Two enterprising fisheries veterans are planning to take the chilling challenge head on, by delivering slush to harvesters in Bristol Bay, receiving their catch and immediately flash freezing whole sockeye salmon.
Pat Glaab and partner Ben Blakey of Northline Seafoods in Sitka say they plan to begin in Bristol Bay’s Ugashik district in the summer of 2018, and that they are confident that their floating processor, a converted old helicopter logging barge, can freeze up to 300,000 pounds –about 50,000 reds – every day.
Their plan is to park their barge where other processors would normally park a tender, given their fishermen slushed ice, receive the catch and flash freeze.
For now, the two men and their employees are at work at an industrial park in Sitka, where they have 7,200 square feet of shop and waterfront space.
“We are a problem solving company,” said Glaab. “We came in saying there are problems that can be solved, and right now we are concentrated on solving this problem for Bristol Bay.”
Last summer their company froze 10,000-15,000 pounds a day of pink, chum and sockeye salmon from Southeast Alaska. They found when their fish were compared to other product on the market that theirs was consistently higher quality than other headed and gutted fish coming out of Alaska at that time.
Their hope is by providing ice to their fishermen and quickly flash freezing the whole fish that they can substantially boost their harvesters’ incomes.
As renovation continues on the barge this summer, Northline plans to freeze smaller amounts of pink and chum salmon. Flash freezing will also help maintain the quality of heads, guts and fish oil, all of which have potential markets in products including fish meal and pet foods.
Beyond the potential profits, their goal is to reduce fish waste, by offering whole fish as a viable product form that can perform better than a headed and gutted product.
‘We are trying to sell a premium product affordable to retail customers,” Blakey said. “If we are able to provide reprocessors with competitively priced high quality salmon, that will give value to harvesters and consumers.”
