ALASKA POLLOCK
Alaska Pollock
Also known as ‘Walleye’ Pollock, Alaska Pollock is a small relative of the Cod.
It lives in the temperate and colder waters of the North Pacific where it is the basis of one of the largest commercial fisheries in the world.
Alaska Pollock lives close to the bottom at 30-400m depth and feeds from ground-based seafood such as Sandeel, Herring and small Salmon.
They can start spawning at around 3-4 years of age and 30-40 cm long, and can produce from 500,000 up to 15m eggs. Some grow up to 80 cm long and live to be around 15 years old.
Harvesting of Alaska Pollock is mainly with pelagic nets. The majority is prepared and frozen immediately on board as fillets, industrial blocks, surimi, headed and gutted or round-frozen. However, some of the catch is also landed fresh.
Alaska Pollock lives in the northern Pacific Ocean, ranging from Japan to the Sea of Okhotsk and to
the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. TNIRO, the
Russian Pacific Research institute for Fishery and Oceanography, is responsible for the research and assessment of Russian Pacific resources.
The Russian fishery of Alaska Pollock, in the Russian Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk, is now going through an MSC certification process.
Alaska Pollock is mainly caught in US and Russian waters but some volume is caught by Japanese and South Korean harvesters.
Annual catch in all areas over the past decade has been between 2.5 and 2.8m MT. The Russian catch of Alaska Pollock in the Sea of Okhotsk and Bering Sea is shown below.
| Column 1 | Column 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 1,022,000 | 2009 | 1,326,000 | |
| 2007 | 1,218,000 | 2010 | 1,581,000 | |
| 2008 | 1,319,000 | 2011 | 1,500,000 * | |
Most of our Alaska Pollock is caught in the Sea of Okhotsk during the January to April season. We also receive supplies caught in the Russian waters of the western Bering Sea.
Alaska Pollock is prominent in the major markets
of North America, Asia, Russia and Europe. It is
an important raw material for processors of frozen ready-meals and crab imitation products.
Alaska Pollock has soft, white meat suitable for processed (and particularly coated) products. It features in many consumer products including fish fingers, ‘Schlemmer’ filets, plain or breaded fillets
in bags, and in imitation-crab products made out
of surimi.
| Energy | 314 kJ | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Fat | 0.8g | ||
| Protein | 16.7g |