Fishing for wild seafood in Alaska is either one of the toughest, most dangerous jobs in the world or a demanding yet flexible work environment with perks that include being outdoors all day on glistening blue waters while eagles soar overhead. Reality shows depict heaving seas and stressful, potentially deadly jobs; Alaskan fishing families speak proudly about tradition, sustainability, and community.
For the many multi-generational families that fuel the state of Alaska’s $6 billion wild seafood industry, the paradoxes are evident. Yet each generation perseveres, following in parents’, grandparents’, and great-grandparents’ footsteps. They acquire their own boats as teenagers, joining family fisheries to catch black cod (aka sablefish), king salmon, golden king crab, halibut, and other desirable seafood.
Like the salmon that return to spawn in Alaska’s pristine rivers, the new generation that joins the family fishing business is crucial to the continuation of this complex ecosystem.
“It's not easy, that's for sure,” says Matthew Blake, a 24-year-old, fifth-generation Alaska fisherman. “But I wouldn't have it any other way.”
Sustainability, community, and seafood
Matthew Blake’s father, Scott, is the CEO and co-founder of Copper River Seafoods, one of the most prominent independent companies that helps get wild Alaskan seafood to your plate. Its halibut and Copper River king salmon have been Featured Catches at Vital Choice this year, and it works with thousands of individuals and families that fish for wild Alaskan seafood.
Founded in 1996, Copper River Seafoods is among several key independent companies — and Vital Choice suppliers — that help deliver on the promise of wild Alaskan seafood. Salmon, halibut, black cod, and crab from the cold, nutrient-rich waterways like the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska provide some of the most delicious and healthy ingredients for consumers.
These companies created an infrastructure that allows multi-generational commercial fishing to continue, which in turn maintains communities throughout the state. Built into this is a commitment to seafood sustainability — multiple organizations, including the Alaska Department of Fish & Game, that work to manage annual harvests for the future and, of course, the fishermen themselves.
As executive director of the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association, Lilani Dunn is something of a double rarity: a woman in a leadership position in the Alaska fishing industry, and someone who is not part of a multi-generational fishing family. But as an outsider watching the management of fishing quotas to ensure sustainability, she professes amazement at how fishermen, Fish & Game, and other groups collaborate. “Like the tech crew of a Broadway show,” she describes, with officials communicating with fishing boats to control the catch of sockeye salmon during the season so the show can go on.
READ MORE: Featured Catch: Sockeye Salmon From Bristol Bay
“This is people’s livelihoods, and they want to see it continue for generations,” says Norm Pillen, the president of the Seafood Producers Cooperative, whose wild Alaskan coho salmon was a Featured Catch in October.
Navigating uncertainty
Organizations like Blake’s and Pillen’s are at the forefront of creating the framework to continue this multi-generational story well into the future, with processing plants, marketing efforts, and the ability to ship seafood from Alaska to the mainland United States and beyond. Yet, there are other factors they do not control.
Climate change, fluctuating consumer demand, and global economic shifts that affect exports create obstacles for the current generation of fishermen, and for the organizations that support them.
“It can be challenging for families at times,” Scott Blake says. Fishing “can be very lucrative, and it could be very lean. If you’re going to be in this industry, you have to be diversified; you have to be in multiple fisheries. You have to fish most of the year.”
He points to his son, Matthew, and his twin brother, Dylan, who operate their own boats and move between halibut, black cod, and various salmon seasons, as examples. Scott’s youngest, Hunter, is 20 and getting his start as a commercial fisherman, too.
“I was always away from my kids and my wife for a big part of my life, being out on the fishing grounds,” Scott Blake says wistfully. “There’s a lot of family separation.”
The elder Blake, who runs Copper River Seafoods from Anchorage, and Matthew, who operates from the ancestral hometown of Cordova, 170 miles or so away (though eight hours by car), have different viewpoints on how frequently they see each other. “Pretty often,” Matthew says. That elicits a laugh from Scott, who counters, “He thinks it’s a lot, but I haven’t seen him for a month!”
For a moment, Scott Blake allows himself to slip from his persona of multi-generational fisherman and seafood company executive to concerned parent. “I think that’s one of the biggest challenges, when my kids are out there fishing and knowing the danger of it. That’s always been hard for me.”
A lifetime of family and friends
Of course, not everyone born into a fishing family in Alaska joins the business. A 2018 study found that while 63% of the 800 mostly high school-aged youths in coastal communities of Kodiak and Bristol Bay surveyed said they enjoyed where they lived, one in five wanted to leave and not return. A majority viewed fishing as “fun” and a “major part of life here,” though the results varied on whether the teens viewed commercial fishing as part of their future.
READ MORE: Travel Guide to Bristol Bay
Matthew Blake says of his youth: “I knew I wanted to fish. I had a lot of people who tried to sway me out of it when I was younger, but I knew I was going to fish.”
He’s not alone. “I would say half of my friends are multi-generational fishermen, and the other half are fishermen that got into it recently. One of my best friends and fishing partners is a fourth- or fifth-generation fisherman. Others are second or third generation. It’s a ‘culture’ thing here. It’s what we do.”
His father, with Copper River Seafoods and as a patriarch, is determined to keep that commercial Alaskan wild seafood culture strong. “I'm hoping and fighting to see that it's there for the generation that’s out there now, and for their kids, and the future generations to come.”
AUTHOR
Richard Martin is a writer, editor, and strategist who specializes in food, drink, and travel. He is the co-founder and editor of Appetito, the new online publication about Italian food and drink, and the co-author of the cookbook series Preserved, from publisher Hardie Grant NA.