The season has begun.
Captain Steve Kurian is back where it all starts — on the wild, wind-carved waters of Bristol Bay, Alaska. After three flights and thousands of miles from his home in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, he’s stepped once again onto the deck of the F/V Ava Jane, the small-but-mighty vessel that chases the world’s most famous salmon run.
The air smells of salt and diesel; gulls circle overhead. Fuel lines checked. Nets repaired. Provisions packed — including pounds of smoked and canned Wild for Salmon sockeye. When the tide turned, the crew pushed off, beginning another season in Alaska’s beating heart of wild abundance.
A Crew Built for the Bay
This year marks Captain Steve’s 24th season commercial fishing in Bristol Bay — a career shaped by grit, patience, and deep respect for the ocean’s rhythm.
The Ava Jane carries both familiar faces and new energy:
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Zach and Layton, loyal deckhands returning for another round.
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Elijah and Hunter, newcomers ready to learn the language of tide and weather.
For the next forty days, they’ll live entirely aboard the boat — eating, sleeping, and working shoulder-to-shoulder in one of the most intense, rewarding fisheries on Earth.
“We’re just along for the ride,” Steve says. “The salmon set the pace. We just do our best to keep up.”
Here, the sea decides everything: when they rest, when they eat, when they haul the nets.
The 2025 Sockeye Salmon Run 
According to the Alaska Department of Fish & Game, roughly 51 million sockeye salmon are expected to return to Bristol Bay this summer. Biologists will watch the run in real time, adjusting harvest limits so that enough salmon swim past the nets to spawn upstream.
That careful balance — catching just enough, protecting the rest — is what keeps Bristol Bay thriving. It’s why we’re able to share these fish with you year after year. Every fillet from Wild for Salmon can be traced back to this place, this crew, this cycle of renewal.
Life on the Ava Jane
Days blur into nights lit by the northern sun. Meals happen between sets; laughter fills the small galley. The crew moves as one body, hauling nets heavy with fish that flash silver in the cold Alaskan light.
Out here, time is measured not by hours but by tides. Each sockeye pulled from the water is a reminder — of wildness, of endurance, of connection between people and place.
Follow the Season
Over the next few weeks, we’ll share updates from the Ava Jane — photos, stories, and behind-the-scenes glimpses into what it takes to bring wild-caught sockeye from Bristol Bay to your plate. You’ll meet the crew, see the untamed coastline they call home each summer, and feel what it means to fish by hand in one of the last truly wild fisheries on Earth.
Stay tuned. Stay wild. And thank you for supporting fishermen who do things the right way.
Meet the 2025 Crew of the F/V Ava Jane
