The first Alaska salmon of the season lands at Boston’s Legal Sea Foods restaurants and Whole Foods Market seafood counters across the country after their journey in the care of Alaska Air Cargo.
In a traditional Alaska rite of spring, the Copper River’s most famous fish are flying.
Just 48 hours after the first wild king salmon were pulled from the water near Cordova in southcentral Alaska, the prized catch was the centerpiece of an invitation-only “First Fish Dinner” at Legal Sea Foods in Boston May 18. At the same time, fresh Copper River sockeye started arriving at Whole Foods Market seafood counters — a logistical feat and 3,000-plus-mile journey for the season’s first Alaska salmon flying in the seamless cold-chain care of Alaska Air Cargo.
“It’s an incredible experience for our diners in Boston — but also for our team to work with such an awesome fish,” said Brian Doyle, Legal Sea Foods’ head of culinary. “For us to be the team that has the first Copper River king salmon is a tremendous honor.”
For over 90 years, Alaska Air Cargo has been the leader in carrying the freshest seafood from the state of Alaska out to the world. Now with more than 100 destinations across North America, we are proud to bring one of the state’s most prized products to new diners and home cooks across the country.
“Alaska Air Cargo is hyper-diligent about taking care of the fish in those boxes bound for the lower 48 and they know how important that cold chain is to keep the fish at its freshest,” said Jason Hedlund, Principal Seafood Merchant for Whole Foods Market, which has fresh Copper River sockeye available at stores across the country. “Everybody is doing their part to deliver the best quality fish to their final destination.”
“It’s always such an exciting moment when we have the first salmon of the year, and for us it really feels like the start of summer,” said Shannon Stevens, Alaska Air Cargo strategic account manager for the state of Alaska. “It is huge for our fishing communities to share our celebrated first fresh fish with communities as far away as Boston.”
Boston: “The First Fish Dinner”
For Doyle’s culinary team at Legal Sea Foods, the opportunity to develop a menu around Copper River king salmon “almost feels like a once-in-a-lifetime experience.” They created dishes to highlight the fish’s rich flavor: Diners started with salmon crudo from the raw bar, followed by a cold-smoked salmon appetizer with Osetra caviar and basil crème fraîche. The main course featured grilled salmon, paired with fresh morels, spring peas and potato. “This is some of the most elegant, high-quality salmon you can get,” Doyle said. “I really wanted to showcase the butteriness, the smoothness and the exclusivity of this beautiful fish.”
About sustainable Alaska salmon:
The state of Alaska’s wild salmon fisheries like Copper River and Bristol Bay are tightly managed by state of Alaska regulators to ensure the sustainability of the salmon population for the long haul. Seafood Watch guidelines on buying sustainably caught salmon
Where to enjoy Copper River salmon:
Legal Sea Foods: At select restaurants in the Boston area during the Copper River king salmon season while supplies last
Whole Foods Market: Check your local store for availability
Copper River Fish Finder: Find Copper River salmon at a store or restaurant near you!
Alaska Air Cargo and Copper River salmon
Top destinations for the first fish of 2024: Seattle (SEA), Boston (BOS), Spokane (GEG), Dallas (DFW), Phoenix (PHX), Los Angeles (LAX), Santa Barbara (SBA), Raleigh-Durham (RDU), Atlanta (ATL), Las Vegas (LAS), Chicago (ORD), Philadelphia (PHL), Baltimore (BWI), Honolulu (HNL), Boise (BOI), Denver (DEN) and Portland (PDX).
Wine pairings for the dinner included small-batch pinot noir and chardonnay from Oregon’s Bethel Heights Vineyard, which was one of the first vineyards whose growing practices were certified as Salmon Safe.
Doyle said the guests at the “First Fish Dinner” especially enjoyed the cold-smoked preparation that highlighted the character and the versatility of the king salmon. “The fish was certainly the star of the show,” he said.
Over the next few weeks, diners at seven Legal Sea Foods restaurants throughout the Boston area will get to enjoy the same grilled salmon entrée, with salmon coming fresh from the river through the partnership of Copper River Seafoods in Cordova, North Coast Seafoods in Boston and the continuing cross-country cold-chain care from Alaska Air Cargo.
Austin Sumsion, Alaska Airlines’ manager of station operations in Boston, is excited to bring Copper River salmon to new audiences in the Northeast. Sumsion first tasted fresh Copper River salmon at an Alaska Airlines event in Seattle soon after he started working with the cargo team 10 years ago. “I tell people, if you see fresh Copper River salmon, you have to try it,” he said. “We move a lot of seafood in Boston — a lot of lobsters going out — but this is special. It’s going to make people re-evaluate their perspective on salmon because Atlantic salmon just doesn’t have the richness that Alaska salmon has.”
Whole Foods Market: Pulling out all the stops for sustainable sockeye
Hedlund’s experience with Alaska wild salmon runs deep, dating to his 15 years’ experience fishing in Bristol Bay, and he points out that the fish’s lifecycle boosts its nutritional value. “As they’re growing, the salmon are compiling all the nutrients out in the open ocean, and then we consume those nutrients that the salmon brought back to their natal streams,” he said. “Alaska’s sockeye salmon fishery is a great example of a well-managed, sustainable resource in the U.S. that is providing wild protein to homes across the country.”
It’s also critical to Whole Foods Market’s core values to support salmon fisheries like Copper River that are sustainably managed. “We buy Alaska sockeye with confidence,’ Hedlund said.
Customers in the know start asking about Copper River salmon as early as April, and Whole Foods Market teams gear up weeks ahead of the opener to plan their strategy to secure the fish.
Alaska Air Cargo’s nonstop destinations from Anchorage (ANC)
They focus their energies on buying the freshest sockeye, and everyone from the buyers to the packers to the merchandisers to the accounting team play a part in moving the fish into place in Whole Foods Market stores as quickly as possible.
For Hedlund’s part, on the first days of the season, he is often up almost all night and early morning managing the purchases of these fish – and it’s worth it, he said.
And the 2024 season is starting off to be the strongest in ten years, allowing Whole Foods Market to offer the fresh sockeye in more stores across the country.
“These fish are caught at the peak moment in their lives. They are the first summer run, and to get them fresh is really special.”
Jason Hedlund, Principal Seafood Merchant for Whole Foods Market
