Alcatraz Seafoods supports sustainable fishing, which doesn’t just help the environment, it also makes good business sense.
When brothers Michael and Darin Lucas formed Alcatraz Seafoods at the end of 2005, they wanted to capitalize on their longtime involvement with fishing by creating a company that used only sustainably produced seafood. They knew the organic market was expanding rapidly—it was so hot, even commercial operations like Safeway had jumped on board with their own lines of environmentally sound food products. But to the Lucas brothers, it wasn’t just about making a buck by riding a trend. As a third-generation fishing family, they knew that poor fishing practices had decimated various fish populations in the past. Not only was that bad for the environment, it could mean the end of a livelihood for many men just like themselves.
Natural flow
Their grandfather, Walter Lucas, started as a commercial fisherman in San Francisco and ended up in Bodega Bay. Their father, Gary, followed in Walter’s footsteps and then went on to partner with his brother, Jim, to found Lucas Wharf restaurant, which is still in the family today. Michael decided to leave the family business, but stayed within the industry, first as a sea urchin broker and later as a sea urchin processor. He then started North Coast Fisheries, a Santa Rosa-based distributor of wholesale fish, in 1993. Darin started his career as the manager of Lucas Wharf, before moving to Seattle and then to Chicago, working for Sysco, the largest food service supplier for restuarants, grocery stores, public and private institutions, and other businesses needing food and food-related products in North America.
The brothers knew theirs would be a good partnership. Michael was already distributing one-fifth of the wild king salmon purchased in California through North Coast Fisheries, and Darin had extensive experience in marketing. Their plan was to develop a product line that used only wild seafood caught by those who practiced sustainable fishing.
Michael admits, “If you ask 10 different people what ‘sustainable’ means, you’ll get 10 different answers. There are some gray areas.” But he goes on to say the bare bones of sustainability means, “If this year the base stock is 100,000 fish, next year the base stock should be fairly level—about the same amount with some growth. It’s about rebuilding and growing. And even though changes don’t happen as quickly as some environmental and watchdog groups woud like them to, their input still makes a difference. Still, they can get upset because they want things to go faster.”
Raising awareness
Michael mentions that the Monterey Bay Aquarium, whose mission is “conservation of the seas,” has a Seafood Watch program. Through this program, the aquarium produces regional guidelines with the latest information on sustainable seafood choices. The “best choices” are abundant, well managed and fished or farmed in environmentally friendly ways. Seafood to “avoid” is overfished and/or fished or farmed in ways that harm other marine life or the environment. The aquarium also provides educational materials to consumers, retailers and restaurants.
The World Wildlife Federation’s (WWF) Global Marine Programme also works with environmentally concerned groups to combine advocacy, strategic partnerships and communications to raise the profile of sustainable seafood products with consumers and markets. In 1996, WWF and Unilever, one of the world’s biggest buyers of frozen fish, started an initiative to change the way fish are caught, marketed and bought, as part of their efforts to ensure the future of the world’s fisheries. As a result of this partnership, an independent, nonprofit organization called the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) emerged and today works with fisheries, retailers and other stakeholders to identify, certify and promote responsible, environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable fishing practices around the world.
In the United States, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), a federal agency, pushed to get the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act reauthorized by Congress. The bill was signed by President Bush in December 2006. The purpose of this act is to protect America’s fisheries and keep commercial and recreational fishing communities strong. It’s hoped that this bill will end overfishing in America, help replenish the nation’s fish stocks, and advance international cooperation and ocean stewardship. One example of what the bill has done is that the NMFS requires trawlers (boats using strong nets that drag along the sea bottom and catch fish indiscriminately) to have video surveillance installed on their boats to make sure they’re in compliance with required legal fishing practices.
