A Bristol Bay resident on vacation in the Lower 48 last week was surprised to pick up a package of Ocean Beauty Seafoods Cajun smoked salmon and find on the back the words "Farm Raised, Product of Chile."
Ocean Beauty Seafoods -- a major player in the U.S. seafood market -- is half owned by the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp., a nonprofit community development corporation that provides jobs, training and educational opportunities to eligible residents of Bristol Bay. The corporation -- founded in 1992 as the Community Development Quota holder -- is also charged with providing economic development tools and resources for communities in the region -- particularly in relation to fisheries.
So a company half-owned by Bristol Bay fishermen selling farmed salmon products was a surprise to some, especially fishermen who remember the price dive Alaska salmon took in the '90s as farmed fish began flooding the market.
But some fishermen, as well the head of Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp. and the vice president of marketing at Ocean Beauty Seafoods, say farmed fish is for the most part good for Alaska salmon.
"Producing smoked salmon from farmed fish is what allowed us to build our wild salmon business," said Tom Sunderland, vice president of marketing with Ocean Beauty Seafoods.
Wild salmon accounts for less than one-third of U.S. fresh and frozen salmon consumption, while farmed Atlantic salmon production has grown dramatically in recent years, according to a report released this spring titled "Trends in Alaska and World Salmon Markets" by Gunnar Knapp with the Institute of Social and Economic Research with the University of Alaska Anchorage.
But while farmed fish prices impact wild fish prices, as was seen when farmed fish prices fell in the 1990s, they also opened up the market. World demand for salmon grew significantly after 2002 at the same time as farmed salmon production declined due to disease. The prices of both farmed and wild fish steadily rose since then. Meanwhile, programs aimed at educating consumers about the difference between wild fish and farmed fish have had an impact, particularly in the Pacific Northwest.
Fritz Johnson, speaking as a fishermen in Bristol Bay since 1979, but who also works at Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation and was recently appointed to the Alaska Board of Fisheries, said Alaska wild salmon are a small part of the world salmon market. And, he said, the more people who are interested in salmon, the better.
"It isn't so much competing with those two means of production; what we are competing with is chicken and pork," Johnson said. "I think farmed salmon production has increased wild salmon consumption."
Mike Friccero, a Bristol Bay fisherman for 30 years who also has ties to Ocean Beauty Seafoods as both a general contractor and a fisherman, said he sees overall consumption of farmed fish leading to increased consumption of fish worldwide.
"Once you have people eating salmon, you can educate them," he said. "There was a time when nobody knew the difference between a pink and a sockeye. There was no consumer awareness."
Friccero said while concerns about accurately labeling salmon products as farmed or wild as well as accurate descriptions on menus continue to be a concern, having Ocean Beauty Seafoods selling farmed fish is not a worry to him.
"We are better off side by side with lots of salmon," he said, pointing to recent record prices for wild sockeye salmon despite quite small runs.
Sunderland with Ocean Beauty Seafoods said that markets -- grocery stores, for example -- ask for a complete line of fish products. If the company only sold wild salmon products, they would likely lose part of the market share. But that's not to say they don't take their wild salmon products seriously.
"We stand behind our wild fish," Sunderland said. "We produce the single biggest smoked salmon product in retail, which is a wild sockeye product."
Norm Van Vactor, the newly positioned chief executive officer of the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp., said Ocean Beauty is a successful and well-run company with a broad range of products.
"Farmed salmon is probably just one of the many product forms of non-Alaska wild products that they distribute that at the end of the day help sell what we catch in our back yard," he said in an email. "As a company they are first and foremost focused on wild Alaskan salmon and their ownership partners are proud of that fact."
The institute report by Knapp echoed much of what industry said regarding the mutually beneficial nature of farmed and wild salmon, but that is given the current circumstances, it warned. The potential remains for farmed salmon supply growth to exceed demand growth, glutting the markets and depressing prices as has happened in the past, the report noted.
This story first appeared in The Bristol Bay Times/Dutch Harbor Fisherman and is republished here with permission.