Improved handling practices noted for Bristol Bay salmon

Remember that fish at the bottom of the brailer, the last choice on anyones dinner menu?Not any more, says Mark Buckley, a veteran commercial fish harvester, turned researcher and writer, in a new report card on the Bristol Bay sockeye salmon fishery.Buckley was watching one Bristol Bay harvester delivering his catch to a tender last season and a few fish had fallen under the bottom of one brailer in the fish hold.Rather than add those sockeye salmon into the load being delivered to the processor, the captain instructed “save it. Well eat it for dinner.”Buckley, now a graduate student seeking a doctorate in interdisciplinary studies, is the president of Digital Observer Inc. He has been studying for several years now the famed Bristol Bay sockeye salmon run, a fishery historically renowned more for its volume than the quality of its fish.”It is impossible to recapture the value when there is handling abuse on the fishing grounds,” he concluded, but “fishermen can be motivated to improve the value by improving quality, and report cards and value compensation have potential to improve the bottom line by rewarding quality.”In a report card delivered April 14 to harvesters and others at ComFish, Kodiaks annual commercial fisheries meeting and trade show, Buckley praised the cooperative efforts of individual harvesters and others in the industry to improve the handling of the harvest, which has resulted in higher quality and higher prices.

via The Bristol Bay Times – Improved handling practices noted for Bristol Bay salmon.

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