How to Set Up a Good Fish Network
of Safe, Sustainable Seafood Buying
Clubs
All over the country small and large groups of people are forming a new kind of food buying club to get fresh, safe, healthy, and sustainably harvested fish, lobster, shrimp, and other “fruits of the sea”. Many are looking to take advantage of the lower prices and higher quality that is available by buying direct from the fishing families, farmers and cooperatives. Others are motivated by a desire to avoid the dangerous toxins, antibiotics, and heavy metals that are commonly found in commercially available farmed fish and seafood at the supermarket.
The Good Fish Network has two goals.
1. Helping new buying clubs get started.
2. Connecting buying clubs with the best suppliers of sustainable seafood and fish.
Getting Started is Easy
With the help of the internet and email, starting and operating a seafood buying club couldn’t be easier.
With a group of 10-20 individuals or families it is economically advantageous to buy directly from fishing families, cooperatives, non-profit marketing companies for shipment directly to your home, church, veteran’s club, or place of work or worship, or to any location where you can install or have access to a refrigerator and (if possible) a freezer.
The suppliers listed below are all highly reputable. For clubs, it takes at least 50 pounds of a given item to make it economical. There are many freight companies that will ship virtually anywhere for another $1.00-2.00 per pound. Frozen fish can be sent overnight without loosing any quality. The advantages of this kind of arrangement is that seafood becomes affordable and costs about 75% of what it goes for in stores. It is also a fun way to socialize with friends.
Some groups order once every few months and they rotate the responsibility and the ordering. For example, they might order wild salmon in the early summer, shrimp in the fall, lobster around the holidays, and then smoked wild salmon or halibut in the middle of the winter.
The Good Fish Network has a sustainable seafood buying club organizing kit with sample documents and ideas available. Just send us an email to Goodfishnetwork@iatp.org.
Another important source of help for seafood buying clubs is Wildcatch
Marketing Alliance. Contact them at Wildcatch Fishers Community
Marketplace & Buying Club, Kevin Scribner, kevin@wildaboutsalmon.com,
1-888-244-0900.
Connecting With Fantastic Fish and Seafood
The following suppliers are working:
Selling clams, herring, mackerel, mussels, pickled fish, smoked fish, striped bass and tuna.
Blue Moon Fish
Alex and Stephanie Villani
PO Box 956
Mattituck, NY 11952
Bubba Sue’s Shrimp Company
Susan Harkin, a diversified Kentucky farmer in organic fruits, vegetables and herbs, has perfected the art of sustainably growing one of the finest fresh water shrimp on the planet. These “Kentucky Shrimp” are giant freshwater prawn and are grown chemical-free and fed mash from the local bourbon distillery. Harkin’s shrimp company, known as "Bubba Sue’s Shrimp” is beginning to market directly outside of Kentucky. Be the first on your block to try these out.
Susan Harkin
Bubba Sue’s Shrimp Company
Duntreath Farm
4954 Paris Pike
Lexington, Kentucky 40511
859-299-2254
A community based trout farm located in Dunne County,
Wisconsin. Specializes in chemical free rainbow trout, customized gift
packages and other products such as trout spread.
Herby Radmann
N1321 Bullfrog Road/566th Street
Menomonie, Wisconsin 54751
T: 715-664-8775
F: 715-664-8870
http://www.eatmyfish.com
bullfrog@eatmyfish.com
Selling tilapia.
Cabbage Hill Farm
Annie Farrell
115 Crow Hill Road
Mt. Kisco, NY 10549
T: 914 241 2658
http://www.cabbagehillfarm.org
Cape Cleare Fishery
These folks have been in the Alaska salmon fishing business for more than two decades and they have learned what it takes to harvest gourmet-quality wild salmon. They catch them by hand, one at a time, with hook and line. Careful handling means better quality. Most of their fish is flash-frozen within one hour of catching them. This preserves their fresh taste and firm texture. They only sell straight off the boat, which means a fairer return for the fisherman and a better price for customers.
Cape Cleare Fishery
370 Middlepoint Road
Port Townsend, WA 98368
360-385-7486
Email rick@capecleare.com
Cetus Inc.
Former Icelandic fisherman Bjjorgvin Saevarssson has created a company with the following mission “ to promote natural food products as a natural solution to our customers. We focus on quality and nature in our product selection with emphasis on food safety and the environment”
Cetus, Inc.
