Jim Harmon, executive director of SeaShare, says the industry has been generous in its donations of frozen and canned seafood, with other entities donating money, and transportation to deliver the seafood to various locations around the country, including Alaska.
Among those deliveries to Alaska were 18,000 pounds of canned salmon for the Food Bank of Alaska, donated by Trident Seafoods, 38,000 pounds of frozen salmon steaks for the Food Bank of Alaska, donated by members of the At-Sea Processors Association and Pacific Seafood Processors Association, and 18,000 pounds of frozen salmon steaks for Glory Hole and others in Juneau, also from members of APA and the PSPA, with freight donated by Alaska Marine Lines.
Cordova District Fishermen United’s Jerry McCune is working with SeaShare for delivery of 4,000 pounds of canned salmon to the Salvation Army in Cordova. Harmon said the cans were donated by Ocean Beauty Seafoods, with freight donated by Northland/Alaska Marine Lines.
Harmon said much of the frozen seafood is generated from the pollock fishery, where boats retain and freeze headed and gutted salmon, then offload the fish for cold storage at Dutch Harbor.
SeaShare recruits freight companies, cold storage companies and processors to turn those fish into family sized packages of trimmed and inspected salmon steaks.
While most of the downstream costs are donated, SeaShare incurs about 42 cents to 49 cents a pound in costs to finish these products for delivery.
Harmon said the Western Alaska Community Development Association agreed to support the cost of generating finished donations for Alaska, which could total more than $50,000 this year.