Duncan Berry: Hooked on Local Fish

In the current issue of Oregon Business Magazine, I write about Duncan Berry, the CEO of Fish People, a new Oregon-based seafood company that's just launched four ready-to-eat entrees at Portland's New Seasons grocery store (it's also at Whole Foods throughout the Pacific Northwest). These fish dishes—salmon in chardonnay with a dill cream sauce, Thai coconut lemongrass tuna, coconut yellow curry tuna, and smoked salmon and oyster chowder—come in foil “retort” pouches and take only three minutes to cook. (You poach them in boiling water and serve over your favorite carbohydrate.) The seafood for all four of these dishes is caught off the Oregon coast and is processed by medium-sized Oregon processors. All are caught via hook-and-line, trawls, or pot—all methods that result in minimal bycatch and that have no effect on habitat.

What I find compelling about Berry—and what I hope readers will find compelling, too—is his commitment to preserving ecosystems (in this case, the Oregon Coast and the Columbia River). He's also determined to help revive Oregon's economy by buying from local fishermen, using local processors, and contracting with local saucemakers (family-run Heritage Specialty Foods here in Portland). In addition to sourcing only sustainably-harvested local seafood for Fish People’s product line, he’s published an Oregon-centric seafood rating card (see here) that gives much more nuanced information on Oregon seafood species than either the Marine Stewardship Council or Monterey Bay Aquarium, the two best-known third-party sustainable seafood ratings out there. The Fish People Seafood Ratings provides info on how the fish is caught, of course, but it also details health information (Oregon albacore, for instance, has minimal mercury content due to age and size of fish). The Fish People ratings are the only ones to measure worker health and safety as part of their scoring system. For more on Berry's background (as CEO of an organic textile company in Seattle) and on his business plan, read on.

 

Comments

[Fishing tours]

I have no knowledge about it that the Fish People ratings are the only ones to measure worker health and safety as part of their scoring system..

[Oregon Fishing Guide]

I always admire Duncan Berry as a fishing enthusiast and CEO of Fish People. He's really the best.