The Business of Seafood Archives

When Kelly Haugen and Erica Tardiff first met James Iacino, Executive Chairman of Seattle Fish Company, they were CSU students with a vision to create a positive global impact on biodiversity and aquaculture. Two years later, with the help of a grant from SFC, they’ve developed that vision into a company, Nobilis Aqua, and recently launched their first product, The Nobilis Aqua Growout (Trout) Feed.

The Nobilis Aqua Growout Feed is formulated on a foundation of responsibly-sourced invasive Asian Carp meal. After many rounds of research and development, they’ve simplified the feed down to only a handful of ingredients in order to maximize fishmeal protein efficiency, making it perfect to maximize weight gain of trout while not compromising nutritional health.

“There are some amazing sustainable solutions being developed throughout the aquaculture feed industry right now,” said Haugen. “With feeds trending towards plant-based and insect-based products, we felt there was still a strong opportunity to innovate around new fishmeal protein alternatives not regularly seen in the market.”

According to the USDA, aquaculture is defined as “the production of aquatic organisms under controlled conditions throughout part or all of their lifecycle”. You’ve likely seen fish labeled “farm-raised” at your local grocery store or seafood market, meaning that fish is a product of aquaculture. NOAA’s FishWatch states that approximately half of the seafood eaten in the world is farm-raised.

Though aquaculture and farm-raised seafood have occasionally garnered a negative reputation due to the resources needed to raise farmed fish, companies like Nobilis Aqua are passionately working to make a positive impact on the industry. This is the main reason that Nobilis’ Growout Feed is made using Asian Carp, which is an invasive species of fish causing issues in Kentucky Lake, amongst other areas in the United States.

“In my graduate studies, I wanted to marry my knowledge of aquatic biology to business practices and needs in the aquaculture industry,” says Tardiff. “Nobilis Aqua focuses on creating an aquafeed that is sustainable and found that replacing the traditionally-used wild caught ocean fish with invasive Asian Carp made a whole lot of sense both nutritionally and environmentally.”

A compelling case can be made for growing more seafood in the United States, according to FishWatch. Demands for healthy seafood products are increasing every year as stocks of wild-caught seafood are dwindling. The United States imports 90 percent of its seafood, half of which is from aquaculture, contributing to the trade deficit. Yet only 5 percent of our seafood supply is from freshwater and marine aquaculture within the US, according to NOAA Fisheries.

Frontier Trout Ranch is part of the 5% hoping to create growth within the domestic aquaculture industry. The Krantz family-run ranch has raised premium Colorado trout on 163 acres in the San Luis Valley since 2013. The ranch, managed by Kermit Krantz, “blends tried and true aquaculture techniques with the sustainability of a single-source, closed water system in order to grow superior, fresh, natural fish”.

When Haugen and Tardiff were searching for a company that would allow them to test their trout feed – in the midst of a global pandemic – they reached out to Krantz, who is considered a pioneer in modern, clean, sustainable fish farming techniques. Interested in Nobilis’ product, but also feeling the impact of restaurant closures during the pandemic, Krantz saw an opportunity to partner with Seattle Fish both for greater access to retail and wholesale and to financially contribute to Nobilis’ growing company.

Even under the pressure of the pandemic, Krantz did not want to compromise Frontier’s commitment to sustainability and innovation. Knowing that Seattle Fish has similar values, Krantz pitched Derek Figueroa, CEO & President of Seattle Fish Co., the idea of using this feed on his farm, its benefits in sustainability, and how SFC could assist by issuing a small grant to Nobilis and pre-purchasing feed.

“This is such a unique opportunity and allows Seattle Fish to deliver on our Leadership Aspiration to Lead the Growth of Sustainable Seafood Consumption,” says Derek Figueroa. “Marrying an innovative feed startup, a western slope fish farmer, Seattle Fish and our customers into one common goal and objective is something we take enormous pride in. Ultimately, our investment was a no-brainer. Partnerships like these are how we will continue to create innovation in the industry.”

Though it was a risk to use Nobilis’ feed on Frontier’s all-natural trout farm, especially in a time where farmers, distributors and restaurants across the world suffered due to the consequences of the pandemic, the risk has so far produced great results.

“Most feeds you come across have 50+ ingredients,” said Krantz on a recent visit to Seattle Fish to deliver trout, “but Nobilis’ product only has a handful. That was one of the first things that intrigued me about their feed, in addition to the use of invasive Asian Carp. Another was that the feed floats, but honestly, even if it did sink, I don’t think the trout would let it… They eat it so quickly!”

“The trout are growing like crazy, too,” Krantz continued. “Though this feed may be a tad bit pricier, it’s paying for itself tenfold when you take into consideration how quickly the trout are growing. They can be harvested faster, which cuts down on the amount of feed we need to use over time. I hope we can get more fish farmers to start using this product!”

