In the winter of 2004, fishermen from the communities of Naknek, South Naknek, and King Salmon met and organized the Bristol Bay Seafood Marketing Cooperative. They developed plans to lease an existing small seafood processing plant in Naknek towards the end of the 2004 fishing season and produce quality salmon fillets. They trained themselves on how to process fish, and made plans to have their fishermen to carefully handle, bleed, and immediately ice down their fish.

Word is out that that they produced excellent sockeye fillets, and could not produce enough fillets to meet market demand. They received calls from buyers with additional orders that they could not fill. They also achieved something that’s unheard of in Bristol Bay. They bought pink salmon for 20 cents per pound, produced pink fillets, and could not meet market demand for their pink fillets.

They now have plans to construct a processing plant in 2005 near Naknek Electric Association’s power plant and install a waste heat recovery system to freeze and hold salmon at much lower electrical costs. Donna Vukich, who manages the Naknek Electric Cooperative, and is a member of the cooperative, figures that their savings in freezing and holding costs will pay for the cost of their plant in short order.