From dock to plate
San Diego’s commitment to local seafood bolsters health, environment, and economy
By Lucia Sayre, Health Care Without Harm’s Healthy Food in Health Care program Western Regional Director
Any given Saturday you will find Cindy Quinonez, executive chef at Scripps Mercy Hospital, standing shoulder to shoulder with San Diego fishermen at the Tuna Harbor Dockside Market, where she serves samples of a meal created from fresh, sustainably caught seafood.
“So many people eat tuna, salmon, and shrimp. That’s their idea of fish,” she says. “Well in San Diego, yes we have tuna, but there are more than 40 varieties of fish down at the dockside market. A lot of people are unfamiliar. My role is an educator.”
Every week Quinonez joins chefs from institutions and restaurants to learn about the species of fish available that week from the people who caught them. Much like a TV chef competition, the chefs must then develop a recipe, cook, and serve it, and tell its story at a tasting table at the market on Seafood Saturdays.
“Our strategy to get people to eat fresh, local fish, is the same one that has gotten people to eat more fresh vegetables through farmers markets: the connection with the harvester,” Quinonez says. “People have widened the range of fruits and vegetables that they eat as a result of that connection. The same thing is needed for the fishing community. The more our citizens know the fishermen, the more likely they are to trust them and be adventuresome and try different fish and eat more fish in general.”
Market visitors might find almond-flax seared ono with sweet potato and three-pepper corn salad featured on her table. Ono (also called wahoo) has been popular in Hawaii since the late 1980s, and although it is found in local fisheries, many people in San Diego aren’t familiar with the fish, nevermind how to cook it.
“We catch a lot of ono here,” she says “It’s a bycatch, meaning you are out there looking for tuna and other more familiar fish, and ono gets caught along with it. There is no sense in throwing it away.”
Instead she and fellow chefs draw upon culinary creativity to turn unfamiliar species into nutritious and delicious meals.
“My name ‘Quinonez’ is Peruvian. This recipe has a Peruvian twist incorporating peppers, large kernel corn, and sweet potatoes,” she explains. “But the ingredients also have a story in San Diego, as we grow a lot of the same products here. We highlight the nutrient value and the source of those products both historically and specifically as to what we acquired to serve that particular day.”
Visitors to the market are given a sample of the meal along with the recipe so they can purchase and prepare the seafood dish at home.
Many of these recipes are later added to the menus of the facilities and restaurants where the chefs work.
The blue economy
More than 90 percent of seafood consumed in the United States is imported, and the majority of seafood fished in U.S. waters goes overseas for processing and packaging. Only about 2 percent of seafood imports to the United States are inspected, meaning there are a multitude of potential risks. In 2014, two-thirds of the seafood consumed in the United States came from six foreign countries where investigations uncovering human rights abuses, illegal fishing and species depletion, and environmental destruction are commonplace.
“Our fishermen, by making sure they are connecting with the local market, are changing that equation,” Quinonez says.
Working together, cooperatives of San Diego fishermen, community organizations like the San Diego Food System Alliance and Slow Food Urban San Diego, local government and institutions like hospitals, schools, and colleges are prioritizing diverse local seafood, which can improve human health, environmental stewardship, and awareness of the economic and cultural importance of coastal livelihoods.
San Diego’s fleet of 131 vessels and more than 200 fishermen leads the world in sustainable harvest of more than 40 seafood species.
In 2015, San Diego fishermen petitioned state lawmakers to pass legislation to streamline the permitting process so commercial fishermen can organize under a single permit. This legislation, modeled after certified farmers markets, was the first of its kind for seafood. Public seafood markets are now allowed to operate as food facilities, and fresh fish can be cleaned for direct sale.
The Tuna Harbor Dockside Market was formed by fishermen. They represent themselves, directly interacting with consumers and selling their catch to between 450 to 550 people each week.
“It’s a huge effort for them to be off their boats one day a week connecting with people and chefs at that market, but getting more people to eat local is really in the best interest of all of us from an environmental and health perspective in the long term,” says Quinonez.
The dockside market has become a showcase for local fishermen and the city’s rich heritage as a fishing port. It has been featured in Travel Channel, San Diego Eater, and Sunset Magazine.
