Wild Alaskan Pink Salmon - the best fish…caught by the best fisherman

Are you particular about your food? A stickler for quality? Do you go out of your way to find the very best, from a source you can trust? If so, and if you like fish, you’ll be glad to know we’ve found an impeccable, high-quality source for perhaps the tastiest, purest, and most nutritious fish on the planet—wild Alaskan sockeye salmon.

The Best Fish

Wild Alaskan salmon is touted by some of the leading doctors and nutritionists, such as Dr. Andrew Weil, for its superior nutritional value:

• Excellent source of protein, fat-soluble vitamins, and trace elements
• One of the best sources of omega-3 fatty acids, widely known for their heart-healthy benefits
• Shown to reduce hypertension and decrease blood-clotting factors
• Lowers risk of cancer, inflammatory disorders, and mental and emotional problems
• Can help treat depression, bipolar disorder, autism, and ADHD

What makes Loki's Pink Salmon different from your average store-bought brand?  

It is all in the handling of the fish.  Pink Salmon have the most delicate, tender flesh of the five Pacific species.  Unfortunately, the dominant players in the fish industry (which provide essentially all the canned or frozen pink salmon available on the market) treat them as a cheap commodity.  Hundreds of tons of fish are harvested at a time, left unrefrigerated, pumped out of fish holds through vacuum tubes, and often re-processed overseas (in China or Thailand) before being sent back to U.S.  The result is low-quality, mushy canned salmon.  Loki's Pinks are bled and gutted immediately out of the water, refrigerated to sub-30 degree temperatures, unloaded by hand from the boats one at a time, and custom-canned in Bellingham, WA by Pelican Packers, a small tuna-fishermen operation.  

In terms of bio-accumulation of persistent pollutants such as PCB's and PBDE's, Pink salmon are the cleanest of all the salmon species.  This is due to their short, two-year life cycle, and also because they eat low on the food chain, eating a diet of primarily phytoplankton.

Pink's are also the most abundant of all the salmon species, and represent the majority of the total biomass of wild salmon.  All of our pink salmon come from our certified sustainably managed southeast Alaska fishery.

For all of these reasons, we recommend sustainably caught, clean, well-handled Pink salmon.  And you will taste the difference!

Caught by the Best Fisherman

His name is Pete Knutson and he lives in Seattle, Washington. Every summer Pete travels to Alaska, near Ketchikan, where he’s been fishing the same pristine Pacific waters for the last twenty years. What makes Pete’s salmon so special is the way he handles each and every fish, with respect, care, and an eye for maintaining every last bit of quality.

Don’t settle for corporate canned salmon (just about everything you find in stores)

A lot happens to a fish between the time it’s caught and when it reaches you. This is called the “chain of custody” and with almost all fish there are many weak links; the fish passes through too many different hands that care only about quantity, hands that don’t take the time to do what needs to be done to maintain its quality and integrity. And in the end what you get is nothing close to how fresh-tasting and nutritious the fish should be.

But with Pete, the situation is different. He and his wife, Hing, along with two sons, Jonah and Dylan, are the chain and the result is salmon that is exceptional in taste, texture, and nutrition. Just ask the chefs at some of the top seafood restaurants in Seattle where his salmon are served.

Pete explains one reason why his fish are superior— freshness: “I’ve been working on the same stocks for 20 years, by the same beaches. I know my fish well. I can get the fish processed and on ice much faster—in 45 minutes, while it takes many large-scale processors two or three days.”

Pete’s dedication to quality means he doesn’t catch as many fish as he could, so you won’t find his fish in your local store. And that’s fine by him. What thrills Pete most is knowing his salmon are going to someone who appreciates the very best of the very best. In fact, Pete started marketing his canned fish so more people outside of Seattle could experience wild Alaskan salmon at its finest.

Canned has its Own Advantages

And one last thing for those of you who think of canned fish as something inferior to fresh. Well, we must admit you won’t get exactly the same fantastic gustatory experience as you would dining on Pete’s fresh catch at a four-star restaurant...but consider some of the advantages of his wild Alaskan canned salmon:

• You have access to the highest quality salmon all year round
• Ultimate convenience—Just pop the lid and you’ve got an easy, instant, nutritious meal
• Including the skin and bones (in the traditional style) means you get even more calcium and omega-3s than in fresh fillets
• Stock your pantry—Cans are vacuum sealed, so the salmon stays fresh, with no need for refrigeration until the cans are opened
• Great savings on shipping—If you’ve ever ordered fresh fish from afar you know what you pay for air shipping
• Tuna out...Salmon in—Now that tuna’s out as a safe fish to eat, why not start a new salmon salad tradition?
• Perfect for traveling, hiking, picnics, work, and school
• Add some crumpled dried salmon egg bits for extra taste, a little crunch, and even more nutrition

Comes in two varieties -

Without Oil — (also referred to as "traditional")  7.5 oz. cans of full steak of pink salmon with skin and bones. This can is perfect for making sandwiches as a tuna fish substitute.  The canning process softens the bones, making them completely edible, and they are a great source of calcium.

With Salt & Oil — 6 oz. cans of skinless/boneless pink salmon that's been packed with organic olive oil and salt.  Great for putting on a green salad, or eating with crackers.

Both types include skin and bones- for the most nutrition - however the bones dissolve during the cooking and canning process.

Pete Knutson—A Rare Breed of Fisherman

Even in the pristine waters off Alaska, small independent commercial fishermen have become a rare breed, largely squeezed out by the mass fishing operations of a few large corporations. And of the few surviving independents, Pete Knutson is one of the best, bringing integrity and personal responsibility to assuring his fish are of the highest quality available anywhere.

What distinguishes the salmon caught by Pete and his family from that sold by the large corporations?

Pete explains: “The most important factor is that we take personal responsibility for the harvesting, delivery, and sale of our catch. In contrast, corporate fish is harvested, transported, and processed anonymously by many participants, none of whom take full responsibility for the condition of the final product, most of whom are paid low prices and wages, and hence have little investment in the fish.”

The quality difference begins with Pete’s harvesting technique. He fishes with a small mesh net, which captures the fish with little injury. These fish are harvested one by one, immediately stunned and bled, and then gutted, cleaned, and immersed in a sub-freezing seawater solution, all within half an hour of capture. Pete’s fish hold has small compartments, so the salmon are not compressed during transport. And as soon as the boat gets to shore, the fish are rushed to the airport, where they are quickly air-shipped to Seattle. Pete’s labor intensive techniques not only treat the fish respectfully but also maximize freshness, preserve the intrinsic qualities of the fish and result in a firm, textured wild protein.

In contrast, fish harvested by corporate methods are captured hundreds and thousands at a time, and are subject to major bruising in the process. Because they are usually not immediately dispatched, these fish panic, resulting in lactic acid build-up in their muscle tissue that will start breaking it down. These fish are often not immediately refrigerated and are rarely processed on board the fishing vessel, and hence enter into a state of decomposition rather quickly. Sometimes they are dumped by the hundreds into large refrigerated settings where their core body temperature stays high, and they quickly start disintegrating, becoming soft from the inside out. After reaching shore, these fish are sometimes even trucked to Seattle, to keep costs low. Fish that were subject to these corporate methods may smell “fishy,” indicating that decomposition has begun.

Pete explains that his family’s philosophy is to “take less resource, focus on quality, and add maximum value to the final product. It is, to our minds, incumbent on us to link the consumer to the oceanic food chain in an environmentally ethical and respectful fashion.”