BRISTOL BAY

—the place that’s always been.

-Bristol Bay Native Corporation

Bristol Bay is home to the world’s largest and one of the last great wild salmon fisheries in the world. It is also home to upwards of 11,000 Yup’ik, Cup’ik, Dena’ina, and Alutiiq people, Indigenous to the region for thousands of years.

Bristol Bay is vast and relatively untouched by modern ways. From volcanoes and mountains carved by glacial ice movement to twisting streams and rivers rich with aquatic life, lakes and ponds spread across rolling tundra that flows as far as the eye can see, to beaches dotted across the coastline to rocky islands home to endangered and protected walrus and 40 million seabirds (30+ different species). The surrounding salt and fresh waters are also filled with an abundant amount of wildlife including, but not limited to: orcas, belugas, fur seals, sea otters, sea lions, harbor seals, beavers, rainbow trout, all five species of wild salmon, Dolly varden, grayling, etc. Wildlife such as, brown bears, black bears, caribou, moose, wolves, lynx, foxes, porcupines, etc. roam the coastline. This wilderness place is pristine and one of the last truly wild places left in the world.

Sustainability

Yup’ik Girl Seafood is committed to providing a product from a sustainable resource. We stand behind any initiatives that promote the longevity of Bristol Bay’s wilderness and waters. The salmon harvest is regulated by Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game. Biologists research past runs to better regulate the fishery’s harvest and escapement each season. Each fishing season, which is June, July, and August, an average 38 million Sockeye salmon return to their spawning grounds (the freshwaters where they were born) to continue their natural cycle of life and spawn themselves.

“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”

—UN World Commission on Environment and Development

This quote resonates with our practices at Yup’ik Girl Seafood. We might add culture in there, as a Bristol Bay native owned company, we believe the only way we can continue to help feed the world with our precious resource is if we practice sustainability.