Fair trade fish

Greg Atkinson reports.

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Seattle—On Thursday, June 14, at noon, some two dozen representatives of the press gathered anxiously at Elliott's Oyster House on the Seattle waterfront to compare wild king salmon from Alaska's Yukon and Copper Rivers. "When the tasters arrived," says seafood impresario Jon Rowley, who hosted the event, "the salmon were presented whole on a bed of ice." Then Elliott's executive chef, Jeremy Anderson, filleted, portioned, and pan-seared the fish, finishing them in the oven to produce perfectly cooked samples, presented side by side and labeled simply "A" or "B." A remarkable seven out of 10 tasters chose salmon from the Yukon over the Copper River.

Copper River kings are hard to beat. With a fat content of 16 or 17 percent, they currently command the highest price of any salmon in the world. Most wild king salmon show an average of 9 percent, farm-raised Atlantic salmon only 6 percent. "Yukon kings routinely weigh in with 24 to 30 percent," says Rowley. "You'll see claims of 34 percent, but that's rare. And that high fat only translates into great taste if the fish are handled correctly." That means icing the fish before it goes into rigor mortis and delivering it quickly to markets in the Lower 48, not an easy thing for fishermen in the Yukon Delta.

The Yup'ik Eskimos who harvest Yukon River kings inhabit a constellation of small villages ranging in size from 100 to 800 people, where ancient traditions are still intrinsically woven into everyday life. Yu'piks gather most of their food from the wild. And it's a good thing they do; retail prices there are outrageous. A loaf of bread is $5.85, a pound of sugar $7.58. Water from the tap is 9 cents per gallon. With an average annual income of $9,000 a year, $7,000 of that from salmon, this community has the lowest income and the highest rate of unemployment in the state. Marti Bickford directs the Yukon Wild Marketing & Development firm in Seattle and works with Kwik'pak Fisheries, a nonprofit Community Development Quota (CDQ) program owned by the Yukon Delta Fisheries Development Association, founded in 2002. "This is an organization that puts all its profits back into the community," says Bickford. "And this has allowed them to purchase the ice making equipment and insulated totes that make it possible to handle this fish properly. "Last year," she says, "Kwik'pak insisted that all its fishermen bleed and ice the fish as soon as it was caught. At first, they didn't want to do it because it wasn't their traditional way, but when they saw the difference in the fish and learned how much it could improve the price they got, it really caught on."

In 2005, Bickford secured membership for the fishery in the Fair Trade Federation, making it the first fisheries-related business ever to be accepted, and this year Rowley was hired to support marketing efforts in the Lower 48. "I like working with this fish," says Rowley, "because it's the best of the best. But what really drives me is this fair trade thing. When you buy this fish, you're supporting a community and a culture that's on the brink, and I know chefs all over the country who're concerned about fair trade." Less than 24 hours after the tasting in Seattle, Rowley was confirming events at Shaw's Crab House in Chicago; Zingerman's Roadhouse in Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Nobu in New York City, where diners would have an opportunity to try the Fair Trade–certified Kwik'Pak Yukon River salmon for the first time.

"I think this thing is really going to take off," exults an ebullient Rowley.