While fishermen in Newport, Ore., have access to several buyers, harvesters who want to focus on quality generally work with Local Ocean Seafoods. Established over 20 years ago, Local Ocean restaurant and seafood market has become a fixture of the Newport waterfront and a symbol of what can happen when fish buyers are committed to community.
The employee-owned company is not a chain. Local Ocean is an independent business that depends on partnerships with Oregon fishermen.
“We buy about 75 percent of our seafood from Oregon fishers,” says Local Ocean CEO Tony Bixler. “With guys like Brett Montague, we get together before the season and settle on prices for his albacore and salmon. Last year, the price was in the gutter, but we were paying about double what the market was. We don’t pay too much attention to what the market is doing, Brett brings us an incredibly high-quality product, and we want to make sure he can keep doing that.”
Bixler notes that he has similar arrangements with other suppliers. “If the market is low, we try to make sure they’re not doing too bad. We need them to be there next year.” Bixler adds that the mission of Local Ocean is to bring the highest quality products to its customers.
“We do things differently,” he says. “We are employee-owned, we use the Perpetual Purpose Trust model that allows the founder to transition out of ownership while the employees gain more equity, and the Perpetual Purpose Trust part is about keeping true to our founder’s mission. We have certain core values that we measure our operations against, such as buying from small, Oregon-based fishers.”
Besides being partners with fishermen in the buying and selling of local seafood, Bixler also sits works hard to promote albacore. He notes that Oregon albacore is certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and is listed as a “best choice” by the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch, but those aren’t really what he talks about when promoting albacore to local seafood consumers.
“In the restaurant, we serve albacore in several dishes, teriyaki, seared in a salad, and raw in a poke bowl,” he says. “Once you get it in front of people, they’re blown away by the quality.” He points out that Local Ocean also sells its own brand of canned albacore.
It would appear that Local Ocean is doing what other community-supported fisheries strive to do, creating a way for local seafood consumers to support the small-scale fishermen in their communities, without anyone having to compromise their core values.
