Braving the Elements to put Alaska Whitefish Varieties on the Table
by Marcia Lynn for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute

The cold, clear waters of the North Pacific off the coast of Alaska are teeming with fish that will become the main ingredient for an array of seafood dishes from everyday to elegant—crunchy fish sticks, succulent seafood salads, fillet of sole florentine, and cod boulangere. They’re all made from whitefish, a generic term for the many types of fish that go into products enjoyed by seafood lovers around the world. Halibut, black cod (also known as sablefish), pollock, flounder and rockfish of all varieties are just some of the abundant whitefish species commercial fishermen harvest from the waters around Kodiak, Alaska. Situated about 250 miles southwest of Anchorage in the Gulf of Alaska, Kodiak is the second largest island in the United States—outsized only by the big island of Hawaii. St. Paul Harbor in downtown Kodiak is filled with fishing vessels of all shapes and sizes, used to harvest a virtual smorgasbord of seafood by fishermen like Jay Stinson.

He’s a lifelong commercial fisherman whose appearance contrasts with the stereotype of a scruffy, bearded Alaskan fisherman. Sitting over coffee at a java joint adjacent to the harbor, Stinson is clean shaven, wearing a button-down shirt and nicely pressed pants. His neatly combed, sandy colored hair has only a few wisps of grey which hint at the fact he’s spent 30 of his 54 years on the decks of commercial fishing boats. His specialty is whitefish, and each year he hauls thousands of pounds on board his vessel, simply named The Alaskan.

We cross the street and jump over the rails of The Alaskan for a quick tour. Stinson shows a clear sense of pride as he strolls around the vessel’s decks and innards, pointing with pride to a well outfitted galley, comfortable crew and captain’s quarters, and a wheelhouse filled with state of the art computer systems. They’re used to chart the vessel’s movements, monitor nets and locate the target species of fish for any given trip. He’s a fisherman by trade, but Stinson has had a lot of hands on training as a mechanic during his 25 years as owner and skipper of The Alaskan. “I’ve torn just about all the systems apart and put them back together more than once.”

Even while moored to the dock, gently swaying as the water ripples when boats come in and out of the harbor, The Alaskan conjures up images of what it’s like to ride the vessel on the open ocean. A faint smell of diesel and the yards of blue, orange, and green nets sitting in neat piles on the top deck show that this is clearly a work boat. The nets are used for a harvest method known as “trawling”—when a large, bag shaped net is towed behind the fishing vessel with heavy steel doors rigged to the trawl, keeping it open while moving through the water. This method can gather up large groups of fish at one time, and Stinson uses it for catching pollock, cod and a few other whitefish species. The method he uses to harvest halibut and sablefish is called “longlining.” That’s when a long fishing line with a series of baited hooks attached every few yards is set along the seabed. As the line is pulled back on board, fish from each hook are retrieved one at a time.

But no matter how the fish are harvested, maintaining the highest quality standards is of key importance to Stinson and his three person crew as they ply the waters around Kodiak Island. The amount of time spent at sea during any given trip depends on weather conditions, how far they must travel to the fishing grounds, and how much fish they find. But time is of the essence says Stinson. “From the time you put your first fish on board, the seafood processing plants would like product delivered back in town within 48 to 72 hours.” While at sea, Stinson and his crew are treated to a luxury not found on most commercial fishing vessels—gourmet meals cooked by one crew member who doubles as a professional chef. “We eat exceptionally well!” Stinson says. The chief engineer is his nephew who’s fished with him on and off for the last 30 years.

Stinson’s short guided tour moves from the galley through a narrow doorway, for a quick glance at the bunk rooms, and up a few steps into the wheelhouse. We then cautiously step down a steep set of stairs leading to the engine room. Stinson remarks, “It’s a good seaworthy vessel, so you can go pretty much where you need to go any time of the year.” That means cruising the miles and miles of coastline around Kodiak Island and the Alaska Peninsula, in search of fish to harvest. It also means ducking into the region’s many coves and inlets for shelter or rest. Stinson knows them all—“You know I’ve been running The Alaskan around Kodiak Island since 1980, so I’ve been into most of the bays that you can get into with this vessel.” And his cherished pastime is walking along some of the area’s remote beaches. “That’s beautiful country, basically pristine wilderness,” says Stinson. His manner is somewhat guarded as he talks about how Alaska’s commercial fishing industry has changed over the years, and how he’s changed along with it. Regulations pertaining to when, where and how long you can fish have tightened dramatically, and these days a fisherman is as likely to be wrestling with politicians as with piles of empty tangled nets. He sees himself and others like him in a kind of “holding pattern,” trying to reshape the industry in light of environmental concerns and the move toward ecosystem based fisheries management. Five years ago Stellar sea lions in western Alaska waters were declared an endangered species due to population declines blamed in part on commercial fishing, and some of Stinson’s usual fishing holes were put off limits. He believes changing ocean conditions and environmental factors played a major role in those declines. And Stinson advocates science based management decisions, claiming they are the real defense for an industry he says is “always under attack.” Time and again fisheries management in Alaska is held up as a model for other parts of the country. Pollock stocks in the Bering Sea are at an all time high, while Gulf of Alaska pollock and cod stocks remain healthy as well. All this points to strict management regimes welcomed by Alaska’s fishermen, because their livelihoods depend on healthy fish stocks.

Jay Stinson believes commercial fishing has a good story to tell, and his interest in marketing has grown over the years. He recognizes a need to set Alaska’s wild fish harvests apart from farm raised varieties which have inundated the marketplace in recent years. Stinson says, “Marketing is all about perception; the idea that what people are buying makes them feel good about what they are eating.” During an Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute sponsored workshop at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley, he helped train twenty chefs on how to cook wild Alaska seafood. As for his own preference Stinson says, “Simple is better.” And he readily admits that one big advantage of being a commercial fisherman is having access to a wide variety of top quality fish. Two personal favorites are fresh, troll-caught winter king salmon; and fresh black cod barbecued on the beach using cedar and alder wood chips. You can bet his impromptu barbecue takes place on one of those remote beaches along the miles of coastline he’s covered during his many years fishing in Alaska.