Planning changes to your restaurant or retail outlet in 2012? You might want to involve a focus group of baby boomers… that’s what this blog from Supermarket News makes us want to do!

As Supermarket News points out,

Expect supermarkets to cater to the Boomers, not only by offering the foods, beverages and services to satisfy their growing interest (and need) for health — but to take a good look at the physical shopping experience, to make sure that the aisles are wide, to lower the shelves and most importantly to make them feel welcome and respected.

As we live longer and better (and those baby boomers certainly are, with long average lifespans of 74.1 years for men and 79.5 years for women) we’re becoming more concerned with making healthy choices. You have a pool of over 75 million potential customers out there – give them a great selection of healthy seafood options!

If baby boomers are looking for foods that are good for their health, then seafood certainly tops the list. But it’s not simply adding seafood – it’s adding it in a way that appeals to health-conscious diners. Broiled, steamed, raw – there are many techniques that enhance the flavors of fish and shellfish without detracting from health benefits. Salads featuring seafood, healthy fish soups and stews, tasty pasta dishes, there are so many ways to tempt the palates of your baby boomer customers…

The Scientific Staff of the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) released their recommendations for 2012 Pacific Halibut season yesterday, and it was more bad news for most areas (a total overall reduction of 19%) especially area 3B (The Western Gulf of Alaska from the south end of Kodiak Island to Unimak Pass) where they recommend a 32% cut, area 4A (Unimak Pass to roughly just past Islands of the Four Mountains) and where they recommend a 35% cut, and area 4CDE where they recommend a 34% cut. Here’s a map that outlines the fishing areas if you want to see more detail.

However, it’s not just the recommended cuts that have people concerned;  an article in today’s Alaska Dispatch notes there are bigger issues according to IPHC commission lead biologist Steven Hare who said,

“the real problem is what he called “unspecified mortality.” Halibut are disappearing from the population for reasons managers can only guess at. “It’s troubling,” Hare said.

Were managers to take these mystery disappearances fully into consideration, he added, they would be forced to recommend drastic cuts in commercial harvests.

One model that does this, he said, suggested setting catches “28 percent lower than the lowest level since 1935.” Catches, or at least legal catches, have already been pushed down 55 percent in the past decade, and they are for sure going down again.

The Alaska Dispatch article title asks, “where have all the halibut gone?” and they propose a variety of answers including the waste of small or unwanted fish from the halibut fishery itself, and pollock and other trawlers, sablefish longliners and other fisheries discarding bycatch. Illegal fishing could be impacting the overall population as could larger ecosystem issues that are contributing to starvation or disease problems.

We are proud to introduce two new RSVP funding recipients – the California Collaborative Fisheries Research Program (CCFRP), a California Sea Grant Extension project and the Marine Biological Laboratory Sustainable Aquaculture Initiative, Haiti Aquaculture project. A world apart and with very different focuses these two exceptional projects help to support the RSVP mission by improving fisheries management and facilitating community development through sustainable practices.

The CCFRP is a collaborative effort among researchers from CA Sea Grant at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML) and SLOSEA / Center for Coastal Marine Sciences at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo as well as the captains and crew of 15 commercial and CPFV vessels in central California. For the past six years, CCFRP has been conducting collaborative fisheries projects on local commercially important species through collaborative hook and line tag and release surveys and commercial live trap fishery surveys. The species of interest include nearshore rockfish species, California halibut, cabezon, lingcod, ocean whitefish and Pacific bonito. The CCFRP utilizes the expertise of both scientists and fishermen to better understand the health of fish stocks and marine ecosystems in California.

This summer the CCFRP project surveyed areas off the Northern Central California coast, Ano Nuevo and Point Lobos, completing 16 sampling days with 111 volunteers & 2 interns, catching 3,371 fishes of 20 different species and tagged 1,682 fish! With the support of RSVP funding and the efforts of the CCFRP team this project will lead to improved management effectiveness, ensuring the long-term productivity of commercially important species in our local waters.

To learn more about the CCFRP, please read this recent article about the project in Point Lobos Magazine.

Our other new RSVP funded project, the Marine Biological Laboratory Sustainable Aquaculture Initiative, is helping to alleviate poverty in Haiti by teaching responsible and sustainable Tilapia aquaculture production methods to local villagers in the Cormeir area of Haiti. Using 50+ concrete ponds and the introduction of periphyton based feed and semi-intensive methods this project is helping to meet the dire dietary needs of the Haitian people…

The 2011 Pacific Halibut season is all but a memory with the last fresh fish moving through our processing facility this week… we hope you enjoyed plenty of fresh halibut this season – but don’t worry if you’re still craving this delicious, sustainably harvested flat fish – it freezes (and defrosts) great! We’ll have plenty of frozen-at-sea halibut from Alaska on hand to carry us through the off-season and although prices are a bit higher than last year, this is still a great fish to keep on your menu through the fall and winter months.

