Samuels Seafood has been chosen as the exclusive distributor of Jail Island Salmon, a product packed by Cooke-owned True North Seafood, according to a 1 October announcement.
Jail Island Salmon are raised in North Atlantic waters off of the East Coast of Canada, and provide “a superior food-handling experience for chefs, and a first-class dining experience for guests,” Jail Island Salmon Company said. The product is hand-graded to ensure year-round quality consistency and is available as whole fish, fillets, and portions.
Through the new partnership, Samuels Seafood will receive Jail Island Salmon products for distribution in as little as 48 hours from peak harvest. The collaboration will have the dual effect of helping to recover and preserve the inner Bay of Fundy wild Atlantic salmon population, according to the companies. For every pound of Jail Island Salmon that is sold, Samuels has committed to donating a portion of its proceeds to the Fundy Salmon Recovery project, which aims revive the wild Atlantic salmon population, an endangered species.
The project is the first in the world to collect Atlantic salmon that have spent their critical early life stages in the wild, and then care for them in an ocean environment at the world’s first Wild Salmon Marine Conservation Farm, which is operated by Cooke Aquaculture.
“These endangered inner Bay of Fundy Atlantic salmon are released back into the wild to naturally spawn the next generation. Survival of the species depends on human intervention, new thinking, and the dedication of collaborators like Samuels Seafood,” Jail Island said in a press release.
“Last year, the project’s recovery efforts resulted in record-breaking returns of wild Atlantic salmon. Samuels is proud to support an initiative that is working to enhance and sustain such an important ecosystem,” Samuels Seafood added.
Jail Island Salmon Company was the first salmon producer to market its product under its own brand, which was named after a small island in Lime Kiln Bay. A leading seafood supplier and distributor to large markets across the U.S., Samuels Seafood has been a purveyor of True North seafood for over 25 year. True North Seafood is the only North American salmon producer that has achieve a fully-integrated 4-star Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification status. The company's recent collaboration with the Martha Stewart brand was highlighted in SeafoodSource's "Top 25: Seafood Product Innovation" list, published last month.
