You may remember Matt Luck as the commercial fisherman who became a champion for our efforts to oppose the Pebble Mine and TU’s “Save Bristol Bay” campaign. You may remember him as the guy who built Pride of Bristol Bay, a company that made conservation part of their business plan to support those efforts. But you know that story. This is a different story, a family story built around a shared love of wild things and wild places.
It begins in 1993 in a gravel boat yard in Cordova, Alaska. Three-year-old Meghan Luck dipped her hands into a can of blue paint. Then her father Matt lifted her high above his shoulders so she could press them against the side of the Luck family’s new gillnetter, the Meg J. That boat, and others the Luck family has run together for the past four decades, became the foundation for a life on the ocean. It was and is a life defined by commitment to the relationship between community, family and the wild resources in the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea. It’s rare for a family to find the opportunity to build a legacy working side by side. It’s even rarer to be given the chance to reunite and evolve that legacy together.
But now things have come full circle. Meghan is no longer working with Matt as a deck hand picking fish. She’s now a partner in a new Luck family endeavor. Three months ago, Meghan resigned from a decade long career as a strategy consultant in New York City. Then she traveled to Idaho to work with her father. Together, they’re applying Matt’s lifetime of experience in the fishing industry with Meghan’s experience building new businesses to create Alaska Wild Caught Seafood, a wholesale seafood supplier on a mission to provide companies the highest quality wild Bristol Bay sockeye salmon, along with a multitude of other wild caught species. They decided together that sustainability and responsible sourcing are their first priorities when building the business.
These days you can find this father-daughter team together in the family barn that’s been turned into an office, laughing, solving problems and building another business around a shared passion for healthy oceans, healthy fisheries and healthy communities. Make no mistake, this more than a conservation story. It’s a love story. It’s a story about love of family, love of fishing and love for one of the last truly wild places left on earth. Matt and Meghan will continue to fish, and their family-owned business will continue to work with Trout Unlimited in our efforts to gain long-term protection for Bristol Bay. Like many other small business owners in the region, Matt and Meghan are stewards of the most prolific sockeye salmon fishery on the planet. They’re part of a community that supports 20,000 American jobs, a $1.5 billion economy, a world-class hunting and fishing destination, and the subsistence and cultural traditions of the native people of the Bristol Bay region. They’re TU Business members, and we’re proud to stand with them.
Alaska Wild Caught Seafood
Matthew Luck
Ketchum, ID 83340
(208) 720-4226