Discovering How Wild Alaska Seafood is Harvested

Go to the local seafood market or grocery store and buying fresh Alaska seafood, but how exactly does it get from the icy waters of Alaska to your shopping cart? There are several ways that seafood is extracted from the ocean. These methods are referred to as harvesting methods, and within the methods there are various rules, regulations and guidelines which are enforced by the Alaskan government. As written into the Alaskan Constitution when created in 1959, the Alaskan seafood industry advocates for a sustainable seafood industry that will preserve not only the local trade but ocean ecosystems in the coming years.

There are two basic kinds of seafood which are harvested from Alaskan waters, whitefish and shellfish. Harvesting methods used for whitefish include trawl, longline, and pots. To begin with, trawling is when a fishing ship or vessel drags a large net behind it. Dragged behind large boats, the trawls may either be dragged along the ocean floor, or at a mid-water range. Bottom trawling, however, can be extremely damaging to certain ocean ecosystems, and is therefore only allowed in very specific regions of the Alaskan waters. Today, electronic sensors are used to alert the boat when a school of fish is in prime position for capture, and the nets are closed. Any whitefish caught, like Alaska Pollock or Sole, are either processed onboard the vessel, or delivered to a nearby processing plant or floating processors.

Other harvesting methods used to harvest whitefish include longline fishing, and pots. Halibut, for example, can only be caught using longline gear. The vessels used in this method are generally relatively small, and the process consists of dropping fishing lines with baited hooks attached to buoys. The low level of by-catch, or the harvesting of other than the target species of whitefish by accident is appealing when using the longline method, however, the amount of labor and time required can make the product quite expensive in the end. Finally, pots are used for Black Cod and Cod, and are large, steel framed cages, essentially wrapped with mesh netting. Bait is used to lure the fish into the pot, and once inside the fish will be unable to escape.

There are many types of Alaska Shellfish, and the harvesting methods can be quite varied. Often steel traps or pots, which function quite similarly to the way pots used for whitefish are utilized. Others are hand harvested, some from the shore and others by scuba divers. Species include Dungeness Crab and Shrimp collected with pots, geoducks and sea urchins by hand, and littleneck and razor clams by digging in the sand. While these harvesting methods may be more labor intensive, the amount of usable seafood recovered is generally quite substantial.

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