Wild Alaskan Company review: A flexible subscription service that brings wild-caught Alaska seafood to your door

The Wild Alaskan Company is a sustainable seafood delivery service. We tried the monthly subscription and found the fish flavorful and tender.

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After spending 15 years working at internet startups, Arron Kallenberg returned to his fishing roots and used his technological knowledge to create the subscription-based Wild Alaskan Company. The mission is simple: the service delivers wild-caught seafood from Alaska and the Pacific Northwest to everywhere in the US, except Hawaii.

And the seafood from these regions of the country isn't just delicious, it's also more environmentally friendly than your typical supermarket fish selection. That's because Alaska mandates directly in its constitution that seafood must be maintained on the sustained yield principle, which prevents the long-term depletion of natural resources.

Read on to find what we think of the seafood and ordering experience from Wild Alaskan Company. Check out more of the best places to order seafood online, or if you're shopping for a less pescatarian crowd, consider the best meat delivery services. 

How Wild Alaskan Company works

All year long, the company offers sockeye salmon, coho salmon, Alaskan halibut, and Pacific cod. Depending on availability, it also stocks rockfish, wild Alaska pollock, sablefish, and weathervane scallops. The fish arrives frozen in a dry ice-packed, insulated cooler, ready to be stashed in your freezer or cooked immediately. 

Items are bundled together into the Wild Salmon Box (6-ounce portions of salmon), Wild White Fish Box (6-ounce portions of white fish), and Wild Combo Box (6-ounce portions of both types). Each box is available with 12 or 24 portions. Though you can't order à la carte, you can build a custom box from all the available seafood with a minimum of six portions. 

You can adjust your monthly subscription anytime, including the delivery schedule and box type.

What is fresh-frozen fish?

The fish isn't "fresh" in the traditional sense — it isn't sent to you shortly after being caught. Rather, it's "fresh-frozen," (otherwise known as flash-freezing), which means it's frozen shortly after it's caught and handled. This method, used by indigenous Inuit communities, actually helps retain the taste and texture of your fish, plus it lets you enjoy all types of seasonal fish year-round. 

By comparison, some of the seafood you see at grocery store counters may be older than you think, and it's not unlikely that it was previously frozen. Some seafood departments, such as the one at Wegman's, even throw out their fresh fish after two days.

Review of Wild Alaskan Company

I love eating fish but don't buy it often when I go grocery shopping due to either lack of availability at my local market or confusion about the fish's background and sourcing. While I think Wild Alaskan Company could be even more transparent about its suppliers and processors, I liked at least knowing that the service sources from sustainably managed fisheries and was created by people who care about the wellbeing of natural food systems.

Senior reporter and resident fisherman Owen Burke also advises using Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch consumer guide to look up the safety and sustainability of the specific fish you receive. 

All in all, I felt like I could spend more time and energy simply enjoying the fish. Wild Alaskan Company sent me its Wild Combo Box to test out. The monthly assortments can vary, but at the time, my box contained sockeye salmon, coho salmon, Pacific cod, halibut, and pollock. My box of fish tasted great: flavorful, tender, and flaky.

The bottom line

As we've already seen with the online meat boom, there's a greater urgency to think more consciously and carefully about where your food comes from and its effects on the planet.

Wild Alaskan Company is one of the direct-to-consumer equivalents in the fish and seafood industry, so whether you already love eating seafood or wish you had more guidance picking out the right types, it's a service you should consider trying.