Joci and I spent a glorious 4 days in Boston for the annual Seafood Expo North America, lovingly referred to as simply, “The Boston Seafood Show”. We ran into some friends along the way!
The Seafood Nutrition Partnership
These are our people! You may have seen me on IG Live with Jessica Miller, dietitian for SNP, or seen us use the hashtag #Seafood2xWk on Instagram and Twitter. They are the driving force behind building awareness of the health and nutritional benefits of seafood here in the US. Their big project right now is working on the National Seafood Marketing Campaign, “Eat Seafood America”. We hung out at their booth on the expo floor, chatting with seafood industry people from around the world on how they can get involved in getting the US to eat more seafood. Get great access to handouts and educational materials here, recipes here, and follow the National Seafood Campaign here.
Urner Barry’s Golden Girls
Amanda Buckle and Lorin Castiglione run the Seafood News Podcast, which you may have heard us on talking about our awesome company here, or our professional athlete partnership here. They also have a super fun YouTube show called “Watch Us Eat” where they try out things like Premier Catch seafood, seaweed snacks, tuna candy, and other great seafood items. Seafood News is responsible for sharing day to day information about what is happening within the complex business of seafood. Be sure to check out their social media and YouTube Channel for great meal ideas and innovative seafood items coming to your local stores or restaurants!
Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute
All things Alaska! Our friends at ASMI had the coolest vinyl stickers and cutout of a wild bear holding a salmon - definitely went on our water bottles at home! ASMI is responsible for promoting all Alaska seafood, sharing info on species and catch methods, delicious recipes, and tales from fishermen over generations. They do such a great job advocating for our fisherman and companies like ours, as well as sustainability initiatives in Alaska. Learn all about Alaskan seafood species and sustainability of fishing on their easy to navigate website here.
We attended a nice little happy hour hosted by our friends at MSC! MSC is a global nonprofit organization that works to end overfishing around the world. They help consumers to identify sustainable seafood sources through their blue MSC label that can be found on some seafood packaging. Some companies choose to utilize this logo and some don’t. To check if a whole fishery itself is MSC certified you can type in the type of seafood you are looking for in the search bar and learn more - here is an example of Alaskan Salmon. This would mean that if you are eating Alaskan Salmon, at a restaurant, from a direct-to-consumer company like ours, or at a grocery store, you know it is MSC certified.
Our friends from Brooklyn! Acme Smokehouse is family owned and operated and has been around since the 1950’s, although the family has been in the smokehouse industry since 1906! They are located in the heart of Brooklyn, NY but also distribute their products around the country - you may have seen some of their smoked fish at your local grocery store! They hosted a really cute “Lox, Lobster and Lattes” event at the seafood show where they honored their Seafood Industry Climate Award. Try some of their smoked fish recipes here.
The Alaskan Leader vessels are where we get our amazing Wild Pacific Cod! They also have their own retail line that you can find in stores including items like Lemon Herb Butter Cod, Cod Burgers, Fish Taco Packs, and more! At this show they had a couple of items win in the Alaska Symphony of Seafood Awards including their Wild Alaska Cod Burgers and Wild Caught Crispy Beer Battered Cod.
We also made some new friends and took notes on some new trends!
Emily De Sousa is a fisheries scientist, content creator, and a science communicator based in Canada. We love meeting other strong females in the seafood space! She has a beautiful website, blog, and social media channels where she educates on fisheries science, food culture and travel. Definitely add her to your follow list!
Eat Your Sea Veggies - Blue Evolution
Seaweed is trending! Seaweed is packed with nutrition, it truly is a little secret weapon, but here in the US it isn't as common to eat on a regular basis. We stopped by the Blue Evolution booth at the seafood show and had the most delicious sea veggies (seriously) whipped up by Chef Maylin Chavez. It was savory and spicy and the perfect way to work seaweed into your diet on a regular basis! They gave out the cutest pins and stickers that read “Eat your Sea Veggies” that went directly on my bag! Seaweed is definitely an up and coming food trend that is great for health but also sustainably grown and harvested. Keep an open mind and try some of these seaweed items as you see them appear on your grocery store shelves!
We ran into Kara Berlin, co-owner of Thunder’s Catch, a direct-to-consumer seafood company, as we came over to taste their award winning Wild Salmon Chowder! Kara and Taran commercially fish in Alaska over the summer and come back to create these awesome retail items like their chowder, salmon spread, burgers, and jerky. Definitely give them a follow on social media and try out some of their Smoked Salmon Chowder.
These were just some of the highlights from our time in Boston. We ate delicious seafood every day, researched packaging and shipping, met with industry leaders, checked out potential new products, went to a Boston Bruin's Hockey game, ran into Mark Wahlberg a few times (we really did) and did our part to promote wild seafood for healthy Americans!
