There's so great many reasons to choose small-boat, wild-catch, sustainable seafood. 

• Consistently more nutritious than farmed alternatives.
• Supports domestic jobs, most farmed seafood is imported.
• Allows working coastal waterfronts to remain intact, aiding in food security. 
• Puts an economic value on pristine ocean health, which in turn strengthens protection of those waters.
• It tastes better!!

Womxn's Leadership
The James Beard Foundation’s Women’s Leadership Programs address the most pressing issues female chefs face, offering the tools to move beyond simply being a great chef and becoming a successful business owner.

The Women in Culinary Leadership program has worked to shatter the ”gastro-ceiling” since 2012 by pairing emerging female chefs with top industry leaders in a mentoring, learning-by-doing environment.

Launched in September 2017 at Babson College, as a professional development fellowship that offers female chefs a “deep dive” into business creation and management to overcome the inevitable pitfalls across the restaurant industry. These are just a few ways JBF is supporting women chefs (and fisHERmen)  at every stage of their careers.
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Advocacy  
Mobilizing the community toward systemic policy change that supports a thriving and sustainable food and beverage industry.
Through Open for Good, we educate, train, and mobilize the chef community to use their voice in support of public policies from combatting hunger in America to supporting farmers and protecting American fisheries to promoting fair wage models. 
Since 2012, the James Beard Foundation has been training and empowering chefs to advocate for meaningful food system change through the Chefs Boot Camp for Policy and Change.
The James Beard Foundation is a founding member and seed funder of the Independent Restaurant Coalition (IRC), which was formed to create a united voice for independent restaurants to affect legislative change in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Together these chef-advocates meet regularly with mayors, state legislators, governors and members of Congress and their staffs to create policies focused on a more diverse, equitable, and sustainable food system.
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Financial Support Grants to help independent restaurants survive, reopen, and rebuild.
The restaurant community is always among the first to donate their time and resources to charities, and in a time of crisis are among the first responders that keep communities nourished. They are also among those in need. The Foundation has created unique grant programs to directly support small, independent restaurants.
Food and Beverage Investment Fund for Black and Indigenous Americans(September 2020-Present)
As part of the Foundation’s commitment to building a more equitable industry, and in acknowledgment of the immeasurable contribution that these two communities have made to the modern American foodscape, the Foundation launched The James Beard Foundation Food and Beverage Investment Fund for Black and Indigenous Americans to provide financial resources for food or beverage businesses that are majority-owned by Black or Indigenous individuals. 
During the height of the pandemic, @beardfoundation launched their#OpenForGood campaign to provide critical resources to independent restaurants. They are seeking donations to help forge the future of the industry.​

We Copper River King is in a Class of Its Own.
​We like to think of ours as the valedictorian and salutatorian. 
At sea, we take great care from the very instant your Copper River King Salmon comes aboard our boat. We coddle and fret, constantly checking ice levels and being hyper-vigilant in our quest to bring an unsurpassed quality salmon back to port. 

Our care does not stop there. Our small-boat catch is transformed into small-batch excellence.

Every action we take is intent on quality. Hand filleted and portioned to maximize best cuts from each fish. Speedy and efficient monitored timelines take our fish from fresh to frozen, while maintaining that fresh from the sea flavor.    

We utilize cutting-edge vacuum seal and flash freeze technology to produce a seafood product in the style of old-world craftsmanship. 

Sarah handwrites label codes on each package and scrutinizes the finished product. While every one of our Copper River King Salmon has been cherished from the first moment, some do not measure up in the presentation factor. 

This is where our Friend & Family Cuts originate from. Maybe, we put a label on sideways or put the fish in its vacuum bag at an odd angle or cut a portion too large or too small. Or maybe during the salmon's life at sea, they got a scar on their skin or a myriad of other possibilities.  

There are many reasons Sarah may designate a King portion as a Friends & Family Cut, but it will never be the result of poor handling. Always, absolutely always it is a cosmetic or surface imperfection. 

For consistency, choose our Premium Cuts. For quality, choose either one. For questions, ask Sarah.

We're excited to offer our new bundle packs. Choose up to 4 items in each 10 lb order. 

We're an independent - family owned - small boat - low volume - sustainable - wild catch fishery. 
We harvest each fish with care and provide you with the finest quality catch possible out of the Copper River region.
Thank you for trusting us with this important task. We do not take the responsibility lightly and always remember that each fish is special in it's own right as a living creature but also as a healthful and delicious food source. 

The official opening to our 2021 Copper River Salmon fishery is Monday 17 May

• Intermittent days & hours of regulated fishing time will occur dependent on abundance
• It's impossible to know what our catch will be until the fish come aboard
• We will not have more than 48 hours notice of when fishing will next occur
• We fulfill orders in the order they were received 
• We will contact you prior to shipment 

Starting tomorrow the few fishermen who have the proper licenses to fish the Copper River region will be allowed to do so, likely twice per week for a few hours each of those days. The State of Alaska has written into law that our catch levels must work in harmony with nature. It is mandated that fish catches cannot surpass the abundance threshold on any given year, month or week.

Our fishery takes place in the open ocean. The end destination for the Salmon is the Copper River where they will spawn and die, completing their life cycle. Their eggs will produce the next generation of salmon who will leave the safety of the river beds for the open ocean. Amazingly, years later those little fish return, all grown up; to the same tributary to end their life cycle and produce the following generation.

 Sonars are located at key access points at the mouth of the Copper River. These sonars count the fish as they swim past. Hourly totals are used to inform when the next fishery harvest will occur. If very few fish have entered the river system we will be prohibited from fishing. If many fish are charging past the sonar counter- additional fishing time will be announced by the fishery biologists who closely monitor each days influx of fish into the river system.

Because of a very late spring (we still have snow in our yard) the river is still very frozen. This restricts water outflow and gives the salmon less water to swim up stream in. Also the sonar counter cannot be mounted into position when massive ice chunks are still breaking loose and floating down stream. 
Without the counters fish biologists are cautious and give little fishing time.

Fish don't have calendars and the general consensus is that our fishery will be off to a slow start. Once temperatures warm and the river system begins flowing (and the snow melts form our yard) we anticipate our catches to improve in volume.

However the pre-season prediction by biologists is that we will have a smaller than average Copper River Salmon return and minimal fishing time with small catch volume  anticipated. 

Every year is different. But as always we will do our best to get the very finest of these beautiful Salmon from our hands to yours. 😊