Our Story, "Walking On the Wild Side"

Copper River Seafoods was developed in 1996 by dedicated Alaskan fishermen with two things in common; a passion for the Alaska wild salmon industry and a belief in its incredible potential. Today, with over 25 years combined experience, Copper River Seafoods' owners ambition and hard work has paid off. From small beginnings, Copper River Seafoods has become a model in the art of harvesting, purchasing, processing and delivering premium seafood.

The roots of Copper River Seafoods grew from three flourishing Alaskan fishermen who owned and operated companies: Copper River Catch, Copper River Fine Seafoods, and Copper River Wild. Copper River Catch was the brain child of salmon gillnet fisherman Pip Fillingham in response to deficiencies he had witnessed in surrounding fishing industries such as low catch prices, poor fish management and processing practices, and unmet consumer expectations. Pip's ambition for Copper River Catch was to use processing and marketing approaches that would not only preserve the pristine quality of Copper River salmon, but create a product that surpassed consumer ideals as well.

Like Pip, Bill Bailey and Scott Blake also believed that there were excelled ways to market the fine Copper River salmon and developed Copper River Fine Seafoods. The objective behind Copper River Fine Seafoods was to process and promote the superior Copper River salmon in a way that would respect its quality, generate a fair profit for fishermen, and introduce consumers to the savory world of seafood. Copper River Wild, a marketing company focused on delivering value-added Copper River salmon to specialty markets was also incorporated.

In 1996, these three quality and consumer oriented companies merged together creating Copper River Seafoods with offices and processing facilities in both Cordova and Anchorage, Alaska. Through their success in the salmon industry, Copper River Seafoods has since extended their high quality services beyond just salmon. Building on their values of quality assurance, purity, value-added products, and meeting consumer needs, Copper River Seafoods networks with a myriad of fishermen throughout Alaska to purchase a variety of other fine seafood such as halibut and rockfish. After harvesting/purchasing, all products are processed and delivered with Copper River Seafoods' standard unwavering excellence and service. Today, Copper River Seafoods is recognized as the premier producer of Alaskan seafood and as a standard for the highest quality seafood available. Copper River Seafoods is committed to excellence and is proud that their products are harvested from well managed sources.

Impressively, each owner still actively participates in harvesting salmon every year aboard their own vessel. Although it is difficult to pinpoint exactly what draws the owners back to the river year after year, it is easy to identify what makes them stay - their passion for the industry and a longing for the world to relish the truly spectacular taste of Alaska. Copper River Seafoods has found that it is not about being the biggest fish; it's about being the best fish.

"Take a walk on the wild side."