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| By Jonathan Gramling With the abundance of waterways Wisconsin enjoys: Lakes Michigan and Superior, Green Bay and thousands of lakes, one would think that Wisconsin would be a fish lover’s paradise. But outside of sport fishing for walleye in the north woods or salmon fishing in Lake Michigan, Wisconsin produces relatively little of the seafood product eaten in Wisconsin. Michael Parkinson, manager of Blue Harbor Fish and Seafood, a Native American-owned wholesale fish company, used to be a commercial fisherman before 1999 when the enforcement of Native American treaty rights forced him out of the fishing business and he began working for his wife who had founded Blue Harbor, which has its own brands of shrimp, lobster, lake fish and ocean fish. According to Parkinson, only 20 percent of their product comes from Wisconsin. “Very little walleye comes out of Wisconsin,” Parkinson said. “It’s mostly all smelt, white fish, perch and trout.” One reason for the relatively small walleye production is that the seafood industry is becoming increasingly internationalized. Although Wisconsin is known for its walleye, very little production occurs here because of regulations. “I would guess that three percent of the walleye consumed in the U.S. is caught in the U.S.,” Parkinson observed. “The rest all comes from Canada. Our government doesn’t allow us to have walleye fisheries. There are no walleye fisheries in the U.S. Even the Native Americans are restricted from catching walleye. So, Canada basically controls that whole market.” And even fish caught in the U.S. or in waters off the U.S. become a part of the international seafood production system. “They catch fish in the Grand Banks, take it to China for processing and then bring it to the U.S. for sale,” Parkinson said. “I know guys who catch fish here and send it to China for processing and bring it back. It’s actually cheaper to do that than to process it in the United States. Don’t ask me how, but I’ve noticed the quality of that fish is really second- rate compared to fish that was processed in the United States. China does have some good fish. All we want them to do is abide by the laws and give us a pound for a pound. That’s important to us Americans. We want to make sure that if the fish are pond raised, they are fed good food. Breaded fish just aren’t around because a lot of fish are breaded in China. Very few are breaded in the U.S. We are one of the few in the Midwest who bread their fish. There are us and one other person in Chicago. Then you’re going all the way out to Florida or California where there are two more. Again, it’s cheaper to have it done in China.” While Blue Fish purchases some of its seafood products in China, it has recently been successful in making it a two-way street. “On a trip to Lang Dou Chou, we saw they fed the people every day who worked in the shrimp farms,” Parkinson said. “They were looking for something to feed these people that wasn’t real expensive, but would hold up. There was an abundance of white fish about two years ago. We bought two containers of white fish and sent them overseas for the farmers to feed their workers. In return, they sold us shrimp. In some ways, it was like an exchange, but currency has to change hands in order for it to be legal. It was like a mutual agreement between us. We were trying to further that, but white fish had become scarce. And we had problems with the fish in the Great Lakes at this time. So we can’t further it at this point. However, next year is looking good and we should be able to get back on track and create some business with China again.” And because they are involved in the international market, there can be large fluctuations in supply and demand that can affect the price and the supply. “In Upper Michigan, we harvest about two million pounds of salmon per year,” Parkinson said. “Most of these salmon are basically buried in the ground because we can’t handle it fast enough and we don’t have the markets for them. As the wild salmon market rises, these salmon are becoming more and more in demand by people. The price which used to be 30 cents per pound went all the way up to $1.10 per pound this year. China and Japan want salmon. So right now we’re negotiating with them for next year to send salmon to China and Japan.” While the seafood business is in Parkinson’s blood, he laments that the seafood industry is a very difficult business to be in. There’s red tape associated with the import/export business and the problems China is experiencing is causing long delays. “Snow crab has been fairly non-existent for most of this year,” Parkinson said. “There’s been very little caught. Prices have been up on that. It’s not a fun industry to be in this year. Cod is hard to find. Everything is being delayed and we haven’t caught up to the process yet.” And yet, as he exhibited his products at Marketplace 2007 last fall, one got the sense that Parkinson takes a great deal of pride in what he does and it still keeps him connected to the seas. While he grew up fishing local, he is now engaged globally. The fish industry is in his blood. |