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Florida’s First Community and Restaurant Supported Fishery Planned For Key West

Dock to Dish, a New York-based community and restaurant supported fishery, has announced plans to open Florida’s first community supported fishery in Key West next month in conjunction with Key West restaurateur Chris Holland and the Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen’s Association.The goal of the new enterprise is to bring the health benefits of locally harvested fish and seafood back to local consumers while helping to strengthen the in-state commercial fishing industry, Dock to Dish says.

By Mike Hower | Published 10 years ago | About a 2 minute read

Dock to Dish, a New York-based community and restaurant supported fishery, has announced plans to open Florida’s first community supported fishery in Key West next month in conjunction with Key West restaurateur Chris Holland and the Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen’s Association.

The goal of the new enterprise is to bring the health benefits of locally harvested fish and seafood back to local consumers while helping to strengthen the in-state commercial fishing industry, Dock to Dish says.

According to Dock to Dish founder Sean Barrett, he chose Key West to be the second Dock to Dish market for one reason: Chris Holland. The owner of the Stoned Crab Restaurant in Key West had been working on solving similar problems.

Holland says Americans need to take a stand now against the large Asian and South American fish farms that are negatively impacting the commercial fishing industry and poisoning unsuspecting consumers. People often believe the fish they are buying in supermarkets is safe, inspected and healthy — when it is none of these things. Nearly 90 percent of all the seafood consumed by Americans is imported and much of the fish that is imported comes from sources that are barely regulated or often completely unregulated.

FCF Fishery Company (FCF) — the largest tuna supplier in the Western Pacific — recently announced that its joint investment, Nambawan, and its associated fleet, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with PNAO/Pacifical as a commitment to maintaining Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) sustainability standards while trading tuna harvested from Pacific Island Nations (PNA) waters. Under the agreement, FCF will work with the PNA and Pacifical on criteria for certification and ensuring traceability and reporting from fish harvested to transportation, and processing into its semi-finished and finished products.

A recent report from WorldFish found that resource-poor Bangladeshis can participate in commercial aquaculture, challenging conventional assumptions that this was not possible. The report also highlights that more of the very poor in Bangladesh are profiting from commercial aquaculture than was previously thought.

Mike Hower

Founder & Principal Consultant, Hower Impact

Mike Hower is the founder of Hower Impact — a boutique consultancy delivering best-in-class strategic communication advisory and support for corporate sustainability, ESG and climate tech.

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