Charlie Wilber

Charlie originally hails from Omaha, Nebraska and came to fishing after being a smoke jumper out of Fairbanks, Alaska, a job he did during summers while being a student in Missoula, Montana. A week on the water with a friend who was a hand troller in Southeast Alaska got him hooked and led Charlie to believe that fishing was easier than jumping out of a plane into fires. “The fact that I survived it all, all the mishaps and adventures, is miraculous.”

More than 40 years in Alaska have taught him that making a living fishing is not as easy as it looks. “There is a steep learning curve. Most everything in fishing takes place below the water and you have to be able to read patterns to make educated guesses about what’s happening below the surface.” Charlie took a leap of faith to make a living while fishing in Alaska. 

Once Charlie figured out how to catch more fish, he had to learn how to make a living on the water.

Dick Curran

SPC member Dick Curran has been a commercial fisherman for more than 30 years. Like many fishermen in Alaska, he’s not originally from the 49th state. Raised in upstate New York and Cape Cod, he first became interested in commercial fishing when as a boy, he and his father visited relatives on a remote island off the coast of Newfoundland. His family had been fishing cod there since emigrating from Ireland in the 1700s.

As soon as Dick graduated from high school he and a friend hitchhiked to Alaska where he landed a job at Pelican Cold Storage. The next spring Dick started working as a deckhand, fishing for salmon, halibut and tuna. In 1978 he bought his first boat, which he lost when it rolled over suddenly in stormy waters.

In 1991 he bought the Cherokee, the boat he  fishes today. He has fished from Chatham Strait in Southeast Alaska, west to the Aleutians, specializing in high quality black cod and halibut.

Charlie Piercy

Fisherman Charlie Piercy has been an owner of Seafood Producers Cooperative for over 30 years. Like a lot of Seafood Producers Cooperative owners, Charlie came to fishing from a completely different vocation. Lots of our members are former teachers, physicists, or artists. We even have a former astronaut who fishes for the co-op! Charlie used to be a chemical engineer in Port Angeles but came to fishing because of the unique lifestyle.

Charlie’s wife Sally is also a very crucial part of the fishing operation, so in a sense they are a “Mom and Pop operation.” Charlie and Sally started hand trolling summer 1978 in a 16-foot skiff, the “Edris E.” They moved up to a 19-foot homemade kit cabin-cruiser, the “Slithery D” for about 3 years, and they began power trolling on the 37-foot “F/V Ann” in 1983. Charlie started fishing full-time in southeast Alaska in summer 1986 and bought their current boat, the 42-foot “F/V Tuckahoe” in fall 1986. As Sally notes, “all 3 kiddos crewed at various times over the years, which is why about a dozen years ago, Charlie declared us a Mom and Pop operation, as I join him for a part of most summers.”

The Miller Family

Brent Miller has been a Seafood Producers Cooperative member since 1988. But not only has Brent been a co-op member; so have his wife Julie and their 4 children—Ben, 23; Janilee, 19; Bryce, 17; and Jenaya, 6. Fishing has been a way for their family to stay together.

What the Millers like about being part of Seafood Producers Cooperative is that it’s also like a big family. When the Millers call into the SPC office, they know the office staff.

“What we like about SPC is the personal touch. That’s something we value in our family, too. Fishing has changed over the years. The politics, the people. But at SPC, we feel like we’re part of the family. We know the people. Even though the co-op has grown, it’s still Old School. There’s still a personal touch. Our children have benefited from SPC Scholarships. We take pride in the co-op and the fish we deliver to the co-op. Knowing that it’s going to good customers who value quality is important. We know SPC values that personal touch that we do.”

The Moore Family

Jim and Pam Moore of the F/V Aljac have been Alaskan commercial fishermen since 1971.  Fishing has always been a family operation for the Moores.

Ever since their children were 4 months old, they have experienced the Alaskan fishing lifestyle, which has included storms at sea and lots of fish. Together, the Moores have experienced unique adventures each and every day. They’ve watched incredible sea life and gazed at wilderness scenery and, of course, they have eaten lots of fish together. Living in tight spaces has made the family tight, so tight that the Moores’ sons, Jonathan who owns the F/V Ocean Belle and Joshua, Captain of the F/V Castaway, are also fishermen and Seafood Producers Cooperative members.

Seafood Producers Cooperative enables fishermen members, like the Moore family, to stay true to traditional hook and line fishing methods that not only bring premium quality seafood to our customers’ plates but allow our fishermen to continue fishing for generations to come. 

Norm Pillen

Fisherman Norm Pillen is the president of our co-op’s board and a long-time member of Seafood Producers Cooperative. Within our fishermen-owned co-op, fishing and family go hand in hand. Many of our fishermen grew up fishing with mom and dad, learning the trade, and have passed on the fishing bug to their children.

Raising children on fishing boats is no small endeavor. Recently, our co-op Board President Norm Pillen shared a photo memory of fishing with his daughters years ago. 

Linda Behnken

Seafood Producers Cooperative producer/owner Linda Behnken has a long history of advocating for sustainable seafood and the local community small boat fleet in Sitka, Alaska. Which is also one of the reasons why she is a member of Seafood Producers Cooperative, which has supported small boat fishermen for over 75 years.

Linda, like other members of Seafood Producers Cooperative, believe that the small boat fleet is part of smart management of sustainable seafood for the long term. As a policy planner and resource advocate, Linda has served on fisheries management councils like the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council and the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation. Linda is also Executive Director of Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA). Beyond setting quotas that protect fish and the ocean for the long term, some of the projects these fishermen are working on is mapping habitat, so that fishermen avoid coral rich areas and by-catch of certain species. They are also working on improving fuel efficiency in the fleet, looking at hybrid and electric engines on fishing boats.

Tad Fujioka

Tad, our board Chairperson, grew up in Southeast Alaska and began sport fishing at 3 years old. He enjoyed it so much that he eventually became a commercial fisherman after many years spent working in the engineering field (while sport fishing on weekends, of course). 

Tad (with his daughter) enjoys using his engineering background to fix things on the boat and to analyze information gathered by the Alaska Department of Fish & Game to make predictions about fish abundance. Tad’s boat, the F/V Sakura, is known for her speed on the water and Tad’s fish are often brought to the dock for processing within just a few hours of harvest.

Kurt Hansen

If you’ve had our Alaska Gold Black Cod, there’s a good
chance it was brought to shore on the F/V Middleton, a wooden boat nearly 100 years old and one of the many picturesque vessels in our fleet. Wooden boats with plenty of history and the thoughtful and crafty captains who operate them are
at the heart of who we are as a fishermen-owned co-op in southeast Alaska.

Check out Captain Kurt Hansen speaking about the history of
the Middleton and what it’s like pulling Alaska Gold out of the sea.

The Andersen Family

Seafood Producers Cooperative (SPC) is made up of families of fishermen. Fishing is not just a profession but a way of life. Many
times this way of life is passed from father to son or daughter. One fishing family that has been essential to the history of Seafood Producers Cooperative (SPC) is the Andersen family.

Toivo Andersen joined our co-op in 1961. His son Alan joined the co-op in 1974 and Alan’s son Jaycen became a co-op owner in 2011. Now Jaycen brings Odin, another fishing Andersen, out
fishing to learn the craft as well.