Yesterday, I offloaded a salmon troller with my
quasi-business partner, his son in law, and another
woman who works with his group. The fish were from a
boat I’d never bought from before, so I was a little
apprehensive – especially with the record high price
of king salmon.
Turns out, it was some of the best fish we’d ever
seen. Beautifully bled and handled with care. The
fisherman said he was glad to sell to people like us
who appreciate quality.
The offloading was also nice. In the past, I did
everything myself – along with the fisherman’s help.
The unloading from the hold, weighing the fish,
loading the fish tote, then pushing the tote on a cart
up the dock ramp to the parking lot.
Today, there were hands to help with everything. One
person weighed, another recorded the weights, a third
issued the fish receipt, and there were two of us to
push the fish up the ramp to my truck. What a
difference from working alone.
I delivered to about a dozen homes in Juneau. Price
was as high as we’ve ever had to charge – 12.99/lb –
but people seemed eager for fresh king salmon, and by
now realize cheap king salmon is a thing of the past
with $4.00+/gal diesel fuel, and lower than average
fish harvests.
We also had an avalanche here last month that is
supposedly going to drive prices up 5 fold as the
avalanche knocked out our hydroelectric, so now we
were going to be on diesel generation until the hydro
lines could be fixed.
I went to our city website today
(http://www.juneau.org/energy/), however, and see
we’re now using less diesel fuel than we were the day
BEFORE the avalanche. Citizens have conserved that
much electricity in only 2 weeks. It also begs the
question as to why rates have to go up so high if
we’re back to pre-avalanche diesel usage, and I’ve
requested an explanation. Maybe part of the increase
was for repairs, or maybe no one could envision
conseration of this magnitude.
–
Mark Stopha and Sara Hannan
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
Wild Salmon and Salmon Pet Treats
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
907-463-3115
www.GoodSalmon.com