fish report

The verdict around here is unanimous: this is our favorite time of the year. From Deep Inlet, Aleutkina Bay, near Sitka, AK, the Alaska Wild Summer Salmon season now begins in earnest. This week we will begin shipping whole King Salmon in 30 pound boxes for $10.90/lb. By the end of June Sockeye season will begin, with Coho not far behind continuing through September. We will be following Salmon as they head towards the rivers of their birth from Southeast Alaska all the way to the Yukon. It promises to be a beautiful summer.

In New England, NOAA has instituted the ‘Catch Share’ fishery management program that has been the backbone of the great Alaska fisheries revival. Early indications are positive, and we are pleased that our friends at Ecotrust have organized a National Panel Series to consider impacts of ‘Catch Shares’ on fishing communities. This is a great step towards the long term future of the fishery. We think it is essential to consider the effect on the fishing community as well as the fish.

Sashimi-grade Fluke, Scallops, Monkfish and Porgies from Montauk day boats.

Pink Snapper, Triggerfish, Gag Grouper, Mahi, Amberjack, Wahoo and Yellowfin Tuna from North Carolina.

Halibut, Rockfish, Black Cod, Pacific Cod, and Side-Stripe Shrimp from Alaska.

Walleye from the Red Lake Nation.

Crawfish and IQF Gulf White Shrimp from Louisiana.

Wild sustainable seafood, lovingly handled, arriving at your restaurant next day direct from the dock. And with the new Local Next Day Ground option at a 10% discount if you are within 300 miles of the fishery.

With all the bad news in the world it is refreshing to hear some good, with the strict methods of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council finally paying some handsome dividends.

These past few years, Jack Cox and our other fishermen partners have been struggling to keep the heads above water as their Snapper and Grouper fisheries have been virtually closed. These fish have long been the lifeblood of Carolina fishing communities, and we have been doing our best to develop markets for some lesser known abundant species, such as Amberjack and Triggerfish, inhabiting those waters.

Over the last year a large amount of data has indicated a dramatic population increase for many species of both Snapper and Grouper. Along with our good friend Megan Westmeyer of the South Carolina Aquarium Sustainable Seafood Initiative, we have been working to recognize that although some still require further rebuilding, some species are now very healthy. This past week our partners at the Blue Ocean Institute finally revised their ranking on Vermillion Snappers to a Green. This means that when the season opens next month, our fishermen from Beaufort, NC can offer sustainably managed, sustainably harvested Vermillion Snapper for the first time in recent memory. In the next few months we expect a series of species from this region to have their rankings raised to Green. This is the outcome all have been hoping for; supporting and protecting our invaluable fishing grounds, fishing communities and fishermen.

On Saturday, Michael and I took a trip to Montauk, NY, visiting with our new friends Brian and Asa Gosman at legendary Gosman’s Dock. The tip of Long Island is a beautiful corner of the world, and has been a vibrant fishing village since before our country was founded. Beautiful line-caught Fluke, day-boat Scallops, Monkfish and Porgies will be shipping this week. Due to the recovery of Striped Bass and Swordfish populations in the North Atlantic, we will soon be offering these and other species, where fish landing at Montauk can arrive anywhere next day, and with the new Local Next Day Ground option at a 10% discount from Boston to Washington, DC.

Pink Snapper, Triggerfish, Gag Grouper, Mahi, Amberjack, Wahoo and Yellowfin Tuna from North Carolina Halibut, Rockfish, Black Cod, Pacific Cod, King Salmon and Side-Stripe Shrimp from Alaska. Crawfish and IQF Gulf White Shrimp from Louisiana. Walleye from the Red Lake Nation.

Happy Memorial Day.

We have been landing and shipping sashimi grade line-caught Fluke, day-boat Scallops, Monkfish and Porgies from our new friends on Long Island. Fish from boats landing at Montauk on Monday can arrive anywhere Tuesday, and with the Next Day Ground shipping option, a 10% local discount from Boston to Washington, DC.

Pink Snapper, Triggerfish, Gag Grouper, Mahi, Amberjack, Wahoo and Yellowfin Tuna from Beaufort, NC can reach from Tidewater across the Carolinas via Next Day Ground.

From local waters, next day direct from the boat, at pricing competitive with week old fish.

We are making plans to expand this program to additional fisheries, and are most excited about bringing increased value to both the fisherman and the chef.

From Alaska, the first net Salmon openings in the Southeast are expected shortly, and we are anticipating a bumper season. As some of you already know, one of the Halibut boats we work with, FV Cape Spencer, sank last week, with Captain Tom Tomrdl and his 3 crewmen safely rescued by the Coast Guard.

Walleye from the Red Lake Nation have finally begun flowing in earnest, and the chefs who have had the good fortune to get fish have been most pleased. We can now steadily please chefs across the country.

In the shadow of the epic Gulf spill, some bayou men are harvesting Crawfish from unaffected back waters, and we are shipping them fresh, boiled whole or tails. There does remain some IQF Gulf White Shrimp as well.

Please join our growing list of friends on Facebook.

Understanding sustainable seafood can be a complicated matter. Sometimes species are threatened in many different places, when in individual fisheries some of the species stocks are really healthy. A good example is the snapper and grouper fishery of the Carolinas. We are working closely with Megan Westmeyer, Sustainable Seafood Initiative Coordinator for the South Carolina Aquarium. She tells us that in spite of strict fisheries management in the South Atlantic, Black and Red Grouper populations remain threatened, while Gag Grouper populations are flourishing, and although Red Snapper stocks have not yet rebuilt, Pink Snappers have recovered, with a carefully managed opening happening now. This is a blessing for Jack Cox and the fishermen in Beaufort, NC as they depend on these fisheries for their livelihood. We are also working closely with the Blue Ocean Institute, and they have agreed that in individual fisheries, the sustainable status of all sub-species should not be painted with a single broad brush stroke, and have promised to soon revise their ratings to reflect these facts.

