Tony Wood and Heather Huffman

At the Helm of Vertical Integration

Quality, price, and customer service are key factors in any successful food business.  For Tony Wood, they are the driving force in his mission to bring the best quality Bristol Bay sockeye to his customers at the best price.   With his wife, Heather Huffman, Tony owns and operates Wild Alaska Salmon and Seafood.  Their tagline states: “No Middle Man, Direct to You from the Fisherman.”  Indeed, this team sits at the helm of a fully integrated artisan operation.

Tony hails from Illinois and as a teenager, he visited Alaska with his family. He fell in love with the state and returned every year to work at a lodge.  After earning an aviation degree from Southern Illinois University, Tony returned to King Salmon and started his own sport fishing business with friends.  In 2000, they closed the business, and Tony was asked to help on a friend’s commercial fishing boat. Shortly thereafter, Tony fell in love with the fishery and purchased the Oly.

From the beginning, Tony knew he wanted to create a vertically integrated operation that would allow him to catch, process, and sell his own catch.  He didn’t want to sell his fish to processors.  He also didn’t want to sell it to large corporations. He wanted to have control over the quality and sell it himself.  Heather explained, “Commitment to Quality. That is one of the cornerstones of Tony’s mission. So, in 2007, we built our own processing facility where we are completely independent of any processor.”

One of the cornerstones of the operation is the Oly.  Designed with a flat bottom, it gives Tony the independence he needs. Because he can pull up onto the beach, it allows him to control when he delivers his fish. Heather explained, “Tony is delivering twice daily to shore.  It’s offloaded, brought right to our facility, and processed immediately…It’s all about handling it properly… Our fish, which is immediately bled and iced on the boat, is very beautiful fish.  We definitely have more control. “

Working together, Tony and Heather manage all facets of the operations including the fishing, the processing, staffing, maintenance, marketing, and sales.  They process fish for other fishermen and during the season, they ship their fresh sockeye directly to customers.  At the end of the season, they ship their frozen product back to the Midwest and then sell it by mail, at farmers markets, and to longtime customers and retailers.

Tony and Heather’s commitment to quality brings repeat business year after year. Tony admits that it was extremely hard getting the business to where it is today, but he explained,  “Having a product that you believe in and that everybody wants because it’s very very healthy…that makes it a great product to sell.”

Their product is now getting  global interest, too. Tony recently got EU certification so he can sell fish directly from the King Salmon airport to Europe and beyond. He explained, “This will be the first year that I will be shipping to Paris to a fish broker. They found me. I’ve also made some contacts and will be shipping possibly into Ghana. They haven’t even seen it yet, they just want it.”

–Melissa A. Trainer

Jenn and Steve Kurian

Connecting the Dots

How does a couple living in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania manage to sell Bristol Bay sockeye salmon to savvy cooks in the mid-Atlantic region? It’s pretty simple.  They buy a boat, catch the fish, and sell directly to East Coast customers themselves.   Through experience and years of grassroots’ direct marketing, Jennifer and Stephen Kurian, the owners of Wild For Salmon, have managed to connect the dots and close the gap between Bristol Bay and The Keystone State.   Their cold and hot smoked salmon, as well as their flash frozen fillets, are of top quality and have a loyal following.

Both Jenn and Steve originally hail from Pennsylvania, but in the summer of 2002 Steve seized an opportunity to fish with some commercial set netters in Naknek.  Steve was intrigued and leaped at the chance. The summer of 2002 was a very slow summer for fishing, so Steve had lots of time on his hands and decided to start smoking sockeye on the beach.

As the son of a butcher and a guy who grew up smoking lots of wild game and trout, this was a natural do-it-yourself project. He crafted a smoke shack using wooden cargo totes that had been used to ship fishing gear and supplies up from Seattle.  He improvised with coffee cans and gathered alder from along the road.  Steve cranked out some really good smoked sockeye using the smoked trout recipe that he remembered from his East Coast childhood.

That year, he loaded his salmon into coolers and carted it back to family and friends. They went wild for it. The next year, he returned to the Bay and started fishing and running a driftnet boat. Jenn started working as a deckhand. Shortly thereafter, they started to cart home flash frozen fillets to sell directly to customers at farmers’ markets.