“People are really excited, just like Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco or Pike’s Place in Seattle,” says Quinonez “This is good for fishermen; the attention to the market is a strong contributing factor to the survival of the market and the fishermen themselves.”
Community fisheries and health care’s role
San Diego hospitals, which are part of the Nutrition in Health Care Leadership Team (NHLT), coordinated by the Community Health Improvement Partners and Health Care Without Harm, are increasing their support of local fisheries by purchasing and serving more local, seasonal, and sustainably harvested seafood in their facilities. As large-volume buyers, hospitals can make purchasing decisions that help protect ocean ecosystems and support local fishing economies.
Driven by their mission to provide the people they serve with healthy food options, Quinonez and fellow food service professionals at hospitals throughout the community are bringing San Diego fish to their menus.
“As chefs in institutions,” Quinonez explains, “we aren’t likely to go down to the water and buy directly off the boat. That just doesn’t work for us.”
But if fishermen work together as part of a co-op and work closely with group purchasing organizations who in turn work with institutions, then institutions like Scripps are given access to the volume and consistent supply they need.
“Local rockfish is an example. We procure these not directly from the fishermen but through our contracted vendors, Sysco being one,” says Quinonez. “Our local Sysco representative does a great job of making us aware of local products that are available. Processors and vendors like these are super important in this equation. We can’t do this without them caring about our local growers and fishermen. It’s a shift for them, but we appreciate that they are making it with us.”
Quinonez says collective demand from hospitals, community organizations, and other institutions is transforming vendor catalogues. In the past two years, local food offerings including seafood have increased dramatically.
“I don’t think they would do it without us pushing,” Quinonez says. “When our Sysco rep forwarded a Chicken of the Sea promo for World Oceans Day and we declined saying we’d rather use the opportunity to highlight local seafood, I feel like she appreciated our feedback and took it into account.”
Kaiser Permanente’s executive chef at San Diego Medical Center, Reid Sinderud, says they purchase 250 pounds of flash-frozen fish every two weeks from Catalina Offshore, a company that aggregates and distributes locally sourced seafood, including fish from a cooperative in nearby Baja, Calif. The company also sells Kaiser overstock products and bycatch at a discount.
Catalina Offshore recently began canning locally harvested big-eye tuna, offering San Diego an additional large-volume alternative to internationally harvested brands for institutional buyers. American Tuna, formed by six San Diego fishing families, also supplies institutions with canned tuna.
About 45 percent of UC San Diego Health’s seafood purchases are locally sourced according to Chris McCracken, food service director. The hospital works with it’s purveyor Santa Monica Seafood to feature local fish.
“We had purchased Pacific rockfish, not a common fish that customers would have recognized,” says McCracken. “Our chef decided it would be easier to list the item as ‘white fish tacos’ since customers are familiar with that naming.
Customers weren’t aware that we had changed the species of fish. We hadn’t used specific species previously, and this practice allows us some flexibility in sourcing of items.
We have found that using general terms — such as ‘white fish,’ ‘catch of the day,’ or ‘seasonal vegetables’ instead of specific names like ‘halibut’ or ‘broccoli,’ — allows us to be flexible with sourcing. If we find an item from a vendor that has great pricing, we can move on that item and not have to change the menu item listed in cafe.”
At Scripps Mercy Hospital, a weekly “sustainable selection” is served in the cafe. Historically, the featured food was locally grown vegetables or fruit, but in the past year they have broadened their sustainable selection to include local seafood.
But buying local seafood is only a start. The hospitals in NHLT acknowledge that if there is to be ample supply of fish to harvest in the future, the fishermen need to be sustained. Their business operations are evolving alongside regulations to make sure fish are caught appropriately and in the right quantities. The Pacific rockfish recently made a comeback due to these regulations and sustainable fishing practices.
The Nutrition in Health Care Leadership Team and associated organizations are conducting studies to quantify and qualify the impact of local seafood harvesting and purchasing.
“Even when they are combined together, the fishermen’s voices aren’t enough to move the market,” says Quinonez. “Institutions like ours, who care about the health of the environment and the health of the people we are serving at our hospitals, have an incredible power to amplify their voices and to give them forums that will help preserve their industry, which is important to ours.”
To learn more, check out our Guide for sustainable seafood purchasing.
