The 2010 Kodiak area tanner crab fishery closes this weekend. This year, 52 vessels ranging in size from 40 to 100 feet set their pots on the 15th hoping to catch part of the 700,000 pound quota. With an increase of 200,000 pounds, and a newly opened fishing area, participation was up by 20 vessels. The Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game opened Chiniak Bay this season. With good fishing grounds within a few hours from the safety of the harbor, smaller boats were able work their gear and compete for the crab side by side much larger vessels.

 

        

 

 

Before the season opened, the F/V Major, skippered by Capt. Alexus Kwachka, pulled up to the dock to load the last few pots of their 20 pot limit. He was heading down the east side of the Island toward the village of Old Harbor, as seen on this map.  The East Side Section was allotted 500,000 pounds of the 700,000 total and the bulk of the fleet focused its effort in this area.

 

 

 

 

Earlier this week, the quota was reached and the East Side Area closed for the season. Fishermen had to pick up their pots and deliver their crab before they could start fishing in one of the other areas that were still open.  Capt. Alexus returned with a good load of big, clean Tanner Crab. Here are some shots from his first delivery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the offload was finished and the catch was tallied, Capt. Alexus headed back out and set his gear in the North East Section. He and the crew were able to turn the pots a few times before the 100,000 pound quota was cleaned up. Now that the 2010 season is closed and in the books, Island Seafoods is proud to feature this Kodiak Tanner crab direct from the Fishing Vessel Major. Order yours today and find out what fresh caught Kodiak Tanner crab is the best crab around.

Until Next Time, Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

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Hello Seafood Lovers! Happy New Year! It has been quite some time since I have posted anything new on Today’s Catch. I have received several emails from people all over wondering what has been happening here at Island Seafoods. I appreciate the support and the overwhelming positive responses. I just wrapped up my busy Christmas shipping season and have some free time ahead of me. This past summer was extremely busy for me and my sport fish staff, made up of college kids. Time and space conflicts prevented me from staying up to date with Today’s Catch. Every time I sat down to post a new entry, someone needed something or needed to use this computer. I will make sure that I don’t miss a beat for 2010!

The past 5 months have been action packed. Sport Fish, salmon, halibut, cod, sole, pollock, rockfish, POP and black cod deliveries, visitors from all over the world, Turkish exchange students and professional film crews kept us humming 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Here is a recap from the summer of 2009.

 

 

 

    

 

 

                            

 

The 2009 Kodiak area salmon season has come and gone. While many of the seiners landed record catches, for our fleet of West Side set netters it was a different story. The Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game kept West Side area closed for much of the summer with only 26 days of fishing time allowed. The Dept. bases openings and closures on the number of salmon that “escape” or make it past a certain point on the Karluk River. The Karluk River never reached its escapement goal. For the seiners fishing in the area, when there is a closure, they pull their net aboard and move to another area of the Island that is open. The set netters have no choice but to sit tight and wait for the area to open again. While fishing time was cut dramatically short, I was able to put up enough Premium Sockeye and Coho to get me through the long winter months.

The number of visitors and sport anglers visiting Kodiak was lower than previous years, but that was to be expected with this tough economy.  Although the overall number was down, Island Seafoods kept extremely busy. Many of our favorite “veteran” sport fishermen returned to test their luck with the often unpredictable Kodiak Summer weather. The Island was battered by a string of strong Easterly storms, keeping the harbor full many days. Sunny calm days were also in abundance and the “bite” was incredible.

 

In July a film crew with the National Geographic channel was here at Island Seafoods to film an upcoming special featuring Casey Anderson from “Expedition Grizzly”. The special focuses on the relationship between Kodiak Brown Bears and the salmon industry. Casey and the crew filmed several offloads out on the dock and some action inside the plant during sockeye salmon production before flying down to the south end of the Island to film Kodiak bears feasting on salmon. Look for the program to air on the National Geographic Channel sometime in late 2010.

 

Several boats from the Discovery Channel show, “Deadliest Catch” made appearances in and around the Kodiak Waterfront, Tendering salmon for their different canneries.

 

   

In late summer Island Seafoods switched gears and started processing Pacific Ocean Perch or POP. 2 vessels participated in this fishery, the Stella and the Chellissa. The 100 foot long and nearly 40 foot wide, F/V Chellissa from Coos Bay Oregon was possibly the largest vessel to deliver fish here.

