The Company

Sitka Salmon Shares (now Sitka Seafood Market) provides sustainable, wild-caught Alaska seafood from small-boat fishermen to your doorstep. Founded by a second-generation Alaskan fisherman who saw the US seafood market’s lack of transparency, traceability, and overall quality, this company shortens the supply chain and connects people to the source of their food.

The Project

I joined the Sitka, AK team in the summer of 2019 as a Sustainability & Storytelling Intern. I quickly learned that while SSS had a logistically direct business model, there remained a gap in understanding for the consumer. The “why” of the product was tangled up in environmental science, government regulations, and unfamiliar fishing practices.

Image of a loop of water with a fishing boat, trees, rocks and salmon at different stages

The lifecycle of salmon

What constitutes quality seafood? In Sitka Salmon Shares’ case, you could break it down into process, people, product.

  • Process: This seafood is wild-caught by small boat fishermen. This means they are using equipment and techniques that avoid damaging the environment from which they are fishing. This is an important contrast to large-scale, indiscriminate commercial fishing. 

  • People: This seafood is provided by fishermen and families in a small community that depend on consumers for their livelihood. These are people who care about delivering on a promise of high quality; they want to share their love for the food and the place it comes from. 

  • Product: This seafood is flash frozen within 3-5 days of being caught, so it arrives at your doorstep in perfect condition. It isn’t pumped full of antibiotics or dyes like you get with farmed fish, and it hasn’t been thawed and set out for days (or weeks) like what you get at the grocery store. 

My experience centered on community engagement and product education, first through my own learning process, and then by translating that knowledge for SSS’s new and returning customers. My discovery process touched every part of the company: 

  • Assisted with a week-long member trip, introducing highly engaged customers to the town of Sitka, the fishermen, and the fish processing team 

  • Interviewed fishermen, conservationists, and park rangers around Sitka

  • Hosted chefs, food & health bloggers

  • Assisted in filming cooking videos featuring fishermen and community members

SSS connected with new and returning customers across social media, a YouTube channel, their website's blog, and a monthly members-only print newsletter. In addition to populating these with new photo and video content, I put my creative skills to use with brand-compatible illustrations. The goal here was to aid subject matter that was factual, technical and/or difficult to visualize. 

As a Sustainability & Storytelling Intern at Sitka Salmon Shares, I helped bridge the gap between this transparent seafood supply chain and consumer understanding. Through content creation, community engagement, and brand-aligned educational storytelling, I translated complex topics–like sustainable fishing practices and seafood quality–into accessible, visually engaging materials.