Our history stretches back to 1981 when Jerry Knecht founded North Atlantic Inc. (NAI) in Portland, Maine. Jerry has spent 35 years earning a reputation for innovation at NAI. He was one of the first fresh seafood suppliers to box fish at sea for the US market. He also pioneered the use of ozonated water in his dockside fish processing facility in Portland to enhance food safety and shelf life.
While working in the New England waters, Jerry identified a critical need for the industry to work with researchers and became an important liaison between the two. Working with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI), a neutral non-profit organization dedicated to the stewardship of the Gulf of Maine, Jerry became an early champion of ocean conservation and fishery sustainability efforts. He served on the Board of GMRI and remains an Honorary Director.
In 2006, Jerry’s pioneering spirit led him to take on the risk of a lifetime. Armed with a career’s worth of accumulated fishing industry knowledge, as well as first-hand insight into leading-edge fishery management practices, he moved to Bali, Indonesia with an ambitious idea.
Establish a dependable supply of high-quality unique and commodity fish for his longtime US-based customers, while introducing a new business model that promotes enduring sustainability, ensures food safety, improves the livelihoods of Indonesian fishers, and enhances economic opportunities throughout their supply chains.
Jerry established PT Bali Seafood International (BSI) as a subsidiary of NAI in 2009 as the vehicle for implementing his vision.
Since then BSI has helped encourage BRC food safety standards to Indonesia
The BSI ground team now has a constellation of 7 Asian processors who are practicing world class food safety methods and support and implement most customer driven programs from supply chain visibility to social audits.
