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
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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
In our digital editions
Click here to watch a video
about the fishers of Copper
River Seafoods. (See page 16
for details.)
Kara N. shows
off her Copper
River king
salmon catch.
COPPER RIVER/PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND MARKETING ASSOCIATION