Arctic Storm President Doug Christensen discusses how his company catches & processes fish from two of the world’s top fisheries
Arctic Storm President Doug Christensen says, “There’s a strong focus on continual innovation on what we do with our fish. We’re constantly trying to figure out ways to make more products with the same amount of fish. By doing so, we’ve increased our fishmeal output, added fish oil output and added high recovery lines that increase our frozen human consumption food output.”
This rationalized harvesting arrangement allows industry participants the time to create innovative techniques. “We’re assessing new technology continuously. We do a lot of work with equipment that was employed in other industries that we’re finding great applications for in fish production,” Christensen says.
For instance, decanters are used for the recovery of fish meal and fish oil, which is then utilized onboard the vessels to fuel power generators, boilers and equipment. On the harvesting side, Arctic Storm has employed devices in nets that exclude species of fish that it is not targeting. This results in the catch of over 99 percent target fish, making for a very clean fishery.
With the price of fuel being high in recent couple years, the company has invested in conservation of diesel fuel. “Recently, we invested in power generation in our vessels. We’re just doing things in a more fuel efficient manner,” Christensen says.
The company has gone from producing fresh water each day through a heat-generated evaporation technique to a reverse osmosis process that requires pushing salt water through smaller filters until it is fresh. Propeller blades and engine arrangements have also been changed to conserve fuel.
In 2005 the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified the North Pacific pollock fishery as sustainable and awarded its valued eco-label to products produced from that fishery. In 2010 the west coast whiting fishery was also awarded the MSC eco-label. The MSC was formed by the world’s largest environmental organization, the World Wildlife Fund, as an independent organization that identifies the best environmental choice in seafood for consumers. The MSC, a group highly valued by the industry and consumers like, has evaluated the fishery and techniques for harvesting, and certified it as sustainable. All Arctic Storm pollock and whiting products are MSC certified. Christensen says, “Harvesting in a certified sustainable manner will allow this fishery to last for many generations to come. That’s the hallmark of our sustainability.”
Read the complete story from Business Review USA.