After a few years, Bundrant was looking for a way to start a business in the industry. He met two other crab fishermen -- Kaare Ness and Mike Jacobson -- and in 1973 the three put their money together and built the Billikin, a 135-foot boat that changed the seafood industry, according to Trident’s corporate history.

Crab Meat

At the time, most fishermen took their haul back to the docks where processing companies pulled the crab meat out before sending it to market, leaving them with less time on water. Bundrant outfitted the Billikin with crab cookers and freezing equipment on board, allowing workers to remain at sea.

By the early 1980s, crab stocks had begun to dwindle and Bundrant decided to turn to pollock, a so-called groundfish that was swarming in the Bering Sea. Pollock was popular in Asia but not so much in the U.S. Bundrant thought Americans would like the taste once exposed to it.

His first sale was to the Long John Silver’s chain, as the story was recounted in a 2013 article in Evansville Business magazine. Bundrant, on a sales call, served it to the restaurant’s CEO, who remarked that he loved the cod -- except it was pollock.

That later opened the door to business with McDonald’s and Burger King, as well as with retailers like Costco, all using the less-expensive pollock in sandwiches, fish-and-chips and imitation crab dips.

Canned Salmon

Access to the broad retail market transformed Trident into a major fish company. Bundrant went on to build a vertically-integrated company that now does everything from harvesting and mass processing fish to selling value-added products such as canned salmon and pollock fish sticks.

“He realized that he needed to be vertically integrated to be able to deliver a large quantity of processed fish to large retailers and institutional-scale consumers,’’ said David Fluharty, an associate professor in marine and environmental affairs at the University of Washington.

Trident teamed up with other U.S. companies and turned to Congress to help limit foreign competition. With the backing of then-Washington Senator Warren Magnuson and Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, Congress passed a law that pushed the boundary where foreign fishing boats could freely operate, to 200 miles offshore from 12 miles.