For premium-quality wild-caught seafood, Alaska is the place to find it and our fishermen-owned co-op should be your source for home delivery of premium-quality wild-caught Alaskan seafood.
Our co-op lives up to its community-based values mission: We represent small boats, independent fishermen, and co-op values. With great pride in our company, our communities, and every fish we touch, we are committed to producing the finest quality seafood.
Check out Ivan Grutter, captain of the F/V Stingray, talking about the values our co-op lives by in this video. On his boat, the Stingray, Ivan fishes for Alaskan sablefish, halibut. rockfish, salmon and more. For Ivan, it’s been a family affair, as his father was a fisherman, and so are his brother and sister. Ivan’s father Theo was born and educated in Switzerland, Theo Grutter was destined to go into the corporate world, though that life wouldn’t be for him. He moved to Paris and met Clara, a concert pianist who wasn’t sure about her destiny either. Theo and Clara then began wandering around the world with their five children. From New York City to Pakistan, they sought out the deeper meanings in life. They lived in many places, finally settling in a small Mexican fishing village in the winter and traveling up to Sitka, Alaska for summers out on the beautiful, glacial waters near the Inside Passage. Author of Thinking Wild, a collection of 115 short essays written in a philosophical, almost lyrical voice that bears its soul, Theo lived the poetic lifestyle of a small-boat fisherman. Ivan, his brother and sister have kept up the tradition of fishing on small boats and being part of our co-op of small boat fishermen.
The Stingray is a small boat, but it has been solid for Ivan. Fishing on small boats means that more care is given to each fish—proper bleeding and careful icing of fish is absolutely essential to producing quality seafood. And a captain and crew on a small boat can focus on quality over quantity. The line-caught king salmon, coho salmon, halibut and sablefish available on the Alaska Gold website is flash-frozen wild-caught seafood that is then cut into portions and then is single frozen (not double frozen, which is typical of many larger outfits that are just re-selling seafood). The fish are blast-frozen at -30 F or colder. We pride ourselves on single frozen sustainable seafood with the “best in industry” quality and grading standards. As Ivan notes, “[t]he co-op has been really pushing hard for quality […] And it makes feel good that my fish are being taken care of. And I try to do the same when I’m out fishing.” This care is the essence of what our co-op is all about. Fishing in small boats produces great quality seafood, but it takes maintaining quality at our Sitka, Alaska-based processing plant to ensure that quality sablefish fillets and halibut portions get delivered to our customers.
What Ivan likes about our co-op is that it is made up of fishermen, who are all part of the company, looking out for each other. “We’re all trying to work together for what’s the best for all of us.” Our fishermen-owned cooperative is unusual in that its owners are small-boat fishermen. 100% Fishermen-owned means that quality is at the heart of everything our cooperative does. What that means is that our seafood is single origin. All of our wild Alaska seafood is landed at our dock in Sitka and processed by our people in our plant. With a single owner, we can focus on our mission of quality.
We have a single owner—our fishermen—which means that our quality comes from pride in ownership. All proceeds go back to support the fishing families that have caught this fish and not to far-off investors just trying to get rich. Many seafood operations are owned by private equity investors or a single tycoon owner. All profits we make in a season go back to our fishermen. This is important for maintaining our independence and our identity. As a fishermen-owned co-op, we have 12 board members who are fishermen. These fishermen are democratically elected to be on the board by their fellow co-op owners who all have one vote in elections, just as in a functioning democracy. We are truly a co-op and follow the 7 co-op principles (otherwise known as the Rochdale principles). These principles ensure that we both remain independent (for example, from predatory investors) and are run in a democratic manner, which is the best way to best serve all of our members.
When you get fish from our fishermen-owned co-op, you're getting responsibly harvested seafood direct from a small-boat fisherman. We're the opposite of large-scale food production. Fishing on small boats with hook and line is better for the environment and produces a higher quality product than other industrially produced proteins. And supporting our co-op directly supports small American businesses. You can see the name of the boat that caught your fish on some of our packages. In the video, you can see the Stingray on labels for black cod that you can order. See which boat caught your halibut or sablefish the next time you order.
Our fishermen-owned co-op stands for Small Boats. Independent Fishermen. Co-op Values. We represent Southeast Alaskan coastal communities. We also stand for quality and integrity in everything we do. We are your source for fishermen-direct seafood and sustainable seafood delivery.
