At Kenosha Harbor Market, the little guys get a chance to shine. This summer the market has periodically included a vendor with a direct pipeline to some fishermen in Alaska.
Sitka Salmon Shares was founded about a half-dozen years ago by a UW-Madison professor who made connections while visiting Sitka, Alaska. The co-op he eventually formed distributes frozen Salmon and other fish straight to doorsteps, restaurants and public markets, like Kenosha’s Harbor Market.
A week ago Saturday UW-Madison student Nikus Frank was manning a tent at the market, selling packets of fish and signing people up for monthly deliveries. One of the advantages Sitka Salmon has over the large companies, he says, is the way the fish is caught: No nets, all hook and line, with short trips out to sea so the catch can be hauled back to land and frozen quickly. "Big corporate fishing ships--they'll sometimes stack hundreds of fish and leave them sometimes for hours before they have a chance to freeze them," Frank said. "Doing them one at a time gives you the opportunity to treat them with the urgency that's needed."
While Sitka Shares fish may cost a bit more, profits for the participating fishermen are higher than what they'd ordinarily be, Frank said.
The process is so personalized that customers know from which boat their catch came from, he said, adding that visitors are always welcome in Stika.
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