FISHING
Photo by Mark Stopha
The Taku River Reds Team (L to R): Len “Pete” Peterson and Sheila Peterson, Kirk Hardcastle and Heather Hardcastle and Renee Warr and Winston Warr.
Gillnetters Target Up-Market Salmon Sales Juneau partnership supplies high-end buyers with Alaska delicacy BY PAULA DOBBYN
W
hen Kirk Hardcastle thinks of wild salmon, he see strawberries and champagne grapes: delicacies requiring special treatment. “They’re just as fragile,” said Hardcastle, a Juneau gillnetter who grew up in California’s wine country and married into an Alaska fishing family. “If you have 10 or 12 people handling a strawberry from the time it’s picked until the time it winds up on your plate, what do you get? A bruised strawberry.”
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For Hardcastle, salmon’s the same. After navigating thousands of miles through fresh and salt water over the course of years to finally spawn in their natal streams, these athletic, nutrient-rich fish should be treated extremely carefully when hauled aboard and processed. “These fish deserve to be honored,” he said. It’s with that passion and respect for wild salmon that Hardcastle and his
wife, Heather, together with her parents and two close friends, have built a successful artisan seafood company. The couple can be described as meticulous about how they handle their catch. Some might say fanatical. As co-owners of Taku River Reds, a direct-market seafood business based in Juneau, the Hardcastles are setting new standards for the gillnet-caught salmon they sell, mainly to high-end restaurants and markets in the Lower 48 and Hawaii.
www.akbizmag.com • Alaska Business Monthly • October 2011