Redfish Rocks Community Tour

5. Port Orford Sustainable Seafood

Port Orford, OR

My name is Kean Fleming and I work with Port Orford Sustainable Seafood. Now that you have just walked up that little hill, you have arrived at our garage nano-processing facility. This is where we cut all of their fish. We buy all of their fish from Port Orford fishing boats, which you will get to know pretty soon. We are trying to build a brand around Port Orford caught fish because all of our boats go on short fishing trips and bring their fish back nice and fresh, giving our fish the special quality of being extra high quality. Most of the fish that was caught in Port Orford for decades was put onto a truck and shipped out of town, losing its identity into the supply chain. We want to correct that and build a brand that showcases Port Orford's catch. Our sales model is based on the community-supported agriculture model, so it is a direct sales model. We have a membership of close to 500 members throughout Oregon, spanning from Portland down to Ashland, who we deliver to once per month. Members get access to an online marketplace that keeps them in touch with what fish we have in our inventory and then they get to select what they want to receive in their monthly share. Once a week, we send out an email to keep them in touch with the culture of fishing in Port Orford and what's fresh in the store. We are really proud to help give identity to the local catch here and put more money into the pockets of local fishermen by paying more for their catch. We are also stoked to offer a decent wage for employees, there are not a lot of industry jobs around here and we are proud to be one of those industries.