Sources:
Photos courtesy of Nobilis Aqua & Frontier Trout Ranch.
https://www.nobilisaqua.com
https://www.usda.gov/topics/farming/aquaculture
https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/aquaculture/us-aquaculture
https://www.fishwatch.gov/aquaculture
https://www.kqed.org/education/435770/do-the-benefits-of-aquaculture-outweigh-its-negative-impacts
https://www.explorekentuckylake.com/fishing/101/asian-carp/
http://www.frontiertroutranch.com

DENVER, CO — JAN 27, 2021 – Seattle Fish Company is thrilled to announce that President & CEO, Derek Figueroa, will serve as the 2021 Chair of the National Fisheries Institute (NFI). NFI is a non-profit trade association dedicated to seafood education and advocacy including policy, safety, sustainability, and nutrition. From support of responsible wild capture fisheries and aquaculture, to establishing a marketplace supporting free trade, to ensuring the media and consumers have the facts about the benefits of fish and shellfish, NFI and its members support and promote sound public policy.

At it’s core, NFI’s mission is to serve as an advocate for seafood. Derek looks forward to delivering on that promise and leading our industry through such an interesting time. Figueroa says he plans to use his time as Chair to boost member engagement, bring diverse voices together to promote collaboration, and deliver on key impact goals driven by the organization’s strategic plan.

“Seafood has been a driving force in my life for over 30 years. I am proud of the opportunity to work with John, the talented staff at NFI, my industry colleagues, and other stakeholders to position seafood as the ‘protein of choice’ for consumers” said Figueroa.

Figueroa has been deeply entrenched in the seafood industry since he began his career at Seattle Fish Company in 1990, working his way up through a number of departments and positions before assuming the role of President in 2017, and President & CEO in October 2019. He has been recognized as a thought leader for building Seattle Fish into one of the premier seafood distributors in the US and for his leadership in sustainable practices and initiatives, including as a co-founder of industry nonprofit Sea Pact, serving on the National Leadership Council for Seafood Nutrition Partnership (SNP) and serving on the board of the Seafood Industry Research Fund (SIRF).

“We are excited to have Derek help lead NFI for the next year,” says John Connelly, President of NFI. “ We have been looking forward to having him at the helm for some time – he brings a passion for seafood, for people and organization development, and for doing the right thing. Those are all essential areas where we really need his guidance in 2021 and looking beyond.

NFI prides itself on bringing lots of different perspectives together to find common ground for the common good – and who could put together more perspectives than the CEO of a company called “Seattle Fish” based in Denver?

On a personal basis, Derek’s story is one we can all see as points of hope. From starting out cleaning garbage cans on his first day at Seattle Fish to now leading the company – that inspires me to know rewards come from hard work, creativity, and commitment to getting things done right and well.”

After what has certainly been the most challenging year in recent memory, we find ourselves reflecting on the silver linings and perspective gained and are grateful for so much. Seattle Fish Company, as a provider of nutritious food, is considered an essential business and has remained open throughout the pandemic. Our customers and employees have shown resiliency, creativity, and dedication to their craft while under immense pressure and increased safety practices. We would be remiss if we didn’t take the opportunity to highlight some of our very own front-line workers making what we do possible: the Seattle Fish Company distribution team.

*Seattle Fish Co. truck delivering inside Jackson Hole, WY.*

Seattle Fish has a team of 26 drivers (30 total employees in our fleet) who run routes everywhere in the Rocky Mountain region from Metro Denver, to Aspen, Vail, Utah and beyond. These men and women are on the road six days a week, sometimes in the toughest conditions, delivering food to our customers, who in turn feed our communities. They play a critical role in our supply chain, and that responsibility does not stop – in fact, it increases – when there is a situation like this pandemic.

A day in the life of a driver is already tough – think about the possible obstacles on long-haul routes, including weather, traffic, and accident backups. It is with grace they have handled increased safety protocols like face protection, social distancing, and conducting touchless deliveries, while at the same time remaining Seattle Fish Co.’s most customer-facing employees, in charge of delivering a positive customer experience.

Our distribution team is led by Distribution Manager, Robin Melvin. Robin joined Seattle Fish Co. earlier this year and is responsible for coordinating drivers, vehicles, routes, and loads, as well as assessing performance, identifying logistical problems, and implementing plans for improvements. Robin brings over thirteen years of distribution experience and a passion for customer service, problem-solving, and advocacy for our hard-working professional drivers.

*Seattle Fish Company’s Distribution Manager, Robin Melvin*

“Throughout my career, it’s always been my goal to bring the most efficient logistics planning to my department all while keeping the drivers safe. With the Coronavirus pandemic upending every aspect of our personal and professional lives, the center of this disruption has been in the supply chain and trucking industry. This brings a new element to our daily operations, and it has become my utmost priority to make sure each and every driver that is out serving our customers and community stays safe during these difficult times. I want to personally thank all of our drivers for their bravery, hard work, and dedication to our team.”

