Thursday, March 18, 2010

Southport Seafood will be at South Estes Farmers Market 3.20.10


The warm weather has stirred up the fishing. This week we will have some great seafood. Our feature will be a few Wild Striped Bass that were huge. These fish were almost 30# and we have some great "sides" (scales on and perfect for grilling scale side down). We also have some striped bass roe and throats for those of you who think you know what your doing with seafood. We will also have Vermillion Snapper (last of the season) whole and fillet, Grey Triggerfish fillet, Summer Flounder whole and fillet, Black Drum Fillet, Red Drum "sides" (same deal as striped bass), and some great fresh-froze White Shrimp 21/25 count, and Greater Amberjack Fillet (best fish taco fish available). Come and see us on Saturday and get there quick because weather will be perfect and we will be on our game!

Monday, April 6, 2009

Southport Seafood will be attending South Estes Farmers Market 4/11/09 8-12 noon

We will have our usual booth at this market this weekend. We will feature the same fish and seafood that we will have at the North Hills market below. Look forward t seeing everyone! send email to jason@southportseafoodcompany.com to reserve seafood or go to www.southportseafoodcompany.com and use the order form to place pre-orders.

Southport will be at North Hills Farmers Market Saturday April 11, 2009

We will be attending the north hills market this coming weekend from 8-12 noon. We will feature Cape Fear River littleneck clams, Lockwood Folly River "whole dressed" flounder and fillets, 16/20 count white shrimp, Frying Pan Tower reef grey triggerfish fillet, yellowfin tuna, red grouper fillet, and a few other great LOCAL NC Seafood products! come see us or send email to jason@southportseafoodcompany.com to reserve your seafood today!

Friday, February 27, 2009

Southport Seafood offers true day boat dry packed scallops from Nantucket


Southport Seafood offers fresh "spearshot" Grouper & Hogfish

Southport Seafood Features LOCAL spearshot Hogfish & Grouper of all kinds. This fish is superior in quality due to the quick kill and less stress on meat tissue. These fish are available April-Dec for sale and are head shot.

Southport Seafood Co. uses cutting edge marketing to promote NC Seafood

Commercial fishermen looking to a future with local, sustainable seafood
By SUSAN WEST
Commercial fishermen around the country plan to ride into the future on the wave of consumer support for local, sustainable food sources.The unwieldy global food supply chain that has all but erased seasonal and regional variations on the American dinner table has also heightened national anxiety over food safety and over environmental responsibility in food production. In the wake of that anxiety, more consumers are turning to farmers’ markets, cooperatives, and other alternative markets that offer local foods and foods produced using environmentally sustainable methods. The “local foods movement” is also a backlash against national and international policies that, local food proponents say, have laid waste to small farms and local economies. With national frustration over a food supply chain cloaked in global anonymity mounting, groups of fishermen are adopting marketing campaigns that evoke memories of the days when customers knew farmers and fishermen and shopkeepers and when individual integrity sealed most transactions. Web sites for marketing initiatives, such as Carteret Catch in North Carolina and The Faces of California Fishing, feature photographs and biographies of participating fishermen. “Consumers want to know who is producing their food, and that connection can be more important than price or the distance they have to travel to buy seafood,” said Scott Baker, fisheries specialist with North Carolina Sea Grant. Battered by high fuel costs, low dockside prices driven by global trade and regulations that seem to reduce allowable catches more every year, fishermen say survival of the U.S. fishing fleet hinges on maximizing the value of every fish that comes across the deck.And, some fishermen are adding new marketing techniques to traditional methods. In Maine, community-supported fisheries, based on a system used in small-scale farming where consumers buy shares in a farm in exchange for fruits and vegetables, have taken hold. Consumers can buy 12 weeks of fresh fish caught by members of the Mid Coast Fishermen’s Cooperative in Port Clyde, Maine. A full share costs $360 and yields three to four pounds of filleted fish, such as haddock, cod, and flounder, each week. Half-shares cost $180 and yield about 1 1/2 to 2 pounds of fillets each week. “The Port Clyde CSF (community supported fishery) happened all because one fisherman there started to look at ways to diversify markets,” said Susan Andreatta.Andreatta is director of Project Green Leaf at the University of North Carolina at Grennsboro, a project dedicated to promoting and supporting local agriculture by developing connections with consumers, and also works with commercial fishermen. In Portland, Maine, John and Brendan Ready have started the Catch a Piece of Maine program where consumers “buy” a lobster pot and all the lobsters the pot catches for $2,995. Customers are guaranteed at least 40 lobsters, and receive a complete dinner with four lobsters, steamer clams, mussels, and blueberry desserts, shipped overnight, every time they place an order. To date, there are no CSF programs in North Carolina.Andreatta said that community-supported agriculture has been slow to catch on in the state also, even though nationwide more than 4,000 farms participate in community-supported arrangements.Still, Andreatta believes CSFs could work well in North Carolina.“It would be a way to retool, to diversify the market for small quantities of fish, to diversify the use of fish houses and other facilities,” she said. Andreatta and Baker, the fisheries specialist, both said consumer education is an important component to the success of CSFs. Through newsletters or Web sites, producers share information on how to clean and prepare different types of seafood with their customers. “You need to tell your personal story too,” said Baker. Some North Carolina fishing groups have added direct sales to their marketing programs. In Carteret County, fishermen, seafood dealers, retailers, and restaurants developed the Carteret Catch program in 2005. The group created an easily recognized logo that tells consumers where they can purchase local seafood.“The easiest way to add value to a product is to brand it,” Baker explained.The Ocracoke Working Watermens’ Association runs both retail and wholesale operations at the Ocracoke Seafood Company.In Hatteras, Vicki and Robert Harrison sell some of the snowy grouper, vermilion snapper, flounder, and other species landed by the family’s fishing boats at Harbor House Seafood Market, a retail shop they opened this year. Baker said commercial fishermen face challenges, such as high fuel costs, complex regulatory systems, and the loss of working waterfront properties, unimaginable just a decade ago.“None of those things are likely to change in the short term. Fishermen are going to have to find ways to get every penny they can from their products,” Baker said.(For more information on the Carteret Catch program, go to http://www.carteretcatch.com//

