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Amazing Dads: Scott Blake of Copper River Seafoods
Meet the fourth-generation fisherman who started a company to support his family, Alaska’s fishing communities, and the wild seafood industry.
Jun 02, 2025
Like many young boys in Alaska, Scott Blake grew up fishing alongside his father and other family members. It’s a tradition handed down generationally, a true rite of passage.
For those in the commercial fishing industry, this father-son experience is as much an apprenticeship as a form of bonding. Many young boys (and girls, too) who learn to catch salmon, halibut, and black cod in the cold waters of the Gulf of Alaska, Bristol Bay, or out in the harrowing Bering Sea, will eventually become commercial fishermen as adults.
Scott, a proud father who now watches his three sons commercially fish, exemplifies this progression. Since 1996, when he co-founded Copper River Seafoods, he has worked tirelessly to protect this way of life.
“It's been part of our family heritage forever. It's been our livelihood,” Scott says.
He built the processing and distribution company, which supplies Vital Choice with wild-caught Alaska seafood from its six facilities throughout Alaska, to ensure a future for the fishing industry — and for his three sons Matthew, Dylan, and Hunter, all of whom fish for Copper River Seafoods.
A commitment to sustainability — for fish and families
Scott partnered with three other Alaska fishermen to start Copper River Seafoods in 1996. At the time, farmed salmon companies in the United States and Europe threatened the livelihoods of the 49th state’s fishing industry and families.
Consumer concerns about overfishing helped fuel the rise of aquaculture; Scott and his colleagues were eager to prove that if managed efficiently and marketed successfully, wild Alaskan seafood could persevere and even thrive. Salmon from Alaska’s pristine waters are, by most measures, a healthier protein to eat than farmed fish — for one, their feed comes from a nutrient-rich natural environment rather than fishmeal pellets.
Nearly 30 years later, Scott’s gambit proved correct. His company has approximately 250 employees and collaborates with hundreds of independent fishermen. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game and other governing bodies work with companies like Copper River Seafoods to ensure fisheries follow quota systems that manage fish populations, and the market for wild Alaskan seafood has proved robust. This, in turn, fuels economies in Alaskan fishing communities.
The seafood industry is “the largest employer in Alaska,” super-dad Scott notes, “so it’s important for us, for the fishermen, the companies, and their families to see that it is sustainable for many future generations.”
Blake’s own family is a perfect example.
Passing the torch to a new generation
About five years after co-founding Copper River Seafoods, Scott and his wife, Tara, welcomed twin boys, Matthew and Dylan, into the world. Like their father and two previous generations, they would grow up fishing commercially in Alaska.
“I started fishing on my grandpa’s boat with him when I was 6 to 8 years old,” Matthew Blake says.“ As soon as I started, I knew I wanted to fish.”
Matthew and his brother Dylan, now 25, grew up and purchased their own vessels, joining the many fishermen who supply Copper River Seafoods with wild-caught salmon, halibut, black cod, and other seafood to ship to the Lower 48 and beyond.
Matthew notes that his dad inspired him to follow in his footsteps into the fishing industry. His grandfather had a photo of Scott as a very young boy on the center console of his skiff. The photo showed Scott working…at age 6. “He was already crewing!” Matthew says with a laugh.
Matthew and Dylan’s younger brother, Hunter, 21, has just purchased his first boat and is starting to fish for Copper River Seafoods, too.
Portrait of a proud and hard-working Alaska fishing family
Scott preaches the need for this new generation of Alaska fishermen to diversify, to work almost year-round, following the catch throughout each designated season. Speaking of his son Matthew, he says, “Matt doesn’t just fish salmon. He fishes halibut and black cod. He crabbed last winter. He’s fishing different fisheries to make sure he has a steady income coming in all year long.”
Scott acknowledges that this type of commitment can be hard on families, as he and Tara experienced. “I was always away from my kids and my wife for a big part of my life, being out on the grounds,” he says of his early career. “There's a lot of family separation.”
While the fishing lifestyle has benefits, such as the ability to work outdoors surrounded by picturesque seascapes, the waters can turn deadly. Scott calls it a “high-risk business.” "I tell my boys that success in fishing isn't just about the catch — it's about coming home. The best fishermen are the ones who live to tell the story."
He acknowledges that he and Tara, who call Anchorage home, wish they could see more of their sons, who are based in Cordova, a 55-minute flight. This is a common situation among Alaska’s fishing families, however, and the pride in Scott’s voice when he talks about his sons’ success as fishermen and as businessmen signifies that it’s all worth it.
"I'm proud of my sons — they're hardworking young men, carving out their own success in the world of commercial fishing, on their own terms, and with their own determination."
AUTHOR
Richard Martin is a writer, editor, and strategist who specializes in food, drink, and travel. He is the co-founder and editor of Appetito, the new online publication about Italian food and drink, and the co-author of the cookbook series Preserved, from publisher Hardie Grant NA.