For Alcatraz Seafoods, Michael and Darin have chosen to go beyond basic sustainability; they’re looking for seafood that’s been caught with minimal damage to the ocean’s ecosystem and that’s safe to eat. Canned tuna has come under scrutiny in recent years due to poor fishing practices, including net fishing with a bycatch (a net that captures sea life that’s not specifically targeted) that can include dolphins and turtles. Mercury toxicity has also become an issue with levels now being monitored by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Products and pricing
One of Alcatraz Foods’ current best sellers is its canned tuna. It offers plain, smoked and flavored with fresh jalapeños or garlic. It only uses young albacore tuna that run just 10 to 20 pounds and have had less exposure to toxins. Tests done to detect the mercury levels in Alcatraz tuna show it contains less than one-fourth of a part per million, which is less than a quarter of the amount deemed safe by the FDA. It’s also line-caught, without the use of nets, and is hence harmless to other sea life. The quality is so good the company only has to cook it once. Most commercial tuna is cooked twice.
There’s a price to be paid for this environmental stewardship and high quality, but Michael and Darin feel discerning consumers are willing to pay a little extra to get the type of product Alcatraz Seafoods offers. They also strive to set prices at reasonable levels. When researching the competition, they found that items similar to the ones they wanted to produce were significantly overpriced. Although they can’t always control the markup, making the products affordable in the first place lets retail outlets sell Alcatraz products at a more affordable cost.
When developing their line, the brothers knew they had to work with certain types of seafood that could be caught in the wild, procured on a regular basis and made into products that wouldn’t require additives and preservatives to have a shelf life of four to five months when refrigerated. Michael even developed a way to pasteurize Dungeness crab. For years, blue crab has been cleaned and pasteurized on the East Coast. But Dungeness is more delicate and difficult to work with. Although there may be other companies trying to pasteurize Dungeness, Michael feels none can do as good a job as Alcatraz Seafoods. The shelf life for fresh crabmeat is short, about three days, but this product can last up to nine months if stored properly. It took him more than two years to come up with the method.
Alcatraz uses only wild salmon in its spreads and for smoked lox. The shrimp for its seviche comes from Oregon and is under review to be certified by the MSC. Michael loves to cook and likens himself to Bubba Gump when it comes to the briny crustacean: “I know every way there is to eat a shrimp. You have to find new ways, ’cuz that’s what you have to work with,” he says about always having lots of shrimp around since he was a kid. Many of the 12 items currently offered in the company’s product line were concocted in his home kitchen. His wife, Rori, who’s Japanese, has dined on fish internationally and is gifted with a discerning palate that can taste the difference between farmed and wild salmon. Michael says she hates the mess he makes when he’s experimenting with a new recipe, but she’s always happy to help him sample the end result.
Michael is quick to mention that product development is really a team effort, and the seviche shrimp cocktail was created by “Tony,” one of the guys from the plant. An amazingly refreshing seviche, it contains lots of fresh cilantro, tidbits of crisp red onion and generous amounts of plump, juicy shrimp with just the right amount of spice. Alcatraz Seafood’s sales manager Jeff Lucchesi says, “Michael values everyone’s opinion at the plant; he even lets us tell him if it’s not good.” Michael wants the truth because the plant and office staff, along with his wife, are his initial test markets.
Sharing the love
Once a recipe is perfected, the next step is presenting product samples at food shows. Their first show was the 2005 International West Coast Seafood Show in Los Angeles, where their pasteurized Dungeness crab received a lot of fanfare and was picked up by a number of distributors. For the January 2007 Fancy Food Show in San Francisco, Alcatraz Seafoods sampled many of its newer products, including seviche shrimp cocktail and salmon spreads.
Its expanded product line garnered the attention of a number of distributors who will now carry the line, selling the products to grocers and restaurants. The brothers have been cautiously expanding their rollout throughout the West Coast and eventually plan to go national and even international. They already have a distributor in the United Kingdom waiting to carry the full line. “Our biggest nightmare would be to not deliver what we promise,” says Darin. “It’s a balancing act to develop a market while expanding the product line,” he says. Because they’re extremely careful about their seafood sources, they need to make sure their supply can keep up with the demand.
Get it locally
A number of grocery stores throughout Marin and Sonoma counties currently carry Alcatraz Seafoods products. All are getting positive feedback from customers. G&G Supermarket carries the smoked lox, seviche shrimp cocktail, crab meat, smoked trout, wild salmon spread and canned tuna. Teejay Lowe, director of community relations for G&G, says, “the locally owned company is very responsive to quality control and makes sure its products are the best and freshest on the market.”
