torrential down pours and gale force winds deter them from having a grand old time at the festival. My wife Rachel and I took Eydis down to the festival and treated her to her first bites of funnel cakes, Bruin Burgers and some amazing fried cod from the Alaskan Leader booth. We could hear her giggles of delight from inside her fogged up rain dome covering her stroller. Not surprising at all, moments after the last Crab Fest booth had been broken down, the clouds parted and the sun shined again. That’s Kodiak weather for you!

  With less than 2 weeks before the start of the Kodiak Salmon season, skippers and crew are working around the clock to get everything in order before they head out to their Set Net Sites. Our largest tender, the F/V Zachary R spent the last 2 weeks in the dry dock, where Captain Kevin Bundy and his crewman Ben Galdo applied a fresh coat of thick black paint and replaced all of the zincs. The zincs are fastened to various areas of the bottom of boats to help prevent corrosion. The salt water will attack the zincs before the steel hull. These are called sacrificial zincs.

 

 

 

 

Back at Island Seafoods, the yard and the upstairs box loft are filled with pallets of groceries, home supplies, pressure washers, out board motors, nets, buoys, drums of gasoline and four wheelers.

 

 

Ross Kendall from the Site, Outlet Cape returned to town after spending the winter at his home in the Seattle area. When asked how his winter was, he replied simply, “Cold!” He must be referring to the record snowfall in the Pacific Northwest this winter!! Ross and his crew palletized and shrink wrapped all of their gear and are almost ready to head out to their site. They just need the skiff in the water and they will be ready to go.

 

Other salmon fishermen have also arrived. John Cratty and his crew put the finishing touches on new buoys and are ready for the tender Fairwind to haul their gear to their site, Easy Living in Onion Bay.

 

Brian and Athena Large from the Kupreanof Strait site, Livin’ Large stopped in to check on the tender freight schedule. Their holding skiff is up at the welding shop getting some repairs to the picking boom. Brian and Athena are anxious to get out to their site and start picking fish!

Meanwhile on the south side of the dock, Captain Kevin and Ben are taking on freight for a few of the sites. They are carefully arranging the pallets to maximize every square inch of deck space.

Kevin shouts up from below, “We have almost enough materials to build an entire house! All we need is a sink!”  Well I went into the parking lot and found one!

With every inch of his deck covered in goods and materials, Kevin gave Ben the nod to throw the lines. They will head out through the Near Island Channel, round Spruce Cape and head towards the West Side of Kodiak Island. Once all the materials are delivered to the various sites, they will turn around and do it all over again until all the sites have everything they need and are ready to fish.

I will be back tomorrow with a special addition to Today's Catch, the First Sockeye of the Year!!! Until Next time, Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This run of excellent fishing weather just seems like it will never end. The local Cod jig fleet has been taking full advantage of the favorable forecasts and as a result making steady deliveries of fresh cod. The McCarthy brothers each made deliveries yesterday and the night crew was busy cutting and freezing rock sole until the wee hours of the morning.

The big offload of the day was a full load of halibut and some of the biggest yelloweye rock fish I’ve seen this year, from Captain Mark Thomas and his beautiful halibut boat, the F/V Wahoo.

  The 55 foot Wahoo was built in 1993 and was designed to troll for tuna in the South Pacific. The original owner fished the high seas and delivered her catch to such exotic ports as Mid Way Island, Samoa, and various ports in New Zealand. The Wahoo boasts extra large fuel and fresh water tanks, which enabled the vessel to make the extended journeys out to sea in search of tuna. Captain Mark bought the boat 2 years ago and retrofitted it to catch halibut in the unforgiving waters of the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea. Capt. Mark and his 2 man crew made up of Silas Gnaedinger and Adam Schacht, are planning on finishing up with their halibut quota in area 3A in the next month or so and after that they are heading out west to fish their quota in area 4A. 3A is the Federal fishing area closest to Kodiak Island and the source for much of the halibut landed here at Island Seafoods. If you look at the map below, you will see the F/V Wahoo has quite a long boat ride ahead just to get to the 4A fishing grounds. Once they start fishing out west, they will spend the next few summer months delivering their remaining quota into the ports of Dutch Harbor and Akutan.

On board any fishing vessel, there is always work to do. On the back deck, Silas and Adam are busy fixing broken snaps, replacing bent hooks and worn ganions and bundling up ganions that are organized and ready to fish. Capt. Mark says Silas and Adam are the hardest working guys he has ever had fish for him and the order and condition of the gear and the cleanliness out on deck shows it; nothing is out of place.

   

Down in the icy fish hold, the offload crew steadily loads brailer after brailer full of perfectly chilled halibut. With Mauricio in the stern of the hold, Renee to the port side and Santiago on starboard, the three create a rhythm as they each take turns placing fish in the waiting brailer net in the center of the hold.

Up on deck, Adam takes a break from his duties and poses with a nice 35 pound halibut.

Meanwhile outside the halibut processing room, Capt. Mark shows off one of the many gorgeous yelloweye rock fish.

As soon as the fish are off the boat and the ticket is stamped and signed, Capt. Mark pulls away from the dock, rounds the green can buoy at the end of the breakwater and eases into his slip in St. Paul Harbor. Mark says he is going to give the guys the weekend off so they can enjoy the Crab Festival, but after that it is back to sea.

 

Keith Moore from the set net site Long Beach arrived in town this morning along with numerous pallets of household items. When Keith and his 2 sons returned to their Uganik Bay site last year, they found  a bear had nearly destroyed their cabin looking for food or shelter. The pesky bruin even dragged the toilet over a hundred yards down the beach!! Let’s hope the condition of the cabin is more welcoming when they return this year.

Until next time, Enjoy!

 

 

 

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