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 Makah Nation and Washington Trollers,

----working together to bring you high quality local salmon.

 by Amy Grondin, from the Fishermens News, Feb 2006.

Who needs geese flying overhead to tell us winter is over when we have fishermen scraping hulls and rigging fishing gear? The preseason work that fishermen do tells us the seasons are changing. May 1^st is weeks away but for Joel Kawahara and other fishermen who troll for salmon off the coast of Washington, the date is already on their minds.

Joel took a sip of coffee and looked at the calendar. “Season traditionally opens on May1st” Joel replied to the question. “It’s getting close so we better get to work.” The work that Joel is referring to is very important to Washington Salmon Fishermen but won’t be done by shipwrights or require buying anything from Sea Mar.

In the absence of an organization to promote Washington seafood, the Washington Trollers Association (WTA) and the Makah Trollers have joined their efforts in promoting the Salmon that they catch from Washington waters. Oregon seafood is promoted by Brand Oregon, the in-state media and marketing campaign that kicked off in April 2004. Alaska has the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, known as ASMI, which performs a similar function for their seafood marketing. The 2006 salmon season will mark the third year that the WTA and Makah fleets have acted as one to boost sales and brand recognition of Washington troll caught salmon.

The idea was originally discussed for a few seasons by Geoff LeBon, a Washington Salmon troller and Sarah Fisken, a Washington Sea Grant agent, before there was momentum from the WTA and the Makah Trollers to put the idea into motion. Both Geoff and Sarah have spent many years working out of Neah Bay, one of the ports where the Washington salmon is landed.

“It only made sense. Both tribal and the non tribal trollers work the same waters for the same fish. Why not work together to see that our salmon are bought for a fair price and recognized as a quality product?” said LeBon.

In March 2004, the WTA and Makahs formalized the decision work together while on break from the Pacific Fisheries Management Council meeting. Russel Svec, Dave Sones and Steve Joner of the Makahs agreed to meet with Lebon and the other members of the WTA. LeBon invited Judy Graham, Jeremy Brown, Doug Fricke and Joel Kawahara of the WTA take part in the meeting. LeBon also requested the support of Sarah Fisken of Washington SeaGrant and Amy Grondin, a Direct Market Consultant from the Pacific Marine Conservation Council. An official name for this motivated group of salmon trollers and supporters was never coined so they will be referred to as the Trollers for this article.

Paramount to increasing sales of Washington Salmon was letting the consumers know that there was Washington Salmon to be had. In the past, once Washington salmon hit the distribution channels, it was sold under the umbrella label of fresh Pacific Northwest salmon or lost among the swelling tides of Alaska salmon that hits the summertime fish markets. Three tactics were devised to get Washington troll salmon back on the radar of chefs and plates of consumers. The first tactic was donating Washington troll salmon to a high profile charitable event that drew an audience of fine dining patrons. This event was the Art of Dining.

The Art of Dining Gala Dinner & Auction is the annual fund raising event hosted by the Women’s Funding Alliance at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle. This fabulous evening features an elegant multi-course dinner prepared by twelve of Seattle's best chefs and a fast paced auction that showcases art from many of the Northwest's notable artists.  In 2005, the sold out event drew 420 guests and raised over $230,000 to improve the lives of women and girls. In one night. That is a whole lot of Seattle food lovers savoring Washington Salmon as the main course and a whole lot of good that came from a salmon donation.

The second tactic employed by the Trollers was to host a preseason salmon luncheon at Lark, Chef Johnathan Sundstrom’s Seattle restaurant. The sun lit dining room at Lark proved to be the perfect space to taste Washington Red & Marbled troll caught Chinook side by side, simply sauced and accompanied by tender asparagus. Seattle area chefs, food and fishing related media representatives as well as seafood industry professionals were invited to enjoy the lunch and meet some of the fleet that pulled the day’s lunch from the cold waters off Washington. It may be noted, that as the salmon season was not opened, frozen Washington Chinook was prepared. Another article could be written about the how and why that makes last year’s salmon taste so delicious when so simply prepared but suffice it to say, it is all about quality.

This brings us to the third and very important activity that the Trollers participated in, preseason quality handling classes. Held at Fishermen’s Terminal in Seattle, in Neah Bay and in Westport, the quality classes were taught by Fishermen Jim Bassett, Allan Richardson and Kim Reisbick. The Westport class was coordinated by Steve Harbell of WA SeaGrant. Members of the WTA, Makahs and land based processing crews were all invited to participate. It was stressed that even though they have all been handling fish for years, it is important to stand back from the process and reevaluate each step taken from the moment a salmon is hooked to the transfer of fish from boat to buyer. With the low numbers of salmon that are allowed to be caught, every fish should be a “number one”. Keep it cold; keep it clean and handle the fish with care were the basic messages.

So how will the 2006 Salmon season look for the Makahs trollers and the Washington Trollers Association? After grueling week at the March Council meeting, some are tentative to venture more than a shrug or a shake of their head.  What ever happens, the two fleets are working together and bringing quality back to the Washington Troll Salmon Fishery.