From the moment your catch is harvested, quality is always our highest priority.
Our Process Takes the extra steps
In order to capture and maintain freshness in seafood, the time between catch and processing is crucial. In our process, the fish are bled, handled carefully and always kept at optimum temperatures, delivering an extremely high quality product.
Bleeding the fish is the first step as soon as they come on board. Bleeding is a process that helps improve the taste and overall quality of the fish. Once the fish are bled, they are moved into an insulated fish hold containing “slush ice”. This slush ice is a mixture of ice and seawater that allows the fish to get down to temperatures of 30-35°F. Slush ice also suspends the fish, reducing the contact between them in the insulated hold, improving quality and texture.
However, the fish are not in the slush ice long, as they are quickly offloaded at a tender vessel within a few hours. The insulated fish holds are then pumped out, cleaned, and new ice is shoveled in to mix with seawater and repeat the process.
Tender vessels act as link between the fishing grounds and processing plants. Tender vessels are larger boats that take the fish from fisherman, place them into refrigerated seawater, and transport them back to land for processing.
Refrigerated seawater is exactly what it sounds like. Since seawater is saltwater and saltwater has a lower freezing point than freshwater, the tender vessels can chill this seawater to around 30-34°F. This chills the fish to optimum temperatures and helps protect them on the voyage back to land.
Once the catch makes it back to the dock, it is immediately processed, vacuum packed and blast frozen to seal in quality and freshness. Our processors share our same vision for quality and it shows.
Our products are all PBO (Pin-Bone-Out) meaning all bones are removed during processing. This greatly improves the dining experience as there are no bones to deal with.
After deboning, the fish are cut into portions of varying size depending on species, and then immediately vacuum packed, sealed, labeled and blast frozen.
Blast freezing is a method of rapidly freezing seafood or other products in order to preserve their quality and extend their shelf life. This is typically done by exposing the products to extremely low temperatures, often below -40°F (-40°C). Blast freezers use refrigerants and powerful fans to circulate cold air around the food or material, which helps to quickly reduce its temperature and prevent the formation of ice crystals.
The fish are then kept in cold storage at temperatures less than 0°F until shipment. Shipping is always done via commercial shipping companies (for large orders) or commercial quality insulated packing materials. Dry ice is always used to ensure the product is kept frozen throughout the entire shipping process. Shipping is always done via next day air options, keeping your purchase fresh and flavorful.
