Alaska, October 8-16, 2005 * Open World Program * Community-based Fisheries Exchange * By Misha Jones and Leah Zimmerman Goals and Participants The goal of this exchange was to explore ways that native and non-native fisheries managers can commercially market their fish with direct benefits—both economic and environmental—to their communities. Similarities between fisheries in Alaska and the Russian Far East made this geographical link a logical one. Historically, the Russian government marketed fish products, but with the national shift from central planning to market-oriented economics, local, coastal fishing companies are now responsible for developing their own specialized marketing strategies. In addition, local communities dependent economically on fisheries are important stakeholders in regional efforts to protect wild salmon and efforts are underway to integrate their traditional needs for fish resources with the demands of a market economy. This exchange focused on the processing and marketing of sustainable seafood products. In Alaska, local fishermen have had considerable success in marketing “Wild Alaska salmon”—especially from the Copper River watershed—as a sustainable alternative to farmed salmon and other unsustainably harvested fish. Exchange participants were introduced to marketing schemes used in Alaska in the hope that various features of these programs can be adapted for use in Russian Far East. As part of a broader program to encourage protection of wild salmon stocks for future generations, we also visited fisheries management agencies and meet with marine conservation NGOs. Emphasizing market education with goals of sustainable fisheries management, we met with small and large commercial seafood processing operations that are successful in working with individual fishermen to provide economic and social benefits for communities dependent upon robust salmon runs. Exchange participants included: Tamara Trayokova – Open World Facilitator from Vladivostok (troyakot@eastnet.febras.ru) Petr Ivanov – Seafood rocessor from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (hit@mail.iks.ru) Ivan Gutorov – Fisherman from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Vice President of the Kamchatka Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North (gutorov@mail.iks.ru) Andrei Shemaev – Economist at a fishing enterprise in Koryakia, Director of the “Union of Kamchadals” (sovs@mail.kamchatka.ru) Vladimir Gorbunov – Director of the Chukotka State Fish Company (ribhoz@piton-asc.ru) Pacific Environment (www.pacificenvironment.org) staff involved in this exchange included: Leah Zimmerman – Russia Program Associate (lzimmerman@pacificenvironment.org) Misha Jones – Russia Program Consultant (mishaj@pacificenvironment.org) Whit Sheard – Alaska Program Director (wsheard@pacificenvironment.org) Henry Mitchell discusses Alaska’s “community development quota” program
Anchorage: Perspectives on Management and Development On Day One of the exchange, we held an afternoon meeting with three members of the International Bering Sea Forum to provide background for exchange participants on recent community-based fisheries initiatives and conservation efforts in Alaska. Participating in the meeting were Henry Mitchell, Executive Director of the Central Bering Sea Fisherman’s Association, a person active in the development of the Community Development Quota program in the Bering Sea Groundfish fisheries (http://www.cdqdb.org/); Whit Sheard, co-author of “Hook, Line, and Trawler” and Alaska Program Director with Pacific Environment; and Karen Pletnikoff, Natural Resources Fisheries Coordinator for the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association (http://www.apiai.com/). After this meeting, we met another Forum member, Ole Lake and his wife Martha for dinner during which exchange participants were given an overview of native fisheries in western and northwestern Alaska. Cordova: the Cult of the Copper River Day Two began with a trip to Cordova (pop. 2300), which is located 45 minutes southeast of Anchorage by plane. Because of its access to the legendary Copper River, Cordova’s economy has evolved around the harvest, processing, and marketing of the salmon that return to this watershed. The Copper River is over 300 miles long and its delta is the largest contiguous wetland on the Pacific coast of North America (http://www.ecotrust.org/copperriver/crks_cd/welcome.htm). Second perhaps only to the Yukon, the Copper River boasts some of the most delicious wild salmon (measured by fat content) to be found in Alaska.
Bill Webber showing an on-board processor and discussing his direct marketing business model.
In Cordova, RJ Kopchak of Salmon Nation, a project of Ecotrust (http://www.salmonnation.com/community/redd18.html), gave generously of his time and helped to introduce us to the Cordova salmon culture. RJ is a commercial fisherman and a conservationist who has lived in Cordova for over 30 years. RJ and his wife Barclay hosted all four Russian exchange participants at their lovely Victorian home overlooking the Cordova Harbor.
On Monday afternoon, RJ introduced us to Bill Webber, a local fisherman and tribal community member who builds boats and who has also successfully developed a direct marketing business for his salmon. As head of Gulkana Seafoods Direct (http://www.gulkanaseafoodsdirect.com/), Bill is a successful fisherman and is also recognized as a skilled businessman and a leader in direct marketing. We dined that eveningwith the President and Vice President of the local Tribe of Eyak (http://www.ilanka.org/). Mark Hoover, the vice president is Martha Vlasoff’s brother. Over dinner, Misha translated a lively conversation focusing on native rights and both community preservation and development – especially as relating to salmon resources. On Day Three of the exchange, RJ took us to tour three different processing facilities: NorQuest Seafoods (http://www.norquest.com/) Prime Select Seafoods (http://www.pssifish.com/) Copper River Seafoods (http://www.copperriverseafood.com/)
TThe Vice President and President of the Village of Eyak with Petr.