The demand for the Bristol Bay sockeye increased steadily and practically doubled each year.  In 2008, the couple purchased the fishing vessel, RJ, and started selling their salmon to Leader Creek Fisheries who processes it and sells the flash frozen fillets back to them.  The Kurians appreciate Leader Creek’s commitment to quality. After Steve inspects the fillets, they are shipped to Pennsylvania where they are placed in freezer storage. Some of the salmon is smoked to their specifications. Other fillets are portioned into pieces according to customer demand.  This year, the Kurians brought more than 55,000 pounds back to Pennsylvania.

The certainty of selling a known entity to their customers is an important factor for Jenn and Steve. By harvesting the salmon themselves and then handing it off to customers whether it’s at their store or through mail order or to buying clubs, Steve explained, “We are guaranteeing this fish is top quality, all the way from our boat to your kitchen.”

That guarantee is indeed very important to many of today’s savvy health-conscious cooks. Michelle Wohlfarth has been buying Wild for Salmon sockeye through the company’s buying club for about three years. A certified nutrition and wellness coach who owns the Healthy Living Kitchen and gives cooking classes in her home, Michelle explained,   “The quality is unbelievable. I’m constantly telling everyone about them…We are very fortunate to have them. People are dying for good fish out here.”

By Melissa A. Trainer

Tim and Meghan Gervais

Thrifty Innovation Drives This Family Business!

According to Tim Gervais, Bristol Bay feels like the Eighth Wonder of the World.  Reminiscing about his first impressions, Tim explained, “I didn’t have any experience here,  but I knew Bristol Bay was a special place based on the volume of the fish. Compared to other places in Alaska… there were so many fish moving through in pulses that it felt like the Eighth Wonder of the World…That first summer we were here, some of the kids were trying to go swimming at the beach and they had to get out of the water because they were getting run over by the salmon as they swam by.”

Gervais  and his wife, Meghan,  own and operate the Dreamboat and the Sea King. After working in the mining industry for fifteen years, Tim quit his job, packed his kayak, and drove  to Whitehorse. From there he launched his kayak and paddled along the Yukon River to Ruby, Alaska, which is now where they live during the winter.

Tim fished commercially for king salmon along the Yukon River and later found himself set netting in Bristol Bay in 1999. At that time, the market price for sockeye was so low that many of the permits and fishing vessels were being sold for a small sum.

Tim sensed there was  value in the fishery and in the fish themselves. He explained, “ I was impressed with the sockeye for its durability and its really good flavor. It’s also a very convenient size…They are an appropriate size to feed a family for dinner… I could see a lot of potential…” Tim was so certain of that potential that he used his savings to buy the Dreamboat in 2003. The Dreamboat is an older vessel built in 1979.

Although there are fancier boats in Bristol Bay, the Dreamboat was the right one for Tim. He explained that the boat seemed efficient and affordable for a small business. Their biggest issue was figuring out how to keep their sockeye chilled and of top quality while harvesting in the remote waters of Bristol Bay. This became challenging on the Dreamboat. Back in the 1970s, keeping fish chilled wasn’t a priority for the fishermen. Therefore Tim’s  boat lacked the infrastructure for keeping his harvest cold.

In today’s market, sockeye that has been handled carefully commands the highest price. This, of course, became an important priority.  Tim explained, “It’s our responsibility if we are gonna be out here harvesting salmon on an industrial scale, then we need to apply the right techniques in order to maintain the intrinsic quality of the fish.“  Initially, Tim installed an ice machine on the  boat, but the machine couldn’t produce the amount of ice needed to keep all the fish cold. After trial and error and reliance on his engineering background, Tim eventually figured out how to install a refrigerated sea water system (RSW) into his boat. This involved retrofitting  the boat in order to install holding tanks and a chilling system to keep all of the sockeye cold during the day.

Both the Dreamboat and the Sea King are now equipped with RSW systems. In essence, Tim and Meghan Gervais found an efficient way to recycle two older seaworthy boats and build a small family fishing business around them.  The naysayers said  it wasn’t practical to install an RSW into an older boat.  Tim and Meghan now sell their top-quality chilled sockeye to Leader Creek Fisheries.

Norm Van Vactor, the General Manager at Leader Creek, said,  “They seem like a wonderful couple… They are excellent fishermen in terms of the quality they produce, but they also demonstrate a passion and concern for the fisheries and the resources as well.”

