Shipping Fish Home

[ElaineB2]

Does anyone know how much it costs to ship home fish? We are doing a halibut charter and DH is doing a salmon charter. Hopefully, we will have some fresh fish to ship home. Do they charge per pound?

[yerlaw]

Elaineb2

I started a similar post a couple of weeks ago called "what to do with the fish?" I got some good responses. My wife and I are fishing in Ketchikan in July. The Ketchikan chamber of commerce's website has a listing for seafood processors. Only one of the processors had a website and I could not get it to work. And Frankly, I have been to lazy to call the others on the list. You may want to look at the ports chamber of commerce website for information on the area that you all will be going fishing. Good luck and have a great trip.

[Budget Queen]

Costly- I've paid over $100- a few times. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] Determine ahead of time what you want- fresh frozen or smoked?? I understand HAL will now store it for you, but if going on an airline- packaging will have to meet their standards and I would definately have it dry ice packed.

[ElaineB2]

Budget Queen - approximately how many pounds did you pay $100 for?

[greatam]

Figure about $.90 per pound for processing (filleting, vac pack and freezing) and another $2.30+ per pound for shipping FEDEX with dry ice. The larger the shipment, the cheaper it gets.

If you can ship to your embarkation point, pick up your fish, and bring it home on the plane with you, you can save some money, but must do everything (customs, paperwork, agriculture) in proper sequence, especially if you are ending your cruise in Canada.

We ship at least 200# of Salmon home to AZ every year from Homer. It costs us nothing but a fishing permit and my DH's ambition BUT!!! This year, we are bringing the fish with us on the plane and paying the excess luggage charges (if any). Have had great luck with FedEX, but it is expensive.

My BIL was on a HAL cruise last summer, went halibut fishing, got a LARGE halibut (little over 130# live weight), and it cost over $450.00 to get the frozen, processed fish back to Iowa. He could have bought it cheaper in the store. You pay for LIVE weight, not what the fillets or however you have it packed weighs. How much do you value your fish??? Sometimes it is cheaper to let your charter operator have the fish. Do you want the memories (I am eating fish I caught in Alaska) or do you want food???

If you have any questions, you can email. [email]greatam@earthlink.net[/email]

[phubli]

Mu husband and I are on the Dawn Princess ship from Vancouver to Whittier on July 5th and we are fishing for Salmon in Ketchikan and Juneau and then halibut in Whittier. We decided that we would ship like the biggest fish we catch every day home. Just one a day. We want memories rather than food but if I catch a 30 pound salmon, I am not parting with it that easy! I think that charter captains can take care of the whole thing - fillet, freeze and ship it for you.

Also, have you conisdered actually consuming some fresh caught fish right there on a boat for lunch? Raw - sashimi style. Salmon and halibut both are great raw and this way we would get to try the fish we catch. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif[/img]

[bonsai1]

phubli,
Who are you using to fish with in Juneau?
Thanks

[ElaineB2]

phubli - I could not eat raw fish [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif[/img] I only do cooked food. I'd like to be able to ship some halibut and salmon home - not huge quantities but just enough for a couple nice meals that we know is fresh.

[phubli]

Hey bonsai1 - we are fishing with Capt. Todd of Auke Bay Fishing in Juneau...any reviews? And we are fishing with Ken/Norther Lights in Ketchikan. In Whittier we are going with Good Time Charters.

ElaineB2 - I love raw fish actually but I am not sure that I feel like cutting it up myself on a fishing boat. That would be a far cry from Kamahachi Sushi [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]I think we will ship some of ours back as well so that we can dine with friends on our "catch of the cruise"

[mpk]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by greatam:
Figure about $.90 per pound for processing (filleting, vac pack and freezing)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That's sounds like a good deal. The only processing quote I found on the web was $1.60 in Ketchikan. And the site said "that is cheaper than the cruiseline arranged processors".