March 17 2025 — Apps, online markets, and in–person markets are connecting fishermen and customers.
The Covid pandemic boosted direct marketing of seafood, with some fishermen tripling their sales and others getting into direct sales for the first time. In the wake of the pandemic, many fishermen want to continue to capitalize on consumers’ desire to access high-quality seafood, and a number of app developers, online markets, and live markets are providing them with ways to continue making direct sales.
Landon Hill, of Wilmington, N.C., got the idea for a marketing app for fish—a sort of Tinder App for connecting fishermen with fish buyers—while finishing business school at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.“After I graduated, I kept playing with the idea. I don’t have a lot of background in fisheries, but I could see that the lack of communication was a real pain point in fishing communities. I mean the idea that Tidewater restaurants were getting supplied by 18-wheelers just didn’t make sense to me, and it didn’t make sense to the chefs in those restaurants.”
Hill wants his app, Local Catch, to facilitate communication in the seafood market. To do that, he breaks the players down into four categories: fishermen, dealers, restaurants, and consumers. “You can register on the app and put in your zip code to see what’s available, or as a dealer or fisherman what you have available. As a consumer you can also make a cast, as we call it, and ask for what you are looking for.”
Hill reiterates that the project is about facilitating communication in the seafood industry. “We’re want people to know what seafood is for sale in their areas, and we’re exploring ways to do that better,” he says. “We’ve updated the app about 70 times since we released it to the public in 2022, and we’llprobably update it 70 more times in the next two years. Right now, we have 1,300 users in the app, and we’re on all coasts of the continental U.S.”
Hill adds that Local Catch is currently adding capacity for customers to pay vendors in the app using PayPal. “The other thing we’re looking at is distribution. That’s been on our white board since we started.” Right now, Local Catch connects buyers and sellers and leaves them to iron out the details of whether the vendor will deliver, or the buyer will pick up.
Whether the app can generate revenue is an open question. “Last year we received a NCIDEA grant, but before that I was bootstrapping everything with other work,” says Hill. “We’ll collect a small service fee when buyers use PayPal in the app and we’re exploring other revenue streams. Right now we just want to make it work, and we’re keeping it free.”