August 17, 2016 — Overfishing and illegal behavior in the seafood trade is a serious issue in many fisheries around the world. A recent study found that the annual global catch was roughly 30 percent higher than reported in 2010. This means that approximately 109 billion metric tons of fish go unreported each year.
In the United States, the picture is a lot brighter. Thanks to the Manguson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act that went into effect in 1976, many fisheries in the U.S. have been rebuilt over the past 40 years. As of 2015, 84 percent of federally managed stocks were not on the overfished list, indicating that the population sizes are at sustainable levels.
The problem? “Over 90 percent of all seafood consumed in the U.S. comes from outside the U.S.,” says Michael Dimin, the founding director of Sea to Table. “The U.S. has the world’s largest fisheries, we have the largest exclusive economic zone in the world, and we have the best-managed fisheries, yet we only want to buy cheap fish.”
Dimin’s business, Sea to Table, is working with chefs across the country to address this dichotomy. The concept is inherently simple: Sea to Table passes fish from the nets of fishermen directly to the hands of chefs and diners. Fish that land on a dock anywhere in the U.S. can arrive at a kitchen the next day. Making the logistics work is a little more complicated.
The Sea to Table team has spent years cultivating personal relationships with small-scale fishermen to provide a lucrative market for their wild, domestic, responsibly caught fish. “The seafood supply chain is kind of long and opaque and doesn’t really create value so much for fishermen, but creates value for the middle of the chain,” Dimin explains. “We thought it would be a good idea to figure out how to get a little better market for fishermen, and to get better quality fish to diners.”