Just before Thanksgiving, Island Seafoods had the special honor of doing a custom King Crab offload for the F/V Bering Hunter. The owner of the boat was shipping a 737 cargo plane full of live crab to a buyer in Washington State. We placed each live crab into a large 500 pound box for the plane ride south. This was the second year in a row for this special offload and the vessel owner is planning on dong it again next year. 

  

After the end of the 2009 Halibut season in mid- November, Island Seafoods shut down for some much needed maintenance and repairs. For 6 weeks, we had carpenters, electricians, plumbers, concrete workers and welders working around the clock in preparation for our biggest season of the year, the Federal Pacific cod season which opened January 1^st.    With the new processing line configuration set up, we will be processing fresh Pacific Cod throughout the next 2 months. With the overall cod quota up by 40%, fishing should be hot. Stay tuned as I will  be updating the Today's Catch as the season progresses. Until Next Time, Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

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It has been more than two weeks since my last addition to Today’s Catch and a lot has happened in that time. With the summer Sport fish season starting to kick into high gear, I am having trouble finding time to sit down and update the site. I guess it’s good to be busy. Returning customers might notice that I recently changed shopping carts for the web site. The new cart should prove to be easier to use. The Island Seafoods web site is a work in progress and I learn something new every day.

The west side of Kodiak Island will open back up to commercial salmon fishing at noon on July 6^th. All of our fishermen are anxious to get their nets in the water and back to picking fish. I am planning a trip out with our tender Zachary R in the following weeks to get a first hand glimpse into the daily life for some of our fishing families.

 

 

With all of the salmon closures around the Island, the St. Paul boat harbor has stayed active with skippers and crew going through their salmon seines and making repairs to their boats. Across Near Island Channel over in Dog Bay, it is a different story. All of the big, 100 plus foot Bering Sea boats that dominate the harbor are gone. Most are off in Bristol Bay tendering sockeye salmon, while others might be under contract to haul salmon for buyers in Prince William Sound or South East Alaska, while others might be fishing for halibut. The only boats that remain are the Bristol Leader and the Bering Leader. Both of these vessels will most likely sit idle until the next Bering Sea cod season.

 

 

 

Both Bob Martin and Greg Perkins left town this past week after delivering their last loads of Pacific Grey Cod. Both skippers finished out the season with record numbers. “This year, the fishing was probably the best I have ever seen,” remarked Capt. Bob. The guys are currently up in Kenai, converting their boats from Jiggers to Gill Netters, in preparation for the Kenai Salmon drift net fishery. Bob and Greg are planning on coming back and hitting the cod grounds again in September for the start of the Federal B season which opens on the 1^st. Good luck to you guys up in the Inlet, be safe and I’ll see you this fall.

 

  

 

 

Normally in the summer, the mountains around Kodiak Island turn a deep green from the lush grasses and small scrubby alder trees; this summer, the Emerald Isle is getting a bit Greener. On top of the 1000 foot tall Pillar Mountain, sit 3 new wind turbines. These massive, 80 meter tall wind mills can power over 900 homes a day and should make Kodiak Island completely free from diesel powered electricity. I have a clear view of the northern most turbine from my kitchen table. What an amazing sight.

Island Seafoods has had the pleasure of processing sport caught fish from some of the crew working on the wind project. Fondly dubbed the Wind Team, this group of guys from Casper Wyoming has been out with the M/V U Rascal several times, relaxing and enjoying the beautiful Kodiak weather, while limiting out on Halibut, rockfish, cod and King Salmon.

 

 

 

Clean, renewable, natural, wild caught, sustainable, Kodiak Alaska.

Until Next time, Enjoy!

 

 

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With the Summer solstice this weekend, Kodiak is basking in nearly 20 hours of daylight. It is so hard to go to bed when it is still light out at 11:45 PM!! It just makes you want to finish that project or pull a few more weeds out of the garden. The people in Kodiak certainly make up for lost time after the long dark days of winter. It has been rather rainy here the last few days, but that means when the sun pokes through the clouds next time, the hills are going to green, top to bottom.

The Kodiak Island Salmon Fishery which opened on June 9^th started out red hot. The fishing was good through the first two 48 hour fishing periods. However, the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game just wasn’t seeing the numbers they need through the weir at the Karluk River. The fish are around, but they aren’t heading into the river.

Fishery biologists count each and every salmon that passes through the weir on their way up the river to the spawning grounds. Fish and Game needs 120,000 reds through the weir to reach their escapement goal.  Biologists hope that an extended closure will allow enough salmon to make it up river. The next scheduled opener is July 6^th. Until then, the fishermen will have plenty of time on their hands to repair nets and gear.

