Mislabeled Seafood, NY Times article

Salty

2012-12-16 07:46:30

Great article on mislabeling of seafood in tomorrows NY Times. However, an error was made, and I have written the following note to the author.

Under Many Aliases, Mislabeled Foods Find Their Way to Dinner Tables

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/us/mislabeled-foods-find-their-way-to-diners-tables.html?hp

To Kim Severson, NY Times

"Fresh wild Alaska salmon should not be on plates in January."

As a lifelong Alaskan salmon troller I greatly appreciated your article. Reading your bio I also see that you have experience in Alaska writing about Alaska seafood.

Then I am confident that you know the above quoted sentence is not totally accurate. Those of us trolling winter king salmon in SE Alaska greatly appreciate our markets and receive premium prices, usually $8-10.00 per pound. Between October 11th and May 1st we harvest 40-50,000 winter kings, including some in January. If it is possible to make a correction I would really appreciate it.

I am an online subscriber to the Times and our family fishing operation was featured in the paper a number of years ago.

Sincerely,

Eric Jordan

F/V I Gotta

I Gotta Salmon

Sitka, AK 99835

Salty

2012-12-16 18:52:20

Kim responded immediately and said they would correct it.

fvsedna

2012-12-16 22:36:26

Thank you, Eric for throwing that foul ball back In the game....some years ago I recall when traveling through Juneau as I frequently did on the way to work @ the mine. I would stay @ the Travel Lodge hotel/restaurant/bar awaiting the time to arrive and ride the crew boat out to the Island. Occasionally having lunch there....It was August & on the lunch menu was "fresh halibut fish & chips"...sounded good. That halibut turned Into dry freezer- burnt rock fish.....that Is not an exaggeration either...It was very dry & had that stale freezer burnt taste & smell......I sent it back except for the fishy tasting fries.. I mentioned to the waitress I was not a tourist & knew fish well enough that bad halibut didn't taste or have the texture such as what she served me...she even agreed & let me have the fries free. Moral of the story Is consumers can be and are dupped much closer to home than we might realize.

Andrew

Abundance

2012-12-16 23:50:35

I've been glad to see a lot more discussion of mislabeled seafood in the news recently, along with NOAA's new crackdown. It's nice to see them doing something useful. I remember seeing an article in one of my mothers professional cooking magazines about selecting the proper seafood, and was pleased to see that not only did wild trump farmed, but the pictures of seafood were all labeled as troll caught. I was annoyed by their advisement to avoid fresh salmon in the winter, as there are salmon fisheries in the winter. I wish that I had complained like Eric did. Our Aaskan winter kings need to be talked about and championed, not ignored and actually advised against.

Salty

2012-12-17 05:25:52

Then there was the time at the ATA banquet where the hotel in Juneau tried to feed us farmed salmon. I happened to notice it being brought into the dining room and informed Dale Kelly. Needless to say it was returned to the kitchen and we ate something else. I will see if I can find a picture.