A Sitka seafood processor abruptly shut down on June 6, laying off about 40 people.

Sitka Salmon Shares helped pioneer the direct-to-consumer seafood market in Alaska, but the surge in growth the company experienced during the pandemic could not be sustained in the recovery.

Sitka Salmon Shares is not going out of business, but the decision to close its flagship plant represents a retooling of the company’s original business model to survive in the recovery economy.

Nationwide brands like Peloton and Zoom experienced a similar problem: Growth during the pandemic doesn’t continue during the recovery. The demand for quality, home-delivered seafood rose dramatically at the start of the pandemic, and dropped off just as suddenly near its end.

“We were expecting to be able to continue to kind of hold the same level of sales as last year,” said company co-founder Marsh Skeele, “and that just never materialized.”

Commercial troller Marsh Skeele co-founded Sitka Salmon Shares in 2011, along with a professor of Food Systems from Knox College, Nic Mink. 

Mink left the company last year, leaving Skeele the largest shareholder.

About 40 people worked at the Sitka plant. Although staff had very short notice about the closure – three days – Skeele says that most of the line crew were re-employed quickly at Sitka’s other major processors. Human resources personnel were retained to help managers find new work. Skeele said it wasn’t practical to relocate people to the company’s operations in the lower 48. He says he’s feeling the loss especially hard, because he hired many Salmon Shares staff himself.

“We understood that it sucks to lose your job,” said Skeele. “They (employees) went out on a limb to come work for us. And we just wanted to have them land as quickly and gracefully as possible. So we tried to do what we could there.”

KCAW reached out to several mid-level staff for their reaction to the plant closure, and heard mostly conciliatory feelings on the issue. Sitka fleet manager Lauren Mitchell wrote, saying “The suddenness of the plant closure hit everyone pretty hard but I am proud to have been part of the Salmon Shares team for the last 2 seasons. It was an honor to work with such a dedicated group of fishermen who really care about the quality of their fish…. Overall, It was great while it lasted!”

Director of operations, Jacob Finsen, wrote “I am very grateful for the time I spent working with my team of processors, managers, and fisherfolk and hope that we all land softly.”

For consumers, the closure of the Sitka plant won’t mean significant change. The company’s retail footprint in the lower 48 was growing, even before the pandemic. And as Alaskan processors go, the Sitka facility was not very large. Skeele says the company’s growth was possible through partnerships with other processors willing to package fish under the Salmon Shares brand. And that’s not going away.

“All of our fish didn’t come from our plant in Sitka,” Skeele said. “It came from all around Alaska. And we built really great relationships with people that we trust to deliver quality, and to take good care of their fleet. So we’re excited to continue to benefit them.”

The marketing model for Sitka Salmon Shares is borrowed from farm-to-table agriculture. The company website profiles 25 family-owned fishing vessels which have a stake in the company, and supply product which can be traced directly back to them. That’s precisely how Sitka Salmon Shares started eleven years ago with Nic Mink and a couple of his Food Systems students packaging up fish landed by Skeele and another troller and shipping it to a small base of subscribers around Galesburg, Illinois, about three hours from Chicago.

The Sitka plant was an important part of preserving traceability, and Skeele says the company’s Kodiak fleet members will continue to offer traceable product. But the abrupt closure of the Sitka operation means that Salmon Shares is going to have to rely on its partnerships with other processors to maintain traceability – when it’s possible to do so.

“We’re still focused on on traceability, and most of our partners really can deliver that,” Skeele said. “There’s only some instances –Bristol Bay sockeye — or certain regions where it’s really hard to get fish to be traceable based on how the supply chain set up. Alot of our processes work with you. In Southeast they’ve change their processes, or we chose them because of their ability to deliver a traceable fish.”

