Locals in Kotzebue and surrounding Northwest Alaska villages got a surprise influx of white fish. No, not sheefish. The Coast Guard delivered 13,000 pounds of halibut bycatch -- fish that otherwise would have gone to waste -- in an effort brought forth by the Washington-based nonprofit SeaShare, and Ocean Beauty Seafoods out of Kodiak.
Since its inception 20 years ago, SeaShare has donated millions of pounds of seafood to various agencies, including food banks, across the country.
"SeaShare has been working hard to reach more Northern Alaska villages," said executive director Jim Harmon from Washington on Friday. "I was disappointed I didn't get to go to Kotzebue. It's such a great community. I wanted to make the handoff to the people who are receiving the fish."
Nana Regional Corp.'s Liz Moore was there when the C-130 Hercules landed with boxes upon boxes of gutted, headed halibut. Moore was recruited to find a crew, divide the fish and facilitate delivery to 10 villages. No small task, especially on a tight deadline.
"We had to move really fast to mobilize people," Moore said Monday. "We don't have a regional food bank."
So locals were enlisted to help unload, sort and reload the fish.
"I really want to stress that this was a partnership between Nana and Maniilaq; we partnered up to get this figured out," Moore said. "We looked at the population of each village and estimated how many pieces of fish would go to each village."
The halibut was divided accordingly between Kotzebue, Deering, Buckland, Selawik, Kiana, Ambler, Kobuk, Shungnak, Noorvik, Noatak and Kivalina. It was then flown to the villages thanks to the generosity of FBX, Ryanair, Era Aviation and Bering Air, said Moore.
The halibut, which was the bycatch from trawlers delivering to Kodiak, was first offered to village elders. Once they were taken care of, fish went to various assisted living facilities including Lake Street House in Kotzebue. It was then doled out to community members.
"People were really excited and they really appreciated it," Moore said. "A lot were asking how to cook it," she added with a laugh.
Moore added that while donations of this nature don't happen very often, especially from Outside sources, it's not unheard of for the communities to receive contributions now and then.
In 2009, SeaShare donated salmon to Kotzebue and surrounding communities.
Harmon said SeaShare has a goal of working more with rural Alaska villages but the cost of shipping makes it prohibitive. This latest venture was a collaborative effort between SeaShare, Carlile Transport and many other companies, including financial support from ConocoPhillips.
"No one does this for the tax incentive," Harmon said. "They do it because they respect the resource. (Fisheries) really try to avoid bycatch, but they feel they should use everything in the catch. This is a way to give back to the communities."
The Coast Guard was enlisted back in 2009 to make the salmon delivery to Kotzebue, so Harmon contacted them again last week in hopes they'd help out again.
"It took some time, but they were more than willing to do it," she said.
This story first appeared in The Arctic Sounder.