oday, Alaska is the world's leading supplier of wild salmon, and Cordova fills a large percentage of the demand for the fish.

So famed, in fact, are the fresh Copper River red salmon for their delicate flavor and fatty flesh, that Seattle entrepreneurs vie every spring to be the first to offer their customers "Copper River Red Salmon."

These restaurant owners and fish market shops stand by with helicopters and rush the first fish caught to jets waiting at the small Cordova airport, to fly the fish to discerning connoisseurs.

A total of 82% of the world's wild red salmon, 40% of wild king salmon and 60% of wild pink salmon came from Alaska last year.