Sakari. Our brand of the highest quality Johnstone Strait wild sockeye salmon.
Sakari is quality, uncompromised. Located right in our backyard off Vancouver Island, the Johnstone Straits produce the highest quality sockeye salmon in the world. Walcan believes that in order to produce the best tasting, freshest and most sought-after salmon, it must be treated differently. Thus, our Sakari brand was born.
Sakari is cleaned and processed by hand, ensuring each fish gets the unique attention it needs to become the best final product. Stuffing every fish through the same automated gutting machine, regardless of size or shape, would only serve to degrade the product. Automation is only used to weigh and move the Sakari salmon — everything else is done by our amazing employees, with care and dedication to quality at the forefront of every decision.
Johnstone Strait sockeye salmon has long been sought after by the international market, due to its superior quality and suitability for use in sushi. In the 1980s we were approached by Japanese customers for our location, and also our willingness to adopt hand processing techniques. These techniques are crucial to ensuring the highest quality and integrity of the finished sockeye salmon product.
In addition to our commitment to quality, Walcan has a unique advantage in this market due to our processing plant being at the southernmost end of Johnstone Strait. This means that when other boats are still waiting to be offloaded in Vancouver for distribution, our wild BC sockeye salmon is already cleaned, gutted, chilled, boxed to our customers’ specifications, and shipped to market. We have a solid 12-24 hour jump on the rest of the industry because of this, resulting in quicker market access and vastly superior freshness.
The sCIENCE BEHIND SAKARI.
So why is sockeye salmon from the Johnstone Strait considered the best in the world? It’s all about location, location, location. Wild sockeye salmon have two distinct migratory stages: the ocean phase, and the river phase. Sockeye salmon begin their lives in the Johnstone Strait before making their way to the Fraser River. While in the Johnstone Strait, or “ocean phase”, they feed continuously, building up strength for their long journey ahead. Once they leave the Strait and swim into the Fraser River, entering the “river phase”, they stop eating entirely, living off of only the nutrients they previously stored. For this reason, sockeye salmon caught before they leave the Johnstone Strait are the most nutritious in the world, rich in flavour and full of Omega 3s, protein, and potassium.