1201 Dupont Ave. North
Minneapolis, MN 55411
612-521-0400
612-521-0401 fax
651-336-5600 cell
Dave's Albacore (Canned Salmon and other products)
An interesting and eclectic fish-mix http://davesalbacore.com/
Alan Richardson sells Red, Ivory and Marble King steaks and Red King fillets. Sockeye also available.
Dungeness Seaworks
90 Writh Lane
Sequim, WA 98382
http://www.freshfrozenfish.com
Eden Brook Aquaculture Inc.
Selling trout.
Eden Brook Aquaculture Inc.
1327 Cold Spring Road
Forestburgh, NY 12777
T: 845 796 1749
F: 846 791 1601
Fisher's Choice Wild Salmon
Former Alaska fishing boat captain Anne Mosness, offers smoked Marine Stewardship
Council certified Alaskan wild chinook and chum (keta) salmon, in vacuum packed
chunks or fillets.
Fisher's Choice Wild Salmon
1081 Sudden Valley
Bellingham Wa. 09229
360-671-6478 (ph. and fax)
eatwildfish@aol.com
Fishermen's direct in Oregon (Canned Salmon and other products)
http://www.fishermendirect.com/index.html also has a good reputation.
Flopping Fresh Fish Company (Canned Sockeye Salmon and other products),
http://www.nas.com/fish/, is about as woolly as they get!
Skipper Roy Burton out of the FV Miss Rachel sells MSC certified Alaskan Salmon, Halibut, Cod and Rockfish.
Roy Burton
FV Miss Rachel
9609 Sunrise Rd.
Blaine, WA 98230
360-366-3427
http://www.seafoodmissrachel.com
e-mail: sales@seafoodmissrachel.com
One of the largest and oldest trout farms in Wisconsin. Specializes in
chemical free raised rainbow trout and customized packages. Ordering
available on-line
Peter J. Fritsch, Farm Manager
P.O. Box H
Palmyra, Wisconsin
T: 262-495-2089
TOLL FREE: 1-800-378-7088
F: 262-495-8327
http://www.rushingwaters.net
peterf@rushingwaters.net
SeaBear http://www.seabear.com/ is a bit more mainstream, sells unsmoked as well as smoked fish.
Established in 1856, Star Prairie specializes in fresh and smoked trout.
The owners are long-time organic food growers.
Mac and Marcy Graham
400 Hill Avenue
Star Prairie, Wisconsin 54026
T: 715-248-3633
TOLL FREE 1-888-545-6808
F: 715-248-7933
sptrout@pressenter.com
Taku Wild smoked salmon has been sustainably harvested by members of Taku River Tinglit First Nation, the people indigenous to 10 million pristine acres in Northwest Canada.
Peter Kirby, CEO
Taku Wild Products
Box 335
1 Robinson Street, Atlin, BC
Canada VOW 1AO
PH: 250-651-8258
1-888-551-8258
Wildcatch Marketing Alliance/Fishers Community Market (FCM)
Fishers Community Market is an Internet-assisted direct seafood marketplace that provides a means to establish, over distance, the characteristics of a local Farmers Market: intimacy, accountability, quality, integrity, trust, loyalty, and market certainty. The FCM hosts independent, family-level fisher-suppliers that present their sustainably-harvested seafood products at a fair wholesale price. The FCM also coordinates with community service, health-care, youth sports & schools, senior, faith-based, and environmental organizations to sell this seafood to their own community, and beyond, at a retail price they establish, with all net proceeds dedicated as fundraiser income.
Wildcatch Marketing Alliance/Fishers Community Marketplace
1050 Larrabee Ave
Suite 104-325
Bellingham, WA 98225
Kevin Scribner, kevin@wildaboutsalmon.com,
1-888-244-0900
http://www.wildaboutsalmon.com/
How Can We Help You?
Our goal is to promote the consumption of direct marketed, sustainably harvested, safe and delicious fish and seafood. Buying clubs and cooperatives are some of the best ways to make this happen. If you help in anyway just call our Good Fish Network help line at 1-877-565-1287.
If you have, or know of, a supply of sustainable seafood available to the Good Fish Network then please contact Dr. Mike Skladany mskladany@iatp.org or PH: 612-870-3402 at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy to be added to this list.
Good Fish Network
c/o Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
2105 First Ave. South
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55404
1-877-565-1287
Goodfishnetwork@iatp.org.