The Bristol Bay fishery has a strict and collaborative management system in place to ensure a healthy run for many generations of fish (and fishermen) to come. We are regulated by our net length, the size of our boats, fishing zones, and more. A team of biologists monitors the salmon run every season and lets us know when we can fish. We are not even allowed to put our nets in the water until a certain number of fish have made it upstream to spawn.

My favorite part about the style of fishing we do in Bristol Bay, called gillnetting, is that there is virtually no bycatch. We are catching salmon, almost always sockeye salmon, and that’s all. My livelihood is tied to the ocean; keeping the waters I fish in healthy is my first priority as a commercial fisherman and a direct marketer of the fish I catch.

Sockeye are frozen immediately after they come in from the ocean and on to the deck of the boat. This process, called flash freezing, is the best way to ensure maximum freshness and longevity. The fish stays frozen all the while until you pull it from your freezer for that night’s dinner. Supermarket fish, especially for those of us who don’t live on the coast, is generally pre-frozen and then thawed to give the illusion of freshness, but really it has been sitting unfrozen at the market for days before you even take it home.

People have been fishing in Bristol Bay for 130 years. Back at the beginning, people used sail boats to harvest salmon, and even though now we have modern boats with GPS, diesel engines, and refrigerated seawater being cycled through out fish holds, we are still a fishery of family owned operations. Bristol Bay is a strong and healthy salmon run, but compared to other fisheries it is small scale, which is part of the reason we are able to maintain such high quality with our fish.