Innovation

Sea to Table is the product of a man who grew up in fishing communities, Sean Dimin, deciding that families throughout the United States should be able to enjoy good, fresh seafood no matter their geographic location. Along with his father and brothers, Sean worked to build strong relationships with local fisherman and to connect them to markets for their catch.

Sea to Table works only with those fishermen operating sustainably within small-scale, wild fisheries. Their standards for their fish is that it's caught in the wild (i.e. not farmed), domestic, traceable, and sustainable.

Inspiration

Fresh, traceable seafood is very hard to come by as majority of the seafood sold within the United States is imported. The imported seafood is near impossible to trace and often comes from poorly regulated fish farms. Meanwhile, there are local, domestic fisherman struggling to find a market for their fish. Sea to Table brings fresh, traceable fish to those in the United States while also supporting local, traditional fishing towns.

Overall impact

Sea to Table eloquently sums up their impact within their reasoning for becoming a certified B Corp – they are helping to build a sustainable supply chain within the fishing industry, supporting local economies and bettering the marketplace in which they operate.

Business benefit

Sea to Table has taken advantage of a broken supply chain. Today more and more people are concerning themselves with what their food contains, where it came from, and how it was sourced. Sea to Table is addressing this within the seafood industry in a new and innovative way. They are deriving business from restaurants country-wide, as well as from the individual consumer through their home-delivery service.

Sea to Table’s operations also support the traditional fishing communities in which they partner with. The majority of these fishing towns rely heavily on the fishing industry for their livelihood. Sea to Table has worked to cultivate and maintain these partnerships because without them they would not be able to carry out their business or mission. The partnerships seem to have proven beneficial for all parties as Eliza Heeks, Community Manager for Sea to Table, notes that while in the beginning most of these partnerships were built through outreach on their behalf, today it is closer to be being 50/50 in terms of outreach versus incoming interest from other fishermen.

Social and environmental benefit

Sea to Table is doing much more than bringing fresh, better regulated seafood to people country-wide. They are supporting traditional fishing communities within the United States dependent on the fishing industry. Sea to Table purchases fish from the fishermen at prices above market rate driving value back into the communities in which they operate. By working with these smaller-scale fishermen who practice sustainable fishing, Sea to Table is also by extension helping to protect against over-harvesting of our oceans as well as against environmental degradation.

By just being present, Sea to Table is making people aware that there are major issues and causes for concern over the majority of the seafood we consume. Prior to hearing about Sea to Table, I had never put much thought into how our supposedly ‘fresh’ seafood is largely sourced within the United States. Eliza even jokes about her refusal to eat fish from just anywhere in town with her friends explaining,“My friends thought I was being a snob until I told them about how fraught the typical farmed shrimp industry is with environmental, health, labor concerns. It's gross - and we're here to offer an alternative.” By operating using sustainable practices and doing things better, Sea to Table is alerting us to all the various issues surrounding the seafood industry by being the solution.

Interview

Eliza Heeks, Community Manager