By Melissa A. Trainer

Pete Andrew

Towing the Line and Feeding the Legacy

“This region is one of the last whole pristine clean waters that is left. Somehow it has survived…It’s an incredible place to live and I can’t imagine living anywhere else, ” explained Pete Andrew as he talked about Bristol Bay and the Bering Sea.

A resident of Dillingham, Alaska, Andrew is a commercial fisherman, corporate board member, local advocate, and the father of four children. He has been a commercial fisherman since the age of 16.

Raised in the remote village of New Stuyahok, Andrew came from a traditional Yup’ik family whose subsistence way of life revolved around the seasons and region’s abundant wild salmon. Yup’ik families survived on salmon. They also made their living from it.

In 1977, Andrew’s father, Pete Andrew Sr. made a bold move. A fisherman and former reindeer herder, he went to the local cannery and ordered a 22-foot Seymour skiff, nets, and an outboard for his son who was away at boarding school in Dillingham. When Andrew came home one weekend, he was informed about the boat and was told that the commercial fishing license was being put in Andrew’s name. Andrew recalled, “I argued with my dad… I felt that I didn’t have the faith in myself. My dad assured me that…I would learn.” In spite of the protests, Andrew was in business! In addition, he was given the bill for the skiff and was expected to cover his own expenses. He cleared about $2000 his first season.

Andrew has been fishing Nushagak Bay ever since. Located at the confluence of two rivers, the Bay is rich with sockeye salmon and provides a steady living for the Andrew family. During the summer salmon runs, Andrew steers his 32-foot boat, the Lucky Bear, through the pristine water, dropping nets and pulling sockeye. He explained, ”We try to go for absolute quality. At the end of an opening, we go and make deliveries to bigger boats. The fish are pulled off in bags and they are weighed. I sign a ticket and the cannery pays me for whatever I delivered. “

Andrew and his wife, Rose Fisher, have three sons and a daughter. All of the boys were taught how to fish commercially and they all earned their own spending money while working on the family boat. Two of them are now pursuing degrees in engineering. Their daughter is the eldest of the four children and only recently has she become interested in the family fishing business. Although she now lives in the Lower 48, Kristina returned to Bristol Bay last summer and fished with her dad for the first time. Andrew was thrilled and explained, “When she was younger, she didn’t get into the fishing. She didn’t really like it. She went off to school. But last year she came up after years of being away and she fished with me on the boat…She really did well fishing. She picked it up like a duck to water.”

Fisher marvels at her husband’s life. In a telephone interview she said, “He was a very young man and went out into the Bay in an open skiff. It’s dangerous out there, but it was just what you did. Now, he’s one of Bristol Bay’s successful fishermen. He refers to the Bay as his office… There’s just something in his blood. It is living life to the fullest.”

Try out Rose’s Salmon Chowder recipe!

By Melissa A. Trainer

Kari and Kristjan Toivola

Father and Son On Deck!

Kari Toivola started fishing commercially in Bristol Bay in 1979 and currently owns and operates the Magnum. Toivola was raised in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood and, as a teenager, his Finnish father arranged for him to spend a summer working on a neighbor’s fishing boat in Southeast Alaska. With more than thirty seasons of Bristol Bay fishing under his belt, Toivola is now teaching his teenage son, Kristjan, how to navigate the waters, read the tides, pick the fish, and sell the haul. For Kari, it’s like running a hands-on classroom at sea.

Although Kari fished the Bering Sea for crab for many years, he now solely fishes Bristol Bay in his 32 foot boat and sells his catch directly to Icicle Seafoods. Working with his 16 year old son and two other crew members, Kari launches his boat at the beginning of the season and usually remains at sea for about a month. Admittedly, the quarters can be tight on the Magnum, but because the Bristol Bay sockeye season is so short and intense, it isn’t worth bringing his boat back into the harbor between openings. Kari explained that when they aren’t dropping nets and picking fish, the hardworking crew is either catching up on their sleep, cooking meals, maintaining the boat, or repairing the net.

