How one fisherman brings his wild salmon catch from Alaska to Missouri - Columbia Missourian

In 1989, Sean Guffey was studying communications at the University of Michigan when he drove to Alaska during the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Soon, he was on a fishing boat with scientists studying the impact of the spill. As he watched, Guffey learned from their observations and concerns about wildlife.

Every year since, he has found his way back to Alaska. Today, he is the captain of Watermen, a boat docked in Bristol Bay. And every summer, he catches wild sockeye salmon and brings it back to Missouri to sell.

His customers place their orders in May, either through his Facebook page or via email. He offers 20-pound boxes of frozen fillets, 10-pound boxes of individually shrink-wrapped portions or whole or partial smoked fillets.

Last year, he sold salmon for $12 to $14 per pound, often to families who split a box among themselves.

Because of his sustainability practices, the price may seem expensive, he said. But most of his customers are well-educated about the food system and recognize the value of his salmon.

Sustainable fishing

In March, millions of salmon begin to leave their wintering grounds in the Pacific and head to Alaska to spawn. It takes them until the end of June to reach Bristol Bay.

“It’s one of the greatest migrations left on earth,” Guffey said.

Considered a keystone species that sustains other animals, the salmon’s life cycle is completed when it reaches the freshwater body where it was born.

Guffey and others like him in Alaska are poised in boats and along the shoreline to catch the salmon as they return. Their work, which can take up to seven weeks, begins with finding the best locations within an assigned district.

State and federal fisheries set strict regulations for commercial fisherman, and they cannot arbitrarily change districts. The government also sets time limits for fishing.

“As a fisherman, you're either responsible or not,” Guffey said.

Being responsible can be a difficult task, and the chance of making a mistake is high when the tide changes — because salmon run with the tide.

As David Cochrane, an old crew member of Watermen who teaches at Battle High School in Columbia explained, fishermen must tell the government where they will be fishing.

“Sometimes it's easy and sometimes it's really, really hard," Cochrane said. "It just depends."

With a small crew of three, depending on the number of orders, Guffey's boat hauls in salmon using a gillnet, catching the fish as they swim by.

Sometimes, Guffey said, he can catch half of what he needs in 10 days. On a small run, he has spent as few as 12 days on the water; the longest he's ever fished is 34 days.

There are five main species of Pacific salmon —  chinook (king), coho (silver), chum, pink and sockeye (red). The world's largest sockeye salmon run is in Bristol Bay, and last year, Guffey caught 122,000 pounds of fish.

Every 12 hours, his boat delivers to a bigger boat where the salmon are weighed. The bigger boat takes the catch for processing to have it preserved and packed, loaded into containers and shipped to Seattle on a barge. The sooner it gets frozen, the better it tastes, Guffey said.

His catch then waits in a huge cold storage area until a truck takes it to St. Louis where he picks it up.

Loyal clientele

During Guffey's first trips to Alaska, it was a hot spot for college students trying to make money working for restaurants, fishing boats and canneries. He remembers tent cities on the outskirts of towns and evenings spent drinking beer around a fire.

After his stint in Prince William Sound, Guffey worked on a boat and made “a lot of money in a short amount of time.” This was when the country was recovering from the stock market crash of 1987.

He enjoyed the lifestyle and moved there from 1990 to 2003. Later, after getting his own permit and a boat, he kept returning.

His business grew quickly, and in 2013, he began to sell wild salmon in Missouri.

Home for him is Rolla, and he teaches special education at a high school in Salem. In 2017, when one of his three daughters was planning for college, Guffey decided to expand his business.

He reached out to Bernadette Dryden, one of the founders of the Slow Food Katy Trail movement in Columbia, to tap into the Columbia market. She immediately rounded up a dozen people, and they bought his remaining catch that year.

He now has about 170 customers in the Columbia area, including Barred Owl Butcher & Table and Broadway Brewery. Every fall, he loads boxes of smoked and regular salmon fillets into his freezer trailer and personally delivers it to his customers.

Benjamin Parks, chef and owner at Barred Owl Butcher & Table, has been purchasing from Guffey for two years. He said customers have responded positively to salmon dishes such as gravlax.

"We are always trying to do whatever we can to get as close to the original source as possible with as little in-between handling as we can," Parks said by email. "To be able to source directly from the fisherman was a great opportunity."

On her Facebook page, Bernadette’s Bites, Dryden occasionally posts information about placing orders with Guffey, as well as recipes for salmon.

“I think more people are becoming interested in, you know, knowing where their food comes from,” Dryden said.

Lynn Rossy, a health psychologist and author of "The Mindfulness-Based Eating Solution," has been buying from Guffey for the past three years. Her order has increased over time, and she often gives salmon as a gift to friends on Christmas.

“It’s got to be good, or I won’t eat it,” she said.

Another loyal customer, Bonnie Chasteen, an editor at the Missouri Department of Conservation, sometimes shares Guffey's flyers with friends. She said she appreciates his involvement with protecting the salmon of Bristol Bay.

“I believe in what Sean is trying to do,” Chasteen said.

Threatened species

Now, as another summer is about to roll around, Guffey is getting ready for the trip to Bristol Bay while grappling with concerns for the industry during the pandemic.

There is a good chance now that Guffey will be fishing this year, but the town where he docks does not have a hospital; if the need arises, fishermen will be taken to military hospitals in Anchorage.

Nevertheless, Guffey's top concern is the continued survival of both independent fishermen and sustainable practices in Alaska.

“The story is not about me," he said. "The story is about the place and the fish.” 

Salmon worldwide are in trouble with few wild species left, and Guffey takes a strong stand against corporate fish farming.

A lack of strict regulations means fish farming isn’t sustainable, Guffey said. As he puts it: “Farmed salmon is the hot dog of the fishing world.”

Alaska doesn't have fish farms, but it does have salmon ranching where fish is grown in a hatchery before being released into the wild. It later returns to the hatchery and is harvested. This kind of salmon is referred to as wild-caught, and while it tastes the same, Guffey said, it does compete with wild salmon in the ocean, which isn't ideal.

“Where I fish would be like going out on the prairie when there are still buffaloes and prairie chickens,” Guffey said. "The ecosystem is intact."

Let's block ads! (Why?)

"fisherman" - Google News
April 25, 2020 at 06:00PM
https://ift.tt/3bDDXJa

How one fisherman brings his wild salmon catch from Alaska to Missouri - Columbia Missourian
"fisherman" - Google News
https://ift.tt/35ujXVg
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update

Bagikan Berita Ini