TV clip, WQAD — Fresher fish from Alaska, direct to your dinner plate, thanks to a new and growing Galesburg company… Near Sitka, Alaska, fishing salmon out of the water is very common…

Sitka Salmon Shares began as something of a Cinderella story, as this 2013 clip from a WQAD television news report in the Quad Cities shows. The direct-to-consumer model was innovative then; Marsh Skeele says the model now is about resiliency. Sitka Salmon Shares built a marketplace of loyal customers who are “really into fish with a story,” he says, “where they know where it comes from.” With the closure of its Sitka plant, Salmon Shares is trimming its fixed costs, and shifting more production out-of-house, but Skeele is still looking ahead to the next part of the story.

“I still believe in the company and what we can be in the future,” he said. “And I still believe this marketplace can be beneficial for for the sector fleet and sector processors and, and the region and the state, and the fisheries in general. I think this could be a positive but right now it doesn’t feel great.”

The state of Alaska believes the North Pacific Fishery Management Council is overstepping its bounds, by weighing in on the Pebble Mine Project in Bristol Bay.

A proposed comment letter drafted by the Council prompted a strong reaction from the state, during the Council’s June meeting in Sitka.

During its Sitka meeting Wednesday morning (6-5-19), the Council reviewed a letter it planned to send to the Army Corps of Engineers commenting on the draft environmental impact statement — or DEIS — of the Pebble Mine. The letter recommends that the potential impacts of large-scale mining be assessed not only for fish populations, but also “on both the value and reputation of North Pacific Fisheries.”

The state, however, contends that the Council is going too far. Deputy Commissioner of Fish & Game Rachel Baker entered the state’s formal opposition to the letter. Baker said that the state had no problem with the Council’s consulting with the Corps on Essential Fish Habitat, but “additional comments related to the draft EIS are outside the Council’s purview.”

Baker argued that the Council’s sending a letter on Pebble was a distraction from the “large number of fishery management issues on our agenda.”

Commercial fishing interests in the room used public testimony to defend the Council’s decision to comment.

Nic Mink, CEO of Sitka Salmon Shares, said he sold Bristol Bay sockeye to thousands of consumers in the US midwest. He believed the draft environmental impact statement prepared by the Pebble Project was inadequate. He appreciated that the Council was standing up for his suppliers and for his customers.

“For them, as it is for me, it’s critical for the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council to remain engaged in this DEIS process.”

Cheston Clark, a Bering Sea crab fisherman for three decades, said he would rather ride out a storm in the gulf than testify in public, but he supported the Council’s efforts to ensure that the Pebble Environmental Impact Statement covered even the most dire possibilities.

“I am concerned with the proposed Pebble Mine,” said Clark. “We don’t know what the impact would be in the Bering Sea and in Bristol Bay if — or more likely when — a catastrophic mine tailing dam failures.”

Alaska’s response to the Council’s draft letter on the Pebble EIS

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The State of Alaska is concerned that the comments in this letter go beyond the scope of the Council’s roles and responsibilities. While it is appropriate for the Council to encourage the Army Corps of Engineers to work with NMFS on the Essential Fish Habitat consultation for the Pebble mine prospect, consistent with MSA section 305(b)(3)(a), it is the state’s position that additional comments related to the draft EIS are outside the Council’s purview. The state is concerned about the precedent these comments could establish for the Council to engage on future proposed resource development projects within the state of Alaska and the impacts this could have on other priority fishery management actions in front of the Council.

The Council has an established process to address non-fishing actions that may affect habitat and essential fish habitat for fishery resources under its authority: the Council relies on NMFS to engage in consultation with federal action agencies and NMFS reports back to the Council on the outcome of these consultations. I do not think it is appropriate for the Council to use its valuable time and resources to engage further in these types of issues because it lessens our ability to address the large number of fishery management issues on our agenda.

With that said, it is clear from the comments around the table that other Council members support the comment letter as written. Therefore, I will note for the record that the State of Alaska does not support the letter and recommends the Council maintains focus on priority management issues for fisheries in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands and the Gulf of Alaska.

Rachel Baker, Deputy Commissioner ADF&G

Bristol Bay is 800 miles west of Sitka, but the sockeye run is of major importance statewide. A new Sitka processor — Northline Seafoods — has spent the last two years building a floating processing plant at Sitka’s industrial park, and sent it to Bristol Bay late last month.