It was a good season for halibut fishermen despite quota cuts. Dock prices remained high all season (which is why our previously frozen halibut is also high). 2011 will be known as the season that Kodiak beat our Homer for the most fish deliveries in Alaska for the first time since 1995!

Ranked Green (Best Choice) by Seafood Watch, and certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council, Pacific Halibut is one of our favorite fish – it’s also delicious and versatile! Harvested exclusively by long liners, halibut is a targeted catch with little by-catch associated with its harvest. As we noted, Kodiak and Homer see tons of halibut throughout the season, but halibut is harvested in a variety of areas in Alaska (and Canada, but most of the Pacific Halibut quota is caught in Alaska). The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute offers this great interactive map with info about all of Alaska’s fishing regions, check it out!

Another great source of information about Pacific Halibut is NOAA’s Fish Watch (in fact, Fish Watch is a great source of information about all domestic commercially harvested seafood)! You can find information about the health of the biomass, nutrition facts and more via this useful service…

We’re going to send you into the weekend with some food for thought from iSante; mouth watering menu descriptions translate into higher check averages! That’s great news – all you have to do is switch that “swordfish steak” on your menu to a “savory swordfish steak” and you’re that much closer to retirement!

In this blog post, author Brian Wansink notes that descriptive menu items increased sales by 27 percent over the plain-labeled menu items.  To keep it simple, Wansink breaks down descriptive labels into 4 different categories;

Geographic. Labels that claim to reproduce the same flavors that are specifically found in geographic areas have proven successful. Examples are Southwestern Tex-Mex Salad, London Fish and Chips, “Real” Carolina Barbeque, Country Peach Tart.

Nostalgic. Alluding to past time periods can trigger happy memories of family, tradition, and nationalism. Examples are Classic Old World Italian, Legendary Chocolate Mousse Pie, Nana’s Favorite Chicken Soup.

Sensory. If labels accurately describe the taste, smell, and mouth-feel of the menu item, then customers will be more able to picture themselves eating it. Ice cream shops accomplish this masterfully—note names like “Chocolate Velvet”…

Brand. A cross-promotion with a related brand that carries its own important associations makes the menu item more attractive. One drawback of brand labels is that the legal costs and licensing costs can be too expensive for single-unit restaurants. The use of brands says to consumers, “If you love the brand, you’ll love this menu item.” Examples are Black Angus Beef Burgers or Jack Daniel’s BBQ Ribs.

Let’s talk a minute about how you can jazz up those seafood dishes on your menu… Geographical is a no-brainer when it comes to fish and shellfish. From Copper River Salmon to Pickle Point Oysters, we’re used to talking geography in this industry. Your Santa Monica Seafood Representative is your best bet for geographical info. Sometimes we can even add the name of the boat that caught the fish – talk about zeroing in!

Nostalgia isn’t hard to conjure up either when it comes to seafood dishes. Classic menu items like cioppino, crab cakes or tuna melts all lend themselves to nostalgic descriptions…

It’s that time of year when we start to see year-end wrap ups and predictions for the new year ahead… It’s no surprise then that Technomic has recently released their “Seven Leading Restaurant Trends for 2012” in order to give us something to salivate over as we plan ahead for next year.

Although the entire report is interesting, we found there were a couple of trends that really stood out for us. We thought the second trend, “Commodities Costs Drive Rustic Fare Made In-House” was interesting, Technomic notes,

“Commodity costs are rising, labor costs hold steady and diners demand rustic fare, the simple preparations of fresh ingredients. Result: operators will curtail purchases of value-added items in favor of cheaper cuts, beans, grains and produce that require more back-of-house prep to transform into honest, homestyle food”.

Are you thinking about buying less expensive seafood options – maybe buying more whole fish and using the bones and heads to make a tasty fish soup? Your Santa Monica Seafood Representative is always happy to walk you through the different options that are available to save you some bucks on your next invoice.

Technomic also tells us that “Customers Want More Information” and we’re fine with that! Communicating the chain-of-custody has always been a priority for us, and we’re more than happy to get you as much information as you (and your customers) want about the seafood that you’re purchasing.

