Get to Know Your Fishermen!

By: Karen Phillips | July 26 2010

There’s a wonderful intimacy that occurs when you know where the food on your plate comes from, and when you have a chance to meet the people who had a hand in getting that food to the market.

I first met the folks from Port Orford Sustainable Seafood earlier this year, when I visited their booth at the Grants Pass Growers Market. As I was buying a piece of salmon, the person selling it to me was able to tell me exactly where and when the fish was caught. I was – you should pardon the expression - immediately hooked.

Photo: Karen Philips

I sat down recently with Aaron Longton, one of their fishermen, and had an opportunity to ask him a few questions.

The Local Dish: How long has Port Orford Sustainable Seafood been in existence?

Aaron Longton, Port Orford Sustainable Seafood: We sold our first fish to the public just a little over a year ago, on June 11, 2009 at the Hillcrest Growers and Craft Market.

TLD: Tell us a bit about how you catch your fish, and why it tastes so delicious!

Longton: Our fish tastes the way it does because it’s wild, not farmed, and very fresh. All of our fishing is done from small day boats, using only hook and line – no nets. We’re home every night, and the fish is flash frozen right on the boat.

TLD: Could you talk about some of the marine stewardship efforts you’re involved in, and how they’re helping to create a sustainable fishery in the Southern Oregon Coast?

Longton: Through our work with the Port Orford Ocean Resource Team (POORT), we’ve helped create the Redfish Rocks Pilot Marine Reserve – a 2.6-square-mile area off the coast of Curry County, where no fishing of any sort will occur. Adjacent to the reserve is a marine protected area, where fishing activities are confined to trolling for salmon and crab. There are some everyday things we do too, like releasing any gravid (pregnant) female rockfish we catch. What we lose today by releasing the females is more than made up for by the fact that they’ll be laying eggs for the next generation of rockfish.

TLD: Where can people in the Rogue Valley find your fish?

Longton: Our fish is available at the Ashland Coop, and we also sell at the Hillcrest Growers and Craft Market (Fridays) and the Grants Pass Growers Market (Saturdays). Several local restaurants also buy from us, including Larks, Sammy’s Cowboy Bistro, Chateaulin and the Carriage House.

TLD: What kinds of fish do you have available right now?

Longton: Right now, we’ve got rockfish, black cod, lingcod, halibut, cabezon, smoked salmon and the season’s first albacore. Some of that went right to the cannery, so we should have some nice canned albacore ready in the next week or so. Come visit us at the market!

Port Orford Sustainable Seafood’s website will go live later this year. In the meantime, they’ll be featured at the August 28 Farm to Fork event at Ashland’s Happy Dirt Veggie Patch. The event is currently sold out, but you can get on the waiting list here: http://farmtoforkevents.com.