It’s been a very interesting season so far. I’ve been
trying to purchase pink salmon, which many processors
won’t even buy when a salmon fishermen brings in his
catch of chum, sockeye, king and coho salmon. They’re
small, and get soft in a hurry if they are not dressed
and chilled soon after they come out of the water.

I know from pressure bleeding, dressing and chilling
them myself that they can make a great product if
handled properly. I’ve been aggressively seeking
fishermen to handle them this way, and willing to buy
the fish at over double what any processor is
currently paying. I figure that conservatively, a
deckhand could dress 30 pinks per hour (more 40 to 60
once they get trained, but 30 should be easy), and
that would translate to $60/hour at least. I’ve
advertised on the radio (not one response). I’ve put
up signs on the bulletin boards (a couple responses).
Yesterday, I went to nearly every gillnet vessel in
the harbor and put my notice to buy in their door, and
got a few more responses.

However, response does not mean anyone said they’ll
sell to us. The price sounds great, but once they
hear we want the fish dressed, etc., the enthusiasm
goes away. And the older the fisherman, it seems like
not just a lack of enthusiasm but almost disgust that
anyone would ask them to dress a pink salmon. Most
fishermen make it out that it’s beneath them – a jab
at their dignity – to clean a pink salmon. Seems most
everyone thinks someone should buy pink salmon, but
only the way they’ve taken them for the past 100 years
– in the round, and maybe chilled – but that’s it. Oh
yeah, and we want a high price for in the round, soft
pink salmon.

Seems few realize these fish are a dime a dozen in the
world of pink salmon commodity markets, and generally
only fit for one product form – the can – of which
there is, and has been, a perennial glut.

I’m definitely going to have to do more leg work this
winter to get someone fishermen interested. It sure
seems like a lot of money to throw overboard,
particularly with the high fuel prices, but it really
is difficult to teach a new dog new tricks.

–
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

Put up signs for buying sockeye salmon and pink salmon
at area harbors. Mailed canned salmon and pet treats
to Ohio, Anchorage, Seward, Massachusetts, and
Illinois. Collected gel pacs from a fish customer to
recycle. Checked in at processor to return canned
salmon boxes for reuse. Met with two trollers there
and showed them how to pressure bleed. Emailed
Southeast Seiners Association looking for more pink
salmon. Took cardboard boxes to recycling. Left
message for Len that I can use plenty of sockeye in
town. Called the label printer and paid for labels,
which are to ship the 26th – finally! Worked on
marketing RFP for post season.

–
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

I seemed to have missed a few days. It cannot
possibly be Friday. I called a restaurant in Texas,
and had put the wrong phone number on the airway bill,
so Alaska Airlines called the wrong place. Luckily,
they have a cooler in Dallas, so the fished arrived
just fine. Another went to Tennessee, and I hope that
arrived fine as well – I was too exhastimicated from
the stomach flu to pack both boxes going there, and
I’m never sure if others will put as many gel pacs in
as I do (which is probably too many, but better safe
than sorry).

Today I got great news. I finally hooked up with a
gillnetter on the phone. One of the buyers he sells
fish to asked me to show him how to pressure bleed.
So, we got talking about that, and I described it to
him and he said he’d try it this week. Then I
broached the subject of him selling my dressed,
pressure bled pinks, which no one seems too excited
about doing. He was the first who jumped at the
chance to put this fine fish in his boat instead of
throwing it back or selling it for next to nothing.

This got me so excited I immediately started looking
for whole fish around town so I could show him in
person how to pressure bleed. No fish were yet
available at the hatchery. Next I went to one of the
local processors, and the manager, gladly gave me 3
pinks.

I called the gillnetter back, he was over within the
hour, and I gave him a walk through. We found it
didn’t work on a whole fish that had been sitting as
long as the pink had at the cannery, as the blood had
coagulated and could not be moved, but he saw the
technique and was excited to try it. Like me, the
gillnetter self-markets much of his own catch, and so
can see further than the nose on his face if something
looks promising – even if it’s to help someone else
out in the process. He said he’d already talked to
his buddies, so hopefully they can get in several
hundred pounds this week for me.

After he left, I changed the rear brake shoes on our
new, highly used mini-van, and another friend called
looking for king salmon for a reunion. So, I drove
out to my processor and got him his fish. Finally
home at 7:30 after dinner on Costco Polish Hotdog cuisine.