NC Bay Scallop Season Opens! We are selling these now!

Bay scallop season is open again on Hatteras and OcracokeBy SUSAN WEST
Outer Bankers and their Core Sound neighbors are allowed to harvest bay scallops from now until April.Louis Daniel, director of the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries, issued a proclamation authorizing a limited fishery, after the state Marine Fisheries Commission (MFC) approved the opening at their Jan. 22 meeting in Carolina Beach. “I’m very happy with the decision,” said Ginny Luizer, a recreational fisherwoman who lives in Frisco. “It indicates that the state is looking at the science, rather than molding the science to fit a solution.” The bay scallop fishery in North Carolina was closed in January, 2006, after commercial harvests flat-lined for two winters. A management plan approved in 2007 prohibited commercial and recreational harvest until sampling showed a high abundance of scallops. Patricia Smith, Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) public information officer, said the agency used the period of 1984-85, prior to the 1987 red tide that devastated the estuarine mollusks, as the biological target-point for reopening the fishery. “With the data showing good indicators of abundance, DMF felt it was appropriate for the MFC to consider a limited harvest season in Core Sound and in the eastern Pamlico Sound,” explained fisheries commissioner Jess Hawkins. The scientific information confirmed anecdotal reports by fishermen of large numbers of bay scallops in the sounds. Luizer and other Hatteras Island residents also pointed to soundside roads on the island littered with scallop shells, dropped from the sky by seagulls trying to crack them open.Hawkins said commissioners considered the short life cycle of scallops in making the decision to reopen the fishery.“Most only live from 14 to 18 months, and the maximum age is just 2 years,” he explained.He said bay scallops are susceptible to predation by cownose rays, habitat degradation, and weather conditions. Luizer said weather conditions in 2003 lined up to create an atmosphere not conducive to maintaining scallop populations.“The (Pamlico) sound froze that winter, rainfall reached record levels that spring, and then Hurricane Isabel hit us in the fall,” she noted.The proclamation opening the fishery authorizes the taking of scallops by hand or with hand rakes, hand tongs, dip nets, or scoops, but not with dredges. “Scallops are heavily dependent on healthy grass beds, little scallops attach to grass blades, so we felt the gear restriction was appropriate,” Hawkins said.Recreational fishermen can harvest up to one-half a bushel on Saturdays and Sundays, and commercial fishermen can bring in up to five bushels on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.Whether a commercial market will develop remains to be seen.“This won’t be like the out-of-state shellstocking market we used to have when the harvest limit was higher. We’ll sell the scallops local and keep the money local,” said Bradley Styron, owner of Cedar Island Seafood in Carteret County.Jeff Aiken, owner of Jeffrey’s Seafood in Hatteras, said developing a local market on the Outer Banks for a relatively expensive product could be a challenge given the downturn in the economy. Aiken also said the labor-intensive nature of scallop shucking would probably limit the number of commercial participants.Still, Styron noted that fishermen would not need to invest much in gear. “This will give some fishermen a little relief when they are between fishing seasons and have little to do,” he said.Styron said the yield of edible meat from a bushel of scallops would determine the bottom-line for fishermen.The market has supported prices as high as $40 to $50 per gallon, according to DMF director Daniel.