Great story from Ketichikan’s KRBD radio news director Leila Kheiry on a Southeast Alaska couple, LaDonna and Ole Gunderson. Both in the commercial fishing industry, the Gundersons have authored cookbooks but will take a more diplomatic approach in their latest venture, which will bring them (and a lot of salmon fillets) to the Middle Eastern nation of Oman to spread their livelihood abroad:

Here’s some of KRBD’s report via Alaska Public Media:

LaDonna Gundersen has written several cookbooks, and salmon – always Alaskan, always wild – is heavily featured. The two also have participated in the Live in Ketchikan’s Celebrity Chef cooking program – produced by KPU-TV.

That show is how she and Ole Gundersen ended up getting invited for a visit by the U.S. Embassy in Muscat, Oman.

“We received an email asking if I’d be interested in coming over and sharing Alaska culture and fishing and cooking salmon and like that,” she said. “When we first saw the email, we were like, ‘Hmmm. This is curious.’”

LaDonna said she wasn’t sure the email was legitimate, but she wrote back and asked for more details. A month later, they got a reply, and KPU-TV Marketing Manager Michelle O’Brien was cc’d on the email.

So, the Gundersens knew it was legit, and they wrote back to give a resounding “yes!” to the invitation.Turns out, “her friend, Ann Mason at the U.S. Embassy, they went to college together, I think around 20 years ago, and they kept in contact,” LaDonna said. “And they were looking to promote wild salmon in Oman, so she reached out to Michelle, and Michelle suggested looking at my Celebrity Chef stuff I’ve done.”

They worked out some details, and learned that the embassy wanted the Gundersens to share not only the joys of wild Alaska salmon, but also the business end of running a small family-owned commercial fishing operation.

Best of luck to the couple on their goodwill tour of Oman.