Summer 2023 Seafood Distribution

UPDATE: This summer's salmon collection project was a huge success - with the local Dillingham community's support, we were able to collect over 5000 pounds of whole round sockeye. We were overwhelmed by the support and generosity of many. Fish will soon be sent to communities in need on the Yukon and in the Chignik region. We couldn't have done this project without the generous support of partners including Alaska Pride Air, Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation, Bristol Bay Native Association, Bristol Bay Native Corporation, Grant Aviation, Northline Seafoods, Jenny Bennis and several local residents. We are continuously looking for funding to support these projects and would love your support.

Salmon declines in Western Alaska river systems have left many residents without culturally and nutritionally important seafood. Many Bristol Bay fishermen are eager to share regional abundance by donating subsistence or commercially harvested salmon. Our goal is to facilitate seafood sharing between regions of abundance and those experiencing shortage by increasing local capacity, infrastructure, and distribution systems so salmon harvested in Alaska is shared within Alaska. With a modest investment this spring, we collected, froze, and will ship subsistence donated salmon from Dillingham to Yukon River communities.

Over 650,000 lbs of Alaskan Seafood Donated to Those in Need

In March 2020, in response to challenges of Covid-19, Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust (ASFT) and the Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association (ALFA) launched the Seafood Distribution Network with the goal of providing healthy protein to food insecure individuals, families, food pantries/social services and communities. With seafood donations from ASFT members and a web-based donation site, ALFA/ASFT delivered Covid-19 safe seafood to the doorsteps of local families identified as food insecure. Through the same infrastructure, ASFT/ALFA also provided weekly bulk seafood donations to Sitka food pantries and wellness organizations, including Sitka Tribe of Alaska, the Salvation Army, and the local women's shelter. Within weeks of launching the Sitka seafood program, ASFT began receiving requests for seafood from other communities. To meet the growing need, ASFT/ALFA reached out to philanthropic organizations that have invested in the work of these organizations in the past.

With help and donations from many partners including Catch Together, The Wave Foundation, The Alaska Community Foundation, Sealaska and more, we were able to purchase Alaskan caught seafood directly from Alaskan processors such as Seafood Producers Cooperative and Northline Seafoods. This locally caught seafood not only feeds families and communities, but also helps keep markets open for fishermen struggling to receive a good return on their product amidst the closures in restaurants and tourism due to Covid-19.

Other communities, such as Chignik, already struggling with the pandemic, also experienced diminished salmon runs and the closure of subsistence fishing by tribal entities to help protect the few fish returning upstream. Working with Northline Seafoods (which has a fleet of fishermen who are 90 % Alaska Native), ALFA/ASFT coordinated the donation of 42,000 pounds of Bristol Bay round sockeye that was delivered to Tribal organizations for distribution to residents of the four Chignik Bay area communities. The tribal food pantry also provided seafood to community residents who had moved to Anchorage in search of work when local fisheries closed. These donations helped increase food security for these Alaska residents who value sockeye for its nutrition and deep cultural connections. The Chignik Bay communities wanted whole sockeye so families could process salmon as per cultural traditions—working as families and as a community to smoke, dry and preserve as much of the fish as possible.

Within Southeast Alaska, ASFT/ALFA delivered over 30,000 lbs of Seafood to five communities outside of Sitka. This fish was delivered by barge to some communities and by ALFA member freezer trollers to other more remote communities.

To increase food security for local fishermen and processors, ASFT/ALFA distributed $250 grocery store gift cards, purchased with grant funds from the Alaska Community Foundation and supplemented with a $10 match per card from SeaMart Quality Foods.

Weekly we continue to deliver Covid-19 safe seafood to the doorsteps of local families identified as food insecure, working hand in hand with Mutual Aid of Sitka. Bulk donations continue to the Sitka food pantry and wellness organizations, including Sitka Tribe of Alaska, the Salvation Army, and the Sitkans Against Families Violence shelter.

We continue to receive requests for seafood from Tribal entities and coastal community residents. While private funding for these projects was hugely appreciated in 2020, we recognize the funding will not be available in the future, but the need will continue. Climate change is reducing ocean productivity and stressing salmon runs in the Gulf of Alaska; we anticipate both commercial and subsistence salmon harvest to decline as a result. ASFT and ALFA are expanding our development plan for 2021 to include seafood donation program fundraising, friend-raising and grant-writing on local, state and national levels.

The pandemic has highlighted the need to increase regional food security overall and to increase US consumption of US seafood in particular. Seafood is highly nutritious, has a lower carbon footprint than other forms of protein, and, if purchased from community-based fishermen, seafood purchases will help rebuild coastal economies hard hit by the pandemic and climate change. The effects of Covid-19 on the fishing industry were felt state wide and an integral part of this program has also been to educate and inform local, state and national leaders on the needs of those who are food insecure within our Alaskan communities.

We continue to seek and provide donations for those in need and thanks to many of you who have purchased seafood donation boxes through our website, or donated through PayPal.

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“Hello! I wanted to thank you so much for the fish...it’s more than I can ask for and I was so happy to see it when I got home! I think you folks are doing amazing work during troubled times! Again thank you and blessings to you all.

-Mary Ann Nells & Family”