Squibb & Co. Seafood Marketing

I recently had the opportunity to write a blog post for Wildfish Cannery on why kids need to eat more fish. You can read the blog post here. Naturally the post focuses on the virtues of consuming cans from Wildfish Cannery. In real life, I’m not such a heavy purist. You’ll find seafood from all sorts of good companies in my home.

The thoughts below are add-ons to the blog I wrote and a few product recommendations.

American adults aren’t eating enough fish, so naturally, neither are our kids. A 2019 report by NOAA Fisheries states the average American consumes around 19.2-pounds of fish a year. Considering the USDA Guidelines recommend 8 ounces per week for all Americans ages 6 months and up, that’s a huge deficit, about 7-pounds worth!

Many great organizations are trying to get kids to eat more fish, and we still have a very long way to go. Outside of pandemic times, most Americans eat fish outside of the home, and nowadays, for many of us, eating out is a luxury we’ve had to let go of. So school sounds like a great spot to introduce kids to fish, right? Unfortunately, outside of some organizations like Revolution Foods and programs like Fish To Schools (which, by the way, rely heavily on fishermen and processor donations), school foodservice has been a real challenge to penetrate.

_{^{People often ask me how I get my kids to eat a lot of fish. I can attribute two things to my success. First, I’ve found that the best gateway seafood for kids is smoked and canned salmon. Number 2, I let them play with their food! Often, I crack open a tin of canned fish and let my kids experiment with adding different flavors and ingredients. They usually come up with something wacky and weird, but they own it, and the can is always gone. Don’t be afraid to use salmon to level up their favorite foods. Here, the kids are putting Smoked Pink on top of supermarket ramen and steamed frozen veggies.}}

Practical Recommendations

I felt it was essential to include the word “Practical” in this product title because I will gladly give you my favorite budget-busting recommendations if asked. Still, this post is mainly about feeding kids. As you can see in the picture, my kids are eating directly from a can of Smoked Pink salmon. Enough said.

I keep a mix of canned and refrigerated salmon on hand. You’ll, of course, find lots of tins from Wildfish Cannery, but I also love to stock up on economic bulk cans of fish. Salmon, especially smoked salmon, is still my safety net with the kids. As a little girl, I remember being horrified by my father’s secret stashes of sardines, but I can tell you by 40, I was a full-blown sardine snacker. It takes time, but we all have to start somewhere! If we model healthy eating habits, our kids will eventually follow some of it.

Hot-Smoked Salmon

Echo Falls Coho Smoked Trio: I buy this hot-smoked refrigerated variety pack at my local Carrs (Albertson’s for those in the Lower 48!). It’s relatively affordable compared to everything in the adjacent meat counter. Our go-to in my household is a bowl of 90-second Seeds of Change Organic Quinoa and Rice with a salmon topper. We also love to add this salmon to our Mac & Cheese. Even though I prefer Alaska coho, I have found that this farmed coho is a good option, and I think the work being done by the company behind the Echo Falls brand, Ocean Beauty Seafood, is worth my support!

Canned Salmon (Economical)

Deming’s or Double Q Canned Salmon: If you’re looking for something to serve straight from the tin, shop at Wildfish Cannery. Deming’s or Double Q brand salmon is for you if you need a wonderfully healthy wild salmon packed from fresh salmon caught in Alaska’s wilds. Use this salmon for super yummy patties, sliders, and hush puppies. If you live on the West Coast, you’ll find the Deming’s brand; if you live on the East, look for Double Q. Both brands are owned and operated by Peter Pan Seafood, a legacy seafood processor continually operating since 1898! If you doubt the popularity or pure pleasure of a fried canned salmon patty, let the 2.7M views and 73K likes on this delicious recipe for Fried Salmon Patties from Back to Basics stand for something!

_{^{My kids love to eat canned salmon with chopsticks, most likely because their favorite serving vessel is a square of seaweed. Aksel loves to squeeze lemon on his salmon to add acidity and create his own perfect bite. Likewise, Liv would be fine eating smoked salmon, rice, and seaweed for eternity.}}

Frozen Salmon & Other Seafood

This is another blog post in itself, and it’s coming soon. For now, here are some words of advice.

First, if you’re looking for wild salmon, you don’t need to look far. Every major (and minor!) retailer will carry at least one variety of frozen salmon. Suppose you’re not interested in buying your fish from the store and want to order it straight from a dock to your doorstep. In that case, the truth is most of the smaller Alaska-based direct marketer operations are custom processing their fish with a larger processor and repurchasing it to sell directly to you. As you can see, the larger processors aren’t the enemy; they provide a valuable service to all fishermen by purchasing most of their fish. Without the help of large processors, most direct marketer fishermen wouldn’t be able to cost-effectively freeze their fish either. This is why I always choose to purchase my seafood from a mix of businesses.

One of my favorite ways to purchase frozen salmon is to latch on to a fisherman with access to a processor. Most processors will sell 25# boxes of frozen vacuum-packed (sometimes portioned) salmon back to fleet members. This brings new meaning to the term “know your fisherman.”

It’s really up to you to choose whose values you want to support. If you want to find local fishermen in your area, I strongly recommend you start your search with the Local Catch Network’s Seafood Finder.

Copper River Seafoods

When friends ask where to shop for Alaska fish online, I typically recommend this company. Why? They operate processing facilities throughout the state of Alaska, have authentic and direct relationships with fishermen, and process and pack all orders from Anchorage, Alaska. They also have a wide variety of species available and reasonable pricing compared to other online sellers. Halibut and cod are great “gateway” fishes for kids and they have plenty of that on the site too.

Where do you buy your fish, and why? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!

Haines Packing Company is an artisanal Alaska seafood processor located in the remote area of Haines, Alaska. It is independently owned and operated by Harry Reitze, a third-generation Alaskan.

Haines Packing Company stands out for various reasons, and one of my favorites is that Harry resides in the community where he operates his facility. He’s an involved member of the community and a genuinely stand-up guy. I absolutely love working with Harry, so I was thrilled when he asked for assistance in developing a new consumer-facing seafood master case.

This was our opportunity to bring the branding work we previously undertook in 2019 into another consumer-facing setting, and the results were quite spectacular. What I appreciate most about this box is that we’ve achieved a bold and striking graphic design while also managing to convey a faithful representation of the origin story and iconic landmarks.