Molly Blakey and her husband Ben are partners in the project with another Sitkan, Pat Glaab. She told the Council that the stakes could not be higher for her business, and for other startups in Alaska’s fisheries.

“I have read draft letter to the Army Corps of Engineers, and I hope that you send this draft,” Blakey said. “It is hard to put into words how our entire livelihood right now is wrapped up in this fishery. Our livelihood is processing Bristol Bay sockeye salmon.”

The Council took no immediate action on the letter. In an email to KCAW, Council director David Witherell said that staff may be tasked with additional edits to the letter near the end of this week-long Sitka meeting. But even the state concedes that the Council will not reverse course. “It’s clear from the comments around the table,” wrote deputy ADF&G commissioner Rachel Baker, “that other Council members support the comment letter as written.”

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council meets through June 10 in Sitka.

Sitka Salmon Shares’s new home. The Garver Feed Mill has been vacant for 20 years, but has a choice location in Madison. Company president Nic Mink says they’ll build “a transformative distribution, packaging, marketing, and retail center” on the site.

A boat-to-table seafood processor in Sitka is expanding its retail footprint in the Midwest.

Sitka Salmon Shares has just completed a deal to join some other high-end food retailers and manufactures in a renovated mill in downtown Madison, Wisconsin.

Downloadable audio.

Sitka Salmon Shares resembles Community Supported Agriculture — but with a twist. Instead of getting deliveries of locally-harvested produce from nearby farms, customers in Illinois and Wisconsin are getting sustainably-harvested salmon, from fishermen-owners in Sitka.

It’s the brainchild of Nic Mink, who teaches Food Justice at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois.

“I start teaching on Thursday. I’m dreading it. (Laughs) No, I’m super-excited. But yes, I only teach part-time now.”

That’s because the company he started with Port Alexander troller Marsh Skeele seven years ago with a couple of boats, is on its way up to a fleet of 40, with a state-of-the-art processing facility in Sitka, and regional packaging and distribution hubs in Galesburg, Chicago, and now Madison.

“Specifically, we’re going to use this site to grow our distribution footprint in the upper Midwest. To make more efficient our distribution into Minnesota, northern Iowa, and Wisconsin.”

Mink says Salmon Shares will add about 8 positions in management, sales, and marketing in Madison. The operation will take up a sizeable chunk of the 55,000 square foot historic Garver Feed Mill, which has been vacant for over 20 years.

“It’s right in the middle of the city. It has this incredible 100-acre site. It’s perfect for light manufacturing. And we became one of the lead lessors in the building. So we’ll be there with a kombucha manufacturer, an ice cream manufacturer. So there are going to be about 8-10 mid-scale businesses in this facility when it’s ready to go in about a year.”

The growth has brought changes on the back end as well. Salmon Shares co-founder and vice-president Marsh Skeele grew up salmon trolling with his parents out of Port Alexander and Sitka. Last season, for the first time, he left his boat tied up and spent much of the summer working on the company’s expansion in the Midwest.

Skeele attributes the growth of Salmon Shares to growth in demand for good fish. Not just a good fish — but a perfect fish– which is what many trollers strive to produce.

“And there’s no comparison when you take hook-and-line and small boat fisheries and you work directly with the fishermen. That — hands down — is the only way to get really consistently perfect fish.”

Skeele is speaking from a hammock at his parent’s house on the Baja peninsula in Mexico. He’s taking a short break now, but he’ll be back to Sitka in February to work on building the roster of Salmon Shares owner-fishermen from its current 20 to a planned 40 over the next couple of years.

Those who know Skeele don’t have to be concerned that he’s gone corporate. He’s got one sport coat for fancy dinners, but the rest is unchanged.

