Robert Erkins, the former president of the Snake River Trout Company and the National Fisheries Institute, died in Twin Falls, Idaho, U.S.A. on 26 April. He was 93 years old.
Erkins served as chairman of the National Fisheries Institute from 1967 to 1968.
His impact on the seafood world was outsized, according to the NFI, which issued a statement on 1 May publicizing Erkins’ passing.
“[Erkins] embraced a global view of the seafood community when such a view was novel if not visionary,” current NFI President John Connelly said in the statement. “It was with that same practical perspective that he looked at the importance of aquaculture.”
A veteran of World War II, where he served in the U.S. Navy, Erkins raised both the reputation and prominence of fish produced through aquaculture via his company, which he grew into largest trout company in the world. He was also a co-founder of the International Seafood Conference and a publisher of well-read seafood and foodservice industry newsletters.
Erkins also founded the Bliss Valley Foods Company, where he used geothermal energy to produce gourmet oyster mushrooms. He was also a trustee of the Biological Abstracts and a director of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, according to his obituary, which was published in the Magic Valley Times-News.
