September is Californa Wine Month! How are you celebrating?  Here’s some great information on pairing wine with seafood…

We wrote about the annual Pacific Coast Oyster Wine pairing competition back in May; here are some California wines that made the cut

• Franciscan Estates 08 Sauvignon Blanc (CA)
• Heitz Wine Cellars 09 Sauvignon Blanc (CA)
• Kunde Family Estate 09 Sauvignon Blanc (CA)

Order up some oysters and feature these highly recommended wines!  If you want to serve a California oyster, ask your Santa Monica Seafood representative about the Luna oyster we’re carrying from Carlsbad Aquafarm.

Eric Asimov of the New York Times recently waxed poetic about Muscadet and seafood pairings.  Although all of his recommended wines were from France, we bet you can find some delicious Californian Muscadets that will work just as well…  If you have some favorites, let us know in the comment section below!

If you’ve got fried seafood on your menu – tempura shrimp, calamari or even fish-n-chips, encourage your customers to try a sparkling wine pairing!  The lively bubbles of sparklers cut through the fat and keep palates fresh…

The charter of the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute really says it all; “To return to the sea some measure of the benefits derived from it.” Founded in 1963, HSWRI conducts research in the tradition of world-renowned scientists, Dr. Carl L. and Laura C. Hubbs. They are a non-profit charity dedicated to providing effective solutions to conflicts that arise between human activity and the natural world.

Of much interest to us is their Aquaculture Program which focuses on stock replenishment. We agree with HSWRI when they state that their work is an effort to “achieve a balance between more traditional fishing, supported by stock replenishment and farming.” We couldn’t be more supportive of efforts that work to replenish natural populations. Last year HSWRI researchers released just over 150,000 juvenile white seabass (a fish we love!) into the ocean waters off southern California; which is the limit of fish they were allowed by regulators to release during the 2009 calendar year…

We hope you’re enjoying our blog posts and that they’ve left you craving some of the great seafood we offer!   But what can you do if you’re a chef or restaurant owner living outside of our normal distribution area? You’re in luck! Our national shipping program, SMS Chef Express, was created for chefs like you…whether you’re looking for some great California favorites like yellowtail or spiny lobster, or want to support our sustainability efforts by ordering Chesapeake Ray or items from CleanFish, we want to work with you!

Just like every order we fill here at Santa Monica Seafood our Chef Express orders start with the most carefully selected fish and shellfish available. Our vendors are thoroughly vetted and we spend a lot of time and energy keeping up with their efforts.  We’re happy to provide detailed information on any of the products we carry…

We’d like to remind you about some great local seafood options that are perfect choices for the next couple of weeks.

Try some Luna Oysters from nearby Carlsbad Aquafarms – get these briny beauties on your raw bar now! Oysters are a natural choice for easy food and wine pairings and since September is California Wine Month it’s a perfect time to highlight local vineyards. We also just enjoyed a great visit to Carlsbad Aquafarms, enjoy some of these great photos from our recent trip. This is also a good moment to remind you about our Shuck-n-Swallow event at First Bar in Las Vegas– join us at 4:00 pm on August 31 for some oyster slurpin’ fun!

Although it wasn’t a great year for local wild California sea bass harvests, we do have fish available. This seasonal favorite won’t be around for much longer so if you have been considering it – act now! Fish is coming in from Lower Baja…

Alaskans have been commercially harvesting wild king crab in earnest since the 1950’s, with catch volumes reaching their peak (over 180 million pounds per year) in the early 80’s.  Currently, the annual commercial harvest sits under 20 million pounds and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game describes the stocks as being either fully exploited or depressed.

Historically, fluctuations in Alaska’s crab populations can be attributed to a number of causes including over harvesting, decline in recruitment due to adverse climatic conditions, unintentional bycatch of broodstock in other fisheries, and other reasons.

Although Alaska has put a lot of effort into restrictions and regulations over the past two decades, most of the depressed stocks have yet to recover…

The Goal of Operation Blessing is simple; “to alleviate human suffering caused by poverty.”  But, it’s in the act of alleviating the suffering that they believe the greatest impact is made, which is why they focus on completely involving the communities they are assisting.   In Haiti, Operation Blessing isn’t simply giving away fish – they are giving away the opportunity to learn how to farm fish!  Tilapia in fact, and it’s working…

You’re probably familiar with many of the high quality vendors we source from; dealers of fresh fish and shellfish, frozen items, smoked fish and other quality items…our vendors work day in and day out to keep us supplied with a wonderful variety of seafood! 

We’re also in close contact with them on issues of safety and sustainability – we connect on a daily basis to discuss how and where raw products are being sourced, fishing and farming methods, impacts on local communities. If you have questions, we pass those along too…

Logan spent some time in British Columbia earlier this summer visiting Marine Harvest’s salmon farming operations.  He joined a group of other industry colleagues, including the Monterey Bay Aquarium (MBA), to learn more about Marine Harvest’s practices and how they relate to criteria that the MBA uses to evaluate the sustainability of farmed fish.

The trip had a number of goals:

• Get a firsthand account of the process of rearing salmon and the issues surrounding it…

As we mentioned early last week, Logan Kock joined other members of The California Sustainable Seafood Initiative at a recent Advisory Panel Meeting. Their busy agenda was a chock full of presentations and round table discussions focusing on what should be included in the sustainability standards for seafood harvested in California.

Speakers from the Alaskan Seafood Marketing institute, the World Wildlife Federation, Greenpeace, the Marine Stewardship Council, the Leadership in Energy and Engineering Design, and the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance offered words of wisdom to the panel…

August is National Catfish Month!

Looking for a reason to add some catfish to your August menu? It’s National Catfish Month! Take advantage of increased press on US farmed catfish this month and add a catfish special to your menu! The Catfish Institute promises national and regional print, TV, radio and web campaigns highlighting U.S. Farm-Raised Catfish and the American farmer throughout the month of August…