Robin and her team have remained steadfast through challenging times and constantly changing regulations; no easy feat. We’d also like to take this opportunity to thank trucking professionals and essential workers worldwide. Without you, this year would have been impossible. You have delivered medical supplies for hospitals, groceries to keep our store shelves and restaurants stocked, perishable goods, pharmaceuticals, and more.

We are looking at you Ted, Victor, Jaffa, Kelly, Gary, Ricky, Glenn, Kelly, Sam, Gabriel, Bruce, Francisco, Cory, Roy, Thomas, Travis, Sean, Damien, Arturo, Christopher, Roxana, Cesar, Jose, Mustafa, Efrain, Antonio, Bill, Eric, Shawn, William and Brian.

You have held us together as a nation at a time when we needed it most, and for that, we are grateful.

Reykjavik, Iceland. Patagonia, Chile. Kona, Hawaii. Sanford, Colorado. These places are all over the world geographically but are just a few of the locations that Seattle Fish Company sources traceable seafood from each and every week. In one of our recent blog posts, we discussed sustainability in seafood being a murky subject. On the surface, traceability may be easier to define than sustainability, but what it can look like in practice also varies.

Traceability: What Is It And Why Does It Matter?

To level set, when we talk about traceability, what we’re referring to at the most basic level is a way to track the origin of a particular product and how it traveled through the supply chain. So what’s the problem, right? Don’t we know where all of our food is coming from before it is packed and shipped to grocery stores, or is featured on a restaurant menu? The answer to that is complicated because there is not a universally standard way to report traceability data. There is no massive database in a warehouse somewhere that houses all this information. This means traceability is completely dependent on the commitment of individual companies to capture, preserve, and share accurate data with its supply chain partners – every step of the way. When a part of that supply chain fails to report, the data becomes less trustworthy.

Aside from knowing where things come from, accurate traceability is important for several reasons

It is vital for food safety and reduces contamination, disease, and spoilage; this is particularly important for a perishable product like fresh seafood. When unsafe foods slip through the cracks, traceability allows regulators to identify and isolate the source quickly in order to mitigate the consequences and minimize risk.
It allows for transparency. When it comes to making purchasing decisions chefs, fishmongers, distributors, and consumers may want to know product origin, the method by which something was raised or caught, or if it has a particular sustainability accreditation – traceability helps to confirm all of that information.
It works to shed light on and eliminate illegal fishing sales, mislabeling, and unacceptable social conditions within the supply chain; Removing illegal and unfair practices from the industry is key to the continuation of a legal and responsible future for seafood.

What’s Being Done About It? Well…A Lot!

Challenges to making seafood fully traceable through the use of a standardized system include language and technological barriers, as well as potential cost implications, but there are several efforts underway, both on an industry level and individual level, to help move these barriers.

#1 Strategic Partnerships

In September of this year, Sea Pact, an industry nonprofit cofounded by Seattle Fish Co. and five other founding members, announced a partnership with Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability (GDST). This joint work program represents an important step forward for the seafood industry towards ensuring that all seafood products bought and sold around the world are traceable to legal and responsible production practices.

The collaboration will focus on implementation of the GDST 1.0 Standards and Guidelines for Interoperable Seafood Traceability, the first-ever global standards designed to make seafood traceability systems interoperable and verifiable worldwide. Sea Pact and GDST will coordinate their efforts to improve seafood traceability, increase the availability of information needed from the seafood supply base, and harmonize data reporting.

Sea Pact members, including Seattle Fish Company, will use our collective voices to encourage industry-wide adoption of the GDST standards, and will emphasize the collection of priority “key data elements” as an early implementation step in concert with the rest of the seafood industry over the years ahead.

#2 Traceable Programs from Seattle Fish Co.

Seattle Fish Company has forged strong, lasting relationships with our supplier partners over the last century. In many cases, these relationships allow us to exchange a flow of information and gather traceability data through our purchases that we can then pass on to our customers. We always include country of origin and harvest date, and whenever possible, include details for things like catch method and boat name directly on our invoices.

We also take traceability into consideration in our Eco Score program. This program, available exclusively to Seattle Fish Co. customers, uses a scoring system to rank all of our purchases based on things like sustainability accreditations, catch method, fair working conditions, and more.

Additionally, Seattle Fish Co.’s Whole Boat program highlights a sustainable and traceable seafood item each week.

