Elevating Chesapeake seafood with Japanese technique
Published onMaryland watermen could soon see new opportunities to enhance the quality and value of their catch with the introduction of a traditional Japanese fishing processing technique known as Ike Jime. A bill currently under consideration in the Maryland General Assembly aims to support Chesapeake Bay watermen by promoting the use of Ike Jime, a humane harvesting method that preserves the freshness and taste of seafood, making it more appealing to high-end markets. The bill seeks to encourage the adoption of Ike Jime by providing watermen with training and resources to implement the technique. The method widely used in Japans seafood industry involves a precise process of stunning and bleeding fish to minimize stress and rigor mortis, resulting in a superior product with better texture and flavor. Proponents believe this could offer Chesapeake Bay watermen a competitive advantage in the seafood market, particularly among chefs and consumers prioritizing premium-quality ...
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One fishing family's fight for a better future
Published onPart Three of Eriks story. To read the previous article, click here. For more than a year, my wife and I researched shipping logistics, processing options in Alaska and the lower 48, vessel conversion options, and captain and crew interest in trying something new. Even with a proven example thriving in Iceland, was there enough interest within our own business to change our behavior?... The tipping point Whatever youre meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always impossible. Doris Lessing Coincidently, during this time, the Alaskan seafood industry collapsed around us. In the summer of 2023, we received a base price for sockeye salmon of $0.50 per pound, and cod fell from $0.45 in the A-season to $0.32 by the fall B-season. Longtime crew members departed for good in search of more steady employment. A dependence on large processors moving seafood as a ...
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The journey to seafood quality over quantity
Published onPart Two of Eriks story. To read the previous article, click here. The long road to independence In 2012, I partnered on a 58-foot fixed-gear vessel with my father and a high school friend, looking to tender in the summer and then target cod, halibut, and sablefish the rest of the year. I had a young family and wanted to stay closer to home, so I transitioned fully off the Baranof in 2015. The partnership lasted about three years, but we ultimately found that the aging vessel could only really support one family. I bought my father and friend out of the business and tried to keep the operation cash-positive. It didnt always work. We fished hard, almost year-round. Pacific cod was increasingly important for us and other fixed gear sectors, but I was continually disappointed by the quality, handling, and execution of our shoreside cod ...
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A fishing family’s journey to unlock the full value of catch
Published onA few weeks ago, my boat delivered a load of Pacific cod in Dutch Harbor, Alaska. While thats a daily sight this time of year, this delivery was special. After years of research and development, this was our first offload of pot-caught, gutted and bled, slurry-iced cod bound for fresh markets and custom processing in Seattle. The modest line-up of bright yellow Saeplast totes on the dock was a fraction of what a boat like ours typically delivers, but they represent a promising new endeavor more than two decades in the making. My quest for quality began in January 2001 in the Bering Sea. I was a 17-year-old green deckhand fishing opilio crab on the Westward Wind, a 170-foot catcher-processor. After crab season, we ventured west to the Aleutian Islands for pot-cod season. I was impressed that the boat functioned as its ...
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How AI is changing commercial fishing and aquaculture
Published onCommercial fishing isnt always considered a high-tech industry. As one of humanitys oldest professions, fishing is sometimes unfairly maligned as being old-fashioned or relying on outdated technology. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Quietly, the commercial fishing and aquaculture sectors are incorporating advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) to transform their understanding of the global seafood industry and the ways they operate within it. From automating aquaculture practices to tracking dark fishing vessels in the open ocean, AI is revolutionizing the way fishers, regulators, and producers are interacting with the worlds oceans. The area in which AI technologies have seen the most widespread adoption is in aquaculture, where producers are using machine learning to monitor systems, sort animals and products, and automate feedings. Drawing on CrunchBase data, ThisFish CEO and co-founder Eric Enno Tamm estimated that the seafood industry has invested more than $610 million ...
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Northline Seafoods' barge back to full operations
Published onBristol Bay salmon processor Northline Seafoods is back to full operations onboard their freezer barge, the Hannah after an electrical fire under one of its three spiral freezers slowed production capacity earlier this season. The Hannah, a 400 x 100 barge, is a vertically integrated, all-in-one solution for buying, freezing, shipping, storing, and distributing wild Alaskan salmon. This innovative supply chain platform improves quality, increases efficiency, and preserves the value of wild salmon at the source. Due to the hard work and continued efforts of Northline engineers and our freezer manufacturers, all three spiral freezers are now operational. In the last week, production onboard the Hannah has ramped up to include a period where more than 1,000,000 pounds of sockeye were purchased, frozen, and boxed in 48 hours. Production capacity onboard the Hannah will continue to increase as Northlines engineering team works through the systems. It ...
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Falklands trawler highlights trends in vessel design
Published onThe launch of factory trawler Prion marks a significant milestone for the Nodosa shipyard. The new trawler for the Petrel Fishing Company is now being outfitted at the yards dock, with delivery scheduled to take place after the summer. Read more
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Fillet knives that are a cut above
Published onFilleting machines may cut most of the fish caught in Americas fishing industry. But there are more people than machines cutting fish, and they use knives. The knife is the connection point between the cutters intention and the fish, it is where the mind meets matter. The folks at Dexter-Russell Knives in Southbridge, Massachusetts, understand this as well as anyone. After more than 200 years we ought to be, says Dexters national sales manager, Carl Abissi. I run the outdoors department, says Abissi. Our newest knife is the Dextreme. It has a double edge a long cutting edge and then a scalloped edge on top. So you can use the scalloped edge to cut through scales and collars and save the good edge for filleting. Originally developed for red snapper fishermen, Abissi developed a 12-inch version of the Dextreme for tuna fishermen. The new Dextreme line of knives ...
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Wicked Pissah: Maine’s H&H Marine launches a star-quality bluefin tuna hunter
Published onPaul Hebert, one of the stars of the TV show Wicked Tuna, cant say enough good things about his new boat, the Wicked Pissah, built by HH Marine in Steuben, Maine. I have never been on a more solid hull in my life, says Hebert. And Ive been doing this since I was 12 years old. Im telling you, my boat, when it goes through waves, 6-footers, it doesnt even know its in 6-footers. Its the most comfortable tuna weapon its an animal. Eric Moores, who oversaw the building of Heberts 40-foot Osmond Beal-designed boat, cant say enough good things about his hull lay-up crew. These guys deserve recognition, he says. The boat starts with them. Moores himself started on a layup crew after graduating high school in 1985, and HH has been building boats for 35 years. The Wicked Pissahs 40-foot hull, based ...
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Bing Bing: Gloucester fisherman rebuilds a cherry of a clam boat
Published on[Editors Note: This story ran in NF December 2018, after the Bing Bing was overhauled.] Few ports are as identified with the American fishing industry as Gloucester, Mass. Agawam, a Native American fishing village, existed for thousands of years at the head of Gloucesters harbor before English colonists established themselves here in 1623. In the ensuing years, Gloucester has played host to the best times of New Englands cod fishery and ranked in the top 10 U.S. ports for landings until 1989. While the iconic Fishermans Memorial statue a fisherman in his oilskins holding the spoked helm of a schooner still identifies Gloucesters fisheries heritage, since 1993 the city has fought to keep its economics in line with its image, and that fight continues. On July 23, 2018, under cloudy skies, Monte Rome, owner of the Gloucester based Intershell International Corp., and some of the citys leading lights ...
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