Forty degrees and driving rain stopped the Red Lake Nation fishermen from landing Walleye last week, but the word is that better weather should allow shipments this week.

From Alaska we are landing Halibut (with some by-catch of Rockfish), Black Cod, Pacific Cod, trolled King Salmon and twice weekly the fresh Side-Strped Shrimp the Japanese call Ebi.

From Montauk, Long Island we are now steadily landing Fluke, Monkfish and Day Boat Scallops.

From Louisiana no boats are landing, and supply of Gulf White Shrimp is running low. Prices on remaining frozen stock is up almost a dollar a pound. We all are waiting for some good news from the Gulf, but none so far.

Happy Mothers Day to all you other mothers out there.

May has arrived, and we now start shipping the ‘world’s sweetest Walleye’  direct from the Red Lake Nation Reservation in northern Minnesota. These Walleye are caught and processed year-round (except in April when the ice is too thin) by the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, and they are packing 20 pound boxes of skin-on fillet at $10.90/lb delivered.

Through July we will be working with a mid-water trawler from Prince William Sound landing twice weekly at Seward with the famous Alaska Wild Side-Stripe Shrimp. These are the super sweet shrimp that the Japanese call ‘Ebi’ and most of his catch will be headed for Asia. They will pack ocean-run in 20 pound boxes and deliver at $12.90/lb. From Homer we continue to land beautiful Halibut, Black Cod, Pacific Cod, and trolled King Salmon from Sitka.

Jack Cox and the boys from Beaufort, NC have been landing beautiful Mahi-Mahi and Wahoo in addition to Triggerfish, Amberjack, and Tuna, and hope to continue.

The word from Louisiana is fear.

Boats are out and landing this week, but they do not know about next. Early Sunday morning, long tendrils of oil sheen made their way into South Pass, a major channel through the salt marshes of Louisiana’s southeastern boot-heel. The real threat lurks offshore in a swelling, churning slick of dense, rust-colored oil now the size of Puerto Rico.  ’That is the very first sign of oil I’ve heard of inside South Pass,’ said Venice, LA boat captain Bob Kenney, shaking his head.  ’It’s crushing, man, it’s crushing.’  South Pass is a breeding ground for the crab, oysters, shrimp, redfish and other seafood he and his family catch.

The spill should eclipse the 1989 Exxon Valdez incident as the worst U.S. oil disaster in history. But a growing number of experts warned that the situation may already be much worse.

‘I made the mistake of looking at what happened in Alaska on the computer last night, then I couldn’t even sleep,’  said Dean Blanchard of Grand Isle, one of the largest shrimpers on the Gulf Coast. ‘They’ve still got problems over there. If it takes me 20 years to recover, I’m out of business. That’s my whole life down the drain.’

‘The spill and the spreading is getting so much faster and expanding much quicker than they estimated,’ said Hans Graber, of the University of Miami. Oil industry experts and officials are reluctant to describe what, exactly, a worst-case scenario would look like,  but if the oil gets into the Gulf Stream and carries it to the beaches of Florida, it stands to be an environmental and economic disaster of epic proportions. The well is at the end of one branch of the Gulf Stream, the warm-water current that flows from the Gulf of Mexico to the North Atlantic. Several experts said that if the oil enters the stream, it would flow around the southern tip of Florida and up the eastern seaboard. ‘It will be on the East Coast of Florida in almost no time,’  Graber said. ‘I don’t think we can prevent that. It’s more of a question of when rather than if.’

In Pass Christian, MS, 61-year-old Jimmy Rowell, a third-generation shrimp and oyster fisherman, worked on his boat at the harbor and stared out at the choppy waters. ‘It’s over for us. If this oil comes ashore, it’s just over for us,’ Rowell said angrily, rubbing his forehead. ‘Nobody wants no oily shrimp.’

Sea to Table has developed a unique logistics system linking chefs with local fisheries over great distances. This has allowed fishermen from Alaska to Tobago to the Gulf to the Carolinas a direct connection with chefs across America, giving fishing communities better access to market, permitting them to more profitably harvest and conserve their precious marine resource.

Under a new program, we will now also deliver from local fisheries via Next Day Ground with a substantial freight savings. Any restaurant within approximately 300 miles of a landing point will be eligible for our new ‘10% Local Discount’.  Not only has this driven cost out of the system, but due to the extreme efficiencies of both FedEx and UPS, fish reaches consumer with a significantly reduced carbon footprint.

Working with boats landing at Montauk, NY, we will begin offering fish from Long Island’s Atlantic waters. With the new shipping option, fish landing at Montauk on Tuesday can arrive Wednesday at restaurants from Boston to Washington, DC, allowing a 10% savings. Direct from the boat, delivered overnight, at a lower price.

We are making plans to expand this program to additional fisheries, and are most excited about bringing increased value for both the fisherman and the chef.

The dock price for King Salmon fell again, and Captain Dan Falvey texted that he is heading back to Sitka with 15 Kings weighing 10-15 pounds each. Please call or email tonight as we will be shipping these Chinook early Monday morning for Tuesday arrival at $14.90/lb. First come, first served.

From Homer Alaska, Halibut pricing remains firm, while the fish remains pristine. Pacific Cod season is slowing down, but we hope to land a Sablefish (Black Cod) boat this week.

Stormy weather is forecast to break tonight off North Carolina’s Outer Banks, and Jack Cox and the boys plan on heading out early tomorrow, returning Tuesday. They have been landing beautiful Mahi-Mahi and Wahoo in addition to Triggerfish, Amberjack, and Tuna, and hope to continue.