A look at Skuna Bay farm-raised salmon with chef Ian Gresik of Drago Centro

According to a recent study by the Harvard School of Public Health, the ingestion of red meat can cause a 13% greater chance of premature death. Now with that in mind, consumers may feel at ease shifting their meat focus to seafoods like salmon, which can be one of the healthiest types of fish for consumption. But not all salmon are created equal. Yes, created (housed in controlled farms across the country). Majority of the salmon Americans consume are farm raised, grown in pens near the ocean. Public attention has focused on aquacultural operations that are environmentally inefficient, but there is a new salmon farm that is seeking more sustainable ways to raise their salmon. It is endorsed by L.A. chefs like Mezze’s Micah Wexler, Little Dom’s and Dominick’s Brandon Boudet, and Drago Centro‘s Ian Gresik. Skuna Bay was launched in Los Angeles this past November. It is available through Santa Monica Seafood, their distributor. We sat down with chef Ian Gresik where he answered our questions about Skuna Bay.

Harvesting and delivery

Skuna Bay salmon are raised by a team of six craftsmen farmers off the western coast of Vancouver Island, Canada in an isolated region where glacier-fed waters, perfect salinity and strong tidal currents is said to create an ideal environment for the salmon to fully mature and thrive. Skuna Bay states that their salmon pens are 98.5% water and 1.5% fish.

The craftsmen farmers look after the fish from birth until harvest. Gresik tell us his experience at the farm, “It was really amazing to see the fish being fed, being harvested, processed and then two days later that same fish is at the doorstep of the restaurant.”

Chef Gresik tells us that Skuna salmon comes a lot fresher, “There’s a higher standards for it, so you’re getting a more consistent fish every time.” Only six salmon experts hand select the qualified salmon to ship out.

Environmental impact

The fish are packaged in a recyclable cardboard box that maintains the freshness. Chef Gresik shares, “The packaging for Skuna Bay Salon is very unique. It comes three whole fish per box and it comes packed in ice with a little card of who inspected the fish and the date of when the fish was harvested. No one else that I know sends their fish like that.”

Skuna Bay ultimately strives to protect and conserve the environment by reducing pressure on wild fish stocks. Gresik confides, “I think that if everyone was using wild salmon, our resources would be depleted rapidly. If you don’t make the change to farm-raised products, there won’t be anything left.”