Community Supported Fishery (CSF) and 8 simple reasons you want to join one

What is a CSF?

CSFs are part of the slow fish movement, born out of the slow food movement. They are a way for consumers and businesses to turn away from industrial seafood and instead to good, clean, fair for all seafood. It is a values-based seafood movement that honors the ecosystems, people, cultures, and traditions.

A CSF  is similar to Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) but with fish instead of farm products. It consists of community-based fisheries that catch fresh, local, and sustainably caught fish. The fishermen get the assurance of a market and the consumer gets good quality fish at a great price. Just like with a CSA the risks are shared and those risks can affect the amount of product you receive. Do I have any risk-takers out there?

What are the risks?

Weather is always a risk, whether it comes to farming or fishing. If the weather is bad, the boats cannot go out. Also, boat failure is a risk, but rest assured if they can get the boat running, they will! Last but not least, how mother nature will behave is uncertain, the fact of the matter is, sometimes the harvest just isn’t there.

I like to think the rewards far outweigh the risks though. Your CSF seafood may very well be the best you’ve ever eaten.

Why do you want to join a CSF?

It’s about time we come round to this question, after all the title says there are eight great reasons to be a part of a CSF. There are actually way more than eight, but here is the list I promised.

1- The fish are wild-caught, which means that the fishermen go out and catch them with their teeth! Kidding, it means they are actually fished and not farm-raised fish

2- The fisherman have high-quality standards, meaning they catch and handle the fish with honor

3- The fisheries are community-based, so your fish comes from small boat fisherman, often family businesses

4- Transparency- they have a simple and traceable supply chain

5- You will be eating with the Ecosystem as well as in season

6- CSFs believe in ecosystem-based management, committed to environmental stewardship through fostering relationships between fishermen, scientists, the public, and policymakers. As they come together they can figure out ways to make things better in the fishing industry.

7- You will get a fair price and so will the fishermen- have you heard of fair trade? Yeah, it’s kind of like that!

8- It fosters creativity and collaboration through networking and sharing as everyone involved works from a place of shared values

*Bonus- There are no hormones or antibiotics in your fish, just good old wild, free-range fish

If these aren’t reasons enough, let me add that it just tastes better! That’s what my wife says, I’m a vegetarian myself.

Where can you find a CSF?

This is a great question! There are roughly 75-100 CSFs in North America and there is also a good deal of seafood fraud going on, where businesses try to benefit by using the Community Supported Fishery term but they aren’t legit. This begs the question, how to know if a business is a legit CSF. A true CSF believes in the triple bottom line approach to business, meaning they consider environmental and social impact with financial profitability.

How to know if a CSF is legit?

Thankfully, you can find this information pretty easily due to localcatch.org and its tremendous database. Every business in their database is a true CSF as they have extremely high standards for who they put in their system. Their values are ironically all of the eight (nine really) reasons I listed above. If a company does not meet these guidelines, it will not be listed on the website.

What if you just want to eat better seafood?

Another website you can look at for making better seafood choices is seafoodwatch.org. It will help you choose seafood, either wild caught or farmed-raised which has less of an environmental impact. You can use this tool when shopping at the grocery store or even eating at a restaurant to discover how to make ocean-friendly as well as health-conscious choices.

 

Does my state have a local CSF?

If you live in Virginia like me, then sadly the answer is no, however, there are many other options that offer monthly delivery of a CSF to your home. You will want to go to localcatch.org to find the option that best suits your needs.

 

What CSF do we use?

My wife chose Sitka Salmon Shares, based in Sitka, Alaska. Now before you say it, I know they are not local to Virginia, so just hear me out. The fish are not local to me, however, they are in fact local to the fishermen catching them, which means you are in fact supporting local.

I tried to find a closer option and that took me to D.C. which really ended up being out of New York. New York wasn’t taking any more members. Those redirections, clearly make Alaska the obvious choice. I don’t know about the fishing limits here in the lower 48, but in Alaska they are strict. Not to mention, Alaska just seems cleaner and wilder for some reason, like in order to live there you really have to respect the land and nature. Maybe that’s just me.

Experience with Sitka Salmon Shares so far

Sitka salmon is great! The first shipment arrived at our door in a highly sustainably packaged box on September 10. Included with the fish is the source of your fish (ie, location it was caught), nifty tweezers to pick bones out of your salmon (how exciting), The Catch (Sitka’s monthly newsletter), and a recipe card.

The packaging is sustainable, with the exception of the plastic. I believe that is something they are working on improving. We melted the dry ice (which proved to be very fun indeed), composted the cardboard, and dissolved the cooler packaging (just add water).

How does it taste?

I have no clue! As I said, I’m a vegetarian, but my wife can’t stop raving about my fish cooking skills, which speaks volumes. She loves and highly recommends it! Now she actually tastes when the fish she eats at a restaurant is low quality.

 

Other reasons Sitka Salmon Shares is so cool

• They are environmentally conscious and offset their carbon emissions, as well as donate 1% to wild fish conservation
• They make it easy for you by providing you with home delivery, cooking tips, and tasty recipes

 

All in all

I hope if nothing else, you come away from this article with a newfound intrigue for CSFs and other ways to make more conscious seafood choices. Let me know if you try a CSF and what your experience is. We’d love to hear from you!

You can sign up for Sitka Salmon Shares here. Use Code SS25 for $25 off. They have many different share options and I’m sure you’ll find one that works for you.

 

Until next time!