KCAW – Marsh, do you wear a coat and tie to work?
Skeele – No, I don’t have a shirt on right now (laughs). I don’t

The informal approach is working. The Salmon Shares website tries to make customers feel like participants in Alaska’s laid back fishing culture. Company president Nic Mink says that it’s not just about selling fish, but educating consumers about the markets. Next season, with deep restrictions on king salmon likely, that may mean shifting some emphasis to the rockfish jig fisheries in Kodiak, for example. Or to an unsung species closer to home.

“We’re doing a lot right now to educate our members about the beauty of chum salmon.”

Mink says no salmon takes a marinade better than chum, and that “midwesterners love to marinade.”

Sitka fisherman Spencer Severson owns one of eleven vessels which supply Sitka Salmon Shares.

An academic exercise in direct seafood sales has taken a step toward commercial viability.

Sitka Salmon Shares was organized five years ago by a midwestern college professor interested in connecting individual Alaska fishermen directly with households in Galesburg, Illinois, as a way of teaching sustainable food systems.

But Sitka Salmon Shares is now out of the classroom. With over 2,000 retail clients in eleven urban centers in the midwest, the company this spring purchased a small Sitka processing plant and expects even more growth.

Downloadable audio.

It’s called a Community Supported Fishery, or CSF. It’s a spinoff of the CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture. Picture farmers who harvest and sell produce by the box directly to a list of customers in a nearby community. Farmers know who eats their food; consumers know who produces it. It’s a type of food system that forges bonds in communities in a way grocery stores don’t.

But what if those communities are 2,200 miles apart? Maybe it depends on what you’re selling.

“People love Sitka salmon. It’s remarkable.”

And salmon is easy to love. Done right, big, juicy fillets of king, coho, or sockeye sizzling on a grill can make for an unforgettable meal. So Sitka Salmon Shares founder, professor Nic Mink, doesn’t have to persuade people to purchase this experience. It’s more a matter of giving them access.

“One of our big goals is to provide this very seafood-starved part of the country with fish from a specific place, from a specific group of fishermen.”

Sitka Salmon Shares range in price from $199 to $1,999 depending on the seafood package and duration. The website includes bios of the fishermen and other employees. There’s also a section on recipes.

Eleven Southeast fishermen have partnered with Mink. Over the last couple of years, Sitka Salmon Shares has grown significantly, shipping fresh-processed fish to a warehouse in Galesburg. From there, it’s trucked to doorsteps in places like Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, Peoria, and Bloomington — 2,000 households in eleven communities. And he’s got 100 wholesale clients.

But with growth comes a problem many businesses face: production capacity. To meet the increased demand, Sitka Salmon Shares was forced to spread out processing among several different plants in Sitka and in Juneau — plants which typically pool product from all their suppliers. But Mink says it’s critical to a Community Supported Fishery that buyers know their producers.

So he and his fishermen-owners decided to purchase Big Blue Fisheries in Sitka. The 9,000 square foot plant for the last several years has provided custom-processing for sport- and commercially-harvested fish.

Mink says that with significant upgrades in Big Blue’s freezing and packaging equipment, it should allow Sitka Salmon Shares to preserve it’s individualized approach to seafood sales.

“So when fish comes in from Marsh Skeele or Sara Ohlin or Levi Egerton, it leaves the plant and arrives in the midwest as Marsh’s, Sara’s, or Levi’s. That precluded our working with some of the larger processors. And so there really was this need that the small guys were too small and the big guys were too big that made us think about making this acquisition, and ultimately led us to it.”

Big Blue, which will now be known as Sitka Salmon Shares Alaska, will retain many of its previous services, such as custom processing and smoking of sport-caught fish. But Mink says it will have an expanded retail area for local customers. And despite the name, Sitka Salmon Shares Alaska will offer the full range of locally-available seafood, including cod, rockfish, and halibut.

This a lot for a college professor to have on his plate. Mink, who teaches Environmental Studies at Knox College in Galesburg, says he’s scaling back his work there to half-time. But shifting his energy into this business doesn’t mean that his academic interest in food has waned. Far from it.

