Marvin Okitkun, the Yup’ik Eskimo fisherman, said that king salmon has changed the life of the villagers on the cash-poor Yukon River delta. He exclaimed that once people try their salmon, they wouldn’t want to have any other salmon from any other place. The increasing demand of the Yukon king as boomed the fragile economies of the tiny delta village.
It is fact that high fuel costs and disastrously low fish counts in the last decade have pushed the mostly Alaska Native region deep into poverty. But with the help from a federal fisheries programme, these villagers are learning to tout the fish’s exceptionally high fat content and lifetime in the wild as sources of health benefits and superior flavour.
Jack Schultheis, Kwik’Pak’s Anchorage-based sales manager, said that they want to build an economy based on the fishery as foodies have responded to the marketing push by Kwik’Pak and the few smaller processors left on the delta. David LeFavre, executive chef of the tony seafood restaurant Water Grill in Los Angeles, told that king salmon got great fat content so it sears up, grills and sautees incredibly nicely.
Steve Hayes Yukon area manager, Department of Fish and Game, said that the fishery needs more than good publicity to survive. The state may set strict limits on commercial fishing again this summer to make sure enough salmon reach their spawning grounds. Hayes informed that the state has signed an agreement with Canada to allow a certain number of fish across the border and the limits are intended also to compensate for a shortfall last year.
