The Pure Alaska Omega Natural Salmon Oil is the product of Sandro Lane's Alaska Protein Recovery LLC. The product is packaged in bottles of 90, which cost $22, or the $36 bottle of 180 soft gels.

Many medical authorities consider fish oil supplements with omega-3 fatty acids to be good for human heart and vascular health. Most fish oil sold as supplements is a blend of oils from different fish, which may or may not be identified on the package. The molecular distillation process used to ensure the absence of undesirable odors and contaminants in some of these products includes heating to a temperature that can degrade the omega-3 fatty acids.

What makes this wild Alaska salmon oil special is that it is produced by using a gentle, natural, low temperature process, a method similar to that used for the extraction of extra virgin cold-pressed olive oil, the company said on its Web site. The process does not degrade the oil soluble micronutrients found naturally in Alaska salmon.

The oil is separated by centrifugation at the earliest stages of the production process, immediately after the salmon is ground and heated.

Lane's firm also produces two other products. The first is a hydrolyzed salmon protein concentrate, a nutritious, brown, viscous liquid with the taste and odor of fresh fish, which is used as a starter diet for weaning piglets, calves, larval fish and shellfish, as a pet food flavoring and as an enhancer aquaculture feed. It is sold mostly to feed makers in Asia to add flavor to straight fishmeal. The other product is a wild Alaska salmon oil sold domestically and overseas as a neutraceutical for household pets.

Lane, who has a degree in fisheries science, studied at the University of California Berkeley and the University of Alaska Southeast. From 1982 until he sold it in 2003, he owned Taku Fisheries in Juneau.

Lane estimates that Taku Fisheries processed about 10 million pounds of fish annually, and given about 35 percent waste, was grinding and dumping some 3 million pounds of fish wastes a year. He felt this was a huge waste and determined to find a way to use the rest of the fish.

By 2003, Lane had opened Alaska Protein Recovery to manufacture hydrolyzed fish protein and fish oil from Alaska seafood industry by-products. Production for the firm occurs onboard a state-of-the-art 260-foot-by-60 foot processing barge. The barge operates seasonally at different Alaska ports where large-scale salmon processing occurs, processing the waste stream into salmon protein concentrate and salmon oil.

Lane said the big challenges were getting processors to handle the waste stream in a food-grade manner, as well as getting the federal Food and Drug Administration and state Department of Environmental Conservation to review, understand and approve the process.

Lane is currently working with a major processor that allows the barge to plug into its outfall system, and in essence to become part of its plant. As the waste is generated, it can be moved at the moment of separation on to another process, so long as the equipment used to convey that waste is sanitary, he said.

The product is available at www.naturalalaskasalmonoil.com.