These processors vary in size, but their managers were eager to discuss processing techniques and technologies with the exchange participants – and also to share delicious seafood samples including smoked king collars! Our exchange participants have extensive experience processing seafood; visits to the various processing facilities provided an opportunity to view and discuss differences in approach and methods for landing, handling, processing, packaging, and Touring the NorQuest Seafoods facility storing seafood products in Alaska. One feature previously unfamiliar to our participants is the use of small tags used to identify Copper River salmon as “authentic.” These tags are actually physically attached to every “authentic” fish that leaves Cordova for an outside market. Each tag is individually numbered, thus providing the end consumer a way to identify who caught the fish, where it was caught and who processed it, thus creating a chain of custody from the fisher to the consumer. After finishing with the processors, we met with Steve Moffit of the Alaska Department of Fish & Game (http://www.adfg.state.ak.us/) to discuss management of salmon stocks in the Copper River. Fisheries management in Russia is based on different principles than those used in Alaska. For instance, Russia does not estimate total allowable catch on an in-season escapement-based management system as is the case in Alaska. Exchange participants recognized that although that system is imperfect, it is a far better way to manage stocks than their own quota-based system, which is far from transparent and which encourages over harvesting. RJ Kopchak and Vladimir Gorbunov We also stopped by the office of the Copper River Watershed pledging friendship and partnership Project (http://www.copperriver.org/About.html) in between Cordova and Chukotka downtown Cordova. Kristin Smith provided a basic overview of the organization, which works on a variety of levels to monitor and ultimately preserve the entire watershed of the Copper River.
On Tuesday evening, RJ and Barclay hosted a salmon barbeque for our delegation. The verdict is still out on whose sockeye was tastier: RJ’s or Petr’s. The consensus at the table, however, was that the grilled king took first prize, bar none. This dinner meeting was our opportunity to explore possibilities for future collaboration with Bill over dinner. There is interest in bringing him and perhaps others from the Cordova fishing community to Kamchatka for a series of workshops and seminars on direct marketing.
Reviewing marketing materials at the Cordova District Fishermen United office
On Wednesday morning, Day Four of the exchange, we met with the Environmental Director from the Village of Eyak to learn about the community’s salmon monitoring and conservation efforts as well as about subsistence laws and use. After touring the Eyak cultural center, we headed off to our
final meeting in Cordova: the Cordova District Fishermen United (http://www.crsalmon.org/cdfu.html). We discussed with CDFU the history of the Copper River “brand,” marketing tools used by the union, quality control factors, and relations between fishermen and processors. A local journalist attended the CDFU meeting in order to write a Cordova Times feature piece on the exchange. After talking marketing, we enjoyed one last meal in Cordova and flew back to Anchorage. By the way, Cordova boasts 160 inches of rainfall each year. Needless to say, it rained every day we were there. Kenai: the Quality Factor On Day Five of the exchange and en route to Homer, we stopped by Kenai for a meeting with Jack Brown, former Manager of the Kenai Peninsula Borough, Community and Economic Development Division, to discuss the development of the Kenai Wild brand (http://www.kenaiwild.org/). Jack described the market advantage gained in the past few years simply by adopting new harvesting and processing techniques. By improving quality and building a high-end niche market for their product, Kenai Wild shows great potential to both support the local economy and ensure regional conservation goals. Homer: Infrastructure and Retail Ideas In Homer, we stayed at an inn owned and managed by Alan Parks, Outreach Coordinator for the Alaska Marine Conservation Council (www.akmarine.org), and his wife. Alan and Mindy hosted a dinner for our delegation, inviting local salmon and halibut fishermen, including a few of Russian descent. Conversations on fishing gear and techniques lasted late into the evening. On Day Six, our one full day in Homer, we first met with Terry Johnson, Professor of Fisheries at the University of Alaska (http://www.sfos.uaf.edu/), to discuss various gear and fisheries regulation issues. We discussed academic support for the direct marketing model in Alaska, and Terry distributed copies of his “Fishermen’s Direct Marketing Manual.” Terry and Petr Ivanov were also able to continue a discussion begun the previous evening on approaches to using fish offal for value-added products. After meeting with Terry, we toured the Fish Factory – Homer’s only commercial processing facility, and the Port of Homer. After watching a load of gigantic halibut being offloaded, Harbormaster Steve Dean (http://port.ci.homer.ak.us/) provided a presentation about the history and operations of the port and we toured the large municipal ice plant. Alongside the port are retail outlets for fishermen, as well as custom processing for charter fishers. We visited the Coal Point Trading Company (http://www.welovefish.com/) where we sampled smoked salmon and discussed the general charter boat industry, the potential for tapping into tourist markets, and commercial infrastructures for retail sales. Day Seven, our final day in Homer included a cultural excursion to the Russian Old Believer village of Nikolaevsk. Old Believers split from the main Russian Orthodox Church in the mid-seventeenth century. Many communities fled to the West Coast of the US to flee persecution by the communist government. One of the most valuable aspects of our trip to Homer was the time spent on the road processing experiences, hashing out ideas, and brainstorming potential business and conservation models.
Future Steps We at Pacific Environment are hopeful that the experience gained through this exchange will become an integrated part of our salmon conservation work on the Kamchatka peninsula and that it will also serve to expand organizational connections with individuals and companies in Chukotka. Given the tremendous pressure currently being placed on salmon stocks on Kamchatka (uncontrolled roe stripping and a lack of enforcement could cause key stocks to disappear in five years), we understand the importance – and the potential danger – of integrating market-based approaches into Pacific Environment’s salmon conservation efforts. But as we saw during our tour of Alaska, robust economics is dependent on sound resource conservation. The fishermen and processors on the Copper River and the Kenai Peninsula have a vested interest in the wellbeing of their fishing grounds; success in those fisheries creates economic benefits that are shared by local communities. The same scenario should be true of fishermen and processors on Kamchatka, in Koryakia, and in Chukotka. As part of Pacific Environment’s regional conservation strategy, this exchange was the next step in our effort to integrate progressive social and economic concepts into a program that promotes the sustainable use of natural resources for the benefit of people and communities.
Tamara, Vladimir, Misha, Petr, Ivan, and Andrei at a monument to fishermen lost at sea (Homer, Alaska)