Just because the salmon season is getting off to a slower than expected start, things here at Island Seafoods haven’t skipped a beat. Capt. Peter McCarthy and the F/V Stella are currently under contract by the State to participate in a salmon survey study. He and his son Calvin will be in Bristol Bay near Port Moller for the rest of the month for this job. While his older brother is towing a gill net around in the name of science, younger brother Capt. James on the F/V Coho is on the Sole Patrol. Capt. James and crewman Michael Beanland just completed a full trip of Rock Sole, down one crewman. They filled the boat with just the 2 of them!! Capt. James will be fishing sole for the rest of the month. Starting July 1^st, Capt. James will head out to catch his quota of Pacific Ocean Perch, a small red rock fish which mass in huge schools.

Our all star cast of Cod Jig boat captains is still hard at it. Calm clear weather, combined with superb fishing has kept the fleet humming. Both Capt. Bob Martin and Capt. Greg Perkins have been loading up each trip. When the fish ticket had been signed following Capt. Greg’s last delivery, he swore he would break 18,000 pounds on the next load!! Well, yesterday he did just that.

Here Capt. Greg counts bags of frozen squid bait from the freezer. Perky as his friends refer to him, hopes to load the boat at least one more time before he heads north to fish salmon near the Kenai River.

This morning we had a new boat to Island Seafoods with a load of Halibut and Black Cod, Captain Doug Lyle and the 59 foot F/V Shemya. The Shemya is the biggest little boat I have ever seen. This boat is like a 110 foot boat packed into 59 feet!! Originally built to participate in the Bering Sea freezer longline fleet, the F/V Shemya would catch process and freeze grey cod at sea. A few years ago, the owners stripped out all of the freezers and processing equipment. Now the Shemya is strictly a catcher vessel. Capt. Doug will be fishing halibut for the next few weeks around Kodiak Island and then he heads out west toward St. Paul Island and areas ever farther north.

 

The last few days have been productive for the local charter fleet as well. Tourist season is starting to gain momentum as the weather gets nicer. We had the M/V U Rascal in the other day with a pair or gorgeous yellow eye rock fish. Here I am with one of them and in the background, the U Rascal heading back to the harbor. On Tuesday, the M/V Reel Fun delivered this unidentified rock fish. I can’t figure out what species it is. It looks like a canary rock fish, but I am not sure. You never really know what you are going to see on any given day here at Island Seafoods.

 

Until Next time, Enjoy!

 

 

 

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For the first official Sockeye salmon of 2009, I decided to share a different take on salmon preparation. Everyone loves fried fish. You can never go wrong with a big basket of fish n chips. While white fish varieties such as cod, pollock, ling cod or rock fish are the preferred fish for this cooking application, fresh sockeye salmon is simply amazing!! The oil rich flesh of the sockeye salmon is perfect for deep frying. For this recipe I used a fresh pound and a half sockeye fillet.

Once I removed the skin, I cut the fillet into cross sections. This cut is going to be larger than the one used in the Sockeye Fingers recipe. Cut the sockeye into 2 – 3 inch chunks. This makes frying times more consistent.

The next step is the best! I marinated the cuts in a bowl of fresh Snowshoe Pale Ale from Kodiak Island Brewing Company, located right across the street from Island Seafoods. I let this sit for about 15 minutes while I clean up the knife and cutting board and let the oil heat up.

I like to use Zatarain’s Crispy Southern Fish Fry mix. Simply shake off the excess beer and give the cuts a good roll in the dry mix covering them completely. When the vegetable oil is heated up to about 375, drop a few pieces in at a time. Cook them for a few minutes or until the pieces are golden brown. When they are done, take them out and let them dry off on a rack. I like them without any kind of dipping sauce. The flavor is so rich and this cooking method locks in the natural juices with a crispy crust. If you prefer a sauce, malt vinegar is the best, but a good old tartar sauce isn’t bad either.

My daughter Eydis LOVED this recipe. This fish isn’t greasy like fried fish usually is. She could hold a whole chunk in her hand and nibble away. Between bites she would scream at the top of her lungs in delight, then stuff another chunk in her mouth. The only problem with this recipe is the pieces are the perfect size for a baby to throw for the dogs. I don’t know which she enjoyed more, the mouthwatering fried sockeye or watching the dogs scramble on the wood floor, chasing after a tossed hunk of sockeye!!

I hope you give this recipe a try if you like fried fish. You won’t be disappointed.

Until next time, Enjoy

 

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