A group of local commercial fishermen plan to make waves with a company they created to give fishermen more control over processing and allow them to reap greater profits from well-handled fish.
“The fishermen want to take greater control of their fish,” said Sean Crosby, a processor and partner in the project. “From the boat to the throat.”
The company, Kenai River Seafoods, will process its first batch of fish in June and will demand the highest standards ever required of fishermen by a Cook Inlet-based processor, said Dan Thompson, a fisherman and partner in the company.
“We’re paying more money, but we’re demanding a higher-quality product than they have produced in the past,” he said. “It has to start at the fisherman.”
The company will accept only live-bled fish, which requires fishermen to pull their nets out of the water before fish caught in the net perish, which reduces the number of fish caught, Thompson said.
The fishermen who process their fish through Kenai River Seafoods will be rewarded for the extra effort and smaller catches with higher prices, he said.
“We want people committed to quality and we’re willing to pay for that commitment,” he said.
And while some fish processors allow exceptionally well-handled fish to mix with lower-quality fish, wasting the efforts of fishermen who handle their fish carefully, Kenai River Seafoods will accept only the best, Crosby said.
Kenai River Seafoods plans to process 100 percent of its fish in accordance with Kenai Wild and Alaska Quality Seafood programs, and has hired an independent quality consultant to ensure program requirements are met.
“These are some really forward-thinking fishermen,” Crosby said of the other partners in the company. “They’re all extremely quality conscious.”
The five fishermen who have invested in the company so far are driftnetters.
“But there are some really good (setnetters) out there and we’d like to get them on board,” Crosby said.
The company plans to process its fish using Kenai Landing’s facilities and is hiring approximately 30 people for processing and office work.
The company’s partners plan to use this year to build momentum as they work out kinks and chase down markets, and do not expect to process large quantities of fish just yet.
This year the company’s goal is approximately half a million pounds, said Thompson.
“There is capacity for more, but we’re trying to be conservative the first year,” he said.
Although the company’s investors plan to begin slow, they are wholly committed, Crosby said.
“They see the future and they’re mortgaging their future to make it happen,” he said. “We’re in it for the long haul.”
Cook Inlet commercial fishermen must focus on quality to keep their fishery alive and attract a new generation of fishermen, said Rich King, a commercial fishermen and partner in the company.
“It’s hard to find young people that are interested in the fishery anymore because the money isn’t there at the dock,” he said. “I think that a lot of us just keep doing it because we love our lifestyle.”
By focusing on a market that recognizes quality fish and is willing to pay for it, commercial fishermen may increase commercial fishing profits in a world consuming increasingly larger quantities of cheap, farmed fish, he said.
“This isn’t about old fishermen like me,” King said. “This business is about young people, young people who have a future in the fisheries.”
