The Costco Connection

By Hana Medina

EACH YEAR, RESTAURATEURS, chefs and foodies around the world eagerly await the month of May, when they clamor for the first catch of the wild Copper River salmon run. Less fanatical consumers nevertheless anticipate its arrival in local markets and indulge in this salmon until the end of its run in September. With its bright red flesh, rich taste and buttery consistency, Copper River salmon is considered by many to be the highest-qual-ity salmon available. But what is it about this river that produces such delectable salmon?

Nearly 300 miles long, the Copper River is the 10th-largest river, ranked by water output, in the United States. Named for its proximity to former copper and ore mines, it was crucial to the transportation of those raw materials.

“The Copper River is a very fast-moving
glacial river, so the salmon have to store up a
lot of oil content and fat content to get up the
river. And that oil content is what gives them
their flavor,” Scott Blake, CEO of Copper River
Seafoods, tells The Connection. “If you look at
other river systems, they’re very short in com-
parison, so salmon that go into those rivers
don’t produce [as much] oil.”
Health experts often recommend eating
salmon; it’s high in protein and essential nutri-
ents, and low in saturated fats. Salmon is also
a natural source of omega- 3 fatty acids, which
have been reported to aid heart health, reduce
inflammatory diseases and prevent cancer,
among many other benefits, according to the
Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.

Three types of salmon are pulled from the Copper River: coho, sockeye and the largest of all, king. Blake says the demand has grown so high that fish have even been offloaded to helicopters for fast processing and expedited shipping. Since the salmon are wild, the number of fish pulled from the river each year fluctuates. In the official season of 2013, commercial salmon fishers pulled more than 1. 8 million salmon from the river, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG).

While its quality and flavor propelled Copper River salmon to international fame, it wasn’t until the late 1980s that word started to get out. The growth of its reputation is often attributed to Jon Rowley, a Seattle-based seafood and marketing consultant, who introduced the fish and their fishers to high-end restaurant owners and chefs in the Seattle area. In turn, chefs began specifying Copper River salmon on menus, putting the river (and its fish) on the map.

Blake says that Copper River salmon also
has a few advantages over other fish in the
market: It has one of the first commercially-
harvested salmon runs of the year in Alaska,
so it’s available before other wild salmon hit
the market; and Copper River’s location near a
port and proximity to Seattle make fast trans-
portation plausible.

Today, Copper River salmon fetch some of the market’s highest prices, making it a cornerstone of the Alaskan economy.

“The salmon industry in Alaska is really key to the quality of life of the people in these communities. We’re very dependent on the salmon industry for our jobs and the revenues that are in our communities; it’s how we feed our families,” says Blake. “It’s important to recognize that when you’re dependent upon on that, you really are a true steward of your resource. It’s not just the state itself or ADFG. … As commercial fishermen, the sustainability of those resources is our first priority.” C

The Costco Connection Look for fresh Copper River salmon from the end of May through summer in the meat department of your local warehouse.

Catch of

the summer

Sustainable salmon
Copper River salmon
creative
cooking

CO UR T E SY O F CO PP ER RI VE R SE A FO O D S

TO PREVENT OVERFISHING, keen sustainability management is crucial to keeping the industry alive (literally). In fact, Alaska is the only state with a mandate for sustainable seafood written into its state constitution, according to the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI). This is monumental, considering that more than half of the wild-caught seafood in the U.S. comes from the state.

Sustainability is managed in a number of ways.

• The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) maintains a fixed number of commercial salmon fishing licenses for the entire state.

• ADFG employs scientists to report on the salmon runs. Among their many duties, the scientists plan for escapement, which means a certain number of fish must return