Kwik’pak Fisheries Archives

How low chum runs changed the lives of these Western Alaska fisheries workers

August 25, 2021 — For decades, Kwik’Pak Fisheries in the Western Alaska village of Emmonak has provided reliable summer employment in one of the state’s most unemployed regions. The company is the only fish processor on the Yukon River.

But with salmon runs low and commercial fishing closed, it’s offering few jobs this summer. Commercial fishermen and women are feeling the economic stress, and those who are still working at the plant have had to transition to new roles.

Every day at half past noon, Paul Andrews walks to the river bank in Emmonak, stopping at a small metal marker nestled on a dune. He takes out a surveyor’s measuring tape, hooks it on to the marker and walks it to the water line. Then he phones the National Weather Service.

“Make that 79 feet at 12:30,” Andrews said.

Read the full story at KTOO

When Yukon Chum Stocks Suddenly Collapsed, Yukon River Residents Received Donations From Bristol Bay

August 13, 2021 — For eight years, Tanya Ives has been traveling up from Washington each summer to work at the Yukon River’s only fish processing plant: Kwik’Pak Fisheries. The plant sits outside of Emmonak at the river’s mouth. Normally at this time of year, Ives would be packing up chum salmon harvested by commercial fishermen along the Yukon River to sell around the world. But this summer, she’s doing the opposite.

Ives is packing up salmon, caught hundreds of miles away, to send to Yukon River villagers. She wears a red sweatshirt and gloves to keep warm while working with the frozen fish.

The Yukon River has seen its worst summer chum salmon run on record, and its third worst Chinook run. The commercial fishery is closed, and Kwik’Pak can’t sell salmon. Subsistence fishing for chum and Chinook is also closed, and many people along the river have not had a taste of the fish this season.

Meanwhile, on the southern end of the peninsula, Bristol Bay has been enjoying a great salmon run; its best ever on record. To share the bounty, processors there donated 22,000 pounds of Chinook and chum salmon to Yukon River villages. The Bristol Bay processors sent some of that salmon to Kwik’Pak to distribute to lower river communities.

Read the full story at KYUK

ALASKA: Fearing dismal salmon runs, Kwik’Pak fisheries pivots to gardening

June 21, 2021 — In recent years, the chum salmon runs on the Yukon River have been low. This year, it is too early to tell how the run will be. But with commercial fishing becoming a less reliable venture, one fishing enterprise is hoping to find stability by turning to veggies.

The goal is to keep the business operating and workers employed, so Kwik’Pak Fisheries in Emmonak is diversifying its business by building greenhouses right next to its fish processing plant.

Traditionally, Kwik’Pak is the only fish buyer in the lower Yukon and one of the region’s main employers during the summer. During good chum and coho salmon runs, Kwik’Pak can employ between 100 and 300 workers on a given day. A number of those employees are teenagers from villages all over the lower Yukon.

“It’s great seeing these kids, ‘cause their self-esteem and well-being, they just glow because they have work,” said Jack Schultheis, who manages Kwik’Pak Fisheries. “They have their own money. And not just menial work, but when they can use the imagination and their intellect.”

Read the full story at KTOO

ALASKA: Kwik’pak Fisheries To Require Employees To Be Vaccinated Against COVID-19

May 6, 2021 — Kwik’pak Fisheries in Emmonak, the only fish buyer on the Yukon River mouth, is requiring its employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

General Manager Jack Schultheis said that Kwik’pak Fisheries employs up to 400 workers each day, all of whom will have to show their COVID-19 vaccination cards before beginning work this season.

“Customers are extremely concerned over who is manufacturing the food they’re buying from us,” Schultheis said. “So we’re trying to protect our workers, the community, and the people who eat the food we produce.”

Read the full story at KYUK