*A snapshot of Seattle Fish Co.’s Whole Boat program*

#3 Introduction of New Technology

We’ve also seen our vendor partners, such as Niceland Seafood, bring technology into the seafood traceability process. Niceland adds a QR code to all of their product packing. By scanning that QR code, you are able to see every single step in the supply chain of their products, including where it was caught and by who, where it was landed, what airport it flew out of, and when it arrived at their distributor partner (Seattle Fish Co.).

*A snapshot of Niceland Seafood’s traceability technology.*

The seafood industry is hard at work improving product traceability from all angles. Seattle Fish Company looks forward to continuing to be a voice and activist of change.

Interested in furthering your traceability and sustainability efforts? Let your Seattle Fish Co. Sales Rep know you want to sign up for our Eco Score program, and are interested in our weekly Whole Boat specials. For more information on seafood traceability, we recommend visiting the Sea Pact and GDST website.

When it comes to the issue of sustainability, the waters of the seafood industry can be murky with ambiguity and confusion. There are so many different certifications, accreditations, and rating systems that have been designed to help analyze information, that it can be hard to distinguish what they all mean. There’s the Marine Stewardship Council Certification, the Aquaculture Stewardship Council Certification, Global GAP, and Seafood Watch, to name a few.

To be clear, we applaud and support all of these efforts, and share the belief that we all need to take more action when it comes to purchasing and consuming more sustainability. So for the many chefs, fishmongers, and consumers that want to take the next step and make responsible purchasing decisions, vote with their dollar, and make a positive impact on our environment – where do they start?

As your seafood partner, we view it as our job to try to answer that question and help to clear up some of the murkiness. We launched the Seattle Fish Co. Eco Score program to recognize and elevate the good being done in the industry through these sustainability initiatives, and provide clarity for you, the customer, to make easy, informed purchasing decisions which result in a direct, positive change to the health of our oceans. We’re proud to be the first seafood distributor in the industry to offer a program and tool like this to our customers.

How It Works

We Compare All The Data To Our Benchmarks

Our Eco Score takes into consideration the major, credible seafood sustainability certifications, accreditations, fishery improvement projects, and rating programs and then compares them to our own internal benchmarking standards. We use this information to score every single seafood product that we source and purchase, and label them accordingly in our system.

*A look inside our Eco Score program: assigning value to certifications and accreditations*

Then, We Analyze & Score Your Purchases

We then use that scoring data to analyze your purchases on a monthly basis and provide you with a custom email detailing each product you ordered, plus your cumulative Eco Score. Since this email is specific to your business, you’ll be able to review your results and quickly decide if your current purchasing choices are where you’d like them to be, or if you want to adjust for improvement in certain areas.

We view scores of 6 and above as “Good”, and anything above 7.75 as “Excellent”. One thing to keep in mind: there is no “perfect score” since it is impossible for any item to be 100% sustainable, but your informed and strategic buying choices can get you very close.

*An example of a monthly Eco Score report with product detail and a cumulative score*

We Review Your Score & Make Changes Together

We encourage our customers to review these Eco Score emails on a monthly basis, and also on a trending basis over the span of a few months. You’ll be able to see a noticeable change in your score just by switching up a few items on your menu or in your seafood case. Seattle Fish Co. can also help to recommend substitutions for any items you have questions or concerns about. We want to make it as easy as possible for you to identify opportunities to improve your purchasing and have an impact on our oceans.

So What’s Next?

Seattle Fish has made a commitment to continually improve and increase our Eco Score every year, aiming to be consistently in the “Excellent” category before 2025 with all of our purchases. This is an ambitious goal – we distribute over 15 million pounds of seafood each year – but one we feel is important for the health of our oceans, and the future of our business.

Additionally, right now our Eco Score program is focused on seafood only, but Seattle Fish Company has many more products to offer. In 2021, we hope to expand into additional categories like meat or cheese and adding those to the Eco Score program as well. This will give our customers an even more well-rounded look at your purchases across the board.

How To Sign Up For The Eco Score Program

We’re thrilled you want to sign up for the Eco Score program! We need you to fill out a super simple form with your info so we can get you started. Please click the link below, and have your customer number handy if possible (this can be found on your invoices).

Eco Score Sign Up Form

Our next Eco Score email will go out on December 2nd, 2020, so be sure to sign up today to get added to the program!

If you have any questions about the Eco Score program, please reach out to our Sustainability Manager & Buyer: Mac Paranto (mparanto@seattlefish.com) or directly with your Seattle Fish Co. Sales Rep.

Category Archives: The Business of Seafood

Innovation in Sustainable Aquaculture on the Front Range

Seattle Fish Company’s Derek Figueroa To Serve As 2021 National Fisheries Institute Chair

Grateful For Essential Workers: Distribution Team Spotlight

Traceability: Why You Should Care Where Your Food Comes From

Seattle Fish Co. Eco Score: Clarifying The Muddy Waters of Sustainable Purchasing