–
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

What a freakin’ 24 hours. I delivered fish from Lena
Point to Thane, starting at Lena at 5 pm. It was
already 9 pm when I was in Thane, and I was not nearly
done with Douglas Island customer deliveries, so I
called everyone, who graciously said not to worry.

I ordered a pizza on the way home – veggie delight.
The delivery kid brought in the pizza, I paid, and I
took it to the kitchen. When I opened the box, I saw
it was pepperoni, so I snapped back the lid, and tried
to hurry out to the driveway to catch the dude. I
tripped right next to the door, the pizza box flew and
landed upside down next to the door. So, I wasn’t
about to have this pizza go to someone else, and the
guy pulled away so I went in and started eating. The
pizza tasted like a salt bomb – not sure if it was
just the pepperoni or what. I had not eaten anything
all day, so put a dent in the pie.

I fell asleep watching Jimmy Kemmel, and woke about
2:45 am, shut off the lights and TV, and hit the rack.
I awoke about 8 am and something didn’t seem right.
I ran to the bathroom, and then knew something was
definitely in the wrong. I had stomach flu or food
poisioning, and I never get sick. I’d experienced
this once in Sierra Leone, although it was more severe
there, and knew I was in for a long day.

I had to get an order to our Tennessee buyer, the
Shrimp Dock, in Knoxville, so it would leave today and
be there by Friday at the latest. I dragged my sorry
butt out of bed with the pounding headache and body
aching all over, and managed to get to my processor to
pick up the fish. The staff there helped me load the
boxes, I got to the airport, and got them on the plane
without incident.

I returned home and was out like a light for a couple
more hours. I got up again about 3 to get ready to
deliver to Douglas Island customers. I dropped a
white king off at our friend Jeff’s house for the
usual just-got-back-from-a-trip barbeque, where we
supply a fish and they do the rest for the
neighborhood. That allowed me to also swing by our
local homeless shelter to drop them 5 or 6 cohos. I
used to deliver there weekly, but this was the first
time this year. I noticed I felt better as I
returned over the bridge to Douglas, and guess doing
my penance for the shelter may have been a good tonic.

I gave all my customers extra fish as I’d kept them
waiting an extra day, and sure enjoy delivering fish
over selling at the boat. At the boat, it’s more like
a cafeteria line of people in line waiting to pick up
their fish. This way, I can chat with each customer
and it’s much less hectic.

My fish buyer from Fairbanks, who runs an extremely
successful restaurant (Players Grille), called and
asked about his fish. I told him it should be there
soon, as I’d shipped it yesterday. The “Extreme
Makeover” show is there building a house near
Fairbanks, he got the catering contract, and he’s
serving our fish! He said something like 4,200 meals
for the whole shoot. I was sure to send a pile of
cards with the fish.

Hope to shake this flu and be back tomorrow in better shape.

–
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

Woke at 5:30 am and have not stopped moving fish until
9:45 pm tonight. I was supposed to deliver fish from
5 to 8:30 but had to put people off on Douglas Island
until tomorrow evening. The fishing is fun. It’s the
selling and hauling and shipping that is the work.

–
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

We ran all night and arrived in downtown Juneau about
3 am. I was up at 6:30 am and off to my processors
about 7:20 to load up fish totes and ask my processor
for some “adult supervision” in operating the public
cranes at the harbor dock. I’d never done a
whole-boat offload like this from anyone’s boat buy my
own, and this would be my first time operating the
crane to hoist small plastic boxes of fish from the
hold to the dock high above. From there, we transfer
the fish into insulated fish totes and off they go on
our truck or a little trailer I have to our processor
for weighing and processing.

The crane was pretty self-explanatory, and you have to
be careful not to hit lights and antennaes and rafts
that are on either side of the hold as the 150lb hoist
ball and hook go up with full totes of fish and down
with empty totes for more fish.

4 and a half hours later, we’d offloaded all the fish,
and I was operating the crane with minor confidence by
the end of the session.

Then home to check emails and try to figure out who
had ordered what in Juneau and outside of Juneau.
Another day of running all day tomorrow and then maybe
a break.

Beautiful weather here in town – mostly sunny and 70 ish.

–
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