I recently attended the IFBC (International Food Bloggers Conference) in Juneau, Alaska. Having been to Alaska in the past, I was familiar with the sweeping views, temperate climate, and above all, friendly people. But at this conference, I had the pleasure to learn about an important cause and something that brings together the community of Alaska—the health and preservation of one of their greatest resources, salmon.
As part of the conference, Salmon State organized an Open Boat Lunch excursion for a precious few of us. From a conference of almost 200 attendees, only 22 of us were able to attend this excursion. We were shuttled over to Juneau’s Aurora Harbor, where we were invited to come aboard the Fishing Vessel Heather Anne, owned by professional Taku inlet fisherman and salmon evangelist, Tyson Fick, to see how operations worked.
Because the boat is relatively small, Tyson proceeded to a cleaning station down the pier, in order to demonstrate how to fillet the 5 different types of Alaskan River salmon: king, white king, sockeye, coho, and chum. After which, Tyson’s crewman, Buck Willoughby, grilled the segments of fresh catch over an open flame for us with no more than a bit of salt and pepper.
Now I cook salmon a lot at home, as well as eat salmon sushi as often as possible, but let me tell you, nothing compares to a fire-grilled piece of fish that was swimming in the water, not a couple of hours before. The white king fillets were light, flaky, and mild, and the bright red coho and sockeye retained that unmistakable salmon flavor that’s not at all fishy, but not at all bland. In addition, Buck had prepared a red chowder with halibut cheeks and spot prawns, alongside hot garlic bread from a local bakery in town, and fresh green salad.
Sitting on the deck enjoying this incredible meal, my thoughts turned to the banner on the side of the boat advertising SalmonBeyondBorders.org, and I made a mental note to do some research when I got home. According to this organization, the salmon population and overall ecosystem of these watersheds in Alaska are threatened by dangerous chemicals and tailings from waste dams created for large scale, open-pit gold and copper mines along transboundary salmon rivers with British Columbia, Canada.
Salmon State, who organized this excursion for us, are also strong advocates for keeping salmon and salmon territories safe from the mining industry and other forms of “progress”. This is a quote direct from their website, as I couldn’t have said it any better:
“Alaskan salmon habitat is under threat. For millennia, salmon thrived in other places as well: Europe. New England. The West Coast. In the last few centuries, however, as they were overfished or their habitat was dammed, mined, logged, polluted, simplified, or surrounded by buildings and people, they disappeared. Now, Lower 48 Pacific Northwest states have spent billions of dollars trying to rehabilitate salmon runs that once, for free, worked perfectly.”
While enjoying this once-in-a-lifetime meal, I realized that I needed to help spread the word about the causes of these two organizations in order to help people understand how precious the salmon resource is to not only Alaskans, but everyone in the lower-48.
The United States government must keep negotiations open between the US and Canada in order to protect not only the US salmon resource, but Canada’s as well. For more information on this defense of the transboundary river watersheds, visit here: https://www.salmonbeyondborders.org/whats-at-risk.html
Thank you to Salmon State and Tyson Fick for a truly special afternoon. I wish you all the luck and prosperity that the Alaskan river system can provide.
