Gwen Neal
Co-Founder & Commercial Fisherman
Gwen co-founded Popsie Fish Co and has worked the family's Bristol Bay setnet sites since 1987.
Gwen holds her own Bristol Bay set gillnet permit and runs the harvesting and shoreline side of the operation: getting the fish out of the net, bled and chilled within minutes, and into the cold chain that keeps wild sockeye at its peak. The quality of a fillet is decided in the first hour after it leaves the water, and that hour is hers.
She knows the unglamorous craft behind a good piece of fish: handling, bleeding, chilling, and the flash-freezing that locks a salmon at its best instead of letting it age on a counter. If you have ever wondered why Popsie's sockeye tastes cleaner than what is at the store, the answer is mostly Gwen's standards.
This is not a marketing badge. Under Alaska law, a limited entry permit cannot be owned by a company — only by an individual. The permit holder must be physically on the fishing grounds while fishing, and only the permit holder can deliver and sell the catch. Every delivery is run through the permit card and recorded on a state fish ticket with the species, weight, area, date and permit holder.
It is the reason a venture-funded corporation literally cannot be what we are. Check it yourself: at cfec.state.ak.us/plook, enter Serial 60302 and Fishery S04T (zero, not the letter O), then click Find.
What Gwen knows
- ▸Fish handling, bleeding, and chilling at the setnet site
- ▸Flash-freezing and cold-chain quality
- ▸Shoreline fishery operations
- ▸Why flash-frozen beats fresh-at-counter
Meet the rest of the family
Popsie is one family with four permits. The whole story is on our About page.