Each year, National Seafood Month is a time to affirm our ongoing commitment to sourcing seafood sustainably and to our partners who make that a reality in our cafés across the country. In addition to aligning with Seafood Watch guidelines, we encourage our chefs to seek out sustainable seafood that’s locally caught or raised.
The Fish to Fork program grew out of a desire to expand our local purchasing program to include nuanced, specific guidelines for local, small-scale seafood: fish must be caught or raised within 500 miles of the kitchen (and limited to 100 miles out to sea per trip) and include reliable systems of traceability and consideration for species preferences. We are thrilled to feature two Fish to Fork partners who are wonderful examples of our local seafood policy in action: Green Prairie Aquafarm, a shrimp farm in Western Alabama, and Fishing Vessel St. Jude, a family-run business selling wild-caught tuna in the Pacific Northwest.
Farming Shrimp with Green Prairie Aquafarm
After pursuing advanced degrees from Auburn University and over a decade of working at the International Center for Aquaculture and Aquatic Environments, David Teichert-Coddington decided he wanted to farm aquatic animals rather than study and talk about it. Green Prairie Aquafarm, LLC was established back in 2001 to farm shrimp in low salinity water in western Alabama, 150 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico. David explains “Although imported shrimp are cheaper to buy, we thought that a USA shrimp farmed without pesticides and antibiotics could be marketable to the American public at a profitable margin.” The venture has proven to be a success after 24 years of production.
The first of its kind in Alabama, the shrimp farm is comprised of 23 large earthen ponds filled with low salinity water (about 10% of seawater strength). David and his original business partner, Rud Schmittou (who is also his former colleague at Auburn University), discovered that amending the water with potassium and magnesium helps provide the best living conditions for shrimp to thrive. David now runs the farm with his wife, Nadine, and their youngest son Joel, who serves as an industrial maintenance technician and general assistant, along with their two dogs and a cat.
In 2022, David was approached by two Bon Appétit Executive Chefs at the University of Alabama Athletics to see if he’d be interested in becoming a Fish to Fork partner. For the past two years now, the chefs have made an agreement with David to set aside a portion of their shrimp harvest to be exclusively purchased by the Bon Appétit team at the University of Alabama. This kind of partnership is mutually beneficial. David says, “The relationship with Bon Appétit has been good for our farm, because we have a known market for a portion of our shrimp.” At the same time, our chefs and guests get to enjoy locally produced saltwater shrimp — a rarity for domestic shrimp — that just so happens to be the highest quality and best tasting around.
All Aboard Fishing Vessel St. Jude
Fishing Vessel St. Jude, run by the Malley family in Seattle, WA, has been a beloved Fish to Fork partner offering the highest quality wild-caught albacore tuna to our chefs for over a decade. Sustainability is at the heart of St. Jude’s operations: They are committed to responsible sourcing, including jig fishing methods which targets individual fish, avoiding unnecessary bycatch and helping to maintain the balance of marine ecosystems.
The family describes that their business “came into being through a series of fortunate accidents.” Joe Malley had always been an avid sports fisherman but after some challenges with job prospects towards the end of his PhD program, his aspiration to become a college professor began to lose steam. Through the encouragement of a close friend, he ended up on a salmon fishing boat in Petersburg, AK in 1978 and was soon hooked on a career in commercial fishing.
After dabbling around in various fisheries in Alaska, Joe and his partner Joyce lived and fished aboard a 95-ft fishing vessel for 12 years until they started a family and decided to market their own catch. In 1990, the Malleys took the leap to create their own business, trolling solely for albacore tune in the North and South Pacific. At the time, the market for albacore tuna was controlled almost exclusively by just a few massive companies. As Joyce describes, “a fledging market for albacore as sushi began to emerge. While ‘cannery grade’ tuna wasn’t good enough for sushi, we had been meticulously producing bled, blast-frozen albacore, stubbornly hoping that someone would eventually recognize the quality and pay accordingly.”
Our Bon Appétit chefs are lucky to be one of the long-time purchasers of their sustainable, high-quality tuna, supporting this family business committed to sustainable fishing methods, traceability and transparency, and advocacy efforts to protect the long-term health of ocean ecosystems.