“The food system project that we’re engaging in is the rebuilding of medium-scale processing, which has disappeared both in agriculture and in fisheries during the 20th century as the food system consolidated. And one of the things we’re trying to do is rebuild a piece of that infrastructure so that we can have a viable, mid-scale company that will help facilitate our growth and maturation in the next 3-5 years.”

Mink says Sitka Salmon Shares Alaska will open its processing line in the near future. A grand opening for the public is planned in June.

Nic Mink, PhD, with a nice coho salmon.

WQAD newscast…

You know your business is on the map when you make the local television news in the Quad Cities. Nic Mink is a sustainable foods fellow at Butler University. He says he started Sitka Salmon Shares trying to answer a question many of us have asked:

“Why does this salmon taste so good here, and taste so bad down in the Midwest?”

Mink first came to Sitka in the summer of 2010 with his girlfriend, who had a full time job. He rented an office on the Sheldon Jackson campus to finish his dissertation. Then, he received an appointment in the Environmental Studies Department at Knox College, in Galesburg, Illinois.

Besides the college, Galesburg has a sustainable business incubator. And it could not be better situated.

“Galesburg is this perfectly, centrally located place. About three hours from everywhere in the midwest. When you start to think about developing markets in Chicago, Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Des Moines, and Iowa City, and Madison, and Milwaukee – Galesburg acts as the center of the salmon solar system that we plan to set up with our Sitka fish.”

For three months last summer, Mink and seven employees packed and delivered frozen salmon in 5-, 8-, and 12-pound boxes to 350 clients in the Midwest. The coho and king salmon was provided by two boats in Sitka; the sockeye came from three Juneau fishing businesses; and Seafood Producers Cooperative in Sitka supplied whatever inventory the others couldn’t.

Cindy Severt is a librarian at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. “The idea appealed to me, and the product appealed to me,” she said.

Severt saw an ad for Sitka Salmon Shares last summer in a small arts & culture magazine.

“My husband and I have a garden, and he’s a hunter. So we love good food. We priced it out and figured it was about the price we’d pay for really good salmon in town, and we figured, Might as well try it.”

Marsh Skeele, a second-generation troller from Port Alexander, supplies fish for Sitka Salmon Shares.

Now, even though she lives three-thousand miles from Sitka, she’s starting to sound like a local.

“And it’s been fun having a freezer full of salmon. Oh, we’ll have salmon tonight, and tomorrow, and the next day!”

One factor Severt did not roll into her decision was the sustainability of having fresh-frozen fish flown from Sitka to Chicago, trucked to Galesburg, and then hand-delivered to her door in Madison.

Nic Mink, however, thinks about this a lot. He knows using fossil fuels is not a perfect system.

“Part of our power at the sustainable business center comes from solar and is renewable, so that helps. We also pay to offset all of the carbon emissions for the salmon that come into Illinois, and we take that money and invest it into wind energy in the Midwest. So that’s one element of making the system, we believe, a little more sustainable.”

Sitka Salmon Shares also invests one-percent of its proceeds back into salmon habitat restoration, and salmon education. He thinks the money should be enough to support two summer internships for college students back in Sitka.

Although this is the only place where students fit into the business model, it’s not hard to look at Sitka Salmon Shares as an academic exercise that has taken on a life of its own. Professor Mink is walking the walk.

“If I’m going to teach it, and I want students to go out there and do it, well this offered me a cool chance to be able to try it myself, and to learn lessons that I could pass on to students.”

As a seasonal business, most of Mink’s 7 employees last summer were students. This summer, he’s hoping to hire 11 or 12 as Sitka Salmon Shares expands into a 5-month season, with the addition of longliners supplying halibut and black cod. Every box of fish contains recipes, and Mink has organized cooking classes with local chefs for up to 35 of his members at a time.

Sitka Salmon Shares was featured in this article in Forbes in December.

WQAD newscast…

Still, name recognition not quite where Mink would like it to be just yet.

“Funny thing is, a lot of people come up to me and say, Is Sitka your dog?”