FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 12, 2020

Contact:
Elizabeth Herendeen - ​info@alaskansown.com​, 970.889.1440
Ben Blakey - ​ben@northlineseafoods.com​, 907.469.2972

Alaskans Own and Northline Seafoods team up to bring Bristol Bay salmon to Alaska
communities experiencing low salmon returns

Sitka, AK - This week, Alaskans Own and Northline Seafoods announced that they are teaming
up to bring 45,000 pounds of Bristol Bay sockeye salmon to Alaska Native villages experiencing
record-low salmon returns this year. The unique partnership, made possible by ​Catch Together​,
will allow Alaskans Own to purchase and deliver Bristol Bay salmon to the Chignik Bay and
nearby communities with the potential to expand to other Alaska communities in need.

Based in Sitka and deeply rooted in Alaska’s community-based fisheries, both ​Alaskans Own
and ​Northline Seafoods​ were created to help keep Alaska fishermen working on the water and
to build new, higher-value markets for premium quality Alaska seafood.

“While our roots are in Southeast Alaska, Alaskans Own aims to foster connections throughout
Alaska’s fishing communities by keeping the fisheries we depend on healthy and building new
and more resilient distribution pathways for Alaska seafood,” said Linda Behnken, founder and
Director of Alaskans Own, Alaska’s first Community Supported Fishery. “That’s especially
important in light of the coronavirus, which has impacted families throughout the state and has
made food security an even more critical issue for Alaskans.”

“Northline Seafoods purchases and processes our salmon in Bristol Bay, where we’re incredibly
lucky to be experiencing record-high salmon returns. Bristol Bay has been one of Alaska’s few
bright stars for salmon the last few years,” said Ben Blakey, founder and President of Northline
Seafoods. “Very few sockeye salmon returned to Chignik this summer, so when we got a call
requesting some of our Bristol Bay sockeye, I said we could help. We are all happy to know our
catch here in Bristol Bay will fill some freezers and smokehouses, and help ensure folks in
Chignik can still practice their subsistence traditions as they have year after year.”

“Tribal members of Chignik Bay, Chignik Lake, Chignik Lagoon, Perryville and Ivanof Bay have
all but halted subsistence harvest to protect local sockeye for future generations,” said George
Anderson, President of Chignik Intertribal Coalition. “Giving up our subsistence harvest and in
turn allowing the fish to escape to the river system was the right thing to do, but left local people
without the salmon they depend on. The Bristol Bay sockeye from Northline Seafoods and
Alaskans Own will help our communities stay healthy through the winter and hold strong to their
commitment to recovering local salmon stocks.”

To learn more about Alaskans Own and donate to its Seafood Donation Program, visit
www.alaskansown.com​.

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