Alaskan Cod Crunchies begin a national rollout this week with a debut at Costco's two stores in Anchorage. The dog treats are one of the newest products stemming from Alaskan Leader Seafood's commitment to complete "head-to-tail" use of its fish. Alaskan Leader Seafoods is a marketing entity for a business that runs four freezer longliner-catcher/processors.
"It's pure, 100 percent human-grade trimmings coming right off the cod fillets," said Keith Singleton, president of the company's value-added division.
Alaskan Leader's four freezer-longline vessels are owned in partnership with the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp. and fish primarily for Bering Sea cod. Besides the frozen-at-sea fillets, Alaskan Leader also has developed markets (and thereby monetized) for cod heads, livers and skins.
The Cod Crunchies, under development for about a year, are dried and shaped into crispy, domino-size wafers. Taste tests with numerous dogs were conducted.
"Boy, they get going on that crunch and it's like that potato chip commercial that says, 'You can't eat just one.' They keep coming back for more," Singleton said.
Dillingham dogs agreed, according to Robin Samuelson, president of Ocean Beauty Seafoods and chairman of Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp.
"When I came home to Dillingham, I had two sacks with me and there was a 12-week-old black Lab. I opened them up and said, 'Let's put it to the test,' and that little dog loved the cod treats," Samuelson said with a laugh.
"What's most exciting is Costco chose Alaska to debut the product. We feel really blessed about that," Singleton added.
The buzz surrounding the Cod Crunchies is exciting, Samuelson said, but to him, the bigger story is full use of the fish that comes over the rails.
"It's a new product that we think will do good throughout the U.S.," he said. "And it's the full utilization of the species. We're just tickled pink."
Who consumes most, least seafood?
October is National Seafood Month — proclaimed by Congress more than 30 years ago. Government figures show that, nationwide, the seafood industry contributes $60 billion a year to the U.S. economy.
Alaska produces about 65 percent of our nation's wild-caught seafood, more than all the other states combined.
The seafood industry also is Alaska's top private employer.
Americans eat about 16 pounds of seafood per person each year, much less than other parts of the world. The Japanese, for example, average 146 pounds of seafood per person annually. Figures from the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization show that people in Greenland eat 186 pounds per capita, and Iceland residents devour more than 200 pounds a year.
The lowest? Afghanistan at zero.
So who tops the list? The South Pacific island of Tokelau, where each person eats more than 440 pounds of seafood a year.
A national Salmon Day?
To whet American appetites for seafood, Chicken of the Sea has claimed Oct. 8 as National Salmon Day. The company uses Alaska pink salmon in its pouched and canned products, and the promotion highlights the fish.
"We wanted to get behind an effort to create a Salmon Day for anyone and everyone who provides salmon or serves salmon. Wild or packaged, any way that we can get people to eat more salmon, that is our goal," said company spokesman Bob Ochsner.
"Tuna has a day; lobster, crab, even clams have a day," he continued. "We believed strongly that it was appropriate for the second most popular seafood in the United States to have its own day."
To coincide with the second annual event, Chicken of the Sea has rolled out its list of the Top 10 U.S. Salmon Cities, where residents eat the most fresh and shelf-stable salmon.
The top 10, in no particular order, are Anchorage; Seattle; Chicago; Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio; Baltimore; Nashville; New York City; San Diego and Washington, D.C.
Salmon lovers can use the hashtag #NationalSalmonDay on social media platforms on Oct. 8 to be entered in a contest for a week-long Alaska cruise and other prizes.
Talking fish policy
Fish meetings over the next few months include the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Oct. 5–11 at the Anchorage Hilton). Its agenda includes a first look at next year's catch quotas for pollock, cod, flounder and other groundfish in federally managed waters (3 to 200 miles out), which accounts for more than 80 percent of Alaska's harvest by weight.
The public has until Tuesday to comment to the state Board of Fisheries on agenda-change requests and stocks of concern for its meeting cycle beginning with a work session Oct. 18-20 in Soldotna. Through March, the Fish Board will take up 276 commercial, sport, subsistence and personal-use fishery proposals focused primarily on Kodiak and Cook Inlet.
The International Pacific Halibut Commission is calling for 2017 regulatory and catch limit proposals by Oct. 31. The industry will get a first glimpse at next year's halibut catch recommendations at the IPHC interim meeting set for Nov. 29-30 in Seattle. The halibut commission's annual meeting will take place Jan. 23-27 in Victoria, British Columbia. The eight-month halibut fishery opens in March.
All the fish meetings are available online as they happen.
Laine Welch is a Kodiak-based commercial fishing columnist. Contact her at msfish@alaskan.com.