Alcatraz Seafoods has done demonstrations at both the Santa Rosa and Petaluma G&G locations on many occasions. Customers have commented on the fresh and traditional flavors that the old fashioned smoking process imparts. Gary Grossetti, manager of the Woodlands grocery store in Kentfield, says his customers are “very environmentally conscious” and that the tuna has been well-received during in-store demos. He notes it’s become a popular seller, and they’ve also recently started selling the seviche shrimp cocktail and salmon spread.
According to Michael, once people try their products, 99 percent of them become repeat customers (as judged by calls they receive and increasing Internet sales). Whole Foods recently inspected the Alcatraz Seafood facilities and is expected to begin offering the company’s products. Alcatraz Seafoods also has a wholesale outlet open to the public on Sebastopol Road in Santa Rosa. The store carries a selection of fresh fish and seafood, a tank filled with live crabs and, of course, their packaged goods.
Alcatraz Seafood’s wild salmon is also featured at several local restaurants. Jeffrey Madura, executive chef at John Ash & Co., has worked at the popular Wine Country restaurant for 18 years. He says his restaurant prides itself on using high-quality, fresh and natural seafood, meat and produce. But Madura goes one step beyond just taste. He says that, when purchasing seafood, he looks for “the people who are making a difference in the seafood world,” and notes a number of national and international fisheries. He says he’s pleased with the quality of the salmon he purchases from Alcatraz Seafoods. “The difference in flavor, texture, look and fat content of a wild salmon that’s lived on natural feed is like night and day from a farmed salmon,” says Madura. He says the general public is wanting more information about the foods they eat. Omega-3s, or the “good fat” found in certain types of seafoods, have gotten positive press in recent years because of the their health benefits. Madura not only wants people to eat healthy, he educates his kitchen and waitstaff about ocean sustainability using materials produced by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. He knows that the information conveyed to his staff will trickle down to John Ash customers.
Dan Della Santina, proprietor of Della Santina’s Trattoria in Sonoma, also purchases salmon from Alcatraz Seafoods. “We try to get the wild stuff,” he says with an Italian accent. “It’s very good and everybody nowadays likes to eat as healthy as possible.”
Chef Randy Sommerville has been working at Graffiti in Petaluma for about five months. He says the salmon he gets from Alcatraz Seafoods is “quite nice, of good quality and a beautiful bright orange.” He says he prefers wild salmon but that the coloring can vary depending on what the salmon is eating. If a salmon doesn’t have enough shrimp to eat—perhaps subsisting on primarily mackerel—its flesh can be more brown. Some companies remedy this by using dye (it will be listed in the ingredients), but the Alcatraz Seafoods salmon has plentiful access to shrimp, so it always has superior colored flesh.
When asked his opinion about some marine biologists reporting that there will be no more edible fish by the year 2048, Michael says he doesn’t put a lot of stock in it. He notes that, through conservation and education efforts by watchdog groups and regulatory agencies such as the NMFS, many species are more plentiful today than when fishermen were told to stop fishing for them five to 10 years ago. He lists chili pepper fish, rock fish and ling cod as examples. He also talks about the practices used for catching Dungeness crab, the fact that it’s illegal to keep females and that no crabs less than seven inches long can be trapped. These practices are heavily enforced and make for an abundant seasonal supply.
Although Alcatraz Seafoods only uses wild seafood, Michael continues to look at the alternatives for North Coast Fisheries. Backed by a number of marine life experts, he thinks sustainability might be helped with responsible fish farming. He recently returned from a trip to Hermosillo, Mexico, where he visited an organic tilapia fish farm. Michael knows that Alcatraz Seafoods could have made more money in the short run by not going the environmentally correct route. Even though he admits it’s more expensive to use sustainably produced seafood, Michael says, “In the long run, we’ll make more money and it’s the right way to grow the company.”
It’s also the best way for the future of the oceans, and clearly proves good business practices can make good financial and environmental sense, too.