A typical day of fishing on Bristol Bay can be incredibly tense, and the ultimate goal is to pull a full net and get it back into the water as quickly as possible. One of the key components of this mission is to pick the sockeye out of the net as quickly as possible. On a really good pull, that could mean removing 500 fish out of the net in about half an hour. According to Kari, picking the fish isn’t as easy as it looks because their gills get caught on the net. He said, “You have to pull the web off the gills and use your fingers to get the fish out of the net. It is a skill that you can’t begin to teach somebody. There’s no way to explain it until you actually see it. You just can’t show someone how to do it before you go out there.”

Kari explained how his son, Kristjan, first learned through observation and watching everyone else on deck. He then started picking the fish that just popped out of the net. As Kristjan grew and his hands got stronger he was able to pick faster and with more agility. With time, Kristjan learned different techniques for picking the fish quickly and efficiently. He learned how to do it without thrashing the net and making a hole.

Kristjan will be fishing for his fourth summer this year and explained, “I’ve definitely gotten better at it. When you first try it, you can’t  get the fish out of the net.  The first couple summers,  I watched and learned, but  now I’m really working at it. That’s a lot more fun than just watching.”  Looking towards his future, Kristjan is interested in pursuing a career in the Alaska fishing industry and with his father he has used his earnings to purchase quota shares in the Bering Sea snow crab industry.

By Melissa A. Trainer

Fran Kaul

pictured with her son, Alec

Her Fishing Career Comes Full Circle

Fran Kaul’s career in the Alaska fishing industry has come full circle. The owner of Misty Fjord Seafood now sells her high-quality flash-frozen Bristol Bay sockeye fillets to home cooks, upscale restaurants, and health food stores around the country. Ironically, Kaul got hooked into the career by simply learning how to cook!

As a teenager from Minnesota, Kaul visited her older brother in Alaska and went out on a friend’s commercial fishing boat. Kaul recalls, “I fell in love with it. I was hooked. I knew immediately I wanted to someday run my own boat. It shaped my life.” While in college in the early 1980s, Kaul thought she wanted to fish commercially in Alaska, but she knew she couldn’t take the traditional route into the industry. She needed a special skill and reasoned that by learning to cook she could land a job in a galley kitchen during the summer. She taught herself to cook by experimenting at home, reading books, and nannying for a food-loving family in Austria.

Indeed, those efforts paid off because she got her first job as a cook on a gillnetter in Southeast Alaska. She explained, “Yeah, I knew how to cook. I didn’t know how to do anything else, but I knew right away that it was something that really interested me, so I learned how to mend gear. I learned basic engine maintenance and tried to think like a fisherman, asking lots of questions and paying attention.” Kaul purchased her first boat, the Islandia, in 1988. She opted to fish in Bristol Bay because a friend tipped her off and because the gillnetter seemed like a more manageable boat for her. She had never been to Bristol Bay and purchased the turnkey operation ten days before the season opened! Kaul readily admits that it was bold move.

Kaul has been fishing for thirty years now and prides herself on the quality of her sockeye salmon and the manner in which it is handled. Kaul sells her fish to Leader Creek Fisheries and has to meet their strict standards of quality control. Each fish is handled with “kid gloves” and is immediately bled by hand on board her boat and placed floating in chilled water. The holding tank on her custom-built boat, the Janet Elaine has computers that monitor the temperature of the water and ensure quality. This year she hopes to upgrade from padded mats to trampolines on the deck so the sockeye don’t get bruised when they come on board.

After Kaul sells her sockeye to Leader Creek, the fish is gutted, filleted, flash frozen, glazed, and then sold back to Kaul who sells the vacuum-packed fish directly to her customers throughout the country. She explained, “It’s been really cool to see how many people have learned about the differences in salmon… For me, it’s about more than just making a living. I have to feel good about what I’m doing.”

Kaul recently met with Liam Spence, the Executive Chef at Lola in Seattle. Her direct marketing approach paid off because Lola is now serving her sockeye. Spence explains, “It’s a frozen product that eats more like a fresh piece of salmon. It’s delicious. I’m using it on my Seattle Restaurant Week menu in April. It’s great in the offseason and I’m not going to use anything else but this.” Spence prepares the salmon by pan searing it with the skin on. The medium rare salmon has a nice crispy skin and is served with an herbed caper relish, almonds, and lemons. Spence says, “The people love it. They are really into it.”

By Melissa A. Trainer