According to Technomic, Social Networking’s influence will continue to accelerate; are you ready to take on 2012 with a renewed social media marketing plan? Sounds like you better be thinking about it as Americans continue to become more comfortable sharing their thoughts and experiences not just with friends and family, but with the world…

According to the California Department of Fish and Game website, the commercial fishery for market squid, Loligo (Doryteuthis) opalescens, will close on Friday, Nov. 18 at noon.

Based on landings information and projections, DFG has determined that the season’s harvest limit of 118,000 short tons of market squid will be reached by that date. The squid fishing season runs from April through the following March of each year, meaning the fishery will remain closed through March 31, 2012. Market squid remains the state’s largest and most lucrative commercial fishery, valued at over $73 million in 2010.

DFG has been tracking catches daily this fall in anticipation of reaching the harvest limit, which was established to ensure squid are not overharvested. The harvest limit is one of many constraints on the fishery, which has been managed under the state’s Market Squid Fishery Management Plan since 2005. The goals of the plan are to ensure long-term conservation and sustainability of the market squid resource, reduce the potential for overfishing and provide a framework for management.

In addition to the harvest limit, only a limited number of commercial squid fishing permits are issued, and a closure of the fishery on weekends is imposed to allow for periods of uninterrupted spawning each week…

Our Vice President of Strategic Purchasing & Responsible Sourcing, Logan Kock, is in Santiago, Chile attending the 2011 Global Outlook for Aquaculture Leadership (GOAL) conference. He joins over 350 international seafood and aquaculture professionals at this important conference that highlights the need to rapidly expand aquaculture to meet the world’s ballooning seafood demands.

Organized by the Global Aquaculture Alliance, the leading standards-setting organization for farmed seafood, GOAL 2011 addresses the need for growth through expert presentations and discussions on aquaculture production, technology, investment and markets.

According to GAA Executive Director Wally Stevens:

“We know we need to grow, but how do we get there? GOAL brings leaders of the various aquaculture sectors together to consider the challenges, examine courses of action and, hopefully, begin to develop solutions that will set us in the right direction as we work to double aquaculture output within a decade.”

After a welcome from co-hosts SalmonChile and the Undersecretariat for Fisheries of Chile, as well as Pablo Longueira, head of Chile’s Ministry of Finance, Development and Tourism, Ricardo Garcia of Camanchaca kicked off GOAL 2011 with a keynote on “Managing Aquaculture Risks.” The approaching gap between seafood supply and demand is a clear call to action for aquaculture, but a variety of risk factors must be considered in the process of expansion…

We’re pleased to announce the Company recently received Food Safety System Certification (FSSC 22000) making us the first seafood company in the United States to achieve this significant accomplishment. The certification has been granted by DET NORSKE VERITAS (DNV), one of the leading internationally recognized ISO certifying bodies.

According to Betty Cordero, Santa Monica Seafood’s Food Safety Manager, “The FSSC 22000 system is our ‘roadmap’ to managing the food safety aspects of our daily operations to ensure high quality as well as safe and wholesome product delivery to our customers based on international standards and requirements.”

FSSC 22000 is the latest and most complete certification program for food safety management systems based on ISO 22000, the global food safety management system standard and PAS 220 — a standard developed to address prerequisite program requirements for food product and ingredient manufacturers. It has been fully approved by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI)…

Tasting Time in Old Town Temecula

We started our 2011 Temecula wine tour at Old Town Temecula, where we had a chance to enjoy visiting a variety of tasting rooms including Curry Vineyard and Winery, Tesoro Winery, The Temecula House of Wine, and the combination wine tasting and olive oil tasting room of Villa de Calabro. We also enjoyed checking out some of Old Town’s food purveyors such as The Old Town Spice Merchants, Old Town Temecula Root Beer Company, The Chili Roasters, The Temecula Valley Cheese Company, The Temecula House of Jerky, and The Sweet Shop. Nobody boarded the bus hungry!

Along the route to our next stop we all enjoyed the scenic drive that passed by a variety of vast equestrian ranches, well-kept vineyards, lush citrus orchards, and stately mansions as entered wine country. Our first stop was Miramonte Vineyard and Winery where the owner, Cane Vanderhoof and his acclaimed winemaker, Reinhart (formerly of the well-known Argyle in Oregon) met us to begin our tour. With a stunning vista of wine county, we savored a variety of vintages while relaxing on their stunning patio terrace featuring views of Mount San Jacinto and Mount Palomar. Miramonte Winery is Southern California’s premier artisan winery, specializing in adventurous, succulent Rhone-based varietal wines…