For more information on ASMI’s campaigns to promote Alaskan seafood, please contact the Southern Europe office, located in Barcelona, Spain, to request media information or artwork.
Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute Regional Representative
C/ Borrell 7 – Local 19 08190 St. Cugat del Vallès (Barcelona) Spain
Tel:+34 93 589 8547<br /> Fax:+34 93 589 7051
E-mail: [email protected]<br /> Web: www.alaskaseafood.org
In the Alaskan waters, there are abundant varieties of fish and shellfish whose fishing seasons are seasonal and vary according to their variety (see table).
Products are available frozen, smoked and /or canned throughout the year. Most of the fish are quick frozen immediately after harvest to maintain the highest quality and maximum purity of flavor.
Alaska, world renowned for great salmon fishing, is one of the only places in the world where salmon fishing is still wild. The abundance of salmon-dependent predators and scavengers is a living testament to the success of Alaska’s salmon fishery resource management policy. Alaska salmon is an important and integral part of the natural ecosystem in which these species live. Unlike other parts of the world, Alaskan salmon populations are not threatened or endangered.
The season begins in May with the first arrivals of salmon in the rivers of the Gulf of Alaska, throughout the summer they continue to rise the coast of the Bering Sea until the last ones finish their routes at the end of September in the rivers of the “Northern Sounds”. (see map)
At the end of their feeding cycle in the high seas, the salmon return to their waters of birth to go up the rivers to spawn, and thus end their life cycle.
Salmon that return to freshwater early in the season have a brighter skin color than those that arrive later, but all darken as the spawning period approaches.
Darker skin and paler flesh generally indicate a more mature fish with a lower market value than a fish with a bright silver skin and a deep flesh color. However, the color of meat and skin varies from region to region, and between species, and does not always reflect the intrinsic quality of the salmon.
