"The protein level in herring is almost the same as salmon, and it has about triple the omega 3 oils," said Schactler, who is awaiting reports on how the herring improves the health of children in a Uganda orphanage and refugees on the border of Congo.

The combination of high animal protein and omega 3 oils is expected to help people receiving meals through the food aid programs to boost their health to a level where their bodies can better utilize anti-viral drugs to fight the ravages of diseases like AIDS, Schactler said in an interview July 22.

Some 3,000 pounds of canned Alaska herring, with a shelf life of five to seven years, arrived in July in Uganda for distribution by the United Nation's World Food Organization to an orphanage in Uganda and refuge camps on the border of Congo. As the pilot project proceeds, the World Health Organization will monitor not only how well people like it, but also its nutritional benefits, he said.

"I am following along on the same marketing and development models that we have done with salmon to this point," said Schactler, who has worked since 2004 to develop markets for wild Alaska seafood in international food aid programs. "One container (of canned herring) is about 200,000 meals. This will start showing people this is a viable product. Everybody likes it. If you can show that, it will start turning into a viable program."

Schactler started fishing salmon in 1975, and herring in 1980. He went to college for a couple of years, and then got involved in the fishing industry.

"I'm just trying to save my own business, and if I have to create markets for the rest of the world to bring the price up, that's what I'm going to do," he said.

The byproduct of that work has been the introduction of wild Alaska salmon as the first animal protein in international food aid programs, among them the UN's World Health Organization, which feeds millions of people annually. Schactler's efforts have also eased the entry of wild Alaska salmon into domestic programs, from food banks to school lunches. One of his current projects is to introduce salmon burgers into school lunch programs nationwide.

Schactler's initial incentive was that Alaska salmon processors were canning more fish than the market would bear. He talked to then-Gov. Frank Murkowski, and gave the governor a list of people he thought would do a good job promoting wild Alaska salmon in world food aid programs. Murkowski put Schactler to work within the Alaska Department of Agriculture. His position later transferred into ASMI.

His efforts have paid off to the point where about 20 percent of the 1-pound cans of wild salmon were being purchased for food aid programs. And last fall, "while everything in the world was free falling in price, the canned pinks were going up in price," he said.

As demand for wild Alaska canned salmon in food aid program grows, Schactler is working to increase the demand for salmon and herring.

"There is so much need all over Alaska for some new economic development," he said.

One of the beauties of the canned herring program is that male and female herring would have equal value in the canned program. Schaller noted that when processors do not run the herring through a sex sorting machine, males are frozen and shipped along with females. Later, when males are sorted out, they are generally sent to meal plants to make low-grade surimi or is marketed for food or bait.

Herring for bait, low-cost food and fertilizer are industry by-products, accounting for only about 1 percent of the annual harvest.

In Norton Sound, there are some 4 million to 8 million pink salmon that don't get harvested because the cost of processing and transporting the fish doesn't make it viable, Schaller said.

"Add into that another 10,000 tons of herring available by quota there, depending on the year and the biomass," he said. "If we can turn this into a commercially viable product, then maybe that will bring about the climate for investment and people will want to put in a cannery in Norton Sound. You would be hauling fish, putting people to work, and then could go on a backhaul freight barge from the north."

The next stage of development of potential canned herring markets would be to put up several containers of canned herring and pilot projects with several more non-government organizations around the world, in different countries, climates and cultures.

"It's the same model we used and are still using for salmon," he said. "We are still showing more people the value of salmon as a food aid product."

Schactler's efforts have drawn support from the likes of Trident Seafoods, Ocean Beauty Seafoods and Icicle Seafoods, all Seattle-based seafood-processing firms that work in Alaska.

Trident contributed 5,000 pounds of frozen herring for initial research and development projects. Ocean Beauty is doing market research in Europe on canned herring and also introduced the product to international seafood buyers at Brussels, and Icicle at the Boston Seafood Show, Schactler said.

The challenge is getting Alaska seafood accepted into U.S. Department of Agriculture's programs. They are currently excluded because, unlike catfish and tilapia, they are harvested in Alaska's vast ocean waters, rather than from a controlled environment, he said.

The politics of accessing the USDA programs have so far excluded harvesters of wild Alaska seafood, but Schactler said he's not giving up.

"We have some new plans we are working on nationwide to get this (acceptance of wild seafood) up and running, and if we can, it will be good for all fishermen in the United States," he said.

Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman.@alaskajournal.com.