Gillnetters target up-market salmon sales: Juneau partnership supplies high-end buyers with Alaska delicacy.

• Author: Dobbyn, Paula
• Position: FISHING

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When 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."

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 ate setting new standards for the gillnet-caught salmon they sell, mainly to high-end restaurants and markets in the Lower 48 and Hawaii.

"We freak out if we see someone handling our fish by the tail," said Heather, a second-generation fisherman who was born and raised in Alaska's rain-soaked capital.

Picking up a salmon by the tail forces blood back into the body cavity which leads to faster decomposition and that smelly fish odor, according to Heather.

The Hardcastle operation is more than just about delicate handling. It's a business ethic that ensures every step of the salmon's ocean-to-table journey results in a product that commands top dollar and yields superior taste.

"The quality is the best that I've been able to find in the market. Not only the way it looks at first glance, but the flavor and the shelf life. It's beyond anything I've seen," said seafood industry expert Toro Worthington, a partner of San Francisco-based Monterey Fish Market.

INTRAVENOUS PRESSURE BLEEDING

Taku River salmon appear perfect, of course, when pulled from the water. But unless proper steps are taken immediately, the quality can quickly deteriorate. TRR crew members not only clean and ice the fish as soon as they're hauled aboard but they go one step further. Every sockeye, coho and king caught and handled by TRR...