Seaside Marketing- Beyond Sales

Key concepts: Small-scale suppliers, local seafood, sustainability-quality, diversification of seafood supplies, sablefish, albacore tuna, sardines, spot prawns

This profile was written by SeaChoice Manager, Taina Uitto.

Julie Bell, Director of Seaside Marketing, grew up in a fishing community in Steveston BC and, as such, she has always been a natural advocate for fresh, local seafood. In her words “When I’m in love with something, I want to tell others”. Here’s her story.

Julie Bell started her seafood business small, selling fresh BC albacore tuna. She fell in love with this product in particular, after finding out that BC albacore was a low-mercury tuna choice for her kids. Seaside Marketing sources directly from small local fishing fleets, allowing the company to pay close attention to quality. “Take sablefish, for example. A trap or line-caught fish will always be superior quality to sablefish caught either by trawl or via the bycatch fisheries. The connection to sustainability is that if I deal with the best catch methods and the best fishermen, I can continue to supply consistent quality seafood.”

And the fishermen are proud of their product, and where they end up. Seaside’s products are currently being served on the plates of posh restaurants like Blue Water Café and Joe Fortes, and retailers like Stong’s and Choices Markets, as well as other smaller grocery stores. Julie and her team also frequent local farmer’s markets, selling smaller, fish less suitable for the restaurant market, but perfect for a home-cooked meal.

On the topic of sablefish, Julie Bell explains that Seaside is the only supplier selling the collar meat of this fish. She tells me that the head of the sablefish is usually either thrown overboard, or kept by the fishermen themselves. This is a well-kept, delicate, boneless, and skinless secret indeed. Rather than having this meat go to ‘waste’, Seaside Marketing is trying to create a market for the product. Particularly in light of recent dropping quotas for sablefish, this is another way that the company is advancing sustainability: by making use of the whole fish, and letting less go to waste, more protein is available of the market from the same quota.

This “sabeleene” as Seaside has coined, can be used as a substitute anywhere a prawn or scallop can be used. It can also be sliced thinly like sashimi. “We would like to see increased market demand for this product. Everyone has historically been so focused on halibut and salmon. We need to diversify”.

Interested in more information about this product’s culinary possibilities, and given the growing trends in sustainable sushi, I asked Casson Trenor, author of the recently published Sustainable Sushi: A Guide to Saving the Oceans One Bite at a Time, what his thoughts were. Mr. Trenor says: “Sustainable Canadian sablefish is the key to replacing unagi, one of the worst offenders on the average sushi menu. When properly prepared, sablefish can offer a maddeningly addictive melange of sultry flavors and smooth, buttery textures. It does more than mimic the texture and flavor of farmed eel—it surpasses it.” *I’m glad I asked.

Seaside Marketing is serving yet another very important role: their direct contact with the fishermen (and fishing associations), allows them to act as an important information link within the seafood supply chain. Seaside’s customers appreciate learning about the sustainability-quality connection. They also get the straight facts on things like the most recent fishing quotas.

Julie Bell can’t stop talking about the great local products that we have here on the west coast. Also supplying undervalued species like local sardines, Julie Bell states that in the interest of sustainability, “We have to start broadening our picture. We are tiring some species out very quickly, when we have so many other amazing products right at our doorstep.”

For consumers, Julie Bell stresses the power of choice. She encourages consumers to keep asking the right questions to determine sustainability: what is this fish, where is it from, and how was it caught. Consumer choices make a big difference in terms of supporting small-scale, local fisheries. On the cooking front, she advises home cooks to get to know the flavour and keep recipes simple.

For seafood businesses looking to source sustainable products from the west coast, Seaside Marketing is looking to expand to eastern Canadian and US markets. With new natural preservatives spot prawns, for example, can now better last the trip to Toronto markets.

Given their commitment to the promotion and profile of sustainable seafood, SeaChoice recently identified Seaside Marketing as one of the local champions in this field. Congratulations Julie Bell, Greg Armitage, and team. Keep up the good work!

Please visit www.seasidemarketing.ca for more information about this business.

Please browse the SeaChoice database to read the sustainability assessments on BC albacore tuna, spot prawns, sardines, sablefish, and farmed scallops.