On a cold February afternoon, a line of cars and snow machines idle in front of Maniilaq Health Center. Kotzebue residents wait to receive 5-pound bags of salmon. It’s sockeye salmon, cut and vacuum-sealed into individual portions. Employees hand out the bags to eager residents one at a time, in below zero temperatures, while others unload and open 30-pound boxes of the fish. The salmon is from SeaShare, a Washington state nonprofit.
“The gist of it is to receive high protein, high quality, nutritious seafood to distribute to community members within our region,” said Levi Gilbert, who works with Maniilaq Association’s Special Projects program.
Gilbert’s department, along with Maniilaq’s Diabetes program coordinated with SeaShare to distribute the fish. Gilbert said in total over 7,000 pounds of salmon were handed out in Kotzebue. His department also worked with Maniilaq’s Elders Services and Hunters program to distribute salmon to the community’s elders beforehand.
Maniilaq Association has done similar fish giveaways in the past, according to Gilbert, but this was the first time working with SeaShare.
According to its website, SeaShare began as a way to distribute bycatch, which are fish unintentionally caught while targeting other species. A representative from SeaShare said in an email that the fish was purchased from an unnamed Alaska seafood company.
To date the organization says it has distributed over 200,000 pounds of fish to more than a dozen mostly rural Alaska communities. Its goal is to address food security and supply chain issues to provide better access to Alaska seafood.
“People are used to eating salmon, but people weren’t able to catch that much this year,” said Josh Fillible, coordinator of Maniilaq’s Diabetes program.
He said the fish comes at a critical time, following a dismal salmon season. Last summer Kotzebue Sound’s commercial salmon fishery experienced a dramatic crash, with one of the worst returns on record.
“People have said how excited they are to get this,” said Fillible.
Fillible said Maniilaq is working with SeaShare to coordinate additional seafood distributions in the region’s outlying villages.
